Tis said that during the first Titanomakhía, the Titanes eagerly strengthened their ranks, and both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might.
The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympos reeled from its foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartara and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles.
So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry.
Then Ζεύς no longer held back his might; but straight his heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all his strength.
From Heaven and from Olympos he came forthwith, hurling his lightning: the bold flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder and lightning, whirling an awesome flame. The life-giving earth crashed around in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about. All the land seethed, and Ōkeanós' streams and the unfruitful sea.
The hot vapour lapped round the Titenes Khthonios: flame unspeakable rose to the bright upper air: the flashing glare of the thunder-stone and lightning blinded their eyes for all that there were strong.
Astounding heat seized air: and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears it seemed even as if Earth and wide Heaven above came together; for such a mighty crash would have arisen if Earth were being hurled to ruin, and Heaven from on high were hurling her down; so great a crash was there while the gods were meeting together in strife.
Also the winds brought rumbling earthquake and duststorm, thunder and lightning and the lurid thunderbolt, which are the shafts of great Ζεύς, and carried the clangour and the warcry into the midst of the two hosts.
An horrible uproar of terrible strife arose: mighty deeds were shown and the battle inclined.
But until then, they kept at one another and fought continually in cruel war.
Lea drifted.
Barely aware of anything going on around her. Absently, she could tell that the water—the disgusting mess that the river was— was slowly healing the various hits to the noggin that she got as she went down under the bridge.
But she drifted, along the river and along her own subconscious.
She saw images of Percy and Annabeth and Eliza in a hotel, images of Silena flying away from the city, images of Medea raging to the heavens with mageia in her eyes, images of Magnus cutting through monsters with his self-fighting sword, images of the gods being pushed back as Typhon moved forward, images of her Father and what she assumed to be her half-siblings fighting against three others within the sea.
She drifted.
When she awakened, she instantly knew that she was no longer in New York, but crossed over the Hudson River into New Jersey.
She stood on shaky legs, looking around her. She was in the backwoods of New Jersey, on a crumbling road lined with run-down businesses and tattered billboard signs. A trampled fence ringed a big yard full of cement statuary.
Her hand was chained to a tree.
"Shhh," came from beside her. She tilted her head and came eyes to eye with a very familiar face.
Ethan.
Just looking at him filled her with rage and betrayal and a deep seating hurt that made her want to cry. There was a gag around her mouth as if that was enough to keep her from casting spells, but if that's what they wanted to believe then fine.
Though, she couldn't say she felt good about being in enemy territory.
"I would ask about Drew, but I think you might try to claw my throat out if I did."
She hoped the look she gave showed her agreement. He wasn't even worthy to speak her name.
"I'm sorry, Leaneira," he murmured, tilting a bottle of nectar around the edge of the cloth. "There's so much that I wished that I could explain or put in words, but this is the right decision... at least, it is for me."
The nectar trickled down her throat and while she could absently tell that it still tasted like her favorite food, she was more surprised by the fact that she hadn't noticed how dehydrated she had been or the headache that she had been experiencing.
"Is it truly so wrong of me," he asked her, and she stubbornly closed her eyes. "Is it wrong for me to join the people that listen to me and fulfil their promises?" He sighed as she refused to air before the sound of rustling caught her attention. She peaked through her eyelashes to see him standing to his feet, dropping something to the ground. "I'll go get you something to eat. Just stay here and stay silent. No one else knows you're here."
It was like he didn't know her at all.
As he walked away to what looked like campfires in the distance, Lea huffed, turning her attention immediately to the chain around her arm. She zapped at it with her mageia, but it fizzled out every time. She tried concentrating to get a feel of the Riptide so she could teleport to her brother's side, but it was like slamming into a wall.
She was getting irritated and nothing good came out when she was irritated.
She yanked at the chain, but only succeeded in making noise.
Ethan told her to stay quiet which was something that she would ignore on principle. Lea does not listen to traitors. But he also said that no one knew that she was there which alongside the facts of life was that she was deep in enemy territory.
She needed to think.
She was in enemy territory with mageia eating bracelets.
She was soooo not going to break her wrist like the comic books and movies to get out of the chain.
Looking at it, there was no lock for her to pick either... at least not one she could see.
Fine. Fine. Whatever.
She plopped back down on the ground and resisted the urge to scream. If she pulled hard enough, she may be able to catch somebody's attention. They'd all come running. She'd let them get her loose of the chain and then teleport back to Percy's side.
No, that wouldn't work. They might see her and immediately kill her.
She could call for Hermes. Throw in a bit of tears alongside it.
But no, he was fighting that storm giant man thing. The evil cloud of doom. He probably wouldn't be able to come.
She had to get out of this by herself.
...
She was not breaking her wrist.
Her eyes fell onto the thing—was that a mistfoam card? — sitting in the grass, but she stubbornly turned her head away. That would be too easy and it wouldn't make sense as to why Ethan, a known traitor, would leave it behind in arm's reach of her. He wanted his side to win, right? And while she had complete faith in her brother kicking ass and taking names alongside the various friends and acquaintances that they had on their side, Lea wanted to join in on it. To kick Ethan's ass for breaking Drew's heart. To rip Kronos apart for being an asshole and deciding that he wanted to return in this century instead of the last so that Lea could go on about her days pretending that this world didn't exist and that Hermes was figment of her imagination. It was a bit iffy with Percy's soulmates, but Lea was certain that they could have met without inviting them into this world.
Strangely, that thought made her feel uncomfortable.
Lea wanted to scream.
And then Lea did scream when a hand wrapped around her mouth as an arm started to come through the card.
That was a mistform card!
She watched as Alabaster appeared through it, eyes peeking at her and widening in shock before narrowing in anger. "Let her go, Ethan."
A knife was pressed at her throat. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Al," her ex bestfriend said with a shrug. "Orders are orders."
"I could kill you right here," Alabaster said, his hands coated in mageia.
"Maybe," Ethan said, and she could hear the smirk on his face. "But I could kill her in the same amount of time you kill me."
"Why are you doing this?"
"I don't answer to you."
It was a moment of silence before Ethan stepped away and pulled on the chain around her wrist. "Get her out of here, Torrington. This isn't a safe place for her."
"Is that why you stole my mistfoam card in our last fight?"
"I always have an exit plan. You taught me that."
Alabaster huffed as she pushed into his embrace. The chain fell from around her wrist, and she was already twisting around with mageia on her fingertips to rip his throat out. Ethan stared back at them calmly. Aliens' above, what happened to him?
And what last fight did he and Alabaster have?
Lea ripped the gag from her mouth. "I swear, Ethan..." She growled and her words spoke magic. "This day, I have worked magic. Die well, in this place you chose over me and mine. Die well. ... You are no longer my friend, and I care nothing for the death of strangers."
He looked them over once more, eyes flashing in what could have been mistaken as pain before turning to walk away.
"Are you okay," Alabaster asked. "Did he hurt you?"
"I'm fine," she said sharply. "I—Just give me a second."
Her gaze was still following after Ethan. "Go back to the base. I'll be there soon."
Alabaster shook his head. "I wasn't in Manhattan. Pasiphaë has a few followers over in Brooklyn feeding mageia into the barrier when I sensed the card and your mageia around it. I came to see why though I need to get back to it soon."
"Well thank you for the rescue," she said, "but if you'll excuse me. I'm going to follow after Ethan."
"Why?"
"Because we're at war, in enemy territory, and I can get intel? They have a spy on our side so I might as well do some spying on theirs." And with that thought in mind, she started in the directions of the fires like Ethan. Once she got closer, she would cast an invisibility spell.
(She also made the mental note
Alabaster quickly stepped up to her side, "And what if they have something else to block your powers?"
"Then I'm dead," she replied dryly.
"Your brother is going to kill me."
"My brother isn't my boss."
They stopped talking as they got closer, and Lea's heart skipped a beat her gaze moved about. There were broken statues spray painted with graffiti. Part of the warehouse roof had caved in. A big yellow sign pasted on the door read: CONDEMNED. Hundreds of tents and fires surrounded the property. Mostly Lea saw monsters, but there were some human mercenaries in combat fatigues and demigods in armor, too. A purple-and-black banner hung outside the emporium, guarded by two huge blue Hyperboreans.
Ethan was crouched at the nearest campfire. A couple of other demigods sat with him, sharpening their swords. The doors of the warehouse opened, and some dude in a suit stepped out.
"Nakamura," he called. "The master would like to speak to you."
Ethan stood up warily. "Something wrong?"
The dude smiled. "You'll have to ask him."
One of the other demigods snickered. "Nice knowing you."
Ethan readjusted his sword belt and headed into the warehouse. Lea scowled, eyes darting around the camp. She hummed before following in the footsteps of her favored teacher. She called up her mageia, and drew runes in the air letting the power move over her.
Her hands were shriveling, curling, growing long delicate claws. Fur sprouted on her face, under her shirt, in every uncomfortable place you can imagine. Her teeth felt too heavy in her mouth. Her clothes were getting too big. She blinked from this new point of view as the blades of grass went from trampled under her foot to covering her new miniature size from view.
"Lea," Alabaster hissed but she had already scampered off, running alongside the ground where Ethan had headed. She had better chance of sensing mageia blockers and she figured that because animals had greater senses than humans and also the fact that it wasn't that many of them was the only reason, she felt them at all.
Well, it wasn't on her if the enemy was so overconfident.
She scampered into the place. Statues of terrified people stood frozen in midscream. Absently, in the morning human part of her mind, Lea remembered something about Percy, Medusa, and Jersey. Picnic tables and a snack bar area. Right between the soda dispenser and pretzel warmer stood a golden throne. Kronos lounged on it, his scythe across his lap. He wore jeans and a T-shirt, and with his brooding expression he looked almost human. Then Luke saw Ethan, and his face contorted into a very inhuman smile. His golden eyes glowed.
"Well, Nakamura. What did you think of the diplomatic mission?"
Ethan hesitated. "I'm sure Lord Prometheus is better suited to speak—"
"But I asked you."
Ethan's good eye darted back and forth, noting the guards that stood around Kronos. "I . . . I don't think Jackson will surrender. Ever."
Kronos nodded. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?"
"N-no, sir.
"You look nervous, Ethan."
"No, sir. It's just . . . I heard this was the lair of —"
"Medusa? Yes, quite true. Lovely place, eh? Unfortunately, Medusa hasn't re-formed since Jackson killed her, so you needn't worry about joining her collection. Besides, there are much more dangerous forces in this room."
Kronos looked over at a Laistrygonian giant who was munching noisily on some french fries. Kronos waved his hand, and the giant froze. A french fry hung suspended in midair halfway between his hand and his mouth.
"Why turn them to stone," Kronos asked, "when you can freeze time itself?" His golden eyes bored into Ethan's face. "Now, tell me one more thing. What happened last night on the Williamsburg Bridge?"
Ethan trembled. Beads of perspiration were popping up on his forehead. "I . . . I don't know, sir."
"Yes, you do." Kronos rose from his seat. "When you attacked Jackson, something happened. Something was not quite right. The girl, Annabeth, jumped in your way."
"She wanted to save him."
"But he is invulnerable," Kronos said quietly. "You saw that yourself."
"I can't explain it. Maybe she forgot."
"She forgot," Kronos said. "Yes, that must've been it. Oh dear, I forgot my friend is invulnerable and took a knife for him. Oops. Tell me, Ethan, where were you aiming when you stabbed at Jackson?"
Ethan frowned. He clasped his hand as if he were holding a blade, and mimed a thrust. "I'm not sure, sir. It all happened so fast. I wasn't aiming for any spot in particular."
Kronos's fingers tapped the blade of his scythe. "I see," he said in a chilly tone. "If your memory improves, I will expect—"
Suddenly the Titan lord winced. The giant in the corner unfroze and the french fry fell into his mouth. Kronos stumbled backward and sank into his throne.
"My lord?" Ethan started forward.
"I—" The voice was weak, but just for a moment it was Luke's. Then Kronos's expression hardened. He raised his hand and flexed his fingers slowly as if forcing them to obey. "It is nothing," he said, his voice steely and cold again. "A minor discomfort."
Ethan moistened his lips. "He's still fighting you, isn't he? Luke—"
"Nonsense," Kronos spat. "Repeat that lie, and I will cut out your tongue. The boy's soul has been crushed. I am simply adjusting to the limits of this form. It requires rest. It is annoying, but no more than a temporary inconvenience."
"As . . . as you say, my lord."
"You!" Kronos pointed his scythe at a dracaena with green armor and a green crown. "Queen Sess, is it?"
"Yesssss, my lord."
"Is our little surprise ready to be unleashed?"
The dracaena queen bared her fangs. "Oh, yessss, my lord. Quite a lovely sssssurprissse."
"Excellent," Kronos said. "Tell my brother Hyperion to move our main force south into Central Park. The half-bloods will be in such disarray they will not be able to defend themselves. Go now, Ethan. Work on improving your memory. We will talk again when we have taken Manhattan."
Ethan bowed, but in the next second, Lea was back in her human form, mageia dripping from her tongue. "Aphrodite, fair and mighty, take this form of fixed stone, and turn her back to flesh and bone. As below, so above I yield to you my truest love."
There were yells of outrage and shock as she appeared, and she could see Kronos getting ready to do his stupid freezing time thing, so she threw three explosion spells at him one after another and then blew up his stupid throne alongside it.
She shot a hand filled with green mageia at the hole in the building concentrating on covering the whole thing. "Let those who gaze upon this light Know misery and anger And fight, fight, fight!"
Ethan stared at her shock, but he quickly got over that once he realized that his new friends were watching. He moved towards her as he was going to strike but he was blasted back by a familiar sheen of mageia. Alabaster quickly came to her side and threw down a spell of smoke to camouflage them. Around them, the granite and marble dripped from the statues like paint easily sinking under the effects of her discord spell, throwing themselves at each other and the monsters around them. Outside, she could hear fighting and roaring going on.
Lea smiled, holding onto Alabaster's hand as she reached out for Riptide.
The last thing she saw as they disappeared like the Cheshire Cat, was Kronos leaping from his seat, singed all over his body.
They didn't have a lot of time to for a reunion when Lea and Alabaster joined the troops, though Eliza had made it clear that while she was thankful for the save, to never choose her over her own life again and Percy looked at her as if he was a blind man granted the chance to see for the first time.
(He also scolded her saying that the only way she was going to become a resident of their Uncle's realm was if he was joining her, so she wasn't allowed to leave him like that anymore.)
(He wasn't the boss of her, but that was one order that she would gladly follow.)
(She gave a silent prayer of respect for Michael Yew and his sacrifice.)
Thalia and the head counselors were waiting for them at the Reservoir. The lights of the city were blinking on at twilight. Streetlamps glowed around the shore of the lake, making the water and trees look even spookier. Seems like she made it just in time for the army heading south into Central Park.
"They're coming," Thalia confirmed, pointing north with a silver arrow. "One of my scouts just reported they've crossed the Harlem River. There was no way to hold them back. The army . . ." She shrugged. "It's huge."
"We'll hold them at the park," Percy said. "Grover, you ready?"
He nodded. "As ready as we'll ever be. If my nature spirits can stop them anywhere, this is the place."
"Yes, we will!" said another voice. A very old, fat satyr pushed through the crowd, stumbling over his own spear. He was dressed in wood-bark armor that only covered half of his belly.
"Leneus?" Percy said. Lea raised a brow. Her brother had such weird friends.
"Don't act so surprised," he huffed. "I am a leader of the Council, and you did tell me to find Grover. Well, I found him, and I'm not going to let a mere outcast lead the satyrs without my help!" Behind Leneus's back, Grover made gagging motions, but the old satyr grinned like he was the savior of the day. "Never fear! We'll show those Titans!"
"Um . . . yeah. Well, Grover, you won't be alone. Annabeth and the Athena cabin will make their stand here. And me, and . . . Thalia?"
She patted him on the shoulder. "Say no more. The Hunters are ready."
Percy looked at the other counselors. "That leaves the rest of you with a job just as important. You have to guard the other entrances to Manhattan. You know how tricky Kronos is. He'll hope to distract us with this big army and sneak another force in somewhere else. It's up to you to make sure that doesn't happen. Has each cabin chosen a bridge or tunnel?"
The counselors nodded grimly. Drew's face set in determination alongside Eliza. Silena had ran off somewhere so it left them sharing duties as the next oldest.
"Then let's do it," Percy said. "Good hunting, everybody!"
And sure enough, they heard the army before they saw it.
The noise was like a cannon barrage combined with a football stadium crowd—like every Patriots fan in New England was charging us with bazookas.
At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods—a warrior in golden armor leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge bronze axes. Hundreds of other monsters poured out behind them.
Lea found herself immediately separated from her friends, but it made no difference as she soared above the creatures in the air and blast an opening with nothing but pure mageia, sending the uglies right back to hell!
She landed right beside Drew who shot a rope arrow that pierce five monsters at once and then blew them up.
(Maybe Et—Maybe there had been some truth to the words that they were pyromaniacs.)
"You good, Neira?"
"Fine. What about you, Aeri?"
"Don't call me that. But I'm good."
Lea snickered.
She stopped laughing at their next wave of opponents.
"What the fuck is that," she demanded.
That being a group of something. They had dirty and shaggy blond pelts made them look like Muppets who have been used as dust rags. Their doglike teeth clearly never got a proper flossing. They let out a series of high-pitched shrieks like repeatedly stepping on chew toy.
"Khromadai," Drew informed her grimly. "Mr. D. used them when he invaded India back when he was a demigod."
Lea scrunched her nose at the next set of shrieks. Truthfully, the only flattering things about the creatures were their gorgeous gray eyes.
(Lea had to banish the thought that with like a truckload of nair, some braces and fill-ins, a bunch of makeup, and a speech class then they could blend right in with Cabin Six.)
"Man, the gods just be making anybody." Drew burst into laughter at her words. "Look at it! It looks like Apóllōn drew it with his left hand while blind folded and his fingers were glued together. It looks like it negotiated its way onto earth. A face like that would make the devil go to church."
Now the entire Tenth Cabin alongside members of their mother's retinue were laughing in the face of the monsters. Good. Too much tension made way for mistakes.
She and the rest of them plowed through the monsters.
And Lea...
Well, Lea was heaven. Lea was hell. She was a goddess, so deep under the water twas hard to see her at times. She bent the world to her will and may the Fates grant mercy onto those that displease her.
She moved smoothly and swiftly, each step she took like an intricate dance, mageia twirling about her arms. Salome was at her side, bounding across the streets with Drew perched on her back shooting down targets.
She could hear the girl as she cackled, "You know I'm surgical with this bitch, jake." She pulled out a few more special arrows of hers. "How you want it? Close casket? You remember that fool in the wheelchair? How you think he got there?"
Her sister, Valencia, rushed by with a ribbon like whip that was electrocuting every monster that it touched. "This is not the time to quote Training Day!"
"I don't know," Lea said, mageia turning the monsters' shadows into their personal enemies. "I think it's the best time."
"You," one empousa sneered. "I'll kill you."
"I'll kill you," Lea mocked with a high-pitched voice. "Get in line." She landed on her feet, throwing a punch at the monster, but the empousa dodge. "Oooh, girl, how you dodge that?"
"You're slow as shit."
"SLOW?!"
Lea drilled a nice hole in her head using mageia for that.
The enemy slogged forward. Giants smashed through the trees. Hellhounds lunged at the timber wolves, knocking them aside. Enemy archers returned fire and if it weren't for Salome quick reflexes, Drew would've gone down.
Lea snarled, pushing them back once more with a blast of mageia and she could feel her core twinge a bit in pain. "If I had basement, a couple of you fuckers would be in there starving. DIE, YOU ASSHOLES!"
Of course, that's when everything went wrong.
As she was twisting around in the area, she was caught in a blast of mageia none too dissimilar to a storm cloud.
Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
She twirled about in a slow circle. Lea may have white dominican, or well, dominicanos blanco in spanish, but she was not like the white people in the movies. She reached out towards Riptide, but she got nothing. Even when she reached out for the tracking spell on Percy, she only got static.
Wooow. She had only just reconnected with her brother after he thought she was dead only to kidnapped not even an hour later.
Wow. Just wow.
A new record even for her.
She landed on her feet, summoning a few weapons onto her person. She had no idea what was waiting for her, but she couldn't tip her hand too far and she was not leaving this spot.
It was all just a waiting game, and if she could make so-called god of the twelve reigning Olympians, a son of Zeus himself, heed her words and back off, then whoever or whatever this was would do the same.
She didn't have to wait long. Lea sensed the mystical energy long before it could hit her, and she dodged out the blast that would have made her a nice smear on the ground.
She twisted, a blast of mageia already heading back in the direction that it came from. Three black hounds appeared around her alongside two golden eagles. They attacked as one and well, someone should call PETA for the way she tore into them.
Though it was either her or the animals with very sharp talons and teeth and claws with an intent to kill.
Lea would make a horrible dinner.
Still, whatever this was had a bit of her grudging respect.
On one hand, it was completely cowardly to attack from the shadows and send their little pets to do their bidding and attack while she was dodging from that. On the other hand, in the name of self-preservation, Lea would do the same thing.
There was nothing cowardly about survival.
She ducked under a set of claws yet cried out in pain when a blast of mageia hit her full on in the back. She rolled across the ground like people in the movies or those that got hit by cars and went flying. Lea got to her feet quickly enough only to get hit with another blast of mageia that was of a different flavor.
After that, it took everything within her to hold on. The attacks came from all around her. Her shield spluttered in and out and she was bleeding from places she didn't even know it was possible to bleed from.
But Lea was a stubborn bastard. One part of her kept utilizing her mageia to heal herself while the other fed the shield.
A part of her despaired. Getting her ass kicked like this just to save a bunch of people that wouldn't even be thankful about it? That would look at her and call her a monster... call her a witch and try to restart the Salem Witch Trials... that would try to lock her and her brother and her friends away in some psych ward and throw away the key. Why should she be the one to sacrifice her life for them? Seriously, there was no way in hell she would have died for any of them if she had been Jesus. Fuck their sins!
Lea growled as she went down another set of blasts of mageia.
Aliens' above, it was like a magical dance except Lea never learned how to tango. If the two of them were the dancers, then she was the floor being stepped on. Because it was two different attackers, keeping her distracted long enough that she couldn't cast her own spells back.
Her hands laid flat against the makeshift ground as she concentrated on the shield protecting her back as she breathed. The animals were still lingering around her, snarling with beaks and mouths covered in the blood that they managed to draw from her.
"Pathetic," a voice called down to her, echoing around the chamber. Lea lifted her head shakily, but there was no one there. "This is the greatest sorceress of this age? The infamous Twice-Blessed. Leaneíras, three speared."
Still, it gave her a place to aim as the attacks calmed. She threw out a strong blast of mageia in its direction immediately moving where she had just laid, ignoring the pool of blood on the ground. She stumbled to her feet, Lævateinn being used more like a cane than the weapon that it was.
In her right hand, her enchanted knives spun around her hand like the throwing knives that Drew's foster brothers favored.
"My name is Leaneira Jackson," she sneered. "That's it. That's all."
"Ahh, but you are also the daughter of the Earthshaker," another more feminine voice stated. It sounded a bit like Percy before puberty hit and his voice dropped. "You are the sister of the Destroyer and the lover of the Trickster Divine."
"A bunch of fancy names," Lea mocked, "But I'm still just Lea."
"Maybe so," the voice said again before two beings shimmered into existence before her. The one on the left looked female with green eyes and black hair that barely came down to her shoulders. She was dressed in dark robes with ornate silver designs like runes and alchemy symbols that reminded Lea of the spells and accolades that moved around one another on Lady Eurybiê's skin. The dark, sleeveless gown seemed to ripple as if the cloth was ink spilling off and Lea swore that she could hear the cries of the damned coming from it and wore sandals that weaved around her legs like ribbons. She carried two old-fashioned reed torches.
All the better to see you and burn you with, my dear.
And the male looking one was a bit handsome in a mysterious yet dangerous way, with shadow-dark hair that tumbled that curled and hung down his back like a curtain, eyes as bright as the sun that flickered with knowledge of dark things, and a remorseless detached face. It reminded Lea a bit of Apóllōn, but not the warmth that the alien provided, but more so the heat that he gave whenever something displeased him. It was like standing in the middle of the desert, butt naked with no sunscreen or water in sight all the while hopelessly lost.
When people looked at Apóllōn, they only thought good things. He was welcoming and helpful. Unless they saw his rage, he welcomed their disrespectful thoughts. He was too bright; too harsh; he was too much. That was like looking into whoever this dude's eyes.
"Who are you," she demanded, calming a bit as her mageia moved through her like blood, healing the various wounds and scars that they placed upon her person.
"I figured you would know," the woman said. "I've been told that my son, Alabaster, looks a great deal like me."
Hecate.
Goddess of boundaries, crossroads, the moon, necromancy, ghosts, and magic.
"Still kind of shock that you're not on the Olympians' side," she said weakly, shifting a bit on her feet. "It was said that a lot of you were stopped contemplating changing sides and swore to keep your loyalty."
"If I remember correctly, that was from your meddling." The man sneered, those golden eyes flashing, and it reminded Lea of someone else though she could not put her finger on it. "You think because you're so different that centuries of disrespect could be washed away. You brought back worship for some of us. Yippee and yet, none of it will change after you're gone. They'll go back to doing the same thing all over again."
"Dude, do I know you?"
"See, that is why we have joined," he said, waving a hand at her as that answered anything. "I was a powerful king once. The beloved son of Hḗlios and Pérsē, brother to Kírkē and Pasiphaë. And yet my legacy has been reduced to nothing but a staple in my own daughter's story. Now I am remembered as cruel and power-hungry king, the father of the mad witch!"
Well, that answered that.
Kírkē only had one full-blooded brother, after all.
"Aeëtes, king of Kolchís." Lea said as she looked him up and down. She narrowed her eyes at him. "So, you joined because people didn't talk about you enough?"
"I am a god!" he yelled. "I deserved to have accolades and ballads, the flowers and parades with monuments built to the skies with my name plastered alongside of it. You've done nothing but slap a band aid onto a millennium of issues and that adhesive will wear out and it will start all over again! Where is our respect!? Where is the honor that should be bestowed upon us!? All of us help make this cruel world turn and we have nothing to show for it. But you mortals continue to ask for favors that you so generously want and then abuse it and wonder why no one will answer your cries and prayers for help anymore."
"I'm an atheist." She wasn't praying to anyone.
Both of them blinked at her. Hecate furrowed her brows, lowering her torches a bit.
"How can you be the daughter of an Olympian, mated to an Olympian, and on friendly terms with at least five Olympians and still do not believe in gods?"
Lea shrugged. "I am fully under the belief that you are interdimensional alien beings that are trying to take over the world by impregnating, or not even impregnating since there are brain kids and Dionysos was born from the thigh. I believe there is a parasite residing in our bodies that will eventually awaken once you all complete your mission of takeover. You come to this world through intergalactic space travel and the primitive men and women and those that are both and neither had mistaken you for gods."
"I-I can literally take you to the place that I was born," Aeëtes said, hesitantly.
She shrugged once more. "You may have born in this dimension on this planet, but were your parents? Exactly."
The one thing people never seemed to understand was that the Ancient Greeks had been some of the greatest warriors in history, but their minds were the most lethal of weapons.
And she had seen and listened to some of the things Percy did on his quest and the best way to get anything done was to stall. Get them talking and everything else can fall into place. Right now, Lea needed to heal the last of her wounds and build up her strength. She was low on mageia and she needed to reach for a few of the storage stones that she had on her person to make up for the discrepancy.
"I can take you to where your Father was born," Hecate said.
"AHA!" Lea pointed a finger at her. "Poseidon was swallowed at birth!"
"Queen Rheia gave birth to him on Telchinis which was renamed Ródos."
Lea waved her hand. "And where was she born? Again, exactly."
And before they could do anything else, she called her up her mageia and sent a huge explosion off.
Assholes.
Attacking her and thinking she was gonna be nice about it?
"Don't make me stand on business," Lea said with narrowed eyes as she cast a quick spell to get back in the air. She cast another one to turn her invisible, but it probably wouldn't do much to people that had been utilizing mageia long before her great-great-great maternal grandmother was a thread on the tapestry. "That Statue of Liberty will walk before I do."
A horrible analogy now that she thought about considering that she could animate statues and the fact that they were apparently robots, but the point still stood.
Her senses opened up now that she had more room to breathe and knew what the hell was going on. She could sense the attacks coming just a split second before they made it to her not that it helped all that much. The attacks were incredibly strong, and Lea was getting beat up in a way that she hadn't since that time Jazz Towers and Ariel Tremaine jumped her in pre-algebra back at Yancy and Nancy tried to sneak a hit in.
She ducked under one blast and dodged another. She swung Lævateinn, channeling her mageia through it. The eagles flew out of her reach while the hounds growled at her from the floor. Her shield was shining around her, and she tried to reach out for where the two of them disappeared to, but unlike Hermes, they didn't come with a handy dandy burning signal.
The next blast of mageia knocked her out of the sky; her shield bouncing her around like a ball and only taking every hit from the suddenly spiked walls.
She had a bit of vertigo.
Lea pushed herself up stubbornly on her hands and knees, anger simmering under her skin. "As soon as I stretch your ass, Ima call the police and them Mr. Fantastic died."
There was a hint of laughter.
She narrowed her eyes, gripping Lævateinn. She spun in a circle throwing out bolts of mageia with every spin. Her enchanted daggers hovered in the air to fly about her. Snatching off her necklace and with a wave of her hand, Arkas grew aside of her, and she smirked a bit at the curses around her.
For it was Hermes who first made the tortoise a singer. The creature fell in his way at the courtyard gate, where it was feeding on the rich grass before the dwelling, waddling along. When be saw it, the luck-bringing son of Zeus laughed and said: 'An omen of great luck for me so soon! I do not slight it. Hail, comrade of the feast, lovely in shape, sounding at the dance! With joy I meet you! Where got you that rich gaud for covering, that spangled shell-a tortoise living in the mountains? But I will take and carry you within: you shall help me and I will do you no disgrace, though first of all you must profit me. It is better to be at home: harm may come out of doors. Living, you shall be a spell against mischievous witchcraft; but if you die, then you shall make sweetest song.'
She climbed onto the back of the tortoise and in the next second, they were falling through the little pocket dimension to land somewhere else.
The connection to Percy abruptly sounded once more in the back of her head before she was once more in a place that was not New York let alone America.
If she could stop getting kidnapped, that would be cool.
"Did you think it was going to be easy?" asked Aeëtes.
"Where did you bring me?"
"My island," Hecate smiled.
Wonderful.
The only good thing was that Arkas allowed her to see the aliens and she launched herself directly at the old king.
Lea landed right before Aeëtes, hands gleaming with mageia, aimed and pressed one close to his private area. The other had yanked at his bedsheet and yanked him closer to her. "I can live without your disrespect. Can you live without these? Then respect me, or I'll rip them off. We clear?"
"You are nothing but an ant!"
"And you are a monster! Selfish! Cruel! Entitled! You're everything I'm not! And if I have to destroy you... I will not hesitate!"
"What kind of arrogant mortal presumes she can simply kill a god?!"
Lea smirked a bit darkly. "You said it earlier. I'm the greatest sorceress of this age."
She took the shot.
He sang like a canary and Lea dodged one of those damned torches as she flew back towards Arkas that was chopping through one of the hounds.
"You know," Hecate mused. "Hermes was an old lover of mine."
"Good for you."
"You do not care that I have lain and made love with your blessing? I have brought him nothing short of sweet euphoric pleasure."
"Congratulations."
Seriously, Lea didn't care. Like sure, Luke's mom and the love that Hermes had for her made Lea a bit uncomfortable but why should she care about something that happened centuries ago? He clearly wasn't looking for his soulmate back then and Lea wasn't even born to care.
And well... "None compare to the beauty that haunts even me even my dreams like the song of a seirên." He did tell her that.
"Well," the goddess mused. "If you have no such problem, I suppose that I may allow him to visit my bed once more after Krónos rules the heavens."
Lea yawned, spinning away from an attack by the king. Not only would he lose, but she Lea also was not worried about him visiting anyone's bed other than his hating ass wife.
She twisted under another blast before gasping in pain as a foot knocked her off of Arkas who snapped his teeth. She rolled against the ground before reaching out with her own mageia to rip apart of the ground up to block the torch that came flying towards her.
"I'm going to make tortoise soup," the king sneered, and she cast another spell that made a column of the earth come up to hit him. Unfortunately, he dodged, and she pushed herself back to her feet.
Her eyes darted around her, taking in the sea surrounding the place before finding Arkas as the tortoise fought against the animals attacking him. She growled, waving her hand and soon her friend turned back into a mutant turtle. She summoned Lævateinn to her hand before pointing it to the sky, "By Asteria and Persês: Open sky and do your worst!"
As the last word dripped from her lips, a clap of thunder sounded so loud one would think that Zeus himself was standing by their ear. Before their very eyes, the heavens opened its doors and gave way to ferocious winds and waves that turned into a howling storm.
The storm threw waves at the island that loomed as high as two Leas stacked together.
Lea spread her arms open, eyes sparking at the seams. "Let their powers fuel my own. Let us all have powers grown!"
The storm grew more terrifying by the minute, especially as Kairos went down under a heavy assault of lightning that seemed to chase him around like an angry old lady with a cane. The storm howled ferociously, an unhinged sort of anger to it.
It was ferocious. Large waves and harsh winds sang a symphony that only she could hear. The hailstones clattered to the ground like marbles spilled from a box.
Lea had never felt more alive.
Hecate stared at her with a small smile on her face. "Tis is why you are a favorite of mine. A shame they could not convince you to join."
Lea stared back at her evenly as the goddess twirled the torches in hand around like swords.
A roar of anger sounded from behind them. Both of them turned to see Aeëtes clawing his way from the disturbed ground, eyes alight in fury and Lichtenberg marks all across his skin.
"You mangly mutt," he snarled, and he looked almost like evil incarnate with how bright his eyes glowed in fury. "I will kill you and throw your body at the feet of Kírkē. I will tear you apart piece by piece, cell by cell. I will tear into your soul and feast upon it. I will end you."
Lea backed away a bit as Arkas launched himself at the king that didn't even blink before grabbing her friend and ripping his head off and stepping down hard onto his shell... on his corpse.
She stared at where Arkas once stood. Her knees hit the ground with a sharp crack. Around her, the storm spluttered to a stop. The world slowed to a stop. ArkasArkasArkasArkasArkasArkas A reckless, terrible anger possessed her, but it was seemingly drowned out by the grief that was rocking through her. Her mageia powered down as her eyes welled with tears. Something burning began to spread through her body, coating her veins and hardening her heart.
She barely paid attention to them moving back into that little pocket dimension.
Lea wanted to rage and cry and scream and she wanted nothing more than to wrap her hands around Aeëtes's neck and make him pay for hurting her... for hurting Arkas.
"Love is dangerous," Drew had stated once during a training session. "Its a wild thing that fights even when death is certain." The girl had been so wild in grief and anger and pain since Ethan's betrayal. " And without it... without it, we are each alone in the universe. Love is the last fragment of the will. The one that persists after all other resources are gone."
Lea had loved her little friend.
"You are not worthy," Aeëtes shot at her, a burning hit of mageia carving into her skin. "Unworthy of my sister's care. Unworthy of any of the blessings laid upon you. You are nothing more than the shadow that nips at the heels of those of greater stature such as your brother and your father."
Lea gaped, hand gripping at the wound in her side, mageia piecing her back together, but her mind was focused on his words. Not Aeëtes, fuck him. But Hermes' words. Those that he told her on Olympos.
This is your time of fire. Your hour of trial, when the storm is at the door, and all is darkest. Hold to yourself, Twice-Blessed Leaneíras. Be worthy—not of your brother or father's power, but of your own. Remember. Remember what a blessing love is.
Love. It was the strongest thing in the world. It had the power to bring even the gods to their knees.
And did Lady Eurybiê not say that she bent reality to her own will. That she wore khaos like a cloak. The sea, the skies, the dead, and the earth... the energies of the world were hers to command.
Love was born from nothing.
Love was khaotic.
Love... erm, Eros was one of the fundamental causes in the formation of the world, in as much as he was the uniting power of love, which brought order and harmony among the conflicting elements of which Khaos consisted of.
She couldn't beat the two of them off sheer power and skill alone; she couldn't fight their hatred and pain and bitterness with the same emotions. No, she had to be better. She had to remember what a blessing love was and she... Lea.. she... she loved so much. Her mom. Her dad. Her brother. Her extended family: Carla, Daniele, Vanessa, Benny, Usnavi, Sonny. Her friends: Drew, Alabaster, Medea, Annabeth, Magnus, Lou Ellen, Dionysos, Apóllōn, Artemis, Huákinthos, Travis, Connor, Chris, Silena, Beckendorf, Salome, Arkas, Ginevre... Ethan and Trent.
Hermes.
She loved Hermes.
Lea did not believe in gods, and she didn't believe in soulmates.
And yet—
(If this was another life and her worldview wasn't being completely ripped to shreds, recycled, upcycled, and ripped to shreds again—she would have embarrassed and angry to know that she was going was going against all of her beliefs.)
The branding that shimmered like the stars over her tender breasts blazed to life, as if watching the creation of the universe; the Big Bang all over again, dancing in the now familiar grecian letters.
She loved Hermes.
From the very first moment Lea saw him and no matter how much she lied to herself and the world around them, she knew that he would be the flame of her burning love.
(Even if she still did not believe in soulmates though now...)
And Lea always did like fire.
The change happened so smoothly it was impossible to notice. It was as if her veins were filling with a burning light... a power that was harnessed in reality like the scraps of creation. She could feel so much power; so much mageia and it was like taking a thought and making it real. Taking a lie and making it the truth. Telling a story to the universe so utterly, cosmically perfect that for a single, shining moment... the world believes a man can fly.
She had never felt like this before.
She stood to her feet, eyes as bright as Helios' son, mageia rushing through her, illuminating her veins as it radiated so strongly from her.
"You are a being of mageia," Hermes had said. "You are... you are so... you are so beautiful... so enchanting... a being of khaos and mischief wrapped in one. You are the lightning that walks. A great and dreadful storm."
She tilted her head to look at the two deities.
"You two want stories and ballads," a dark smile curled upon her lips, her eyes glowing green. Her skin peeled away like flakes, dropping to the ground where it began to morph. Around her, hundreds and thousands and millions of illusions of herself surrounded them in this little pocket dimension. Some shifted into different animals, others into different people. Some levitated in the air while others teleported from left to right. Some held blasts of mageia around their hands like energy blasts while others manipulated the closest water source to them. Some held daggers, others held staffs. A pair surrounded Arkas covering his body. "Fine. I'll tell you one."
Leaneíras lunged, a streak of green like greek fire as she moved. "O̴n̷c̴e̸ ̶U̴p̶o̵n̸ ̴A̵ ̷T̴i̷m̷e̵..."
WORD COUNT: 8737
THINGS TO KNOW:
1) Hekátē's island also called Psamite (Ψαμίτη), was an islet in the vicinity of Delos. It was called Psamite, because Hekátē was honoured with a cake, which was called psamiton (ψάμιτον). The island is the modern Megalos (Great) Reumatiaris.
COMMENTS FROM THE AUTHOR:
1) Eliza in the prev chapter: "I am not dating Percy or Annabeth."
1A) Also Eliza: "Get away from my boyfriend's sister!"
2) Fun Fact: We never got Lea's thoughts about Hermês from when they first met in the dreamscape after getting their marks; so, in regard to her, there was never an answer to how she first felt upon meeting him in-between his first "official" appearance as her stalker.
3) RIP ARKAS
4) Tis says that right in Hesiod's Theogony!
5) This was hard chapter to write because I had to move some things around and I cant write fight scenes.
6) You can make it your own decision if she got a godly blessing at the end or if that was her own power though I'm telling you right now... she was not ascending.
7) Fun Fact: It was said that Hekátē and Hermês were lovers and that they were considered consorts in the Underworld, but like, she was also considered a virgin goddess and he was eternal bachelor so yeah. That was a very obscure thing, and it was after Homer and Hesiod and yall know how I feel about sources that aren't them.
7A) I would have kept Hekátē as a virgin goddess, but Rick gave her kids. So here, her and Hermês did sleep together at one point, but it never went as far as marriage.
8) How did Lea end up with Ethan?
8A) Remember in the BOTL arc that Alabaster charmed their bracelets. "If one of us is on like the brink of death, the spell locks onto the nearest ring and teleports them to their side. So things like being almost flatten by the sky..." Lea was closer to Ethan than Drew or Alabaster when she was knocked into the river.
9) Badum tssss... THE REALIZATION!
9A) Lea's fatal flaw of apathy has SHATTERED! She cares everyone! She cares a lot!
9B) Hehehe... Lea's new fatal flaw: "Avoidance!" Not really, but come on, let's be serious. The story isn't over just because she realized that she has feelings for him and then there's the fact that she has to understand her feelings. Does she love him because they are soulmates? Does she love him because of the grooming which does not exist at all so lets put that out there first but she still needs to understand if she was being manipulated? Does she love him freely under her own power, her oath to the river styx keeps people from using their powers like that but since someone did get into her mind does that mean that they were able to control that part of her also to make her love him? Does she love him because the plans that Hermês, Apóllōn, and Aphrodítē had created off-screen and were happening in the background even if I didn't mention them? Hm.. Questions that need answers.
9C) Honestly, I originally planned for the whole realization thing to happen during HOO, but Lea took over and was like "uh, no. this is when i realized it."
QUOTES:
1) "This day, I have worked magic. You are barred from entering Asgard. Die well, in this place you chose over Heaven. Die well. ... You are no longer my son, and I care nothing for the death of strangers." —Odin in Thor Vol 1 491
2) "I can live without your disrespect. Can you live without these? Then respect me, or I'll rip them off. We clear?" -Diana of Themyscira (Prime Earth)
3) "You are a monster! Selfish! Cruel! Entitled! You're everything I'm not! And if I have to destroy you... I will not hesitate!" -Diana of Themyscira (Prime Earth)
4) "Love is dangerous. Love is a wild thing that fights even when death is certain. Love is hope in the face of defeat. And without it... without it, we are each alone in the universe. Moving past our fellow travellers like ghosts. Love is the last fragment of the will. The one that persists after all other resources are gone." -Diana of Themyscira (Prime Earth)