*Note: Warning: This chapter gets pretty dark and has mentions of cancer and death. Read with caution.

Chapter 7: Aftermath

Well, the festival came and went. I don't think having quite the party would be so overwhelming, but it was. In a good way though. All of Rome had a lot to celebrate after all, the defeat of the Egyptian gods, Icarus renouncing himself as a god, and the Greek gods accepting their roles as Roman gods. I know that the festival was originally meant to celebrate my birthday, but I kind of liked it being for Rome's victory. My friends and I had a lot of fun, although I don't really remember most of what happened during the festival. It was that wild, y'know?

Also, if you're curious, after Icarus had given the Greek gods their Roman names for the Roman Pantheon, word got out on the real city he ended up creating. And while he may not have finished his actual model city, Herodotus was impressed with the real city Icarus did create and the Roman names for the Pantheon of gods that pretty much pleased everyone; Our teacher found out from a letter delivered to him thanks to a little help from my good friend Hermes -oh! Sorry! I mean Mercury. Definitely going to have to remember to call him that whenever I'm in Rome.

And speaking of the messenger of the gods…

As the festival went on, I found myself overlooking the western sky on a hill that overlooked Rome as the sun began to set over the ocean to relax after partying so much. It was nice having the alone time to quietly celebrating the end of my birthday, but I found myself being joined by someone in my solitude. Someone who I recognized immediately after hearing the sound of small, feathered wings flying behind me. Not that I minded his company though. It's been a while since he and I had a good talk.

"Pretty swell shindig they got for you, babe." Hermes said.

"Yeah, but I just needed a bit of space from it all." I told him. "I get uncomfortable when so many people bump into me."

"And I highly respect that." Hermes told me as he sat a few inches away from me. "Which is why I'm gonna give you the space you need while I join you."

"Thank you, Mercury." I told him before laughing at the thought. "Geez, it's gonna be weird calling you that."

"You don't have to if you don't wanna, Aramina." Hermes said to me before he realized how dorky my new name sounded to him. "See, that, that right there, I won't get used to calling you that either."

"How about we just call each other by the names we know the other as?" I suggested. "Just Hermes and Aria?"

Hermes smiled at that suggestion. "Kinda like the sound of that."

We had a small laugh before we watched the sunset together. It was a peaceful moment just between the two of us, one I enjoyed since I started living in this world. It feels like with all the crazy adventures I get myself into, I hardly have enough time to bask in peaceful moments like this. Especially when it was spent with the one Olympian god I can tolerate more than the rest and just chill with him.

"So, wild day, huh?" Hermes asked me.

"Yeah, but it was a good one." I admitted.

"Oh, here. This is for you." he handed me a small box. "Happy birthday, babe."

"Oh, you shouldn't have." I accepted the small gift. "Thank you."

"Go on," Hermes said in excitement. "Open it."

I did as he said and opened up the box. Finding a small purple crystal the size of my fist inside of it. It was a beautiful little thing, and kind of reminded me of the crystals I used to collect back home. But how did Hermes know I like crystals? Like, I know he's probably overheard me be called 'Sapphire' by Hades when he used to do double shifts and deliver souls to the Underworld, but I never told him I had a thing for crystals and gems. Oh, well. Might as well impress him with my knowledge by identifying this pretty little thing.

"A dark crystal? It could be amethyst." I said before examining it further. "No. Wait. This is a sugilite. You can tell by the crystalized hexagonal system it has with the prismatic crystal. And that it fades into pink at the bottom. Sugilites are purple but fade into pink."

"You know your gemstones." Hermes smiled before giving an explanation. "But, yeah, I know sapphires are kinda your whole deal, but when Hephaestus made this pretty little thing, I knew I had to give it to you."

"Why?" I asked.

Hermes nodded his head at the crystal. "Click the top."

I pulled the sugilite from the box and noticed a small button on the point of it. I clicked it, and it immediately turned into a sword. It was like Fionna's crystal sword mixed with Percy Jackson's Riptide. This was officially the coolest gift I've ever gotten. Especially since I had just busted up my previous sword. This was the perfect replacement for it, and one that would hopefully be unbreakable too.

"A crystal sword?!" I beamed. "This is so cool!"

"You like it?" Hermes asked.

"I love it!" I grinned excitedly. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem." He said before getting a mischievous look in his eyes. "You wanna test it out?"

I flashed him a smirk. "Are you a Roman god now?"

Hermes smiled and helped me up, and the two of us spent the rest of the festival's evening testing out the crystal sword by slicing up some of the food Hermes stole from the festival. It was actually the first time he and I spent together since the whole Golden Touch mission that I didn't feel like a big idiot around him. In fact, I actually had fun spending the evening with Hermes goofing off with the sword. It was nice, and I didn't think anything would ruin that moment.

Sirena's POV

I watched on from a distance as Aria showed off her sword fighting skills with Hermes on that hill. I've never seen her look so happy around a guy; actually, I don't I've ever seen her so happy on her birthday in general. I tried giving her the best ones in the past, but it was clear this one was absolutely perfect. Especially with how much she's changed since we started living in this world. My little girl went from being a lonely individual who struggled so much to make friends, to becoming this completely different person with so many friends and people who love her. Even after all that's happened with Hades, Aria never lost sight of who truly cares about her.

Speaking of that devil…

"'Pluto'." I heard Hades mutter as he walked up behind me. "What kinda name is that? That's a name for a god? What is that? I wouldn't name my dog Pluto!"

"No, you wouldn't name your dog Pluto," I smirked when I saw him. "You named yours Spot."

"'Kay, first off, wasn't me who named him. It was the imps." he corrected me. "Secondly, you really wanna get into a name war with me? You basically named your kid Lioness."

"In one translation of the name, yes." I defended my daughter's name.

He rolled his eyes and joined me in watching Aria and Hermes. I think he even laughed a little when Aria sliced a melon and it's juice got all over Hermes. Aria laughed before he threw some melon chunks at her and the two got into a food fight with each other. It was all in good fun of course.

I sighed. "Look how happy she is."

Hades folded his arms as his flames started to flicker in annoyance. "Don't like how she's flirting with Zeus' messenger boy."

"She's not flirting." I told him. "Aria claims she doesn't know how to flirt."

Hades scoffed. "She's not your kid if that's the case."

I gave a soft chuckle before a sad thought entered my mind. I knew that I was going to miss moments like this when it came to Aria, quite in fact, I knew I was going to miss seeing Aria in general. I didn't have much time left in that world, and the more I kept hiding it from her, the more I knew would break her heart when the inevitable happens. Aria was already getting scared whenever my migraines come up and knew something was wrong with me, and judging by the way Hades noticed how saddened my expression was, he knew something was up, too.

"Hey, you good?" Hades asked me. "You're not looking so hot."

"I've been keeping something from Aria for a few months now." I finally admitted. "It's just that after all the drama she went through last school year and how much she wanted to change from it, I didn't want to give her anything else to worry about."

"Why?" his voice started growing more concerned. "What's the matter?"

"I have something wrong with my head." I told him. "I've had it checked out, but it seems that nothing will stop it."

Hades gave me a disbelieving look. "Whaddya saying?"

I really didn't want to say it, but someone had to know. And I was grateful it was Hades, that way, he'd know what to do about the inevitable when it came to Aria. So, I looked up at him, I looked at the man I loved and told him my darkest secret that I've kept hidden for months…

"I'm dying, Hades."

Hades' flames almost seemed to freeze when he took a step back from the shock. I was more surprised he didn't figure it out sooner, more because he has a little gift when it comes to when someone is close to dying, but his expression broke me. He shook his head, not wanting to believe me, but he was smarter to doubt me. He's the smartest guy I ever knew when it came to reading people. But what broke me more is when he looked over at my daughter, who was still oblivious to my condition.

"And you haven't told her?" he asked me.

"No." I shook my head regretfully. "But I need you to do me something. Something important."

"Babe, don't do this to me." Hades said, his voice shaking. "Aria doesn't want anything to do with me after what happened."

"What choice do I have?" I felt tears sting my eyes before looking at Hades in desperation. "I know she'll be safe with you once I'm gone."

Hades took a deep breath before rubbing his temples. I could tell he was frustrated with my pleas, and frankly, if I were in his position, I'd be the same way. I know I've should've taken more treatment to try and fix this myself, but there was nothing that could've been done. The doctors couldn't seem to get rid of the tumor, their medicines and chemo couldn't shrink it, and even Apollo, who was well-known as a healer god, couldn't heal me with his magic. My cancer seemed like a curse; one that I didn't want Aria to bear the guilt of knowing about. I didn't want her living the rest of her life feeling guilty or blaming herself for this.

But, if she were to live Hades again, at least I'd know that she'd be safe with the one immortal I trusted in this world more than any other. At least then, he'd be able to ease her troubles and sadness if she wanted to see me after I was gone. Just to help her heal and accept it all. Although, I doubted Aria would ever accept such a thing and bottle up her emotions. She was just like Hades in that way: Completely stubborn.

So, I then took one of Hades' hands and held it close in mine. "Please, promise me you'll take care of her."

Hades looked at me with those troubled golden eyes of his, and he reluctantly nodded.

"I promise." he finally said. "But you gotta tell her about this. If she finds out when it's too late, she'll blame herself."

"I will try to." I nodded before looking back at my happy daughter. "But for now, let's let her enjoy her party."

Hades stayed with me the rest of the evening as we just sat together on that hill to bask in what little, precious moments we had left with each other and with Aria. I never thought someone as proud, hot-headed, and snarky as Hades would ever have a moment of compassion when it came to a sick mortal with an incurable brain tumor, but given our history, how much we mean to each other, I knew that he didn't want to argue and lose his cool about this whole thing. And I think, deep down, he knew this too. I only hoped that I would have enough time to tell everything to Aria. Even if it meant saying 'goodbye'.