With the advice of Hekátē after the goddess made a point to speak to her daughter, who was just as enraged as Drew had been meeting Némesis, those upon the ARGO II continued their odyssey to Greece. Medea had still been infuriated by her Mother's audacity, having heard nothing from her since the moment that Trenton's treason had been uncovered. Pranjal had been nursed back to health by Medea as she gathered her strength in a bid to teleport him halfway across the world to where the rest of their blessings were escaping in Magnus' ship as they soon came to learn of his Uncle's treachery.
Then the kerkôps were causing problems that Leo masterfully handled, and then Triptólemos turns Nico and Drew into a plant because of Háidēs kidnapping Persephónē alongside the fact that Venus had a hand in it. Medea had nearly leveled Venice in her rage, her magicka pulling the katablépōnes deep under the earth before she wrapped Triptólemos into the same snakes that he begged for. She forced him to transform them back before she left him tied upside down in La Casa Nera.
The demigoddess had been still brimming with anger when they came across Skíron which was only worsened when the bandit shot one of his flintlocks at Drew, a groove cutting through the side of her hair like a racing stripe while the rest of it landed seamlessly on the ground.
Drew choked, hand shaking as she touched her hair. "What did you do?"
"Oh, don't worry!" Skíron laughed. "If you could see that far —which you can't—you'd see a hole in the deck between the shoes of the curly-haired young man, the one with the toolbelt."
The girls shared looks and Hermes came to the abrupt realization that while Lea may have been a bit... feral. Her two friends were horrible influences on her.
"Coming after us?" Medea mused, sharing a look with Drew. "No sense of danger at all."
"At this point, I'm done fighting," Drew spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm scheduling appointments to the afterlife."
Truthfully, Mercurius should be paying more attention to that especially when he saw his Uncle; Ploutō emerged from his kingdom to speak with them as Medea turned the pirate into a yoyo, playing with his tortoise while Drew set off cluster bombs into the animal's mouth. Unfortunately, however, Mercurius was more concerned with his brother as Apollō left the mountain after the boys fell to Tartara mainly because he would not have kept himself from picking a fight with Athḗnē, but also, the first instances of their time within started to show as Annabeth and Eliza began to feel the aftereffects. Even Poseidón refused to watch the screens instead the god poured all his attention into dealing with Ōkeanós and getting the titan to release Peithō into his custody.
Inwardly, Mercurius sighed. He had a feeling things would have been a lot different if his Leaneíras was there.
Lea looked around the people of the camp as they were clamoring to get a look at her as she walked with Livia and Percy. She wondered if it was because she looked like the two of them or because she had given the weird talking statue legs so that it could help her fight Hank Pym's ugly stepbrothers.
"I feel bad for all the people here. I see so, so, so many gorgeous women." She winked at a pretty, brown-haired girl with poppies woven into her hair. Livia scowled, swatting at her. "And not one man is attractive. Aside from you Percy dear, you have my face. You have no other choice and you—" She pointed towards the blond boy that had wrapped Livia into a tight hug, looking her over for any injuries before scowling at Lea in suspicion. She recognized him as the boy that was supposed to be Percy's blessing in her world. "That's the kind of face that wars have been fought over. Not better than my Hermes, but a strong contender for the world's handsomest man. Prayers up to the rest of them out here though."
"So, you're basically stating that it's beauties and the beasts," and Lea whirled around at a familiar voice. Oh good. She wouldn't know what she would do if she was in another world where none of the people that she was close to aside from Percy and Annabeth existed. Like Travis and Connor and Chris had been a relief to see in Ari's verse, but until they stopped calling her their stepmother, then there was always going to be a boundary between them.
"Dea, is that you?" She twisted until she could find her, and a smile spread across her face at the sight of her friend. "DEA! But oh, no. No. Beasts are more muscular. These are just some guys, you know." She turned away in the next moment, not seeing the way that Medea's brow furrowed as she took in this strange girl that spoke to her as if she knew her. Lea, however, zeroed in on her brother and the blond boy. "So, are the two of you together now?"
Both boys spluttered, faces going red, and Lea raised a brow while Livia looked between the two, a smirk dancing on her lips but judgement in her eyes.
"What? No," Percy denied.
"Why would I date him? Look at him," the blond shot back.
"Hey," Livia and Lea protested.
Livia frowned at her friend. "He has my face. Be a little more precise with your insults."
The boy snickered, nodding his head mockingly. He looked back at Lea with a raised brow. "Though, I have to say that if you keep flirting with me, I might just kiss you."
Lea paused, blinking at him as her mind had to actually reboot. "I—what?"
"Don't mind him," Livia snickered, nudging the boy with her shoulder. "Tell us more about how the two of them should be dating. Octavian, I really thought you had better standards though looking at your exes and your current roster, this seems adequate."
"I think you were just insulted," Lea informed Percy before turning back to her counterpart; sister; whatever. "And I would have thought so because in my world, the two of them are soulmates."
"In your world?" An asian looking boy asked.
"Soulmates," came the dark-skinned girl beside him.
Raising a brow, Lea stopped in place as she looked at the group around her. "Where do you think I came from?"
"Dad," Percy and Livia said together.
"Neptune," came from the other people. She ignored them because the alien joke was starting to get a bit out of hand though something pinged in the back of her mind that she heard something similar.
"My name is Leaneira Jackson," she stated carefully. "I am the daughter of Sally Jackson and Poseidon. I am the twin sister of Percy Jackson." Raising her shirt just a bit, she allowed them to view her khaos-mark. "I am Hermes' blessing from khaos. In my world, soulmates exist. Everyone has a soulmate whether it be platonic or romantic. Hermes is mine. In my world, Percy's soulmates because yeah, you can have more than one. His soulmates are Annabeth Chase, Eliza Thomas, and Octavian whatever your last name is. I knew of you before I was attacked and thrown away from my world, but none of us... not even you and Percy had met yet, but Percy's an embarrassment to my everything and had been in love with you since the day that he got his mark at fifteen. Oh, and we get marks at different ages depending on your gender identity."
"So," Livia hummed after she inspected the mark on her chest while Octavian and Percy eyed each other in horror. "You got yours when?"
"Twelve," Lea shrugged, accepting the drink that she gave her though she checked over it with her mageia just in case of poison. "Females get theirs at twelve. Males get theirs at fifteen. Nonbinary people received their marks at eighteen while those that are genderfluid received theirs at twenty-one. Neither age nor distance matters as your blessings are considered the people that you are the most compatible with. Platonic, Romantic, or simply just sexual. Those that have a big age-difference experience a more platonic khaos-bond. These blessings usually meet in times of need to depart some kind of wisdom. Like a dying four-year-old would be the blessing of a thirty-five-year-old: the adult will offer words of comfort to the child."
"And you matched with Hermes?" Percy asked in confusion. Lea nodded her head. "Craziest thing to ever happen to me. I went from being a regular kid to suddenly in the world of monsters and a stalker with delusions of grandeur."
"Stalker?" someone asked, and Lea waved the words away. "Inside joke."
"Well, she isn't lying," came the girl that looked a bit too much like Queen Hylla surrounded by two giant metal dogs. In fact, Lea looked around her as she took note of those jumpsuits she only seen once before.
"Is Hylla the Queen of the Amazons here? She's your sister, right? You look just like her," she asked, looking for the woman. "And listen, I didn't get the chance to with my version of her, but we seriously need to discuss the mini skirt and gogo boots."
"Gogo boots," came a voice from the back, and Lea smiled at the sight of the Queen. She looked a lot more attractive when she wasn't threatening to stab Lea.
"Yeah," the daughter of Poseidon said, snapping her fingers and the Queen's outfit transformed into a replica of Wonder Woman's clothes. "Like that." She snapped her fingers again and changed her back quickly when she reached for her dagger.
"You met me before? At Circe's resort?"
Lea nodded with a slight wince. "Yeah, I help Lady Kírkē capture the pirates that we set loose though I also kind of sort of maybe stole your powers. And then we met again when I was on a quest with Medea over there and you threatened to kill me, but then you looked me in the eyes and I looked into yours and you fell in love—okay, I'm lying, but you let us go through the base because there was a labyrinth entrance there."
"You went through the labyrinth too?" Percy asked, and Lea raised a brow. "Well, yeah. We always go through there. Well at least me, Drew, and Medea do. We have lunch with Despoina every other Tuesday or so."
"The labyrinth was destroyed when Daedalus died."
"No," Lea said slowly. And Livia, Percy, Percy's soulmate, and Hylla's sister? all looked alarmed. "His control over it was destroyed so his sections I guess you can say were destroyed, but like... there are three goddesses that can lay claim to it at least in my world. Despoina as the Mistress of Labyrinth, then there's Mr. D's wife, Ariadne, and then her Mother Pasiphaë. So, it's still there and here. I can feel it even now."
"You what?" The blond boy choked spinning around to look at Medea. The alternate version of her best friend furrowed her brow before reaching down to the ground, her features drew back in horror.
"She's telling the truth," The girl whispered. "I don't sense any entrances in New Rome, but I'll keep checking though it may be because I'm not powerful enough."
Lea gave a sharp laugh. "Please. You're one of your Mother's most powerful kids. You can do it. You just need to believe in yourself, but if it makes you comfortable, do what's best for you."
Livia side-eyed her, a small smile playing on her face before she smoothed her features. "Keep us updated and provide weekly updates to the Senate. If you need more assistance, just inform your centurion." Medea bowed to her, and Lea raised a brow.
Livia continued forwards, leading them towards a dining hall so that everyone could celebrate their victory. The campers, amazons, and shades crowded around for a lavish dinner, and the satyrs—fauns, she mentally corrected—were going table to table. Wind nymphs zipped around the room, delivering orders of pizza, burgers, steaks, salads, Chinese food, and burritos, all flying at terminal velocity.
Despite the exhausting battle that Lea interrupted, everyone was in good spirits especially since casualties had been light. Colorful Amazon and Roman banners hung side-by-side from the rafters. A golden eagle stood proudly behind the table where Lea was invited to sit with Livia and Percy and Hylla's sister whose named she learned was Reyna, and the walls were decorated with cornucopias—magical horns of plenty that spilled out recycling waterfalls of fruit, chocolate, and fresh- baked cookies.
Livia was at her side, chugging salt water while they watched as all the different soldiers jumping from couch to couch, mingling with the Amazons, and really, Livia should watch that if she didn't want to lose her soldiers. There was a lot of flirting and arm-wrestling—which seemed to be the same thing for the Amazons.
"Otrera stayed dead the second time," an amazon was saying to Percy, batting her eyes. "We have you to thank for that. If you ever need a girlfriend...well, I think you'd look great in an iron collar and an orange jumpsuit."
Lea and Livia both blinked before abruptly leaving that conversation. Lea knew too much about Percy's preferences anyway with his loud bemoaning about Annabeth and Eliza, and the things that he couldn't wait to try with his Octavian when he found him.
"Via. Lea. I need a variety," Octavian stated as he came to sit at her side. "What's your full name?"
"Leaneira."
"Hm. Then I guess I'll you call you... Nene." said the boy named Frank that Percy introduced her to.
"Choose between 'Nene' and your vocal cords. You can't have both." Because who even told them that they could call her by a nickname? And why was that a choice? Lea or Neira was usually the go to nickname. She only needed one hand to name the people that used other nicknames not including the gods from Kállos' world. Livia snorted at her side, throwing back another shot of salt water.
That could not be healthy.
Once everyone had eaten and the plates stopped flying, Livia made a short speech. She formally welcomed the Amazons, thanking them for their help and introducing Lea to the people, and then Reyna made her own speech before she hugged her sister, and everybody applauded.
Yippee.
Reyna raised her hands for quiet. "My sister and I haven't always seen eye to eye—"
Hylla laughed. "That's an understatement."
"She joined the Amazons," Reyna continued. "I joined Camp Jupiter. But looking around this room, I think we both made good choices. Strangely, our destinies were made possible by the hero you all just raised to praetor on the battlefield—Percy Jackson."
And Lea.
She helped too, even if it was another world.
The sisters raised their glasses to Percy and beckoned him forward as the room exploded into more cheering. She saw the Octavian boy fiddled with ears and when she looked at him more carefully, she realized that he had on hearing aids.
Everybody asked for a speech, but Percy protested that he really wasn't the best person for praetor, but the campers drowned him out with applause. Reyna took some kind of neck plate that he had on his necklace, while Octavian eyed in consideration before smiling at the crowd. He ripped open a teddy bear for some reason and pronounced good omens for the coming year—Fortuna would bless them! Lea had sat straight in her seat when she realized that he was doing haruspicy when he slaughtered the teddy. He passed his hand over Percy's arm and shouted: "Percy Jackson, son of Neptunus, first year of service!"
The Roman symbols burned onto Percy's arm: a trident, SPQR, and a single stripe. Lea could see the conflicting emotions on Livia's face at the sight, but the girl nudged her with her shoulder, acting as if she was completely fine. She explained that Lea wouldn't be able to receive one not only because she didn't belong to that world, but she was also a greek demigod. She then whispered into Lea's ears that no one at their camp knew that the greek gods had children which confused Lea because she just thought the romans were using different names for the same gods. So, obviously, the greeks would have children to, at least that's how Hermes explained it to her since the Olympians were the only ones around.
Octavian embraced him stiffly as the two of them were no doubt remembering her words before Reyna gave him an eagle medal and purple cloak, symbols of the praetor. "You earned these, Percy."
Queen Hylla pounded him on the back. "And I've decided not to kill you."
Livia snickered from her seat, eating what Lea recognized as kelp jerky. "Good. I'd hate to have to kill Reyna in revenge."
"Um, thanks," Percy and Reyna said as their sisters smiled at each other passive-aggressively. Lea snickered, reaching for some of the kelp jerky and the white clam sauce. It was a bit refreshing to be there, and she made a mental note to beg Hermes to take her when she returned to her own world.
After dinner, the entire legion got the night off. Livia pulled her alongside Octavian through the city, which wasn't quite recovered from the battle, but the fires were out, most of the debris had been swept up, and the citizens were determined to celebrate.
At the Pomerian Line, one of weird talking statues wore a paper party hat though the one that she had gave legs to was clearing away some of the debris.
"Welcome, consul!" the state said. "Impeccably dressed as always."
"Thanks, Terminus," Livia smiled, bowing before it as a little girl ran from behind pedestal holding a bow filled with party hats.
Livia took one the shape of a unicorn's horn while Octavian took one with teddy bears printed over it. Lea took the one that was shaped like a turtle. "Beautifully crafted," Octavian praised and the little girl blushed shyly, eyes sparkling in happiness.
They put on their hats and continued to the forum, which was lit up with multicolored lanterns. The fountains glowed purple. The coffee shops were doing a brisk business, and street musicians filled the air with the sounds of guitar, lyre, panpipes, and armpit noises.
A dazzling rainbow appeared in the night sky. The three of them looked up in confusion when a gentle rain of ding dongs appeared before they continued onwards, and Octavian broke off to speak with some girl.
When Leaneira yawned for like the tenth time in a span of five minutes, Livia laughed, turning around as they headed back for the gates. Percy was there, gazing across the valley and the two sisters flanked their brother.
"Tomorrow, maybe the next day, my friends from Camp Half-Blood will arrive."
Livia hummed as she looked over the valley while Lea smiled, "Oh, so you really are from there. I was a little confused when I got here."
"It seems like the three of us all have something in common besides our faces," Percy smiled, reaching over to tuck a strand of hair behind Lea's ear.
Livia raised a brow, and even Lea was curious.
"We all have thing for the gods," Percy stated, and Lea blinked while Livia blushed. She looked between the two because her Percy and even Ariadnê's Percy hadn't shown any romantic attraction to the gods.
"What do you mean? Lea asked.
"Who are you dating? Livia questioned instead. Their brother turned to the setting sun, a small smile on his lips. "The god of sunlight himself."
Lea blinked. Okay, so clearly, he had more in common with Ariadnê. She turned to her sister—and truthfully, she was just as happy about that as she was with Ariadnê. "And who are you dating?"
The blue-eyed girl blushed further. "Um... I'm dating Jason Grace and Mercurius."
Lea furrowed her brow. "Jason? Is he that blond boy? Son of Zeus?"
"Son of Iovis," Livia corrected, "but yes. You know him?"
Lea hummed. "He was at my camp before I got slingshot across the multiverse so if he was there, then there's a good chance that Percy was here?"
"Well, I just got here like two days ago," Percy informed her. "I don't know where I was before then so if the timelines don't add up then..."
Then there was a chance that her Percy was still missing.
The moment was ruined when Lea yawned again, and Livia snickered. The girl led her to some houses on what she called the Via Principalis, and showed her to what Lea could instantly tell was her own room if the photos and aquatic plants decorating everything was any indication.
Despite how exhausted that she was, Leaneira found herself in a place that was incredibly familiar to her. With its sand that were mottled with different shades and hues blending together seamlessly to resemble the color black, and winged daemons flying around off to cause nightmares, and the gate constructed of ivory which was the source of dreams which were false and without meaning alongside the other gate made of horn that was the source of the prophetic god-sent dreams.
The Land of Dreams.
The gritty sand was hard on her feet, but she pushed the feeling away as she twirled around.
It was so much like the one back in her own world to the point that she was not surprised when she twisted once again and he was standing there. Hermes. At least the one of this world.
"Soulmates," he murmured as he looked her over. His voice even sounded similar to her blessing. Lea nodded her head, sensing that he wasn't necessarily expecting an answer. "I admit that you are incredibly beautiful. I would not be surprised if this counterpart of mine regularly dealt with your admirers."
Lea shrugged. "There was an incident or two." And probably more than what she knew of.
"I suppose I can understand the attraction also though Mercurius ended up with Livia in this universe since you claim—"
"Mercurius?"
The god's mouth snapped closed as he looked at her. "He's... you do not know Mercurius? I suppose you would probably know him as Mercury..."
"The metal or the planet?"
"The god. The roman god?"
That cleared up absolutely nothing. Lea already knew that they were aliens, so somehow planets were having children? Was this like how the Earth was the body of Gaea and all of that good stuff? She absently remembered that Medea and Magnus used the roman names and that they were children of roman gods, but again... those were planets.
"I... hm, yeah. I remember talking about that with you. But like I already have enough trouble learning all the greek names. Doubling it by trying to learn the roman names? Nah, I'm good."
The god laughed. "I believe he would find you hilarious though at the moment he's a bit preoccupied with Livia." He waved his hands further through the land of dreams, out into the distance. "He is off within her own dreams now that the gate to her mind is once again opened."
"You..." Lea paused, and suddenly things were starting to make sense. "You talk as if you are separate people."
"We are."
What the fuck.
She could feel a headache coming right then and there. "Does this mean that I need to learn more names? I'm not good at that." Different armor her ass! It was like Jekyll and Hyde at least in her world, but in this one... they were completely separated. Strangely enough, Lea felt tension seeping from her shoulders at that.
He didn't answer her, stepping closer as he peered at her. "That is my ichor," he stated, nodding at the heart shaped necklace that she wore. Her hand reached for it absently, feeling her mark heat in response.
"Yeah," she smiled. "It was a gift."
The god hummed, staring at her then looking around them.
"You should sleep," the god stated a moment later, an almost familiar secretive smile on his face. "We will be able to speak more on the morrow."
WORD COUNT: 4172
THINGS TO KNOW:
1) So, Persephónē and Háidēs' story has been told a plethora of times. In the original version, Háidēs received permission from Ζεύς to marry Persephónē. Which in ancient greece, that was the common standard to ask for permission from the Father and if not the father, then their uncle (in this case it would have been Poseidón and himself obviously) and if Poseidón said no, and Háidēs told himself no (lmfao) then he would have asked one of her brothers.
1A) Dēmḗtēr, however, said fuck allat shit yall talm bout. give me my damn child.
2) In the roman version that Ovid wrote which I am combining right here, Venus had Cupido shoot Lībera and Ploutō with arrows. Because her power stretched over the heavens and the land and the seas, but it didn't reach death. and she was worried that Lībera would choose to stay a maiden like Vesta, Minerva, and Dīāna whom she had no control over.
2A) Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 462 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"The land [of Sicily] quakes [as Typhoeus the Giant buried beneath the island heaves] and even Rex Silentum (the king who rules the land of silence) [Ploutō] shudders lest the ground in gaping seams should open and the day stream down and terrify the trembling Umpire (Shades). Tyrannus [Ploutō] had left his dark domains to and fro, drawn in his chariot and sable steeds, inspected the foundations of the isle. His survey done, and no point found to fail, he put his fears aside; when, as he roamed, Venus, from her mountain throne, saw him and clasped her swift-winged son, and said: 'Cupido, my child, my warrior, my power, take those sure shafts with which you conquer all, and shoot your speedy arrows to the heart of the great god to whom the last lot fell when the three realms were drawn. Your majesty subdues the gods of heaven [and sea] . . . Why should Tartara lag behind? Why not there too extend your mother's empire and your own? The third part of the world's at stake, while we in heaven (so long-suffering!) are despised—my power grows less, and less the power of Amor. Do you not see how Minerva and Diana, queen of the chase, have both deserted me? And Cerēs' daughter, if we suffer it, will stay a virgin too—her hope's the same. So for the sake of our joint sovereignty, if that can touch your pride, unite in love that goddess and her uncle [Ploutō].'
3) Here, I am stating that Háidēs got permission from Ζεύς but Venus didn't know and had Cupido shoot him.
3A) So she spoke. Then Cupido guided by his mother, opened his quiver and of all his thousand arrows selected one, the sharpest and the surest, the arrow most obedient to the bow, and bent the pliant horn against his knee and shot the barbed shaft deep in Ploutō's heart.
COMMENTS FROM AUTHOR:
1) His wedding ring, Hazel thought. But Pluto had never married Hazel's mother. Gods did not marry mortals. That ring would signify his marriage to Persephone. The thought made Medea so angry, she shook off her dizziness and stood.
1A) Which is fucked for many reasons.
1B) One: why are you angry? Lmfaooo. Your Mother was the one who summoned him. Like I'm all for women's rights and wrongs but damn a little accountability aint never hurt nobody. Ploutō's only fault was cheating on his wife because if he never cheated, you wouldn't have been born and he wouldn't have "neglected" you and he wouldn't have cheated (with her) if your Mother didn't summon him.
1C) And I put neglect in parathesis because the idea that these gods; deities, the beings of immeasurable power raising children is a hilarious thought.
1D) "But Dionysos was there for Pollox and Castor"... yeah, for two years of their life and then they get to camp and he keeps his distance.
1E) "But arent you a Juno raised Jason truther." I sure tf am, but we're talking about canon right now. We dont know when he got to camp exactly so there's that also.
1F) Anyway, I support women's rights and wrongs, but I don't support stupidity.
2) Two: you're roman. Ploutō married Lībera; not Persephónē.
3) Three: Gods did marry mortals. They married mortals a lot. Hḗbē married Hēraklēs after he was raised to godhood. Boréas' wife was a mortal that he raised to godhood. Diónusos became a god then went and brought Ariádnē up from the underworld to marry. I can really keep going tbh. Thétis married Pēleús. Pasiphaë married Mī́nōs. Harmoníā married Kádmos. All three of those men were mortals.