The One Who is Free (Percy Jackson - Maki Zenin & SI-not-MC Chapter 3)

"Why an apple smoothie?" I couldn't help but ask as I held a glass of the drink.

"An ol' war buddy of mine, Billy—Son of Hecate, we fought together in the Great War. Good guy—first thing he taught me about alchemy is dilution. You know, like how we get medicine from poisons and all that, when you want a specific effect, but not the whole punch from your materials."

"I feel like that's a massive oversimplification about medicine. Also, there are a lot of stuff I want to ask about in that sentence. 'Great War'? Like, World War 1? Dad, seriously, how old are you?"

"How old I am?" He actually wondered!? "I kinda stopped after 60. Hmm, let's see..." He thought for a moment. "Last April I turned 104. So, yeah." He nodded to himself.

My eyes widened as I processed that and took a sip from the golden apple smoothie.

My questions died on my lips. It tasted like strawberry pocky, and very lightly of honey and sunlight.

Have you ever had a crink in your shoulder, that you never realized was there because you got used to it?

That's what I felt like now. Like there was this twist made of molten radiant light in my chest that subsided. It wasn't gone, but rather the heat felt like it wasn't... moving or shaking anymore.

"Dad... these are apples from the Hesperides garden, aren't they?" I asked in awe of what this meant. What my father went through in order—

"Pffft! No, no." He snorted and laughed, deflating any of the awe I had. "Thor owes me a favor, since I was a lifelong friend to one of his daughters. Annelise Doffer," another nostalgic look came to him. I liked his expression like that. He looked so peaceful, unlike his usual scowl. ...Thinking about it, I used to do that. "She was a field nurse back during the first world war. Although, that was a disguise so she could get to the front lines, and then go out to fight and drag wounded soldiers back." He chuckled. However, his expression then let into one of sorrow, and I found myself frowning too. "Let's see, it was back in Bulgaria.

"We were holding the line from the Ottoman. Annelise took a hit for me from the enemy, who turned out was a son of Apollo. Guy was charged up from some kinda ritual, hit harder than I thought." A grin came back to his face. "She still took him down with her. Hammerhead Annie till the end. Honestly, we never thought anything can take her down."

Dad trailed off lost in thought for a while, guilt began filling his face.

"So these are Idunn Apples." I said to confirm, and to keep his mind off the past.

"Yeah, I asked Thor for help, and he agreed, but Idunn has this chore, that's why I took a while to get back." Dad said.

I took another sip. This odd feeling in my chest. Dad... wasn't lying, but I felt the whole 'Idunn chore' was a small inconsequential part to why he took a month to return. Like it was something on the side while he did something else.

"So..." I thought for a moment, before looking at my drink. "Why a smoothie? Why not just eat the apples?"

"Do you want to be four foot eight forever?" He asked with an amused smirk. I vehemently shook my head. "The Golden Apples of Idunn work on the principles of longevity and preserving. They heal you, yeah, keep you in your best shape as you are. That also means they make you stay as you are forever."

"What about the Hesperides' apples?"

"They actually the perpetually Angry Wife's apples, but no." I almost snorted the apple smoothies from my nose. "Those work on different principles." Dad replied. "It would have made way too much noise to get those right now. Maybe later, if we really need them."

He says it like its so easy.

"Didn't you say that my divinity was the problem?" I asked out of curiosity.

Dad let out a sigh. "I... was angry at that time. Regardless of emotions, I've learned to not act rashly in important matters like these. The Idunn Apples work well enough, so no need to burn bridges with the Greek Gods." He chuckle. "Making enemies is something one should try to avoid."

I laughed with him, then looked at the golden apples, only now thinking that, that was it. That I might not have to wait for a miracle cure later on.

"So these are the solution or a temporary one?" I asked with excited trepidation.

"They are the solution barring extenuating circumstances." He said with a relaxed smile, as if for the first time, he's not worried about me. I couldn't help but feel relieved too. "One should be able to help out for a year."

"...There's like thirty here." I eyed the basket, seeing them as way more valuable than any gold I've ever seen.

"If we need another batch I can do another job for the Aesir. Oooor if you want immortality when you're old enough, an Apple of Immortality from the Hesperides garden. Yes, the difference matter. Idunn Apples would give you immortality that would preserve you from time. Even if you don't notice it, you won't grow. I don't mean just physically, but in a spiritual sense. The Hesperides garden's Golden Apples? Those... Those make you more. They exalt you, let you grow in soul. They allow you to defy time." He said in a manner that made me think he was very familiar with them. "Although you need to think very carefully about that." He warned with a firm tone. "A long life comes with many opportunities for loss and sadness."

The heavy mood was back, but I smiled as I felt for the first time that I can face the future without worry.


Dad was drinking sake. Its smell was strong enough that I could feel it while sitting on the other side of the table.

I sat at the far end of the table opposite to him, rather than at his side as usual. He looked grateful for that. We were about to talk about my mother. Which ever one she's suppose to be.

"Maki," dad began. "Before I start, I want to be sure, do you really want to hear this story?" Before I could answer he continued. "You're incredibly smart for your age, one could say an old soul." My heart was in my ears as he said that. I sat up straight as I was completely focused on my father but for a different reason. He just looked at me with an amused gleam in his eyes. "Son of Hades." He said. "As I grew older, I began to see beyond people's bodies. Their souls became more visible to me. I knew you were different from the start. I didn't care. You are my daughter." My breath hitched. I felt my eyes water, and we didn't even get to the main topic.

"...Dramatic old man." I muttered while looking away, trying to stealthy rub my watery eyes before tears could fall.

My dad chuckled, as he held his smile looking at me.

"Okay," he said with a sigh as his serious but tired look came back. "So?"

"Yes," I answered his first question. "I'm sure I want to hear the truth."

"Can you promise me that you won't let yourself be consumed by hatred for ol' Gray Eyes?" He asked with firm look. "I don't want anger or hatred to control your life. No matter how deserves it, never let it dictate your actions."

"I..." I remembered when I slaughtered the Zenin Clan. I remembered how far spite had gotten me back then. But it cost me my twin, it cost me Mai, the other half of my heart. Even now, whenever I think about her, it feels like something is missing from my life. It's only my dad's overwhelming love for me, that made this life with all it's hardships so worthwhile.

"Anger can be a motivation, a spark. But it must never be your guide."

"...Yeah." I nodded as I reaffirmed my will. In this life, I won't let other people's actions or emotions control me. No matter what I learn or what happens, my life, my path will be my own. "Yeah, I promise, dad."

"Okay," he said the word with a sigh, let he was getting ready let old feelings out, and risk drowning in them. He took a shot of his sake, and refilled it. "It was back in 1944. You'd probably think, 'wow, cool. One year before the war was over'. But it didn't look like that from our perceptive there on the ground. It seemed like the war would go on forever.

"When you mix in the supernatural side of things, it was even more brutal. War protocol for non-combatants, or even how to treat enemies was much looser, if none-existent to what it is now."

"And now?" I wondered.

"Well, there's the Geneva Conventions on the mortal side, and the Avalon Accords for the magic side. It stipulates that if magic is used in war to kill one another to be quick about it." He said with a shrug.

"Alright, fair." I nodded. That's better than what I expected. I expected nothing. "What about non-combatants, or mortals?"

"Mist. Keep them outta the way if you can, or not let them see the fight to begin with." He said.

"Alright," I said back. All of this was interesting, but dad was not discussing the main topic. "So 1944, things looks bad, and?"

"And it was not easy being part of the Allied Forces as a Son of Hades. Addy—I mean, Hitler's forces along with the rest of the Axis Power, if they were of the West, they were lead by a Son of Hades. I was basically called a traitor for not being on their sides."

"...Addy?" I tilted my head that the nickname completely bewildered.

"Ah, that." He looked aside. "Before it all started, I tried... He didn't just become what he ended up as overnight. I thought I could change things but..." He looked back with a bitter smile. "Its difficult to go against fate. And the Fates are whores that deserve to suffer everything they have inflicted on others." He eyes glowed in resentment. "Specially when they give you no option by fulfill their designs yourself." He took another shot, and refilled his cup. "So you mother I met during my deployment in the Second War.

"Her family was put in the interment camps so, she went to join the war effort, hoping that by ending it quickly, her family would be free to live as citizens again as they once were." He chuckled as better times came to his mind. "She disguised herself as a man to do, can you believe that? Buuuut when you're a demigod, you can pass the physical exams easily. And then if you're good enough, even if people found out, no one says a word." He chuckled and drank again. "I was part of the Fifth Army 33rd Infantry Division. No, you will not find it on any record. Mortal record that is." He chuckled. "Kiku was part of the 100th Infantry Battalion, made her way in and started doing her part. Eventually both our groups joined up in liberating Rome. Things... were not easy between me and your mother." The amused smirk was back. "She was very brilliant, but really sucked at communicating. We had to deal with the monsters the German forces had on their side, not to mention the Bitchy Ones were also fighting with Hitler and the others."

"That Bitchy Ones?"

"I'm not calling them the Kindly Ones." He deadpanned. Oh? Ooooh! "Let's just say the fight for me at that point was personal. Servants of the Underworld shouldn't be used to dictate events in the mortal world. And given that this was caused by my half-siblings, I had to put a stop to it. Unfortunately other demigods on, who we are suppose to be on the same side, never made it easy for me to fight with them. Always expecting me to have been secretly a spy, just waiting on me to 'show my real colors'." He rolled his eyes. "I was stress out, and there were some battle plans your mother and I were trying to figure out on whether to fortify our position or quickly defeat the hydra that was stationed in Leipzig on our way to Berlin for the final battle. And seriously, that thing had grown throughout the war."

I found myself leaning in to listen more.

"And then?"

"I suggested using the labyrinth to just skip all the way to Berlin. My suggestion was naturally not accepted. No one trusted me to navigate them there. Your mother suggested we lure the hydra to the nearby river to drown it. I refused since it's not like its a dog we can make it chase after us with a ball or a bone" He let out laugh at the memory. Probably an inside joke. "We argued. Your mother stormed off, but her notes were around and by looking at other reports I was able to get the picture she was starting to see in her mind. There was a group of Nereids travelling through a nearby river, and there was a colony of pegasi nearby. We could probably convince both groups, we could make a straight path to Berlin."

"Wait..." My smile slowly crept up on my face.

"Yeah, Kiku was suggesting we use the pegasi to fly over the hydra, and drop bombs on it to piss it off and have it follow us to the river where the Nereids would drown it." Dad said, and I burst out laughing at the mental image.

"But how? Why would they listen to you guys?" I asked.

"My mother is a Legacy of Poseidon. He is basically my great-grandfather. Part of that added to my ability to control the earth. Or make bigger earthquakes."

"Woah." Wait. I'm related to two gods!

Nope. Wait. I'm Half-Greek in this life, I shouldn't be surprised.

"Yeah." He chuckled. "So while I don't fully have command of horses as a normal demigod of Poseidon, at that point, I could kinda talk with them and eventually convince them. As for the Nereid, we promised to clean up some of their homes and some beaches, since the war really was devastating to a lot of people, and they agreed to help." Dad then took a deep breath before he continued. "Thing is, we really wanted to make a move quickly to not give the Germans, to give Hitler a chance to plan or regroup.

"There was a lot of urgency on the situation, and not a lot of trust between me and the others demigod leaders, so I wasn't thinking clearly in that fight with Kiku. I snapped. I shouted. She shouted. We shouted. She left, and when... she came back, I was just grateful for her help. I told her I figured out her plan, I hugged her, kissed her and she seemed completely thrown off like this was all new to her, and I didn't catch that at the time..." Dad leaned back into his chair, her sake bottle empty. He crossed his arms, and looked down with a scowl on his face. "We got intimate. And then next morning, we talked more on the plan, she was in a better mood, we celebrated again, then went onto the plan. Everything worked out and we killed the hydra."

Dad trailed off. Just sitting in silence. The more he didn't talk, the more I slowly felt my eyes widened at the realization.

"Over the next 10 months, it happened three times where I would meet Kiku after some battle plans, or after a long shift and we'd talk and get intimate yet something always felt off. I confronted her the fourth time, aaaand, it turned out it was Athena."

...Oh.

"Not in the flesh of course. It was an avatar. Just a magic body to project herself across distances for when she wanted to directly intervene with something. I don't know why she kept coming back after that first time. Guess being an eternal virgin means you don't have any fucking self-control to something you never experienced." Dad's voice was rising being he held himself back at the end. "That honestly was not as important in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately it was just godly fuckery. But then in April 1945 toward the end of the war, when we reached the walls of Berlin, well, Hitler was getting desperate. Willing to do anything or... reach out to anyone to win. Including somethings that should have stayed sleeping." Dad had a lost look in his eyes. "We stopped him before it was too late obviously, but in order to learn of the artifacts he needed and his real location, we needed a godly miracle."

I leaned back into my chair, almost wanting to not hear, but pushed myself to listen.

"What did she want?"

"A night with me. With Kiku's permission. In fact she want to be a participant when me and Kiku were together. A kind of bi-location where both her avatar body and Kiku's occupied the same space to 'make it easier on us'." Dad's grin was full of teeth, bitterness and washed out rage buried under the sands of time and memory.

"...Okay. Fuck." I think I'm gonna be sick. No. Enraged. I knew gods of mythology were shitty sometimes, but what the fuck?

"Yeah, that's what happened." Dad snorted and nodded. "We were tired. Everyone was tired. We wanted this war to be over, and if that was the price, then so be it. We found Hitler, fought for days and nights. He preserved out of sheer fanatic desperation that he was right, that the world would finally have one ruler, and I wanted to go home. To have peace. I won, but... he didn't allow me my peace." An ugly frown came went up on Dad's face, and I couldn't help but be angry as well after everything he said. "Kiku was killed in that battle, right in front of my eyes. I couldn't bare to face her or go to her funeral. I thought that I lost her and you that day." His eyes dropped down, watering a bit. "I was told her body was shipped back home for a proper burial.

"Then we were called back home. At that point the only person from my group, from my friends that was still with me. Still alive from when we served in WW1 together was Claude Rose. He was a Son of Aphrodite. He died on the way back to the U.S." Oh for fuck's sake. Dad shook his head in thought and continued. "At that point I just left America. Came to live here in Japan permanently to help Takamagahara be rebuilt after what Olympus did to it, to ensure the war ends."

"What? They... dropped a nuke there too? A magic nuke?"

"Zues, Poseiden and Hades combined their powers and poured it through Zues' Master Bolt." Dad said, and my eyes widened trying to imagine that. Given dad's description of a blast from the Master Bolt powered by Zeus alone, being enough to be a hundred times the size of a mortal nuke... I couldn't imagine it. "It was a definitely end to the war. And that's it."

I looked up meeting my dad's eyes. Expecting, I dunno, maybe something else there. Some resentment or hidden hatred after he revealed this story, but... No. All I saw was love and gratitude. For me being here.

"Then ten years ago you came to me. One last good thing from all that crap of dealing with the gods." He smiled.

I jumped out of my seat and went around to hug him. I grabbed him so tight like I would never let him go.


Just like dad said, a whole year later and life was still awesome.

I was able to move my body as I please. I never felt tired. My mind was a speed itself as I thought, planned and reacted. Soon, dad said I might try to practice my abilities from his side of the family, or even magic to act as a support for my abilities.

Everything was fine, and my days seemed like they were ones of carefree bliss.

"Holy shit, the news was real. You actually did have a child."

A god came to our front lawn as dad and I were sparring. He looked like a middle-aged man with an athletic figure slim and fit with salt-and-pepper hair, blue eyes, elfish features, and a sly grin. He was wearing some running shorts, looking like a mailman, and had a cellphone with a caduceus symbol on it.

"Hermes." Dad growled. His face was smiling, his eyes were not. "What are you doing here?"

"Yo, Vinny! Good to see you. Good to see you. Honestly, you don't call, you don't send mail. I mean, I'm right here." The messenger god said with an eased smile as he stood before us.

"That's intentional." Dad said back, his reply curt.

"Hahaha, yeah, yeah..." Hermes trailed off, looking reluctant to give some bad news.

"So, again, why are you here? Am I getting some kind of summons?" Dad asked.

"Not exactly." Hermes looked apologetic for one last time, before snapping his finger and a scroll appeared in his hand. He unfurled and read it. "By order of the King of Gods, King of Olympus, Zeus Panhellenios, the Demigod, Maki Goodman is to participate in Camp-Half Blood starting next year, by June, 2001. This is to ensure she received a full demigod education, connect to her rightful root and heritage and to not give the possibility of violate cross-pantheon laws by having someone of a different pantheon raising here, yadda, yadda, yadda. You know the rest. You know the rest, you can read it here." Hermes gave dad the scroll, who took it and placed it on a table near by without taking his eyes off the god. "Well, you know how it is."

"Why?" Dad forced himself to lower the intensity of his voice. "I'm here. I know all she needs to learn to connect to her roots and all of that. And I can more than train her just fine."

"Haha, come on, Vinny. You know, depending on her divine parent, its kinda important for her to know and interact with her follow demigods and all that. And be close to home." Hermes chuckled.

"She doesn't have a divine parent." Dad said.

"She does. Vincent, I literally can feel it." Hermes said back.

"I'm not sure why Zeus is insisting on all of this for a child of a minor goddess." Dad continued.

"HA!" Hermes snorted. "Yeah. 'Minor Goddess'." He looked at my gray eyes, before chuckling and looking at my dad again. "Cool strategy. Don't think its gonna pan out."

"Hermes." Dad said slowly. "Why do the gods want her at the camp? I mean, if you guys want me for something—"

"No, no. It's her." Hermes actually looked sorry now. "Look, Vinny. I'm glad that you're doing well. Even if I'm sad that you just cut us off. I understand, but this... is not about you." He seemed like he was trying to say something without saying it.

Dad was quiet for a moment, with his brows furrowed. Then his eyes widened as understanding came to him.

"No." Dad growled out.

Hermes sighed. "Look, you should call the camp. Talk to Chiron to arrange thing—"

"No, that's...!" Dad gritted his teeth, eyes closed in thought before just staring down the gods. "What is it, Hermes?"

"You should call Chiron." Hermes repeated.

"You want me to drag my only daughter into who know what insane dangers the gods will throw her into. After everything I did rather than leave me alone. At the very least, you can tell me what prophecy came up about her."

Hermes sighed once again. Then took a deep breath and spoke.

"The fire of Olympus is taken once more.

"Twice-borns of Athena shall seek it in the land under.

"The fire doused in the river of memories gone and the knowledge lost.

"One will reignite it and one will carry it home."

My dad and I blinked and were taken aback by the prophecy. The words repeating in my mind over and over, even though I just heard it. Like all prophecies I have no idea what it refered to, it's meanings I can't be sure of, but one thing stuck out to me.

One detail repeated ad nauseam.

Twice-borns of Athena.

Twice-borns of Athena.

Twice-bornsof Athena.

Borns. Plural.

What—

"THE FUCK!?" I shouted.