DELTA | SHE'S IN ALL HER GODDESS GLORY

Disclaimer: I do not own the Heroes of Olympus series or any of the characters. I only own the character Nerissa Jackson and her original plot lines and dialogue.

THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO NicoleR85, yasminasfeir1, sofioe, DontKillMyMockingjay, FoxGurrl, SurvivingMinx, AValeriaA, iwaizoomi, Spunky89, ilovethisfanfic, DreamHunterVo,RHatch89, Guest (1), Guest (2), Guest (3), Guest (4), Guest (5), Guest (6) AND TheGirlWhoFlew.

iwaizoomi:I love that Piper can be great without a man, she's been strong alone the entire series that I've written, and I'm all for feminism but I also want to use the same kind of thing that Percy and Annabeth have. They're stronger together than apart and I want Piper to have a person by her side, in the romantic sense like Sander, who can make her stronger.

I. AM. ALIVE. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE CONTINUOUS SUPPORT, I LOVE YOU ALL.

"Welcome to our daily meeting where we complain about the current banes out our existence and how we're going to kick ass. We also stay on a flying ship all day so there's really nothing else for us to do except become really bitter towards Dirt Face." Leo clapped his hands together and grinned, "I'm excited—this whole the injustice thing makes me feel like a superhero. You know, I'm getting the whole Justice League talking about the Injustice League's latest weapon—"

Annabeth lifted tired gray eyes up to Leo's smiling face. Something about him—something about everyone really—seemed to be bugging her lately and, while everyone else were smart enough to tread carefully, Leo didn't care. He was almost high on over-sugared coffee, motor oil fumes and his own success to care much these days. And grief. Yeah, grief made him a bit nutty too but, psh, he wasn't going to tell anyone that having dreams about Riss talking to him like she was still alive and just down the hall was making him deprive himself of a bit of sleep.

The daughter of Athena scowled, "Shut up, Leo."

The cheeky grin widened, "Hey, don't shoot the messenger."

"I think I'm the messenger," Frank corrected with an eye roll. "My dad appeared to me in dream last night. Something about a new war—between a new goddess and a new giantess…an anti-goddess? Is that the term we'd use?"

"I still like bane," Percy hummed casually. His eyes were rimmed with dark bags, like Jason and Annabeth, but his grin—Riss' grin—was present as usual. "Or just giant. New goddess though? How does someone just make a goddess?"

Hazel frowned, "Didn't the gods want to make you a god?"

The Jackson boy shrugged, "They offered—barely any of them actually wanted me as a god. They did a vote though." He nudged his girlfriend's elbow, a teasing look in his eyes, "I would be a pretty crappy god, don't you think?"

Annabeth hummed noncommittally, turning her attention back to the book in front of her that she was frantically scribbling in. Percy let out a sad sigh but he smiled gratefully as Jason lightly tapped him on the shoulder supportively.

"I've been seeing something," Piper offered after a moment, gesturing down to the dagger hanging at her waist.

She looked remarkably put together for a girl who hadn't slept all night—losing Riss and her odd encounter with Sander had put her on edge and she hadn't been able to switch her mind off all night. Sander was the biggest problem—he knew something he wasn't telling anyone of them and she wanted to know where he came from. The daughter of Aphrodite had stared at the ceiling for hours before she'd turned her attention to Katoptris and had gasped as she saw hundreds of spirits gathering in a palace as they plotted. She explained it quickly to her friends, whose eyes widened in worry and, when she finally took a breath for air, Hazel bit her lip like she wanted to say something.

Finally, she did and everyone knew it wasn't going to be good news. It never was for them. "I've been sensing something too. The biggest gathering of evil spirits I've ever sensed…it's in the ancient palace of Odysseus and they're waiting—"

"—for Gaia's orders," Annabeth finished in a murmur as her red pen dipped down to circle something on the page. She flipped her book around to show the others and they eyed the list of names on the pages, "I've been drafting down who Gaia could want back from the dead, to fight for her, and I think I know who could be in Ithaca."

Leo eyed the two words circled in red. "Who are the suitors? Sounds like a bad name for an eighties rock band."

Jason's eyes almost bugged out of his head, "The suitors? They were a hundred of the greediest, evilest cut-throats who'd ever lived. When Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, went missing after the Trojan War, they invaded his palace and refused to leave, each one hoping to marry Queen Penelope and take over the kingdom."

"I take it he stopped them?"

"Well, yeah," the Grace boy agreed. "Odysseus slaughtered them all."

"Fun," Percy muttered. He frowned suddenly, fingers tapping a brief pattern against the rope bracelet around his wrist. The Jackson boy had yet to take the nautical-themed bracelet off, too frightened to lose his last links to Riss to even think about taking it off. He also got the impression that his dad wanted him to have it, given how it had turned up in his room after the funeral and had glowed with an unnatural blue light until he had picked it up. "Uh, guys, what does Angustia mean?"

Jason answered immediately, mind working immediately to translate the phrase, "Distress. It's Latin. Why?"

The sea-green-eyed boy bit his lip. "Someone's been whispering it to me at night. And…it's a voice I recognize; I don't get it, the voice is there every night but I never see anything. It's just black and I keep hearing Angustia."

"And you think this is the new giant?"

Percy nodded to Piper, "If Angustia is the anti-goddess to the new one the gods just created and if she's distress…"

Piper smiled, "Then let's pray that the goddess is a bit nicer."

"Fingers crossed," Leo grinned. His eyes lit up with an almost manic light as his fingers fiddled with the little materials in his hands that was somehow resembling a mini bow and arrow that he was lifting up to aim at Frank's head. "But, uh, Hazel, what did you say about a palace and a whole bunch of dead guys?"

XXXXX

Admittedly, Riss was being the tiniest bit creepy.

She watched her friends like a hawk, using a mirror—gifted to her by the woman filled with sparkles and a bad attitude before they had their minor falling out—and she simply had to wave a glowing hand over the glass to be connected to the pretty little contraption in the Argo II. It was a glorified mirror which had been made from the instructions in a letter written by a dead girl for a boy who manipulated fire.

The daughter of Poseidon, and new goddess, waved her hand elegantly. The reflection of her own face—completely different to how she usually looked with deeply-red stained lips, long lashes and hair styled in elaborate ringlets at the top of her head—shimmered for a moment before it disappeared and was replaced with another face.

A face she knew well. The face of her favorite little Latino elf. He was alone at the table, fingers moving eagerly over the surface of his newest creation that he could barely see in the light of the small oil lamp beside his head in the dark. And he froze, spine locked up tight, as soon as he recognized who was staring back at him.

"Hello, Leo."

Leo glared but it lacked a certain heat, too relieved to be feeling anything remotely close to hatred. "You little shit! I thought you were dead."

Riss smiled sadly, "And, in a manner of speaking, I am."

"I hate you."

"I know."

The Valdez tried to hide the tears filling his eyes, "I really hate you. You left us. Percy's falling apart all the time or just kinda staring at nothing, Annabeth snaps at everyone, Piper's trying to look after us all and won't think about herself, Hazel can barely be away from Frank's side without worrying about losing him and Frank's the same. And don't get me started on Jason! He's just a mess in general!"

"I know."

"And you don't care!?"

Riss' eyes filled with tears, "Of course, I do. But orders…are orders. I can't leave Olympus, I can't speak to anyone I used to know—if Zeus had his way, he'd have me forget that I was ever human."

Leo's eyebrow quirked, "But you're talking to me now…"

Riss scoffed, smiling widely, "I figured that even though I have a new title, it doesn't mean I should be any different. I never listen to orders, Leo Valdez, and neither do you. I have to go but I'm going to be back soon."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

"Don't try me," the Jackson girl smiled. "I promise, Leo, I will be back soon. Now, please, get some sleep for a change. Just dream of that girl of yours and wait until I'm there to help you get back to her."

Leo smiled, watching as Riss' image began to fade. He didn't ask how she knew about Calypso, didn't need to because Riss had that same look in her eyes as Hazel had when she had told him to spill as soon as he got back from Ogygia. They both knew, had both been able to sense, that something had been weighing Leo down as soon as they saw him and they both loved him enough to ask what was wrong.

"See you then."

XXXXX

Angustia let out a roar of anger. She had been tracking the little goddess ever since her ascension into Olympus. Nerissa Jackson had evaded capture, and death, at every turn, even after Angustia had attempted to invade the young demigoddess' mind and she was losing her patience. The ghosts around her, the most cutthroat warriors available, shifted around her, being effected by the very distress and rage she could influence. While Nerissa had been designed to create peace—not like the goddess Eirene, who didn't really care what was happening at the moment—and was created for the sole purpose of bringing the Romans and Greeks together against Gaea and her children.

Percy could barely see the giantess—she wasn't very tall, even slightly shorter than Otis and Ephialtes—but her face was shrouded in shadow and all he could see was the hand hovered over the edge of the throne. Her nails were chipped and, if he looked close enough, the Jackson boy could've sworn that there was some blood under there. It probably didn't help that even in his dream, Percy could smell what could only be the scent of death in the cave that the giantess had claimed for her home. It wasn't even a very nice cave, very mildew and overall really gross, and that was coming from the boy who'd been in Tartarus before and had eaten some questionable things in his time.

"I want her dead!"

"She will be…" The timid empousa at the giantess' feet shook as Angustia turned her dark eyes on her. Percy had never been fond of empousai but to see one, even just in his dreams, a whimpering, shaking mess was a shock to the system. "I swear it, mighty Angustia! Pacalis will be dead!"

A large hand slapped down over the empousa and Percy sneezed as dust flew into his face. And then he gagged as he realized it wasn't just dust—Angustia raised her hand, flapping it to remove some of the dust, what was left of the empousa, and a bright red stiletto heel that was very similar to one of the ones Piper had thrown at him once when her mother had been meddling with her wardrobe. Percy had just happened to be passing the daughter of Aphrodite's cabin at the time with Riss and clocked a red stiletto to the face—Riss hadn't stopped laughing until the second one had flown out to join the first in her face.

"She better be! I do not like failures." The shifting spirits seemed to be calming and Angustia's eyes flashed as she swung her head around, "Can you smell that?"

Could they smell that? Percy assumed he was the that they were complaining about and despite the fact that he had just finished some sword training with Jason, he knew he didn't stink.

"Like…sea breeze…" She let out another roar, standing from her throne and the walls shook. Her face came into view and Percy gulped. Angustia was all sunken cheeks and sharp cheekbones, her eyes were surrounded with a black paint that disappeared into her eyebrows and trailed over the bridge of her nose. "Pacalis! I can smell you—come out, you weak-willed little girl and I will feast on your bones!"

"Now, now…" Percy froze, his breath catching in his throat. It couldn't be. "There's no need for name calling. Or eating me."

It was. Nerissa Jackson in all her goddess glory stepped into the light, hand already at her hip where her spear sat. Percy almost ran forward and yelled for her, almost broke down in tears as Riss smiled up at the giantess, smiling that same cocky smile that the Jackson twins had always shared.

"Riss…"

"Nerissa." Angustia said it very differently to Percy and she advanced on the girl who could only be described as small in comparison. "I am your greatest foe and I will teach you the meaning of true pain. I will peel the flesh from your bones, grind your bones down to dust and—"

"Let me stop you there," Riss raised a hand and Angustia actually fell silent. "I know true pain—I turned to dust and am now forced to watch my family grieve for me from a castle in the freaking sky. I also quite like my flesh on my body, so it's going to be staying there, thanks."

Angustia cracked a wicked smile, "I will enjoy kill you, little goddess."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Angustia let out a snarl, steps echoing as she ran at the dark-haired girl who had yet to move and just as Percy opened his mouth to yell her name, Riss looked at him. Really looked at him and smiled gently, reassuringly, before Percy was shooting up in his bed on the Argo II as he tried to learn how to breathe again. Annabeth, from beside him in bed, didn't even so much as stir but turned her body closer into her boyfriend's side. Percy let himself relax, lying back down to bury his face in Annabeth's wild curls and hold her tight to his chest, seeking a sliver of comfort.

Percy had been right, Riss was alive.

And she was probably doing something incredibly reckless because that was what children of Poseidon did and he wasn't there beside her.

XXXXX

"This is a stupid idea."

"You've said. About a hundred times now."

Sander nodded his head frantically, long legs keeping in time with Riss' quick steps down the marbled halls of the home of the Olympians. "It's because you're going to get yourself killed. First, you went up against the literal bane of your existence without me and I had to actually drag you out of that cave, kicking and screaming, to save your life. And now, you want to go back to Olympus to pick up a few things despite the fact that Zeus will be gunning for your blood."

"First," Riss mocked, "I can't die. I'm a demi-goddess now."

"Which is like a goddess on probation."

"And now," the sea-green-eyed girl continued as if Sander hadn't spoken at all, "Zeus is not gunning for me. I disobeyed one order—Apollo has done it, like, a million more times than me and he hasn't been thrown from Olympus yet."

Sander smiled sarcastically, "Key word: yet. And, besides, I wouldn't be using old Hot-Head as an example. I've had a bet, two drachmas, going with Hades for the past century that one day Zeus will have enough and make Apollo into a yak or something."

"Demigod with no abilities; five drachmas and I'm going to win," Riss commented lightly, referring to her own running bet with the King of the Underworld. She had faith in her bet too—she'd always been good with wagers—and she wasn't about to lose to the man who barely ever saw the sun, let alone the god of it. "Maybe even stick him with a crappy name just to go that'll teach you for next time."

"It'd be the third time."

Riss reached her door and Sander pushed it open for her. "He won't kill me. He needs me—obviously he does if he wanted a Jackson as a goddess!—but he's not going to keep it under his hat that he hates my guts."

Sander pursed his lips. It was no secret in Olympus that Zeus and Pacalis didn't get along too well but aside from the initial stiffness around each other, the pair had managed to begin working cooperatively. And that was due to no small amount on Sander and Hera's part, the goddess had made herself very clear about her determination to keep her husband in line and Pacalis willing to complete her job. The young goddess wasn't going to remain quiet and willing for long though, she was like her father in that sense with the annoying rebellious streak that sent her into danger.

"You're not going to get me killed, are you?" Sander asked, dropping onto Riss' bed as she hurried around the room collecting her belongings, which really were like rented items from Aphrodite. "Because I just got out of the Underworld and I really don't want to go back. There's only so many times that you can listen to Persephone telling the same story about being kidnapped by Hades and how he never appreciates her properly. I do miss Macaria though, she was always great and boy, could she make a great chocolate cake."

"A goddess made you cake?" Riss rolled her eyes and swung her bag onto her shoulder, having packed quickly and changed from her hideous white dress (which was just a bit stained with dirt and blood, even ripped in some places, from her fight with Angustia) into her usual jeans and spare leather jacket. "Actually, don't answer that. Come on, let's just get out of here."

Sander offered his arm to the demi-goddess, "Never thought I would want to leave Olympus but here I am."

"Shut up."

The light, blue like usual, flashed around them and Sander collapsed to his side on the wooden floor. He let out a groan, never one for sky travel and gods, was teleporting around hard! Riss raised a brow, scoffing as the young man complained like a soccer player—completely exaggerated and Sander even cracked open one of his eyes to see if Riss cared. She didn't, he was faking.

"Get up," the dark-haired girl instructed and she gripped the son of Somnus' arm, pulling him up easily with her supernatural strength. "Where did you even take us? I thought I said my father's kingdom and this is a ship in the—" Riss finally glanced up from the boy on the ground, rolling around like an idiot, and took notice of where she was standing, on the deck of the Argo II, "—holy shit, you didn't! Sandman!"

"Neri…?"

And Nerissa Jackson closed her eyes, blocking herself from the pain that would surely come, as Jason Grace took a startled step closer to her.

XXXXX

UNEDITED

I'm sorry I've been gone so long but I'm back and, hopefully, I can update a lot more often. I'm aiming for a spinoff too, I mentioned a goddess called Macaria who is the main character in the spinoff book (if I manage to finally write it).

Please, please review and let me know what you'd like to see in this book because I'm honestly going through a little bit of writer's block!

~ Raven