Seed of the Sky

With the first seed of her new plan in place Gaea decided to go into a deep slumber and wait for her children to reform in Tartarus. In the meantime, her siblings, Tartarus, Nyx and Pontus and Erebus would work on building a new army to challenge Zeus. The First Giant War taught Gaea one simple thing. If she wanted to overthrow Zeus, she could not rely on a single powerful weapon. Now that she thought about it, she should have sent the Giants together with Typhon. There was nothing that could be done about it now. One thing was for certain, she would not be so hasty or careless this time. Zeus defeated the giants only with the help of demigods, so she would seek demigods of her own to aid in her war. All she could do was reform her fallen children, but for now she would sleep while her siblings gathered their strength.

For two thousand years they worked, Zeus' misrule had spread resentment among the minor gods and even tensions among the elders planting more seeds of rebellion. Robin continued to gain experience as he travelled the world under numerous identities. This continued until an event happened that motivated the primordials to rouse their sleeping sister, World War II.

The children of the Big Three had started the most devastating war in the history of the world. Around this time The Oracle of Delphi gave a prophecy that their future children would aid one born of Earth and Sky in either destroying Olympus or preserving it. After it was over, the Big Three made a vow on the River Styx to never have any children. It was the most sacred oath that anyone could swear upon and breaking it would have severe consequences. Even a god was not exempt from this rule. Since the prophecy said born of earth and sky, they naturally believed that the one was a titan, specifically Kronos.

Hades already had two children prior to making the vow, but Zeus made multiple attempts to kill them. This caused a rift between the brothers, one that Gaea intended to exploit. An idea formed in her mind, she had failed the previous times because she tried to handle him as a god. Perhaps the key to defeating him was to handle him as a man. Zeus may have been the king of the gods, but at the end of the day he had the same emotional weaknesses as any man, a ravenously horny man. She knew that Zeus would be unable to fulfill his vow it would only be a matter of time before he slipped up. Gaea intended to take full advantage of that.

Gaea took on a mortal form in an orphan by the name of Gloria Roosevelt. As Gloria, Gaea build a life for herself as a singer, model and actress becoming a Hollywood megastar. At the height of her career she was making 20 million a film and $500,000 for an episode in any TV show she starred in. She often visited Children's Hospitals and orphanages, helping out and donating to them. The children often commented on her 'motherly' personality.

Zeus was smitten and as Gaea anticipated, he couldn't help himself. But she knew Zeus and didn't make it easy for him, skillfully blocked his early advances. Zeus was surprised at first, few women ever rebuffed him, but he soon found this endearing. It made her unique, it made her interesting. The more she denied him, the more he wanted her. Zeus remained patient and enjoyed the thrill of the chase.

Five years later his patience was rewarded, and they shared a night of carnal lust. Nine months later Gloria gave birth to their son in 1984 which she named David. Now that she had bore Zeus' child, they now needed to disappear. In order to that she would need to fake their deaths and she knew perfect scapegoats to help her.

Zeus had not been the only one who desired Gloria. She had also caught the eye of a man named Nero, the chairman of Triumvirate Holdings. When she rejected him, he tried to take her by force. She fought him off long enough for Zeus to arrive and Nero barely escaped with his life. Gloria later filed a lawsuit against Triumvirate Holdings for 250 million dollars which she won. Such amount was but a drop in the bucket for a mega conglomerate like Triumvirate Holdings. But for Nero, this was now personal he had been rejected and humiliated and his pride was now wounded. Such an offense would not stand for him and he plotted his revenge.

A year after David was born, the beach house he and his mother lived in was destroyed by a Greek fire bomb, supposedly killing both of them. Zeus frantically searched for the bodies but count find no trace of Gloria or their son. The nation mourned the loss of one of it's biggest female stars and in the public funeral over 100,000 people attended her funeral.

Meanwhile Gaea had taken their son to a secluded place known only to her and a few others and assumed new identities. Though he was the key to her plans she also wanted him to experience a 'normal' life. Gaea figured that all she needed to convince her new son to join her cause was for him to witness what the rule under Zeus had wrought upon the world. During her flight, she discovered something, a piece of essence of her late husband Ouranos. Seeing an opportunity to enhance her son's abilities, she collected it and had fed it to her son.

Gaea then brought Robin over to see her child. Robin felt the baby's face with the back of his hand before turning to her. "Is he yours grandma?"

Gaea nodded, "yes Robin, he is mine, and once he is big enough monsters will come for him."

"Am I to protect him then," Robin asked.

"No grandson, when the time comes you will be his teacher. You will train him to fight them, to hunt them, to kill them, so they can never threaten him," Her son may be immortal but he could still bleed and Gaea was not willing to take that risk. For now David would live believing he was mortal so that he wouldn't take his own life for granted. Then when the time was right and he was ready she would tell him the truth.

The loss of Gloria and David was a devastating blow to Zeus. Gloria had been unlike any other mortal he loved in the past 2,000 years. He was even planning on making her immortal. There were times when he wondered if this was his punishment for breaking his vow on the River Styx. In his depressed state, he found comfort in the arms Beryl Grace, a rising tv star.

Beryl harboured a great amount of jealousy towards Gloria as compared to her, Beryl was a B list actress. So she resorted to outrageous stunts as a way to gain as much attention as her and often consumed alcohol in an effort to drown out her sorrows. The two even worked together in past tv shows and a couple of films and despite Gloria's attempt to befriend the younger woman, Beryl would always see her as a rival.

Still Beryl was able to sooth Zeus' sorrow over the loss of Gloria, and her behavior improved during her time with him. They even had a child named Thalia. But Zeus eventually had to leave to perform his duties in Olympus

Beryl reverted back to her old habits after Zeus left as she resorted methods of gaining attention. Things improved somewhat when Zeus returned to her seven years later and bore her a second child, they named Jason. But Beryl was constantly asking him to make her immortal or give her eternal beauty. Even Zeus began to realize how toxic their relationship had become and left her for the second and final time. The sad truth was, Beryl wasn't Gloria, everything Gloria had been, Beryl wasn't. Seeing Beryl's behavior only made Zeus mourn Gloria's death even more.

Zeus' second departure left Beryl more unstable than ever and this time her habits worsened. she drank more, and her stunts had become so outlandish that nobody would hire her. Beryl started living her life with her children secluded from the world. Without Zeus around to protect them, monsters began attacking Thalia and Jason constantly. Hera didn't help matters when she told Beryl about Gloria Roosevelt. Beryl often blamed Hera for the attacks and cursed 'stupid, perfect' Gloria Roosevelt as the reason for Zeus never truly loving her.

Thalia had grown to resent her mother but stayed for the sake of her little brother. That all changed when Beryl gave Jason up to Hera in an attempt to appease her. For Thalia this was the last straw and she left her mother to fend for herself.

As her son grew up, Gaea watched Thalia's life with growing interest. "Zeus, you poor naive fool. Soon you will find out breaking that vow on the River Styx thrice in a row will cost you more than you can possibly imagine."