Also posted on AO3
Tartarus was the closest place to hell in Greek mythology, where the souls of monsters were stored before they finally returned to the human world, and served as a prison for most titans. However, something that few people knew was that Tartarus had a somewhat secret, underground temple, underneath the whole place with only one entrance being the great ditch that existed there.
Said temple looked like it was falling apart; the entire place looked like it was made of stones so dark that they could be mistaken for the night sky, with an evil purplish glow enveloping the place. Slowly the glow flickered before intensifying sending a wave of energy throughout Tartarus that caused the monsters to freeze completely before passing out, allowing mist to erupt from them and fly towards the temple.
The smoke entered the room and headed towards a large stone in it, resembling a monolith made from broken rock with inscriptions on it that glowed a bright purple. Slowly the rock absorb all the mist from the monsters making the structure glow even brighter. This continued for a few seconds before the letters glowed brightly, with the light rising all the way up the monolith to the top creating a sphere of light that split into twelve beams of light that flew to each of the twelve pillars that existed in the temple.
Once the light hit the pillars, they began to crack, with the light pouring out of the cracks, they soon began to slowly descend to their bases. As soon as they arrived there, the light increased until the pillars exploded revealing that there were now twelve shadow-darkened figures with completely glowing eyes with a divine aura covering them, however their aura seemed wrong, it was as if it was pure maleficent with hatred mixed in, it was as if they were the destroyers.
Slowly the figures took a few steps forward until they all knelt in front of the monolith and bowed their heads.
"The time has come." Whispers a voice in the darkness spreading throughout the temple; however, the figures did not seem to care about it, as they kept kneeling. "Go, your revenge awaits you, it is time to fulfill your destiny, claim Olympus and start your new era, rise to the position that belongs to you, my new gods."
With that, each of the figures rose at the same time, in complete unison before turning into smoke and shooting across the temple's ceiling, which caused the monolith to stop glowing before shattering completely.
[…]
In the human world, twelve beams of light cut across the sky in silence, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, they continued flying until they began to descend and crashed onto a large deserted island in the middle of the sea of monsters, creating an explosion of dust and smoke. Slowly the twelve figures began to move forward through the smoke revealing that they were armored figures covered in full armor.
The one in front of everyone had a royal-looking golden armor with a navy blue cape on his shoulders; his helmet covered his entire face and neck with a visor resembling two ruby-like red lines, with two horns running across his head. Furthermore, surrounding the armor were what appeared to be blue metal plates that glowed with what appeared to be lightning within them. The golden figure advanced a little way before looking around the island and nodding to himself, with that he turned to the other eleven figures who were staring at him.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will set up our provisional base here and soon, we will put our plan into action." Declares the golden figure raising his hand and squeezing it into a fist, he pointed to one of the figures there. "Dark-Hephaestus, if you would do the honors?"
In this one of the figures advanced revealing to be even bigger than the others, almost eight feet tall, he wore armor made of bronze, with very long and thin arms and legs covered by the armor, with some tubes coming out of it releasing smoke. On his back, he had what appeared to be a boiler that emanated heat and smoke and forced the figure to be hunchbacked. His helmet was similar to the head of a robot with a horizontal line with black glass on it, his visor, in his hands he carried a gigantic sledgehammer made of bronze resembling a machine with gears turning in it.
Dark-Hephaestus charged forward as he commanded with squeaks and the sounds of gear turning echoing off his armor, he continued walking for a while before coming to a complete stop and picking up the staves of his sledgehammer, he raised it up over his head before finally swinging it down teasingly. a crash and explosion sound that caused the entire island to shake, though none of the other figures that followed him seemed affected by it. Slowly Dark-Hephaestus raised the sledgehammer again and hit the ground again a second time and a third time,
At that, the ground began to shake when it began to crack and what appeared to be a large tower emerged from the ground rising on the surface of a squeak heard from Dark-Hephaestus. Made the tower stop growing and with it several pieces of metal, stones and wood came out of the tower and began to assemble around it creating a kind of temple with the tower right in the middle of it.
"Our base… is complete… Dark-Zeus." Reveals Dark-Hephaestus as smoke comes out of some tubes on his helmet's cheeks.
Hearing this the first figure steps forward, revealing himself with Dark-Zeus, he quickly looks at the castle from all angles before nodding and turning to the giant at his side. "Great work, Dark-Hephaestus, now I believe it is our turn, Dark-Demeter and Dark-Poseidon, with me."
With that command, two new figures stepped forward to stand on either side of Dark-Zeus.
The first was a man; he had navy blue armor with tubes connected to his gauntlet going towards his back. He had very spherical armor with olive green accents, his own helmet looked like a modified diving mask with the darkened visor revealing a pair of bright blue eyes, underneath the armor it looked like he was wearing a black wetsuit, this was Dark-Poseidon.
On the other side of Dark-Zeus was a woman, she wore armor made of what looked like tree bark with vines wrapping around her. On her head she had what looked like wooden reindeer horns, her helmet looked like a mask of a female face with closed eyes made of wood. In addition, a large green veil covering it while the edges seemed to catch a soft green fire, this was Dark-Demeter.
Dark-Demeter was the first to move raising her hands with the palm facing the ground, she stared at the spot for a few seconds before slowly lifting her palm upward causing what looked like thorny vines to rise and turn into a wall. That covered the castle, with that she brought her fingers back into a fist and at that a small forest appeared around the castle. The woman lowered her arms admiring her handiwork before turning and walking towards the others.
Seeing this, Dark-Poseidon stepped forward and raised his hand with the index finger raised, with that he twisted his finger causing a violent storm to form above them, after which he punched the ground causing the sea around the island became violent, with large waves breaking out into the sea. After that, he turned to Dark-Zeus and patted his shoulder before walking towards the others.
Dark-Zeus let out a snort before snapping his fingers and a gigantic hurricane descended from the skies and covered the castle before lightning started to come out covering the strong winds. Once that was done, Dark-Zeus turned to his teammates before advancing towards the castle being quickly followed by the others.
(Some time later)
The twelve assembled in a large circular hall with each seated on a throne made of ebony with colored lines on each corresponding to the color of their armor. Dark-Zeus was sitting right in the middle with Dark-Poseidon on his right and on his left was a woman covered in a ragged black cloak that hid her entire body except for a pair of armored boots, with a hood covering her helmet, but inside it only revealed pure darkness, that was Dark-Hades.
Around them were the other figures sitting on other thrones, each of them silent before Dark-Zeus took a deep breath, causing everyone to stare. Seeing that he had their attention, Dark-Zeus rose from his throne, walked forward looking at each of his colleagues, and crossed his arms.
"The human world… it's not how I remembered it, how we all remembered it, some of us spent centuries and even millennia in Tartarus, we don't have enough information to decide our next steps, but we must continue with our plan, but with some momentary changes." Reveals Dark-Zeus, receiving nods from some of his colleagues, with that he turned to one of the figures who seemed quite relaxed on his throne. "Dark-Hermes, I believe you should collect some information for us, it's your specialty isn't it?"
On his ebony throne with white lines was a figure wearing a white leotard with yellow lines, with yellow metal plates covering him. His armor seemed very light compared to the others, as well as his helmet, it was a simple helmet white with just two yellow lenses serving as the eyes and two wings sticking out of the sides of its head each, that was Dark-Hermes. He gave a loud laugh to everyone before rising from his throne and advancing towards Dark-Zeus giving the figure an exaggerated bow.
"Of course, oh my beloved and dear king, you can count on me, I will do everything you ask without exception."Mocks Dark-Hermes with a mocking tone; however, Dark-Zeus did not show any visible reaction as he stared at the person in front of him.
"Do not test my patience Dark-Hermes." Dark-Zeus threatens, which only makes Dark-Hermes laugh more; however, a hiss echoes making him freeze and turn to Dark-Hephaestus who was now facing him.
"Quiet or... I will... Interfere..." Declares Dark-Hephaestus calmly making Dark-Hermes straighten up and return to his throne in silence.
At that, Dark-Zeus gave a small nod to Dark-Hephaestus who returned it slowly, with which the former turned to another figure seated beside Dark-Poseidon. This one wore a spartan helmet with a mane made of crimson fire, with a red visor, his armor was a mixture of a gladiator and knight made of leather and metal with a red cape that appeared to be made of blood descended from his shoulders.
"Dark-Ares, the enemy forces we need to find out how many, who, strengths, weaknesses, everything about them." Upon hearing that, Dark-Ares just nods, with that Dark-Zeus turns to the other present. "The rest of you will stick to your original orders of the plan."
"If I may make a comment." Calls out a new voice making everyone turn to a female figure sitting on an ebony throne with lilac lines
The figure wore elegant dark blue armor with bits of gray between its folds, with sharp claws on its gauntlets, with a helmet similar to that of a knight, but customized to look like a peacock, on its shoulders it had a cape made of the feathers. from the tail of one, in her hands she fanned herself with a fan made of the same material. Seeing the figure, Dark-Zeus turned to her, not the least bit bothered by her interruption.
"Go ahead Dark-Hera." Waves Dark-Zeus, which makes the woman wave to him before closing her fan.
"We all have our missions, but I feel that one important detail is still missing… what exactly would you do?" Asks her making Dark-Zeus stare at her for a while, before starting to walk away.
"The dirty work."
[…]
Chiron looked in shock, along with all the other demigods around him; however, he soon cleared his throat making all the demigods, satyrs, nymphs and himself kneel down to the person in front of them. It was a young man with short blond hair and light blue eyes, he had a scar running down his forehead and cutting his right eye, his skin looked slightly tanned, and he was wearing a simple white shirt with jeans and regular sneakers.
Normally that would not draw much attention at Camp Half-Blood, but the holographic image of lightning above the boy's head did.
"All hail Zack Hillbrey, son of Zeus, the god of sky, thunder, lightning, law, justice and order, King of Olympus." Announces Chiron, making the boy laugh uncomfortably, taking a step back and raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Calm down, please, do not kneel, that seems very strange to me." Asks Zack with a nervous smile making everyone stand up in surprise.
Upon seeing the centaur's surprise, Zack smiled internally; after all, his infiltration of the half-blood camp was successful.