Beta'd by PraetorFable
Co-Written by Vanadium Oxide
Chapter VIII
The Twenty Fifth of May
Nineteen Days A.B.M
Percy opened his eyes that morning to a sight more welcome than it had any right to be. The ceiling was a newly familiar grey, the bed was a newly familiar comfort, and the blonde hair on his chest was as welcome as it had been for months.
Percy turned his head to check the clock just next to his bed. 5:43; Seventeen minutes before he was expected in Brooklyn to direct the invasion of the rest of Long Island, and that meant Nico had been alert and waiting for him to get back for a good hour and forty-three minutes now. Percy sighed. He really, really did not want to leave his warm bed and his loving girlfriend, but he also needed some time to collect himself before he was commanding armies. He had never been an early bird, and any drowsiness he had was bound to get someone killed.
Shuffling himself out from underneath his lover, he left her loving embrace and the warm comfort of his pillows behind to get dressed and head to Brooklyn.
He didn't bother with a shower, as he would be fighting in a few minutes anyway. It was a matter of tossing on some clothes, brushing his teeth, and grabbing a stale protein bar—courtesy of the U.S. government—for breakfast, before he was ready to get out through the door.
As he expected, Nico was waiting outside of his door, hand on the pommel of his sword while he leaned against the wall leading to his and Annabeth's bedroom. He had no doubt that Nico had replaced the guards once he had arrived.
No words were needed between the duo. Nico wouldn't take any apologies. His entire purpose now was to make things as convenient as possible for Percy, and he hadn't exactly asked him to be waiting for him so long, nor would he take an admonishment for going so far for his convenience. It was one of the only things he had found he was good at, and he would keep doing it.
So, grabbing Nico's arm, the two shadow traveled across New York City and into their regional headquarters in Brooklyn.
The trip through the shadows was enough to shake Percy up from his lethargy, and he shook his head in alertness as soon as they stepped out from the corner.
The place was flooded, a few inches of seawater layering the floor, a remnant of his episode last night. His socks felt cool, his footsteps created a slush as he barged into the offices.
As much as he was a fan, walking through muck wouldn't do wonders for their precarious morale. So, with a single thought, the water receded out of the building, into the streets and back out to sea. Feeling generous, he gave a second thought, commanding water across the city which had flooded basements and shops last night to recede back to the Atlantic.
Officers across the room looked down, surprised at the water suddenly receding beneath them, everything instantaneously drying. One officer jumped, noticing his and Nico's presence, immediately calling attention.
Every body in the room snapped to attention, dozens of experienced soldiers and war heroes stopping whatever they were doing, standing with backs rigidly still and eyes straight forward. All for a teenager.
The novelty had worn off for Percy long ago.
"Carry on," he dismissed with a wave of his hand, moving to where he saw his command staff standing around a table with a map of Long Island spread across it. A few markers were spread throughout the map, made up of whatever they could scrounge up...
"Sir." Darlton nodded to him as soon as he arrived at the table, interrupting Clarisse, who would no doubt go on a tangent about what had happened last night in a bout that would force him to remove her from the room in an episode that would not only embarrass him, but make him seem weak. He inwardly thanked Darlton.
"This is Lieutenant Colonel Ferraro. He was in charge of coordinating with the lower leadership last night and this morning, so I figured I would let him lead the briefing this morning, if that's alright with you," he continued.
At Percy's nod, Ferraro spoke up, his voice a raspy whisper.
"Sir, we have minimal casualties compared to what we expected from yesterday, and most of our men are rearing to go. We estimate that, provided ammunition, we should be able to field an additional 1,200 men at barebones capacity with captured equipment, as well as a company sized mechanized element and a platoon of motorized support."
Ferraro, paused, with slight hesitation. "There is, however, the situation with our men station in the east—" He pointed toward their fortifications in the neighborhoods of Howard Beach, near JFK Airport. "—Our men have taken off-and-on fire from light IDF, that is, Indirect Fire, sir. Or artillery. It is likely they don't want to risk hitting the civilian population, but this fire will still increase the risk of our units in the area until addressed. Another thing to bring up, we haven't been able to completely sweep the area behind us, so it is likely there is some form of hostile element. That being said, if we wish to push anytime soon, we will have to leave our flank exposed for now, and deal with it tomorrow, after we have presumably secured the island."
Apparently finished with his brief, he left Percy in silence to look at the map. After a few, long seconds, Percy matched Darlton's expecting gaze. "How many men do they have?"
Darlton frowned for a second. "We have nowhere near enough sightings for an accurate number. Scouting estimates they might have had a division total on Long Island, and we pushed the vast majority of their forces south... Likely not much more than three thousand men."
Percy nodded.
"Then we will only have the undead and our mortal soldiers fighting in this battle. I will be sending Atlantis' army home, they've done more than enough. I will be heading back to Manhattan tomorrow; my vanguard with me. I have a task for them that they need to be well rested for. Promise our men two day's break after they secure Long Island, and Nico—" he looked behind him, "—get word to Annabeth to multiply the size of our mortal police force tenfold. We will need numbers to garrison Long Island."
He turned back to the table, with a frown. "Now here's what I'm going to do..."
Kill. Fight. Die. That's what a soldier should do.
Percy repeated the mantra in his head as he carved his way through hundreds.
Percy would regret it later, he was sure. Taking so many lives first hand was nothing short of horrifying. Sure, he had killed before, of course, but he wasn't raised to be a killer, not like he was now.
Percy was sure he would spend sleepless nights thinking about the lives he took, about how many futures he had snuffed out like they were nothing. He was sure he would awake in a cold sweat from nightmares about this very moment, perhaps dozens of times.
But right now, he didn't care. He couldn't let himself care, else the battle turn even messier.
Percy roared, needing something to take out his frustration on. He swung left, right, and then ran straight through a display window for some old boutique. Glass shards sprayed into the room, and whatever unfortunate soldier that had been hiding in there was subsequently hacked until they were split in two. Percy was completely covered in blood—or maybe the blood was already on him.
Probably the latter.
And then there was a movement on the stairs to his right, but that was before Nico had taken their head off, and added their soul to his blade's collection.
And then there was a bullet racing at him, but that was before moisture from the air had surrounded it and stopped it in its tracks, sending it back through the eye of the soldier who had fired it.
There was another spray of bullets, but that was before shadow swallowed them. Percy didn't see what had happened to the 18 year old that had fired the barrage, but Nico usually took care of it the same way anyway, so what was the point in watching anymore.
The rest of the day was much more of the same, a spray of bullets aimed at him everywhere he went.
One time Percy walked into an alley, where there was a gun soon after pointing at him out of every window. But that was before Percy had hidden the alley from the eyes of the divine, and before their blood evaporated inside of them.
Percy had even one time been stared down by 3 tanks, with large guns and depleted uranium armor plating and a team of highly trained men inside of them. But that was before a lightning bolt the size of a house had come to strike each one of them a second later.
Quite honestly, Percy was bored.
He had riled himself up, brought out some of the anger he had felt the night before, only to face nothing that truly deserved a drop of his attention. Millions of people were worshipping the gods now. Millions were worshipping his father. Millions were probably worshipping him as a deity at this point, and that number had only doubled with their occupation of Brooklyn. Compared to setting off a volcano, compared to holding the sky, compared to bathing in the Styx, this was nothing. These were mortals, and there was a reason his kind had always seen them as inferior, not even worth their time. Letting out his anger with a grunt, Percy let a lightning bolt fall on the building in front of him, lighting it up with a fire and burning every living thing inside it to a crisp.
Deciding he was already bored of this, Percy concentrated on expanding his senses. Getting a sense of what side people were on by what direction they were facing, he assumed everyone in the same building not beating the hell out of each other were friends, and that everyone holding a gun was a combatant.
He was sure he would mix some up, but at this point what was a bit of friendly fire? If he didn't do this, more of his men, more civilians would die anyway in the long run, right? What did it matter who did it, if less of them died.
Deciding he'd need his crown for this to be as effortless as he'd like, he tapped it to bring it out of it's necklace state and briefly disconnected the entirety of Long Island from the sight of the gods, Percy clenched his right hand into a fist.
And all of a sudden, there was a lot less shooting.
Percy marched back to Manhattan at the head of a column of more than 300 armored soldiers. The sky was overcast and thundering, as it had been since their initial invasion.
As they reached the other side of the bridge which led to Manhattan, Percy allowed himself to focus on civilian life here for the first time.
The streets of Manhattan had begun to come to life once more, some sense of community re-emerging, as people became more acquainted with their new reality. Neighborhoods throughout the city, the ones least damaged in the taking of the city, were beginning to open up again, makeshift stores and stalls selling rations, luxuries and other goods. It was all by bartering, money was as useless as sand, but it was still some facet of an economy. It seemed food was the main basis of common currency—anything that wasn't being supplied by the rations the US government was shipping in for them would've most definitely grown in stock price. Anyone would accept food for an item, and were confident they could get any item they wanted for food in turn.
As Percy came nearer to the island with his vanguard at his back, movement in the street slowly ceased. The loud, rhythmic marching of hundreds of soldiers at his back, marching in sync drew attention. Those in front of him quickly realized that they were taking up the entire street, and scurried to move out of the street before they were run over by the divine army before them.
By the time Percy actually got to the street, the make-shift stalls were emptied, sidewalks clearing quickly in front of him.
Percy strolled through the silent streets of Manhattan, with his guard at his back all the while. The civilians were silent out of reverence, or fear, or perhaps just to not break the silence. Whatever the reason, Percy didn't really care. They were out of the way, and that was all that mattered. He hadn't taken off his crown after the battle, deciding it was a good time to make its debut. He would need one anyway hypothetically, and he might as well be wearing his crown full time—it's power was hidden, after all.
Eventually he ran into somebody that wasn't able to get out of their way in time. A small child sat in the middle of the street crying, a worn down and dirty stuffed animal in one hand. An orphan. Or maybe their parents were elsewhere, or too scared to interrupt the silence or step in front of him. Regardless, he didn't really care. He just wanted the damn child out of his way.
Percy remembered the words Nico had said to him. You're becoming like the gods. And Percy realized, yeah, he was kind of being an asshole.
There had been a lot of cops in New York City, and an uncounted number more civilians that had died in the crossfire during their initial invasion. That did not even include the fiasco he had wrought upon the eastern seaboard last night. It was more than likely Percy had been the one to kill her parents, if they were dead.
He thought back to the speech he gave to every one of the people on the side of the street right now. That he was just one of them. A New Yorker, Manhattan born and raised.
When did that stop being true?
When Percy reached the small crying girl, he stopped and crouched down. Immediately, the synchronized steps behind him ceased.
"Hey," he spoke softly. The girl sniffed. "It's alright, don't cry."
He reached out and brushed some of the tears from her face with the back of his hand. Picking her up gently, he walked over to the side of the street where there were thousands of people far too crowded for anything that could be comfortable.
Handing her to a rather kindly looking man somewhere in his 30s, he looked into his eyes. "Make sure she is taken care of," he commanded.
And his will be done.
Walking back to the middle of the street, he continued walking towards the Empire State Building, the sound of marching soldiers resuming behind him.
When Percy reached the Empire State Building, he dismissed his vanguard to return to their barracks, with a note to Clarisse that he would need them ready the next morning. A few dozen stayed behind to secure the building and act as his security while he was here, but the rest continued marching down the street to their barracks area on the west side of Manhattan.
The entire military had been sent to Long Island the day prior via invasion, however when Percy walked in, backs still stiffened. Almost every eye was on him as soon as he walked in, and yet nobody said a word. At least one advantage of being in charge was that wherever he went, people tended to be quiet.
As he continued to the elevator, a single administrator standing in the lobby had an idea.
They bowed.
Like dominoes, the rest of those in the lobby started to either reluctantly or zealously bow, some getting on their knees. Percy expected that now that he had a crown things would become a bit more formal, but to be honest he didn't expect this.
Quickly stepping into an elevator, he was joined by several of his vanguard while most of the rest stood outside, not daring to overcrowd the elevator their ruler was in. Those that had made it in stood along the walls rigidly at attention and matter-of-factly and out-of-the way as possible.
Deciding to let Annabeth know he was back, he pressed the button for her floor, standing relaxed as the elevator slowly ascended.
When it did finally open he stepped out to a mostly familiar sight. Annabeth's floor was bustling with activity; papers were rustling, people shuffling about as meetings were held on the fly, and just general progress was being made.
Percy once again silenced the room as soon as he stepped out into the hall. Two of his vanguard trailed him while the rest went elsewhere, likely to secure his personal floor or some such thing.
Percy silently thanked whichever god was responsible when nobody bowed on his way over to Annabeth's office. Obviously, news from the first floor hadn't reached here yet, but that would change soon. This might be the last room that Percy entered where everyone didn't bow to him instantly and he decided to cherish it.
Giving a light knock before he walked in, Percy entered Annabeth's office, where he found her looking dishevelled, busy at work. His guards started to enter the room with him before he waved them off, and they took positions outside the door.
"I thought I told you, we can't prioritize anyone for rations, much less-" Annabeth cut herself off as their gazes met.
He gave her a teasing smile. "Having some trouble?"
She let out a small sigh as the door closed behind him. "A bit, if I were to be honest. There's so much stuff to deal with. I never thought I'd say it, but it's really—it's too much."
Percy frowned "Is there anything I can do to help? We can release your siblings from the vanguard now that it's established if it would help. Or we can increase recruitment..."
"Percy, I'm fine, really. I'm a big girl, I can handle myself. The only problem is trusting anyone with any of this stuff. I mean, how am I supposed to trust some random woman with writing our entire judicial system, and another one with the distribution of food while I write up our executive branch? It's just too short notice. The gods asking us to create a government meant to become a world superpower in a matter of weeks... It's actually impossible."
Percy felt a vaguely interested divine presence or two at the mention of the gods and tensed, before deciding he wanted this to be a private conversation, and forcing their consciousness out of the room.
He let his face harden into a more serious expression "Is the issue loyalty, or competence?.."
She drooped over the desk; a hand running through her hair. "I wish it was that simple. Sure, there are few people I can trust to be capable enough to run things. There are even fewer I can trust to be loyal to our—the gods' cause. But that's not really—I know there are people out there that can be those things, but I can't—"
Percy breathed out, realizing he'd been holding it in. He should have foreseen this, he knew her, for god's sake. She was too much of a perfectionist, she'd dreamed of building the world by her own hand since she'd been little. Of course, now with the opportunity to act out her childhood dreams, it was hard to take a step back.
It wasn't that she couldn't trust that there were people out there who could do a good enough job, it was that she trusted that she could do the best job. If she didn't personally have a hand in it, it would've never been good enough.
Sitting on the one corner left of the desk not covered in paperwork, he took her hands into his, before bending closer, leaning into her eyes. "Wise Girl, these people are here to help us. To be honest, the only reason we have any army anymore is because I'm too tired of fighting, so they do it for me."
She looked at him with slightly widened eyes. That was a bit haughty for what she was used to from him.
"If it's to have someone, or even a team to draft things up for you for hours, only to have them restart because there's something they'd missed, then do so. And if you really feel like it's beginning to take more time to tell them how to do it than just finishing it yourself, then do that. But these people, most of this entire building, is here for the sole purpose of making your life easier, they're here to be delegated work. Let them help you, supervise them harshly if you must, but we cannot expect to have you do all of this alone."
How had he not realized sooner? Not noticing—not even considering—Annabeth to be as stressed about this situation as he? It was possibly even worse for her, she didn't have someone here like Nico who she could have absolute trust in getting things done right, someone she could confide in. The closest person to that role for Annabeth was Piper, but she was in California, helping Reyna in San Francisco...
He leaned back from her desk, letting her hands slip from his own. They were in this together.
"I will have to head out tomorrow to finish this war," Percy told her, holding her arms tight. He would be ending the war tomorrow, if everyone goes according to plan. It would involve a lot of fighting, a lot of killing. "And then—"
"Stay." Annabeth cracked. "Their invasion can wait, you need a break."
"The longer this war persists, the worse off it is for everyone."
"Even more people will suffer if we don't have a proper system to maintain order, Percy" Annabeth argued, before separating from him. "Here, please. I've actually been working on something I need you to take a long look over. At least give it a glance."
It was an excuse; an excuse to not have to immediately get back down into the war room and consult with his strategists. An excuse to worry about something else, besides the blood he was going to shed tomorrow.
Percy looked down at the paper, which was typed out in small English font, and made a face as the words started doing backflips over each other.
She let out a sigh of exacerbation. "I figured you wouldn't really read it, so I'll explain it to you. It's my proposal for our working government, and will need to be implemented or scratched as soon as possible, especially if you're planning on annexing the entire United States government into our current system. Millions of people would starve if we took over the government tomorrow, and that would be the least of our worries."
He thought about it for a second, before deciding that she had a point. As much as he wanted this war to just be over with already, at least for a bit, he did agree that it wouldn't do any good 'convincing' the US government it would be a better idea for him to be in charge if he didn't actually have a working bureaucracy.
He nodded his consent for her to continue, and she let out an almost unheard sigh of relief.
"Well, we'll need, first and foremost, a congress, parliament, or some sort of legislative body that is able to govern and that the people could accept. Actually, I've drawn some inspiration from what the British had in place before the nobility and crown had their real power revoked. The way I've laid it out—" She pointed to a set diagrams with handwritten so small, it hurt Percy's brain to even look at it, "—is that we could have something of a House of Commons, representative of, and elected by, the people; A lower house that writes and drafts up laws. Then there will be something like the House of Lords, an upper house that receives bills to pass and will be made of people based on lineage. Only instead of nobles, it'll be us demigods, and legacies; those with immortal blood."
Annabeth then pulled out a few more papers.
"This is the part I need a second input on. I had first considered possibly a seat per-godly parent like how we have it in camp. The leader of each cabin could just have a seat, but then certain seats will end up being empty and Camp Jupiter has a command system not based on parentage. So instead, we could have it so that just about every demigod or legacy could have a seat if they wanted it. This would ensure we have a large divine presence in the government, but then how loose or strict should I make requirements? Will there be a vetting process where others in the House vote on entry or if any demigod could join?
"...Then, if it's approved by them, it goes to you—or because I have no illusion that you will have the patience to read or care about any laws that are passed through the system—anyone you choose. Or you can choose to remove yourself from the process entirely, until you decide you want to veto something. The point being, you have complete executive authority, dwarfing even that which the British monarchs had in their prime. After all, you have divine authority."
Percy let out a long sigh at the end of her explanation. He understood only about half of it, but it was a valid reason for him to stay here, at least for a couple days. After all, they hadn't completely solidified her position as his public face quite yet. Their entire government system wouldn't be seen as legitimate if he wasn't the one rolling it out.
Finally, Percy nodded. As much as he just wanted to end it all in a divine show of force, he had to admit that it wouldn't be the best decision. He leaned over her desk to give her a peck on the lips.
"Alright. I'll put off the next assault, if you really think it's for the best. Our men still need more training before we head out, after all." He gave her a trademark smirk.
Percy turned and opened the door out of her office, walking towards the elevator. His vanguard followed dutifully behind him, keeping stride with the young monarch.
He relaxed in the elevator, flanked by four of his vanguard. The security was a bit overboard in his opinion, Percy could snap his fingers and disintegrate anyone this side of Olympus the second they decided to even try to pull out a weapon, and if for some reason he didn't feel like it, Nico was keeping tabs anyway. Nico was far too strong to not be able to extend his reach through most of the shadows in North America at this point.
Arriving at his next destination, Percy once again stepped out of the elevator. He walked through the hallways of the floor, peeking in every door he passed. This floor seemed mostly abandoned, until he came across a cluttered room.
It wasn't dirty, per se—there was no rotting food, or empty bags or wrappers. No dirty clothes lying across the floor, like you might have seen in Percy's room a month ago.
Rather, it was cluttered. Maps, trinkets, and boards with strange, unreadable symbols on them, different kinds of glowing rocks, and text written in ancient greek lay sprawled around in a semi-organized mess.
At a desk pressed up against a wall lay the sleeping form of a girl, breathing in and out softly. All in all, it looked like a crossover between a witches hut and a mad scientists laboratory.
He wasn't necessarily upset that she was sleeping in the middle of the day —though his guards looked a little miffed—after all, he hadn't exactly called ahead. But he wouldn't be coming back for her convenience, either.
So, stepping into the room, he loudly cleared his throat. It was punctuated by a particularly loud clap of thunder from outside.
Sasha woke with a start. She quickly noticed his presence and stood up, hastily attempting to fix her hair.
She almost fell over when she bowed. "Ah, your majesty. My apologies, I wasn't aware you would be visiting."
He waved it off. "I didn't come here because of how clean it is. How is everything?"
She stood from her bow and started sheepishly combing through her hair, before apparently deciding she was satisfied a moment later. "There's- there's so, so much. The possibilities are just endless. I knew my siblings had acquired a very large knowledgebase of magic, and spells. But I never thought that even in the thousands of years the Hecate cabin had been hoarding scrolls and texts that there'd be this much."
Percy smiled at the girl's enthusiasm.
"And have you found anything useful so far?" Percy winced at how tactless that sounded, but she didn't seem to so much as notice.
Her eyes lit up. "Yes! Yes, I've found so much. Not much I could do right now, but with time, and practice, some of the more simple stuff, I could start working on immediately. A spell to hide an area from the gods for a short time, for example, if that would be useful to you, your majesty."
Percy held in a chuckle. Of course, that spell was next to useless for him, but she didn't need to know that. After all, if she had told him about that spell just a couple months prior, it would have come in handy. But for now, it was useless.
"Please," he said. "Call me Percy."
He ignored his guard's shifting. In the end, he was going to have the dishevelled girl in front of him be the head of everything magic. She was his only real option as the last child of Hecate, and besides, he could tell there was something different about her. Something that made her stand out from the grey around her. Maybe it was something about her personality, or maybe it was just that she had oddly purple eyes like her mother, but either way he needed to have the head of a potentially integral branch loyal to him. It wouldn't do to force titles onto her.
"Percy. Okay." Even right after he'd given permission for her to use it, his guards still shuffled at her nonchalant way she had just addressed him. "I do have some more good news, though. So much of the stuff that's recorded or hinted at in these texts looks pretty powerful, even by godly standards. The only problem is that there was no threat to use them against, and some of the items required for them are across the planet. My siblings would have no way of getting them without a quest, which the oracle never decided was necessary to grant. There's more, too. There's so, so much more."
She began muttering to herself.
She stood perfectly still in front of him, but even now her eyes scoured her desk, reading and rereading the ancient texts sitting there. "If only I had time to read all of these," she whispered to herself, before catching herself and redirecting her attention to him. "I'll ah, I'll be able to read through all of these, I promise, and it'll take a long time to completely discover all this stuff, but I'll get it done, I swear!"
"Would more people help? I understand having this stuff to yourself would be nice, but at the very least having some people to sift through this stuff, and let you focus on the good stuff would be useful, right?"
She seemed reluctant to agree, nevertheless dipped her head. "Yes, more people would make it go faster, if that is what you would prefer."
She glanced at his guards skittishly. "There's one more thing, your majesty, that you might prefer to hear of now. It regards the location of a primordial artifact."
Percy froze.
"Out."
Percy's thoughts immediately turned to the crown sitting atop his head. A primordial artifact. This thing was in the proximity of a primordial, and it was the most power he had tasted in his life, even with ten million people worshipping him as a god.
Percy barely noticed as his slightly disgruntled guards shuffled out the door, and took positions outside it.
Noticing that an ear was pressed against the door outside, Percy without a thought cut off the blood flow to the man's brain. There was a loud thud beyond the door, and a shout, but Percy only rolled his eyes. The guard would live, probably with some acute brain damage, but he was already being merciful enough by not popping the man's head like a balloon. He did not have time for eavesdroppers.
"Tell me what you know."
Her eyes widened slightly at his shift in tone, and she shrunk in on herself slightly.
"There's a piece of the sword of Erebus in the mountains in Macedonia. Or, at least the old text I'm going off of said so. It's really not a big deal. Not especially enchanted or anything, I don't even think it'll be useful. I didn't mean to cause such a big fuss about it." She rubbed her arm and looked down.
He grabbed her chin to force her eyes to meet his newly hardened ones.
"Sasha. Swear yourself to me."
She recoiled slightly, surprised at his demand. But there was no reason to refuse. Her loyalty belonged to him, anyway. Who else would it belong to, the gods? Yeah, right. He had given her a chance. He had shown more kindness to her in the few days she had known him than any god had her entire life. So who cared if this was a bit shady? As long as she could keep delving into the secrets contained on her desk in service of him, she didn't care.
She slowly nodded. "What do I do?" she asked.
"Kneel." he commanded.
She knelt.
"Swear yourself to me on the Styx. That you will never betray me, that your loyalty, and you yourself belong to me."
He would never have demanded this under normal circumstances, but she had just made it clear this was no normal circumstance. The last thing he wanted to do was kill her, or permanently silence her in some creative way. But if she was to know about primordial artifacts… Nobody else could know. The only alternative was to be absolutely sure she would never betray him.
Sure, it left a bitter taste in his mouth. He had to be forced into this sort of thing with Nico not too long ago, but now he was pushing it onto someone else.
"I swear on the river Styx to obey Perseus Jackson. I will not betray him. My loyalty belongs to him. I belong to him. Mind, body, and soul."
Thunder roared outside.
Percy nodded, satisfied. It was binding.
"Good. When you have the exact location, give it to me personally. Nobody else hears about anything related to primordials. Scratch that. Nobody hears anything about what you do except me. You report straight to me. You may treat Nico as an extension of my will. Do whatever he tells you to as if it was me," he commanded, before turning to the door and beginning to leave.
"Oh, and Sasha? It's Percy." He smiled as a light rose tint covered her cheeks.
Opening the door and walking out, he was reminded that there were now only two guards by his door.
"You." He looked towards the one to his left. "Get that man to the medbay, place him under arrest. He attempted to eavesdrop on my conversation. And you." He looked over to his right. "Go to personnel, tell them I need 30 people to be assigned to this floor for arcane research."
With a chorus of "Yes, your majesty," they were off, and Percy headed towards the elevators to go to his floor so that he could get to some of the work that had piled up in his absence.
The elevator dinged, and Percy started to step off, before suddenly stopping.
"Can I help you?"
"Zeus wants to talk to ya'. Sorry, don't know what about." Percy could feel Hermes shrug from behind him in the elevator he had just occupied.
Letting out a sigh, he resigned himself to not getting a break. Percy stepped back into the elevator. He pulled out a golden keycard he now kept on him most of the time, inserting it into a slot just beside the floor numbers. Almost immediately, a button labelled '600' had popped up.
Sometime during this process, Hermes had vanished from behind him. But Percy didn't really care, he was too busy wondering what Zeus could be wanting to talk to him about. He couldn't come up with anything, aside from 'how're ya holdin' up, champ' which was about as likely as Kronos deciding the gods weren't so bad after all.
As Percy passed floor 230—not that the actual floor existed—Nico materialized from a shadow in the corner of the elevator.
Not that he necessarily needed to be there physically, but it felt right. He would feel naked walking into Olympus without Nico by his side. Nico had become a familiar constant at his side over the last couple months, not dis-similar to having Riptide in his pocket.
"The gods really have to update their music," Nico commented, straightening his jacket.
Percy huffed, just short of a chuckle.
They stood there, in silence, until finally, the elevator doors opened into Olympus.
Now, Percy had always thought Olympus was beautiful. He was no Annabeth, but you'd have to be blind to not recognize the sheer beauty of the city of the gods. Of course, after a dozen or so times, the novelty had worn off for Percy. When he was saving the world on a pretty much daily basis, and had to hike up here for meetings deciding if he'd die or not every now and then, it got old eventually.
But now, the beauty of the place floored him once again.
The last time he had been here there had been empty houses, crumbling shops, and torn roads. Olympus had been all but abandoned; A sad husk of its former self.
Now Olympus was more vibrant than he had ever seen it. Colors seemed to pop out at you wherever you looked, and everywhere you looked was an astounding display of beauty. Whether it was in the form of an aesthetically pleasing building, or an especially beautiful nature spirit or minor god walking around, everywhere you looked was beautiful. The grass was the greenest grass he had ever seen, and the water was crystal clear, looking like it had come from the fountain of youth.
Shaking it off, Percy continued down the streets of Olympus. He hadn't been told where Zeus wanted to meet him, so he would assume it was the throne room until he was told otherwise. He doubted Zeus wanted him in his palace, or something.
Percy enjoyed taking in the sights of Olympus on his way to the throne room... for all of about 10 seconds.
The moment someone noticed him there was a large wave of noise on the street.
Before, when he had saved them once, they bowed to him. Then, after he saved them again with the 7, they bowed again. And now he had saved them by leading divine forces against the mortals.
They bowed as he walked amongst them. Some of them were borderline groveling on the street.
Percy didn't know if they took notice of his crown. Either way, gods, spirits, and other immortals bowed to him as he walked through the streets of Olympus.
Now, Percy was never one much for pride. Sure, he was proud of a lot of things. He was generally proud of his accomplishments, he was proud of his friends, he was proud of his family, and he was proud of his abilities. But overall, he was not a prideful person. Being too prideful led to becoming arrogant. And once you were arrogant at his level of being a demigod, there was nothing to take you down from that level. Sure, your arrogance won't necessarily get you killed, but after coming out victorious time and time again and only feeding that arrogance, you would end up something like Heracles, which he definitely wanted to avoid.
That being said, Percy let his ego bask in the fact that a city full of gods was prostrating themselves to him. He'd be willing to bet he was the only one since Zeus to get that honor, and so he let himself bask in it for just a moment.
But when he reached the enormous throne room doors, his good mood went away. He would need to be on his A-game for whatever Zeus needed to talk to him about.
Normally the large celestial bronze doors were so heavy that his advanced demigod strength would have still struggled to push it open, but he knew now he could simply condense some water in front of the doors and push them open effortlessly, but he wanted to see how much stronger he had gotten since his announcement. He felt stronger, faster, tougher. But he hadn't quite had a time to test that out yet.
Walking up to the doors, he pushed them open with a small shove. He was pleasantly surprised that even with the light amount of pressure he exerted on the door they cleanly swung open.
After they struck the walls of the throne room with a loud CLANG Percy kept walking, until he reached the hearth.
Percy only had time to give the small form of Hestia a small smile before a bright, white supernova enveloped his vision.
Now, Percy couldn't describe it with words. Not really. Nothing this divine was meant to be described. Almost like a fire, one that was meant to be a secret kept from the mortals, to be a staple of divine superiority over mortals.
Percy honestly got why Dionysus's mother had been willing to die to gaze upon Zeus's divine form, whatever her name was. (Beryl, or something?)
Now, Percy wasn't exactly Zeus' number one fan. The only reason he wasn't one of the 'big bad guys' Percy had to take down was that Zeus was too powerful—not that a power level difference hadn't stopped Percy before—but the Master Bolt had the ability to quickly wipe humanity off the face of existence if Zeus so desired, newly acquired power or not.
2, Zeus was more or less letting Percy govern humanity how he deemed fit. He wasn't like Kronos, bent on enslaving humanity, nor Gaea wanting to restart the planet anew without people.
After this initial invasion, mortals would hopefully be spared. They'd have to be, the Olympians had initialized this take over was because they wanted mortals to worship them once more in mass. Some things might change with the Olympians no longer hiding, but he could hopefully return things to some semblance of normality. All the death and pain he had caused had been a blight on his conscience, but trying to take down Zeus wouldn't do anything about that.
Now all that being said, Zeus was one beautiful motherfucker.
His true form was more beautiful than everything he had ever seen put together. Mount Olympus, Thanatos, Aphrodite, whatever, paled in comparison to the true form of a god.
But then, it was over. In less than a millisecond Zeus' divine form was gone, and in his place was Zeus' mortal disguise. But Percy knew he could never look at a god the same way again.
"Perseus." Zeus rumbled once he appeared.
"Your majesty," Percy acknowledged with the tilt of his head, trying to blink the white spots out of his eyes.
Zeus grunted. Clearly, he would have preferred if Percy had kneeled before him or some such thing, but Percy honestly wasn't in the mood. What was Zeus gonna do, zap him to death? Then who would lead the demigods? Nobody short of Thalia was remotely strong enough, and it would be more than chaotic if he was suddenly replaced. As long as Percy didn't tell Zeus to fuck off to his face, his hands were more or less tied.
"Now that you have occupied Brooklyn, there lies the matter of the Egyptian Nome. If I'm not mistaken, you've already met it's old head, the current pharaoh of Egypt. They will begin to become discontent with the current set of events. Make sure they are not a problem."
Zeus was as warm and sunny as always. Well, that was more or less expected. Percy knew there were other gods, and figured they wouldn't be chill with sitting back and letting the Greeks have all the fun. At least he knew the pharaoh of Egypt. He wasn't exactly looking forward to meeting Carter again, considering what would be the circumstances, but he would probably (read; hopefully) be able to work something out with them.
Percy didn't get a chance to respond before, with another flash of supernova, Zeus was gone.
Percy let out a sigh for what seemed like the hundredth time today. Giving another smile to Hestia, who had sat poking the fire throughout the conversation, he turned towards the throne room doors to head to Brooklyn.
Apologies for the long delay. It was ready for rewrite and beta April 17, so you can blame Vanadium for the wait ;) (pls lynch him no me thx)
