Chapter 20: Olympus Reborn
The drafting pencil glided down the same line on the same page for the dozenth time. Annabeth lifted the graphite tip and traced it again. Then again. Then once again. Continuing her repetitions on the gridded paper, Annabeth started to tap her foot against a leg of the table. The echo of her shoe on thick maple made its rounds of the stone room, the rhythmic tap bouncing between the area's encircling torches.
The paper finally bore enough of Annabeth's focused penciling, and it ripped down the traced line near the middle of the page. Finally lifting her eyes, Annabeth released a sigh she hadn't realized she'd been holding. The recent goddess looked around the room that she'd all but locked herself in for the past week. Smiling internally, Annabeth considered the last time she'd been in here, which had also been the first time.
She was sitting in the central chamber of Athena's hidden temple, still buried deep below the city of Athens. It felt like months ago that Annabeth had reunited with her mother here, but it'd barely been two weeks. The latter half of those weeks had all been following the devastating war on Olympus.
In the throne room, Annabeth had only addressed the rest of the Olympians for a few minutes. Besides congratulations for becoming the literal Queen of the Gods, an idea Annabeth still hadn't fully digested, she hadn't talked to them about anything else other than rebuilding Olympus. Following that brief assembly, Annabeth had asked her mother for the underground room as a place to be alone, and Athena had quickly obliged.
Annabeth had been inside the temple since the morning after the Eclipse had ended, but she'd made a brief stop at Camp Half-Blood first. The trip to her old home had been solely for a memento, which Annabeth looked at now. It was a Polaroid picture of her and Percy at their spot on the coast of Long Island Sound. He was kissing her cheek while Annabeth's arms wrapped around his back. Looking at herself on that shining beach, Annabeth felt almost envious towards the unfettered joy visible in her own eyes.
She put down the Polaroid, returning her gaze to the only sketch paper on the room's central desk. Taking great care to not make the rip any worse, Annabeth traced the rest of her drawing with only her finger. It was a house. It had a modern sloping roof, awnings across its curved entrances, a sunroom with floor-to-ceiling windows, and a porch with two chairs. It was supposed to be theirs.
And it will be, Annabeth thought to herself, pushing down the worry of whether she'd even see Percy again.
Swallowing the tears threatening to breach past her eyes, Annabeth focused her attention on the circle of workbenches surrounding her. Like when she'd found Athena, they were overflowing with sketches and diagrams and measurements and utensils. Each table's craftsmanship was just as beautiful as the supple woodwork of the central one Annabeth sat at, but not an inch was visible beneath the collective baggage of paper.
Every design was Annabeth's work done over the past week, all in her ambitious effort to reimagine Olympus from scratch. She'd shouldered the task alone at first, but Athena had come within the first day to share the burden. After all, the sketchings had to make their way to Olympus somehow, and there weren't many beings alive that could decipher Annabeth's intricate work on their own.
From Athena's brief visit yesterday, Annabeth knew Olympus had been just about rebuilt. And from the abject pride in her mother's eyes as she'd said it, Annabeth knew it looked as beautiful as she imagined it would. But alongside the new goddess' satisfaction came another, far more melancholic feeling that had been gnawing at her since. Now that her project had been completed, Annabeth's deep worry had found a new home at the front of her mind hand-in-hand with the restlessness of receiving no news.
In an ideal world, Percy and Hemera would have returned halfway through the week. Annabeth would have been so enthralled in her work that she wouldn't have even noticed the primordial's white flash signaling their arrival. It only would've been because of a tanned hand grasping her own that she'd snap out of her trance, and she would find Percy staring down at her with that stupid lopsided smile. He'd tell her she was working too hard, and she'd kiss him to shut him up, and the entire world would have become exactly as it should be.
But none of that had happened. The entire week had gone by with radio silence, and each passing day was a fresh weight on Annabeth's chest. She hadn't even attempted to teleport to Hemera's palace, her reasoning a burning concoction of trust and terror. If there were already news, Annabeth was certain that Aether or Hemera would have sent a message.
Still, that didn't make someone like Annabeth worry any less. The goddess felt a lump in her throat as she sat at the central table, her foot tapping again and her heart thrumming. She'd redrawn the house sketch enough times already, and she could feel her discomfort growing with every passing, unoccupied second. The silence surrounding Annabeth became far too deafening, her eyes becoming unfocused, before a voice suddenly snapped the world back into place.
"Hi, Annie Bell."
Annabeth's lips curled into a soft smile as she stood from her seat and turned towards the sound. Having appeared in the temple, Athena mirrored her smile and wrapped her daughter in a tight embrace.
"How do you know about that?" Annabeth asked, her voice muffled as she buried her head in her mother's neck, "Dad hasn't called me that since I was six."
Athena conjured a second chair, and the duo sat down together at the uncluttered table. Regarding her daughter with a heartrent gaze, the Goddess of Wisdom sighed.
"I used to watch over you from afar. When open contact with our children was greatly discouraged, I was never able to be there myself, but I would watch you two. I always loved the way your face would light up whenever he called you that name."
Annabeth closed her eyes, recalling those distant memories with her father. That time might as well have been ages ago, an era before she ran away from that home to another, more mythical one. Athena's hands drifted to the Polaroid picture lying on the table, her gaze traveling between it and her daughter.
"I never had the chance to thank Percy," she said softly.
"For what?" Annabeth's attention returned to her mother.
"His wish following the Second Titan War. Restrictions eased significantly between gods and their children. If it were now, I might have been able to come see you before you left your father. I could have been there."
Athena's eyes became glassy, and Annabeth softly took the photo from her hands. She managed a smile towards her mother while her own tears welled.
"That's good. Now you can help all the rest of your kids going forward. And anyways, you'll be able to thank Percy soon enough."
Athena wiped the sides of her eyes quickly, clearing her throat as Annabeth put the picture down.
"Yes, I will." She took her daughter's hands. "Why don't you go check on him? Olympus is complete, and we cannot keep you busy forever."
Annabeth laughed quietly, but anxiety had etched itself across her face.
"I'm scared," she relented, "Teleporting to Hemera's domain requires asking for permission, and I trust her to make the right decision for me. If I try, and she denies me access–"
She didn't complete the thought, and Athena made no request for her to. Instead, the wisdom goddess embraced her again.
"Though it will not take long, how about accomplishing something else important?" Athena asked, "The throne room has also been repaired, and we already established that we need our new gods. Come preside over the awards ceremony?"
Annabeth pulled away holding a smile.
"Alright. But I want to see my friends first."
"Most of them are already on Olympus for the celebration and the city's reveal. While I go to the throne room, you stay with them in the courtyard and enter alongside the rest of the demigods."
Annabeth nodded, sniffing as she packed her things. Her total belongings included her drafting pencil, the photo with Percy, and the torn sketch of their house. Folding the drawing, Annabeth shoved all three objects into her jeans, and the pair vanished from the hidden temple in a flash of white light.
(Line Break)
Greek columns, Roman domes, French spires, and just enough unique American modernity; the rebuilt Olympus was Annabeth's time-traversed dream of a divine metropolis. The afternoon's shining sun cast brilliant reflections through the city's newly glass-paneled bell towers. Colorful mosaics decorated the awnings of bustling stores up and down every street. Maintaining its circular planning, the city held different and diverse themes in each widened alleyway that traveled through its segments and spilled towards the throne room. Annabeth wisely avoided what she could rightfully call the red-light district, only including it in the rebuilt Olympus after Apollo had begged for it.
Annabeth's eyes shone as she stepped through the manifestation of everything she'd ever wanted to see in a city. She mentally traced the sloping rooftops, which she'd already reloaded with increased defenses, and followed the winding paths connecting the individual alleyways. Her focus was so narrowed on her architectural dreams brought to life that she almost didn't notice each busy street falling silent when she entered it.
Demigods, minor gods, nymphs, dryads, and every other creature on Olympus would freeze as their collective gaze found a transfixed Annabeth exploring the reborn city. In each passage, Annabeth had to drag herself out of her own mind to lay eyes on the residents and visitors of the city kneeling in her direction, showing their respect for the new Queen of the Gods.
It was thoroughly off-putting for Annabeth to gesture for them to rise as if she were someone that needed to be knelt before. After repeating the process one too many times, she found it obstructive and instead, the new goddess took to the skies. She spread her wings, rising high above the city and breathing in the grand redesign all at once. The landscape all but glowed beneath her as she rocketed past, her shape slipping in between spires while gasps erupted from the streets below.
Annabeth touched down in the open plaza at the stairs that led to the throne room. One final time, the crowded courtyard froze all at once, and nearly everyone dropped to a knee. Annabeth's gaze immediately found the one rebellious soul that she knew would never kneel, and she smiled.
While gesturing for everyone else to rise, Annabeth's eyes remained tunneled on the demigod that feigned a little curtsy from the edge of the plaza's central fountain. Thalia grinned at her old friend as she waved her over, retaking her seat on the silver metal of the intricate structure.
"Hi, Thalia," Annabeth said, taking a moment to admire the spiraling fountain she'd only seen on paper until now.
"Hi, Miss Queen of the Gods," the daughter of Zeus teased as her arm loped around the shoulders of another demigod next to her.
"Hey, Piper."
The daughter of Aphrodite snapped out of a seeming trance, looking up at Annabeth with wide eyes. A moment later, she wrapped her friend in an embrace, and Thalia joined the pair. After disentangling themselves, the trio sat down side by side on the fountain's edge as they recounted their last week to each other.
"You're a hard person to work for, Annabeth," Thalia complained after Annabeth described the overflowing sketches in the room she'd been staying in.
The goddess raised an eyebrow in silent question.
"I put up a lot of these spires," the daughter of Zeus gestured, "Your drawings are so complicated and specific that I think lining them up took all of us like three tries on each one."
"Oh, I thought the city's construction was done by Olympus' Cyclopes."
"Basically all of it was," Piper answered, "But Thalia and I kind of did the same thing as you and threw ourselves into some work to keep our minds off of things."
Thalia nodded, and Annabeth didn't need any explicit confirmation that they both were talking about Jason. She put a hand on both of theirs, taking a mental note that their fingers were already intertwined.
"He died a hero," Annabeth said seriously, firmly grasping their hands, "Percy used one of my silver blades on him, making his death painless and free from Tartarus' curse. His soul is with Chaos now, not destroyed, so I can really promise that he's in a better place."
A weight seemed to lift off of both Thalia and Piper's shoulders, and the pair thanked Annabeth through the tears falling from the corners of their eyes. The daughter of Athena nodded silently before a new hand found her shoulder. It was Hazel's, and Nico was immediately behind her. Annabeth stood and wrapped them both in a hug, not letting go before they joined the group on the fountain. Hazel's arms lingered a while longer after Annabeth retracted her own.
"I never apologized to you," Hazel whispered, her cheeks permanently tear-stained.
"You don't have to," Annabeth said before her own eyes welled, "But I do. I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough to save Frank from Zeus."
Hazel shook her head, steeling her nerves as she spoke through a shaking voice.
"No. He told me before the war that he wouldn't leave the front lines. He wanted his decisions to be his own, and that includes fighting, dying, and everything else that happens in a battle. I know you did all you could."
Annabeth embraced Hazel again, and the daughter of Athena's hand glowed white against her friend's back. Her shoulders falling, a wave of warmth washed over the daughter of Pluto, and the trail of tears erased from her face. Nico watched awestruck, feeling the proximal effects of Annabeth's apparently new ability.
"How do your powers keep getting cooler?" Nico whispered, making Annabeth laugh as she let go, "Or actually hotter; that felt like the sun on my skin."
Before Annabeth could answer, or any of her friends could reach for their own turns, the double doors of the throne room swung open. They silently beckoned their audience forward, and the group made their way up the steps alongside hundreds of other people in the courtyard.
Entering the Hall of the Gods, Annabeth stumbled. The massive expanse had been repaired of any shearing cracks or shattered columns, and braziers burned brightly in a ringed circumference of the room. The divine city's crown jewel should have been returned to its former blazing glory, but Annabeth couldn't help but feel the raw emptiness before her.
The arc of thrones couldn't accurately be described as a U-shape anymore, let alone a full family of gods. Just seven seats of power remained standing, awkwardly spaced with extended gaps between some and none between others. And out of the remaining seven, only three were occupied. Artemis, Apollo, and Athena sat on their thrones while Hades and Hestia had found their own positions around the room's central hearth.
As the people from the courtyard shuffled into the Hall of the Gods, they seemed to share the same heavy discomfort at the incompleteness of their most powerful gods. The present Olympians wore identical sentiments, and their collective gaze settled on Annabeth at the forefront of the crowd.
Noticing them, the daughter of Athena steeled herself while Thalia gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. As Annabeth shut her eyes and took a deep breath, she felt her form begin to change. In tandem, the surrounding audience exclaimed, many demigods stumbling back, and Annabeth waited a few moments longer before reopening her eyes.
The throne room floor lay far beneath her, and the goddess mentally adjusted to her new divine height. Rousted to fifteen feet tall, Annabeth took her first huge steps forward, moving past the hearth and towards the lone throne at the far point of the U-shape. She lowered herself into it, officially claiming Zeus' former seat. Turning back to her audience, the Queen of the Gods found them all kneeling again.
"Okay," Annabeth started, her voice reverberating across the throne room, "No more of this; just wave or something from now on."
A tide of light laughs washed over the crowd as they rose, their spirits slightly lifting while Annabeth shifted in her new throne. She exchanged a glance with Athena, who silently beckoned her daughter to continue.
"For the past week, our focus has been on rebuilding Olympus, and that's finally been completed."
Apollo whistled as he began applauding, his palpable aura of excitement forcing the gathered demigods to mirror him. A collective cheer erupted across the throne room, and Annabeth stifled a laugh at Artemis' cross expression shot at her twin. The echo slowly died down, and all attention returned to the new Queen of the Gods.
"That brings us to another important step in becoming a new Olympus," Annabeth began, watching confirming nods from the rest of the gods, "We are recompleting the ranks of the Twelve Olympians."
Chatter rang out among the demigods as they conversed within themselves on who would be chosen. Certain people were hoisted onto shoulders and pushed forward through the crowds. Annabeth smiled seeing all of her own choices make the cut as they tried to adjust themselves while surfing on a sea of their comrades.
An orchestra of voices began to chant all of their selected allies, the names echoing against one another in garbled noise, but Annabeth made out out a few.
"Thalia!"
"Dakota!"
"Gwen!"
"Clarisse!"
"Octavian!"
Annabeth scrunched her nose at the final name, but she never got the chance to silence the demigods herself. A hiss crawled across the throne room accompanied by billowing green smoke, and the Hall of the Gods fell still in an instant. One by one, three shapes materialized astride the hearth, and the Fates ominously traced every person in the room with their eyeless sockets.
Athena recovered from the old ladies' appearance first, clearing her throat as they turned to her.
"Moirai, thank you for coming."
The trio grinned through their sparse, rotting teeth, and the Goddess of Wisdom fought back a shudder. Their united gaze shifted to Annabeth, who met their empty stares warily. The center sister, Lachesis, sneered.
"That idiot Zeus had no chance from the start. Congratulations, Queen of the Gods."
The other two Fates cackled in frightening unison as they eyed the empty spaces between the thrones. The duo breathed in deeply, and more green smoke traversed the floor from beneath their robes. The thick haze found a center in every section devoid of a throne, coiling within itself as it rose from the marble. Green silhouettes took the shape of new seats before the Fates sharply exhaled.
The smoke vanished in an instant, leaving behind mirrored thrones of white marble where they'd formerly stood for thousands of years, refurbishing the U-shape arc of the seats of power. Through a deafening silence, everyone in the room looked between the returned seats and the three ladies standing beside where Hades and Hestia anxiously sat.
"Begin," Clotho said, nodding towards Annabeth, "We know you and your mother have already chosen the next generation. Bring them forth, and we will rouse the necessary ones to godhood."
Annabeth's eyes widened towards the trio before she thanked them. Her gaze shifted between the rest of the Olympians before quickly settling on the two gods sitting by the hearth.
"Lady Hestia will have her seat returned to her on Olympus, and Lord Hades will be made a permanent addition to the council."
Both gods rose in unison alongside whooping shouts from the gathered demigods, who'd been snapped out of their fear towards the Fates by a reason to celebrate. Hades and Hestia bowed before they selected their seats. The Goddess of the Hearth claimed one at the open end of the arc while the God of the Underworld took the one formerly belonging to Poseidon.
The demigods' noise hadn't died out before Annabeth continued her selections.
"The rest of the council will be demigods chosen by both myself and my mother with the input of all of the other Olympians," she began, meeting the eyes of her first choice, "Thalia Grace."
The Hunt shouted louder than anybody else while the daughter of Zeus stepped forward, her jaw dragging behind her. The Fates brought forth her thread, pinching it between two fingers of each of their hands, and an eruption of strength flooded through the demigod. At the same time, Annabeth felt a small rush of her own, but it was like a receding tide. Her confusion didn't last long, though, only until Thalia's thread turned gold and the Fates spoke.
"All Hail Thalia Grace, Goddess of the Sky, Thunder, and Lightning."
Annabeth realized she'd been holding Zeus' domains within herself as well, which she was more than happy to relinquish to Thalia. Still, she felt immense power flowing through her, barely lessened by the release of those domains, and Annabeth wondered what those could be.
Thalia took the seat opposite to Hades as Annabeth pushed her thoughts to the side and continued.
"Piper McLean."
The daughter of Aphrodite walked up wide-eyed among the raucous applause of the gathered demigods. The Fates repeated the process with her thread, pinching it golden and reading out her domains. Like Thalia, she inherited everything formerly belonging to her mother, and the new Goddess of Love took the same seat that Aphrodite had owned.
"Leo Valdez."
More explosions of cheers followed Annabeth's announcement, but nobody stepped forward. Quickly, the crowd of demigods searched among themselves and ended up finding nothing. A wave of confusion began to build before Apollo exclaimed, vanishing in a flash of light. He reappeared a moment later with a terrified Leo in his grasp.
"Dude! What was that?!" Leo shouted after adjusting to the shock, "Oh, hey guys."
It took a moment to get the demigod's story straightened out, but Apollo had apparently "blessed" a new arcade on Olympus to work similarly to the Lotus Hotel, and he'd gone on a bit of a tangent with Leo. The demigod shouted when he discovered that an entire week had passed, but his mind seemed to clear as his thread shifted to a glowing golden. The son of Hephaestus commandeered his father's domains, taking his old seat on the Olympian council.
"Wait," Hades began, his face darkening, "Hephaestus, Hermes, and Demeter will eventually reform. I do not expect them to return to the council, but what happens to their domains? As for Poseidon, where does his go?"
Athena and Annabeth began to speak in unison, but the Queen of the Gods rescinded for her mother to continue.
"Demeter and Hermes will not have domain successors on the council like Zeus, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus do. Their realms will naturally disperse to their godly childrens' control, and any shifts can be discussed when they return. Poseidon's have all fallen to Triton for now."
Athena exchanged a glance with her daughter as she finished, and Annabeth cleared her throat.
"Clarisse LaRue."
The shocked daughter of Ares didn't say a word through the deafening cheers while she ascended the throne formerly belonging to her father. As the ruckus died down, Annabeth spoke the last name on her list. Funnily enough, she didn't even know his last name.
"Centurion of the Fifth Cohort, Dakota."
An eruption of noise ripped from the Romans, who hadn't had a single one of their own demigods called yet. The Kool-Aid drenched son of Bacchus stumbled his way to the front of the crowd while, to the sudden terror of everyone else, the Three Fates laughed in unison.
"This one is brilliant," Atropos snickered, pointing a decrepit finger in Annabeth's direction.
In the chilling silence that followed, Dakota rose to Olympian status and took his place on the second-to-last unoccupied throne. That left only the seat beside Annabeth's empty, and the daughter of Athena didn't want to fill it yet, instead waiting on her silent hunch. On queue, a building hum emanated throughout the room, continuously becoming louder until the expanse almost began to shake.
All at once, the Master Bolt appeared in Thalia's hands, a black and red shotgun in Clarisse's, a pinecone-tipped thyrsus lay across Dakota's lap, and a shimmering golden trident stood leaning against the final empty throne. The Three Fates nodded in unison towards Annabeth before they themselves vanished into green mist, replaced by a blinding white flash.
Hemera stepped out as the light died, the Primordial of Day wearing her radiant smile and flowing white dress. Instantly brought to tears, Annabeth bounded from her throne and wrapped her patron in an unbreakable embrace. Hemera mirrored her just as tightly, both of her arms healed and her form empty of any biting wounds.
"Congratulations, my dear," Hemera whispered, though the entire stunned room could hear her, "All Hail the Queen of Olympus, the Goddess of Day and Light."
Rightfully, demigods and Olympians alike knelt in Annabeth and Hemera's direction as the pair pulled apart. Annabeth could barely focus on the idea that she now shared domains with primordials. While Hemera gestured for the room to rise, Annabeth looked up at her and posed a silent question.
"You really are brilliant," Hemera praised, "You called all of the weapons by creating new Olympians for their formerly godless domains. The symbols' activation alerted their owner, and he released them."
Annabeth's eyes widened, a new spark of hope allowing her to ask her question aloud.
"Percy? How is he?"
Hemera paused in a grimace for a moment too long, and Annabeth's stomach dropped, her chest tightening painfully. But the primordial's smile returned as she put a hand on the goddess' shoulder.
"Wouldn't you rather ask him yourself?"
Annabeth's hand flew to her mouth as tears poured from her eyes. Relief washed over her as she nodded furiously, and the pair vanished from the throne room in an eruption of white light.
A/N: I made the executive decision to have the final chapter be exclusively dedicated to Percy and Annabeth because I've been excited to write it ever since I came up with how I was going to end the story (also because this chapter ended up being longer than I expected.) It's gonna wrap it all up and we'll learn how exactly Hemera survived Tartarus' cursed blades and what ended up happening to Percy after he left the room. Hope you guys enjoyed, and please review :)
Avatar Vader: Holy crap that was epic! Cant wait for the next chapter and seeing what happens to Percy! Loved seeing the battle of Wills between Percy and Zeus. Keep on writing even after this fic is done! The world needs your prowess!
Thank you so much, and I'm so sorry for making you wait one more chapter haha. Also wanted to let you all know that I'll be taking an extended break from writing following the completion of this story (one last chapter). I really don't want to burn out, especially going into my next year of uni. I'll be reading a LOT during my break, and that hopefully means I'll pick up a whole lot of new skills and developments to my style for when I eventually come back and write my next story. Already so excited for that, but we still have Percy and Annabeth's uncertain reunion to go :)