I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.

AN: This chapter was supposed to be the Capture-the-Flag game. Then Chrysa decided she needed to talk to everyone under the sun (and the sea, and the Underworld). Capture-the-Flag coming up next chapter!

Chapter Eighteen: Conversations

"We can't stop him from rising," Chrysa said bluntly once their eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, and mimosas had been delivered and the appropriate spells set up to deter attention. "He's come too far. He spent too much time building up in the shadows before we noticed. Ancient things are waking…"

"Grandmother became restless back during the second World War," Hades pointed out. "She summoned my Roman form's lover and daughter to Alaska, beyond our reach, and nearly managed to raise Alcyoneus again. My daughter Hazel died stopping her."

"Alaska, as you said, is beyond our reach," Hera mused. "If the Giant did manage to rise once more, we wouldn't know it."

"It's been more than sixty years," Chrysa said grimly. "If Alcyoneus nearly rose back then, I have no doubt that he's managed to drag himself out of the grave again, cockroach that he is. Has anyone from either side been up to Alaska since then?"

"There was a Roman expedition in the eighties," Zeus said slowly. "The entire Fifth Cohort disappeared, along with the praetor who led them there, and the legion's eagle was lost."

"Their souls never made it to the Underworld," Hades confirmed. "Alcyoneus would have had the power to hold them there."

"Could it have been because Alaska is beyond the gods?" Hera asked.

"No," Chrysa said, shaking her head. She quickly swallowed her bite of waffle. "Alaska is beyond the influence of the gods, but not the influence of the Protogenoi."

"Hazel and her mother died in Alaska, but they made it to the Underworld," Hades nodded. "If their spirits are still there, it's because they're held there by the influence of a god, much the same as the shades of Hecate's Blessed can choose to remain within the Wizarding World."

Chrysa wasn't privy to all the details concerning the deaths of Marie and Hazel Levesque, but Hades had shared the story with her. He didn't usually bring up things that happened in his Pluto aspect up around her – Leuke had no Roman aspect, having been dead for nearly two centuries by the time Aeneas, considered the first Roman demigod, was born.

"If Grandmother was strong enough to be able to communicate long-term with Marie Levesque, and then possess her nightly for seven months, she would have had to have been stirring for years," Chrysa said slowly. She froze when the realization struck her.

"What is it?" Zeus asked urgently.

"I started this," Chrysa said, her voice barely a whisper. "The manticore in Maine, he said, 'The Great Stirring is underway…the stirring of monsters… the stirring of all the ancient things. The worst of them, the most powerful, are now waking. Did you really think that it was just our Lord? All of the lost ones are awakening.' All the lost ones. I was reborn as Maria on July 31, 1913. I was the first lost one to awaken, even if we didn't know it at the time. I started this."

"We're cyclical creatures, Leuke," Hera said brusquely. She sipped her mimosa. "It was going to happen anyway. We can't stop the hands of Fate. As it is, I would prefer this happen with you here than without you. You were invaluable last time."

"I'm not a double agent this time," Chrysa sighed. "I don't know how much help I'll be."

"Nonsense," Hera said. "You still have your shadows. You still hear secrets. You still have the most terrifying attendants in the pantheon. You still know Father better than we do. You know how he thinks, how he operates, how he chooses to attack and when to hold back. You are still just as deadly now as you were in the past – perhaps more, since your repertoire has expanded while Father has remained in pieces."

"What we need to do now is determine how to proceed," Hades stated as he took a large bite of pancake.

"We can't do anything until the Council meeting on the winter solstice," Zeus pointed out. "Not anything major."

"And we can't hold the Council without Artemis, even if Leuke, Hestia, and I all sit – and I believe, this time, we must," Hades said with a pointed look at Chrysa. Since her return, she had refused to take her former seat on the Council as Leuke, even though the Winter Solstice Council held more than twelve members and Hestia and Hades both reclaimed their thrones on the occasion.

"So, Artemis must be found before the Winter Solstice meeting at sundown in…five days," Chrysa said. "The quest will probably leave Camp Half-Blood tomorrow morning."

"The heart is still safe?" Zeus asked urgently.

Chrysa resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Yes, Father. I moved it the summer before last. And based on where I put it, even if I give up its location under duress, it will still take a while to find it. I have enough magic mufflers on it that you wouldn't recognize it as magical if you were holding it in your hand. Plus, it's warded strongly enough that if anyone looking for it comes within a mile of it, I'll know."

"The campers won't be able to face Atlas alone," Hades pointed out. "You'll need to go."

"I might be revealed as myself if I do," Chrysa cautioned.

"It may be the only way," Zeus said. "Atlas can't be matched with strength, but no one can match you in speed and stealth."

"I've taken him down before, I can do so again," Chrysa nodded. "But there's one other thing we've not mentioned. Thalia's birthday is the day after the solstice."

"She's turning sixteen," Hera said. "She could be the prophecy child."

"Could being the operative word," Zeus said. "The prophecy says 'a' half-blood shall reach sixteen. As Chrysa already proved, the first demigod child of ours to reach sixteen does not necessarily have to be the prophecy child."

"Prophecies have a way of working themselves out," Chrysa pointed out. "I'm sure that if she chooses to, Thalia could make the choice to raze Olympus for her sixteenth birthday. We've been trying to counteract it over the past few months, but she does not have the biggest reasons to trust the gods. She lost her brother to Juno, and her mother to obsession caused by Zeus. She spent four years on the streets without aid. Luke was her everything for two years. Six months may not have been enough to break that bond enough. I know that if Ron and Hermione had asked me to turn against Sirius and Remus those first few months I was living with them, I would have done it. I would have hesitated, but they'd proved themselves to me more than any adults ever had. Luke has proved himself to Thalia more than the gods ever have."

She noticed Hera and Hades open their mouths at the same time. She quickly raised a hand to silence them.

"We are not killing her."

Both slumped slightly in their seats.

"We are not killing anyone, including but not limited to, Thalia, Percy, and Nico and Bianca."

Her hard gaze went to her father on those last words.

His voice was firm, but sincere as he said, "I swear on the River Styx that I will never again attempt to harm your children, Leuke Chrysocomê." Thunder rumbled in confirmation of his oath.

"Thank you," Chrysa said quietly, looking down at her lap. "I've just gotten back…I can't lose them again."

"I assume they will not be going on this quest?" Hera asked with an arched eyebrow.

"No. Later, they might, but now they have no training. I don't want them going out unprepared. That's how demigods die," Chrysa stated.

"You can't protect them forever," Zeus reminded.

"But I can protect them for a little while longer," Chrysa said firmly. "I'm going back to Camp Half-Blood. I'll see you on the Solstice. You may wish to figure out how you plan to tell Apollo about his sister. And Leto about her daughter."

She grabbed the last piece of bacon of her plate and downed the last of her mimosa before stepping back into the shadow cast by her chair and out into her alcove in Zeus Cabin.

Chrysa hesitated only a moment before heading out of the cabin and down to the beach. She wanted to see her children, but there was someone else she needed to talk to first.

Due to the weather, there was no one on the sands. Chrysa flicked her wrist to draw her wand and waved it at the sea. An arc of water flew upwards, making a rainbow under the midday sun. She pulled a golden drachma from her pocket and tossed it in.

"O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering," she said. "Show me Pleione, daughter of Oceanus."

The rainbow rippled, and her dark-haired, dark-eyed sister appeared in the water. Pleione looked a great deal like her daughter, Zoë, though the youngest of the Hesperides actually resembled her father more. The younger Oceanid was looking out the window of the undersea room.

"Sister," Chrysa called.

The Oceanid smiled when she turned around.

"Leuke! What has you calling today?"

"Not good news, I'm afraid, sister. As a part of our uncle's plan to rise, your husband is no longer trapped beneath the sky. He may come looking for you," Chrysa warned.

Pleione paled.

"He won't be able to reach me so long as I remain in Atlantis," she said. "But my children…are they safe? Will he harm them?"

"The Hesperides were loyal to him. So long as the Hyades and Pleiades stay away from him, they should be safe," Chrysa stated. "But Atlas has captured Artemis, and Zoë intends to look for her. Stay away from the West Coast for a while? Pass it on to the others?"

"I will," Pleione said with a nod. "Things are getting tense down here too, though. I know you and Trite talked to Father about remaining neutral, but Aigaios and Thaumas are causing problems. Phorcys and Keto have been suspiciously quiet, and Nereus has been crabbier than usual. Some of the younger immortals are making noise too. The forges have been working night and day on new weapons for the mermaids."

"Are you or any of our sisters fighting?" Chrysa asked.

"I'm prepared to," Pleione nodded. "I had a new set of armor commissioned last summer. I'm not going to sit idly by this time. I like my life the way it is now. I don't want Kronos or Atlas back. I'm willing to fight to keep it that way. I'm not sure about the others; I've never been able to keep track of them like you and Trite could. I'm sure some of our brothers are fighting, but on which side, I can't say."

"I'll try to keep informed, but I'll be busy with the land-based war. Besides, I was never much of a water goddess," Chrysa said with a small, sad smile.

Pleione laughed lightly, though the emotions were the same.

"You were too old for it. Everything was too fluid back then – no one had quite decided who they were meant to be. And you didn't even have the benefit of being raised under the sea like the rest of us did."

"Mother and Father hadn't even decided to move under the sea yet," Chrysa said softly.

Pleione tilted her head.

"You remember everything, then? You didn't the last time I saw you."

"Almost," Chrysa confirmed. "I'm only missing the first two hundred-sixty years or so. I should remember everything by the spring equinox. I remember your birth, and most of our sisters. I was quite a bit older than Clymene, considering the insignificant gaps between the rest of our siblings."

"You're…two hundred years older than Clymene?" Pleione asked, face scrunched.

"Four hundred," Chrysa sighed. "Grandmother wanted Mother to grow up more before having more children. I was the 'happy accident', so to speak. There's a reason Mother and Father handed me off to Grandmother to raise, and it wasn't just because Kronos was just younger than me." She glanced down at her watch.

"I should probably go," she said reluctantly. "The Quest to help Artemis will probably leave in the morning, and I don't doubt that I'll be a part of it. Even if I'm not, I'm sure I'll be needed at some point today to mediate between the campers and the Hunters."

"Is…is Zoë there?" Pleione asked hesitantly.

"She is," Chrysa confirmed.

"Tell her I still love her?" Pleione asked hopefully.

Chrysa smiled.

"Of course, sister."

She waved her wand, and the suspended water droplets fell back into the sea, dissolving the rainbow and ending the Iris-message.

Chrysa sighed as she sat down, staring off at the ocean. When she was younger, just looking at the ocean had been calming, since it reminded her of her parents and sisters. Now, it's choppy waters were just a mirror for her internal turmoil. This entire thing was just one giant mess. Besides the martial implications, there were too many emotions wrapped in this entanglement for it to be in any way easy.

The soft sound of footsteps on the sound heralded the arrival of another person, who stopped a few feet away from her.

"Would you like to sit, Percy?" she asked quietly.

There was no sound for a moment, but then the footsteps continued until Percy sat down beside her.

"You have children," he finally said, breaking the silence, though he still stared out at the sea.

"I do," Chrysa replied quietly.

"You never told me."

"I know."

Percy finally turned to look at her, anger evident on his face.

"You can't do this, Chrysa. I understand you have your secrets – about whatever it is you do for Hades, and Thanatos, and the stuff you're involved in that you can't talk about with us demigods, but the fact that you have kids? You said we were family. That's not the kind of secret you keep from family."

"It's not," Chrysa said quietly. "But there's more going on here than you know about. Nico and Bianca…they were a secret for a reason. There is so much that could be gained from keeping them hostage, Percy. Their father…he doesn't have children often. Not like the others. Before the Oath the Big Three made not to have children, during World War II – Zeus and Poseidon had close to a dozen children each fighting. That doesn't even count the ones who lived longer. Hades had one son, one grandson, and one great-great-grandson. I may have forgotten a great though. He doesn't have children often. More than one a century is rare, and it usually takes longer. Never more than one a generation. Nico and Bianca were the first time he had two demigod children with the same mother. As hostages in this coming fight, Nico and Bianca are so very valuable, both as their father's children and as mine. If Kronos has even one of them, he can stop both of us in our tracks. It was safest for everyone that no one knew about them."

"I wouldn't have told anyone," Percy said petulantly.

"Spies are always a problem," Chrysa said solemnly. "The more people that know the information, the more likely it is that it's going to get out. Nico and Bianca are the most important thing to me. There is nothing I would not do to protect them. I will lie, steal, and murder if that's what it takes to keep them safe. You'll understand when you have children."

"If I live that long," Percy said glumly.

"I'll do my best to make sure you do," Chrysa replied.

They lapsed back into silence.

"Did you choose to save Bianca over Annabeth?" Percy asked abruptly.

Chrysa winced inwardly.

"Not…not in such simple terms. From what I overheard when I was there, Annabeth was taken to be used as part of a trap for Artemis. She was already in place when I got there. If I had waited longer, then I might have been able to save Annabeth as well, but not before the General planned to visit Bianca. I don't know how that meeting would have gone, but I was unwilling to risk it. So, I took Bianca out as soon as possible."

Percy's face flashed angrily.

"So you just left her there to die?! I thought you had guardianship of her? Doesn't that make her your child as well?"

"It's not so simple, Percy," Chrysa tried to explain.

"Hades it is! You picked Bianca over Annabeth!"

"I chose strategically!" Chrysa snapped back. "Annabeth has the best chance of surviving unharmed! Your closest friend she may be, but she was Luke's ward first. He'll protect her. He won't just allow them to kill her. He'll do everything he can to keep her safe. Annabeth is smart. She won't antagonize them. She will do everything in her power to come back to us alive. Bianca would be helpless in that situation. She didn't even know her father was a god, much less the rest of the situation!"

"You have a twelve-year-old daughter and you never told your kids that their dad was a god? You're still with him!" Percy nearly shouted.

"It's more complicated than that, Percy!" Chrysa yelled back. She sighed as she deflated. Much quieter, she repeated, "It's much more complicated. I'll explain tonight. We'll have a council meeting, after the Capture-the-Flag game. Now, do you want to talk about whatever else is on your mind?"

Percy grimaced.

"Grover said…he said the Hunters might have been scouting us. He found a brochure in Annabeth's backpack about joining the Hunters."

"And you like Annabeth, so the fact that she might have been leaving you is hurting you on top of the fact that she's missing," Chrysa deduced.

"I – I don't like her!" Percy sputtered. "Well, I like her, but I don't like-like her!"

"You are so like Ron," Chrysa muttered. "Emotional range of teaspoon, I swear. Boys. Percy," she said firmly. "It's okay. You're fourteen. You can care about a person of the opposite gender – or the same gender, if that's where your tastes lie, though I don't think they do – without being in love with them yet. But that doesn't change the fact that you might eventually be in love. You care about Annabeth, and it could one day blossom into something more. But today, it's okay to just be upset that she's missing."

Percy buried his face in his hand. His voice came out muffled when he said, "I want to strangle the Hunters of Artemis one eternal maiden at a time. I've been useless today. I made a hole in an Ares kid's pants during javelin-throwing class. He already didn't like me after I woke him up from his nap yesterday afternoon. Silena was having an argument with a Hunter in the pegasus stables, so that wasn't calming. I even went up to the Big House to try to talk to the Oracle, but nothing happened."

"It wasn't your quest," Chrysa said quietly. "Or you didn't ask the right question. The answer you get depends on the question you ask. Plus, prophecies tend to just be weird in general. I once got one in haiku form. Granted, I think Apollo may have been high when that happened, but it was still a legitimate prophecy. Granted, he just told me not to eat the sushi at dinner. Unfortunately, he didn't specify which dinner, and it turned out to be one six weeks after he told me that, two weeks after I started eating sushi again. Food poisoning is not fun, and is unfortunately one of the few things magic can't deal with. I just had to wait it out."

"Apollo gives haiku prophecies?" Percy asked.

"Occasionally. That happened at a Winter Solstice afterparty, which can get kind of wild on the godly side of things. It's the only time when everyone's allowed on Olympus, so people tend to get gossipy. And drunk. It's fun for everyone."

"How do you even give a prophecy in haiku form?" Percy questioned, still looking confused.

"I think it went something like –

"Don't eat the sushi,

I give this warning to you.

Food poisoning comes."

"That was…blunt," Percy stated.

Chrysa shrugged.

"It's a haiku. It's hard to be obscure when you only have seventeen syllables. You should have heard some of the sonnet prophecies that have been spouted. Have you covered Shakespearean sonnets in English yet?"

"That was the whole 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou…' I don't remember the rest," Percy said.

"'Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date; sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimm'd; and every fair from fair sometimes declines, by chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; but thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of the fair thou ow'st; nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade, when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.' Fourteen lines, alternating rhyme scheme until the couplet at the end. Now imagine a prophecy in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, before sonnets had been invented, given in Ancient Greek."

Percy winced noticeably.

"Exactly," Chrysa said. "Thankfully, Pythia has always been a relatively straightforward Oracle, even if people don't pay attention to what she says."

"Pythia?"

"The Oracle of Delphi," Chrysa clarified.

"Why wouldn't she tell me how to save Annabeth?" Percy demanded. "I dreamt about her! The whole ceiling fell on her and Luke, but she stopped it and Luke left her there!"

Chrysa sat up straighter.

"You dreamt about Annabeth?"

"And Zoë dreamt about Artemis, I think," Percy said. "Grover said she had a screaming match with Chiron really early this morning."

"I shall have to speak with her," Chrysa frowned. "If we are to act, we must have all the information."

"Who's we?" Percy asked.

"I don't know yet, but I need to speak with Zoë. And then I need to talk to Nico. I'll explain everything – at least everything relevant – later today, but Nico and Bianca deserve to be the first to know."

Before Percy could reply, Chrysa slipped to her feet and hurried off the beach. She made her way to the cabins silently, keeping to the shadows the best she could despite the midday sun, and knocked on the door of the silver wood cabin. A Hunter Chrysa recognized but didn't know answered the door – she was somewhat beefy, and was shockingly ginger.

"Is Zoë here?" she asked immediately.

"She is with some of the others on the archery fields, Lady Chrysocomê," the Hunter replied. "But they planned to return before lunch, so she will not be long there. Would you like to wait for her?"

"I would," Chrysa nodded. "I need to speak with her."

"As your niece, or as Artemis' lieutenant?" the Hunter asked curiously, even as she stepped aside to allow Chrysa into the Hunters' abode.

The cabin was rustic inside – just a normal cabin in the woods, if a normal cabin in the woods had archery targets on every wall and trophies mounted between them and exotic animal skin rugs on the floor. She was relatively certain she was standing on yale skin.

Chrysa tilted her head as her eyes glazed over, her sight falling into the divine sight that allowed her to see auras as she looked at the Hunter before her.

"You're older than I expected," she stated. "Not that I should be surprised, with my own niece and sister as Hunters, when they have been alive millennia. But you were born mortal, weren't you?"

"I was," the Hunter confirmed. "I am Phoebe, daughter of Leda and Tyndareus."

"Sister of the Dioscuri, Clytemnestra, and Helen," Chrysa recognized.

"And Timandra and Philonoe," Phoebe said. "But most forget them. Most forget me. My brothers died young, and my sisters deserted their husbands, but Philonoe and I were taken in by Artemis and remain with her to this day."

"Is your sister here as well?" Chrysa asked curiously.

"No, she stands as the lieutenant in charge of one of our stations on the other side of the country," Phoebe said. "Only ten or twenty of us travel with Artemis at a time. The others are stationed around the country to join us if we have the need. Philonoe is currently in Montana."

"There was a monster infestation up there a few years back, wasn't there?"

Phoebe nodded excitedly.

"Oh yes. We spent several months in the wilds there. Afterwards, Lady Artemis left a few of us up there to keep things under control. Your sister Phiale is there as well."

Further conversation was interrupted by the return of the other Hunters.

"Sister," Rhanis greeted, moving forward to embrace Chrysa properly, since they were no longer under the gaze of demigods. "What brings you to see us so soon? I assure you, your children are safe, and we haven't managed to bring your daughter into our fold quite yet."

"I was told that our niece had a dream," Chrysa said, leveling her gaze on Zoë Nightshade, who paled, but stood resolute.

"I did," the Hunter confirmed. "My lady Artemis is lost to the dark forces we face."

"Your father is freed from his prison, niece," Chrysa said bluntly. "The General is behind this current plot to capture your mistress. I have already informed your mother, and she sends her love."

If possible, Zoë paled further.

"If my father is behind this, I willingly go to face him to save my lady," Zoë vowed.

"Not yet, Zoë," Chrysa cautioned. "There will be a quest. We must retrieve Artemis before the winter solstice, but not yet. The timing isn't right yet. For now, focus on the game tonight."

Zoë's serious demeanor broke as she snorted.

"The campers have not defeated us in Capture-the-Flag since Camp Half-Blood was still in Europe," Zoë scoffed.

"There's a first time for everything," Chrysa said pleasantly. "Including Capture-the-Flag. I've never gotten to play before, but I think I will today."

"No shadow travel," Rhanis said with a glare. "That's cheating."

"It's only cheating if you're caught," Chrysa shrugged. "And I highly doubt Chiron is going to try to take away my dessert privileges. Even if he does, I can always pop off anywhere in the world to get dessert."

"No. Cheating." Rhanis repeated.

Chrysa sighed good-naturedly. "Fine. No shadow-travel. Besides, the campers don't know about that ability anyway. I will be nothing more than who they know Chrysa Potter to be: demigod daughter of Zeus."

She walked out of the cabin, then paused to poke her head back inside.

"And did I mention I'm also a witch?"

She stepped into the shadows outside their cabin before they could reply, reappearing in the dining pavilion as the conch horn sounded to summon the campers. Unfortunately, there was almost no way to avoid awkward conversation at this meal: if she sat with Thalia, her sister would question her; if she sat with Percy, they'd need to talk when he probably needed more time to think; if she sat at the Head Table, Chiron would start pressing.

Chiron, while the most dangerous of potential conversationalists, was also the most patient and least likely to press in public, which made him the best choice of the three.

She still made sure Dionysus would be between them.

Everyone was not-so-subtly watching her as she deftly avoided Chiron's probing questions about how in the world she had ten- and twelve-year-old children when he knew she was only twenty-eight years old. Thankfully, her age wasn't common knowledge around camp, besides 'older-that-she-looks.'

Dionysus finally interrupted, saying, "She will explain later, Chiron. It was a secret for a reason, and those of us who needed to know knew."

"There's more going on here than you know," Chrysa added quietly. "Later. Tonight. After the game. I need to speak with my children first."

"They are your children then?"

"I definitely remember giving birth to them," Chrysa said drily. "I can give more detail if you'd like? With Bianca, it was just me and a midwife in my house, but with Nico I was in labor for three days, and he was breech, so the midwife had to call in a doctor and…"

"That's enough," Chiron said hurriedly.

Graphic details of childbirth were such a good way to get men to stop talking to you. That and details of menstruation. She'd used both before, on both mortals and gods, and it affected them the same way.

Lunch finished quietly, and Chrysa dodged around the other campers in order to grab Nico and Bianca before they could leave.

"I think it's time I explained things to you properly," she said quietly.

Both nodded, and she wrapped an arm around each of her children as she led them from the pavilion. As soon as they were far enough away not to be seen, she cast a spell to make sure they had no watchers. Once it came up clear, she said, "Bianca, I'm going to do that thing again."

Her daughter groaned. Nico looked confused.

"I'm going to use a form of magical travel to take us somewhere we can talk that's truly private. However, most forms of magical travel are nauseating until you get used to it. This one's a bit worse than some of the others, but it's the only way to get where we're going," Chrysa explained. "Hold your breath. It sometimes makes it easier."

Both children did as instructed, even as Chrysa grabbed their shoulders and pulled them through the shadows into her boudoir in Hades' palace. She conjured up waste basins for both of her children, though only Nico used his. Bianca looked green, though that could have been due to the lighting. Though Hades had finally had electric lights installed throughout the palace – barring the public areas, which apparently had to keep the magical green fire torches so that Hades could continue with his terrifying aesthetic – there were still green torches in every room, and they had a tendency to taint the lighting a bit.

"What was that, Mamma?" Nico asked with a cough.

Chrysa conjured a handkerchief and a glass of water, wiped Nico's mouth clean, and handed him the glass. He took a long drink to wash the bile out of his mouth.

"That was called shadow travel," Chrysa explained. "It's a special ability of mine, and some other people's, though I'm the best at it."

"Will we be able to do that?"

"Probably," Chrysa allowed. "Most people find it very difficult though."

"Can Papà do it?" Bianca asked.

"He can," Chrysa nodded. "I taught him how."

"But you said Papà is a god," Bianca asked, obviously confused. "How did you know how to do this first?"

Chrysa sighed.

"Let's sit down."

Instead of taking a seat on one of the upholstered chairs or sofas, she pulled her children with her to the large bearskin rug in front of the fireplace, where she sat down with them across from her, almost knee-to-knee in a small circle.

"Where to begin," she mused aloud. "Tesoro, do you remember the last day we spent together as a family in D.C.?"

"Bianca and I were playing cards while you talked to Papà," Nico said. "I was annoyed because I had to skip my Cub Scouts meeting. Then you went to get your purse before Papà took us somewhere, and then…we were at the Lotus Hotel. Papà said that we needed to stay for a while, for safety, and he'd see us soon. You and Papà came to visit a few weeks later."

"Niccolò, in the hotel that day…there was an explosion. Your Papà was able to protect you with his power, but I was too far away. I died that day, tesoro."

"But you're right here!" Nico exclaimed confusedly.

"When a soul enters the Underworld and is judged a hero, they are sent to Elysium. When they are there, they are given the option of being reborn. I was reborn – I've been reborn twice now, in all. This is my third life. My name now is Amaranth Chrysocomê Potter-Black, but post people know me as Chrysa Potter. It was in my last life that I was Maria di Angelo."

Nico was quiet for a long moment.

"But you're still our Mamma?" he asked in a small voice.

Chrysa leaned forward immediately and wrapped both of her children in a hug.

"Of course I am," she said quietly. "The way rebirth works for those of us 'in-the-know', so to speak – we are literally born again as we were before. I will always be your mother, and I will always love you just the same."

"As will I," Hades said from the doorway.

"Papà!" the children chorused, even as Hades joined their embrace.

"Hello, bambini," Hades greeted. "Chrysa." He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.

"Mamma said you were a god?" Bianca asked.

"I am," Hades nodded.

"But Mamma knew how to – shadow travel? – first?" she asked.

"I did," Chrysa said. "As I mentioned before, the lifetime where I was your mother was my second life. In my first life, I was a goddess myself."

"But if you were reborn, you had to die first," Nico pointed out. "How could you kill a goddess?"

Hades and Chrysa exchanged glances. There were many ways to kill a god. Deicide was a practice Leuke had been intimately familiar with, even before she herself had died.

"There is nothing that is truly unkillable," Chrysa said slowly. "With deities, it tends to be more of a problem to make them stay dead than anything else. As evidenced, I didn't. I was reincarnated in mortal form, as my connection to my immortal power was severed before I died. Upon my second reincarnation, I became immortal through a series of coincidences and journeyed to the Underworld. Upon crossing the River Styx, I regained my memories of my life as Maria di Angelo, my immortal domain, and the end of my memories of my first life. Over the past ten years, I have regained more and more of my memories, and I'm now missing just the earliest years of my first life."

"So you're a goddess?" Bianca asked.

"No, I'm an immortal demigod, currently. A demigod is half-human, half-god – just as you two are. While my soul has always been that of a goddess, I was mortal when you two were born, so you are also mortal – though you carry divine blood in your veins." Chrysa sighed and looked over at her lover.

"I think we need to start at the beginning," she said.

Hades nodded and settled down beside her as their circle on the floor expanded. He looked at their children and said, "You knew me as Orfeo Nascosto, but in truth I am Hades, Lord of the Underworld and Greek God of the Dead and Wealth."

"You're Hades?" Nico gasped. "You have five thousand attack power! Only if your opponent attacks first though. Yours is the only figurine I don't have!"

Hades smiled slightly and held out his hand to Nico. Shadows swirled around it, and when they dissipated, a black figurine rested there. Nico took it carefully.

"It's made of Stygian Iron," Hades explained as Nico examined the figure. "The metal can only be created here in the Underworld, and is almost completely restricted to the deities who reside here. I also have a sword ready for you, once you choose to use it."

He looked over at Bianca.

"We never managed to figure out how to make a bow of Stygian iron for you, but we do have a ridiculous amount of white poplar arrows with Stygian iron heads for you. The bow is a composite that I commissioned from Hephaestus, and he did include Stygian iron in the backing material."

"How did you…" Bianca began.

"We saw how much you enjoyed that hunting game," Chrysa interrupted with a smile. "We knew that we'd get you out eventually. We've been preparing things for years."

"The beginning?" Hades reminded her.

"Right," Chrysa said. She took a deep breath.

"More than thirteen thousand years ago, I was born as Leuke, eldest child of Oceanus, Titan of the Seas, and Tethys, Titaness of Water…."

AN 2: This chapter was posted today in honor of Bianca's birthday, which I have down as May 22. Complete head canon, but if there are days to celebrate 'ships that don't actually exist, I can celebrate a birthday I invented.

In more serious news, I apologize for how long it's taken me to get this chapter written and posted. I've been suffering from depression for a long time, and over the past six months, it got bad enough that I had to withdraw from university and come home to my parents. I was very close to being bad enough that I would have needed hospitalization. I wasn't able to function, much less write. However, I am doing a lot better now, and as evidenced by this chapter, I am writing again. I hope to get the next chapter out soon, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to resume my previous updating schedule.