The Gate of Life
A Riordanverse and Stargate SG-1 crossover
Chapter 1: I dream of fire, again (Percy)
Have you ever wished for a good night's sleep? Like really REALLY needed one after bad night after bad night? Because, for the last few months at least, I hadn't needed to. You see, demigods don't get to have normal dreams, instead we get nightmares where we either die horribly, see cryptic premonitions, or astral project to see one of our loved ones in danger.
Luckily though, these dreams have been mercifully absent for the last few months. I suppose after stopping the rise of the Titans, Gaea and her giants, or a bunch of shady immortal roman emperors (can't take credit for that one) the fates needed a break to come up with more things to torture us with.
Between moving across the country, college, and dealing with Annabeth's punishing academic expectations, I've had my hands full of stuff that, thankfully, isn't life threatening. And that was fine by me.
So of course something had to come up and ruin it.
After a long day of bouncing between enjoying California's salty ocean air and struggling to finish the 4 different assignments due tonight, Annabeth and I both fell soundly asleep. The dream was peaceful at first, standing on a sunny beach overlooking the ocean, then it transitioned to a place I'd been fortunate enough to avoid for the last few years, the Underworld.
I weightlessly glided over the River Styx, past Cerberus and the numerous other entities guarding the dead, and stopped above Elysium, the final resting place of those who lived a virtuous life or died a hero's death. After looking for a moment I spotted 2 people who definitely fit that description, a son of Hermes with a scar across his face, and a blonde, muscular son of Jupiter.
Despite the circumstances of their deaths, they both seemed happy and peaceful, at least until a distant rumbling broke the tranquility. The earth rumbled again and again, and alarm quickly spread throughout Hades' domain. Skeletons and Hellhounds rushed towards the shore of the Styx as the chaos seemed to spread. My 2 friends in Elysium were curious, but I couldn't speak.
Suddenly, I hear voices coming from all around me, and I can barely make out one whispering "what are you?". Then I'm yanked hard forward, the underworld disappears, and I find myself surrounded by fire. The flames are so bright I shut my eyes, the heat burning my skin, Unable to move (naturally) I risk peaking out and see the flames coalesce into a symbol, a staff with an open ring at the top.
The dream finally breaks as someone shakes me awake. Reflexively I grab my pen from my dresser, but I stop myself when I see the stormy gray eyes and blond hair of Wise Girl above me. "You alright?" she asks. "I've been better, wait.." I trail off as I hear commotion outside, "what's going on?". "No idea, but all this started about 20 minutes ago," she replies.
Annabeth heads for the door to check as I quickly get dressed. Annabeth opens the door and sees one of her classmates, a daughter of Apollo named Brittiney. "Hey, what's going on?". "Don't know for sure, but the praetors are asking for all fighting age demigods to meet outside the senate house," Brittiney replies.
After quickly gathering our things Annabeth and I reach the senate house to see more than half of the 12th legion assembled, with the last few cohorts quickly approaching. The praetors, our friends Frank and Hazel, are hurriedly marshaling the camps' forces for something, but for what?
Frank and Hazel couldn't have appeared more different, Frank was Chinese-Canadian, tall, muscular, but had a surprisingly friendly demeanor most of the time (atypical for a son of Ares/Mars). Hazel on the other hand was short, had dark skin and curly hair. But if you looked closely you could tell she'd been to hell and back, literally. Her dad was Pluto and she died in the 1940s before being brought back by her half-brother Nico a few years ago. They may have been the commanders of the legion, but after we saved the world from Gaea and her giants, they were basically family.
After assigning duties to the New Rome residents in front of us, Hazel and Frank flash quick smiles. "I'm glad you guys are here, we've got a big problem," Frank says.
"What kind of problem?" Annabeth asks.
"Someone is attacking the Underworld," Hazel explains
Our jaws drop and my mind fills with questions. My dream, that's right now? What were those voices? What was that symbol? But Annabeth asks the obvious question before I can. "Why? Why in Hades would someone attack the Underworld? What's the point?". Hazel replies "No idea, but whoever it is there not messing around,".
"Is Hade…uhh…Pluto not defending his own realm? What about the other gods?" I ask.
Hazel, worry visible on her face replies "That's the thing, dad told me he tried, but he can't. None of the gods can. It's like someone or something is preventing them from acting against whoever these attackers are,".
Now this was genuinely scary. Not many entities could straight up block a god, let alone multiple gods, and they are all godly themselves. Whoever was attacking the Underworld clearly wasn't messing around. I look over at Annabeth, who looked equally stunned, before quickly stealing herself and asking what we can do to help.
Frank gave a quick tactical overview. "It looks like the attackers are entering, or initially entered, through the mortal entrance, but there are reports that reinforcements are bypassing this entrance and the River Styx somehow. Pluto's forces are doing their best but are failing to hold the enemy back. We're dispatching the legion to hopefully secure the entrance and cut off their escape before sandwiching the enemy between the legion and Pluto's forces,"
"But" Hazel takes over, "it's going to take time to move such a large force from Berkeley to LA. The Hunters of Diana are on their way, but in the meantime we want to send an advanced force to help Pluto secure the undead. That's where we come in,".
Annabeth and I both smiled. As much as dealing with Gaea sucked, it was always a highlight coming up with these kinds of crazy, risky plans only we could pull off. Hazel then continued "Nico is gathering a team from Camp-Half Blood, and they'll be entering through the Door of Orpheus. As for us…"
As if on cue, a very familiar friendly hellhound came bounding toward us. Mrs O'Leary was happy to see me, and she stared at me panting through her razor sharp teeth. "Wait, shouldn't you guys be leading the legion, you are both praetors after all," Annabeth questions. "The centurions have their cohorts handled well, and if things go to plan we'll link up down there, besides, praetors don't really get to fight that much," Frank explains. As much as I hope I never have to fight another monster for the rest of my life, mortal danger is kind of part of the job description, and if I have to choose between putting my life in danger or the lives of people I know, it's going to be option 1 every time. So I can understand their desire not to sit this out.
With the legion mobilized, the 4 of us quickly armor up and climb onto Mrs O'Leary's massive back. "Ready Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asks. "Only if you are, Wise Girl" I reply. Mrs O'Leary quickly took off for the nearest shadow, but before we traveled through I caught one last glimpse of New Rome and the Berkeley Hills, and a worried feeling in my gut made its presence known. Before I can think about it too much, though, Mrs O'Leary dives into the shadow and the world goes black.