Sorry about the lateness of this, my wifi went out. :/ Anyway, we hope that you enjoy this chapter, we're really excited about it!! And a huge thank you to our beta, @somethingmorecreative1 for being fantastic!!
Enjoy!
- @wearetheseven and @zoenightstars
“So what’s the deal?” Dionysus crossed his arms and looked down at her. “You just show up out of nowhere and announce you’re going on the quest? We haven’t seen you actually train in three years.”
“Just because I left doesn’t mean I stopped training. Like I said, I’m a Hunter.” Helena slightly lifted her silver bow as if to prove her point. “Artemis sent me.”
“Even if that’s true, how do we know you’re ready for this quest? We don’t know how much you’ve improved since you were last here for longer than a day,” Chiron asked.
“Well, I managed to kill a minotaur and disable your gate, so I must be pretty good,” she argued, placing a hand on her hip.
“Quests are serious business, Helena, we need to know your credentials. Are you a lieutenant?”
“That would be me,” called a voice from atop the hill. A tall, muscular girl with cropped black hair and shocking blue eyes jumped down from Thalia’s tree. She strode down to us, a level of swagger in her step I could only dream to achieve.
“Thalia?” Jason took a step forward, disbelieving.
She gave him a quick salute. “Hey there, little bro!”
“Hey, it’s Raichu!” I exclaimed.
Jason scowled. “Why does she get to be Raichu?”
“Admit it,” I said, “She’s you, but leveled up.”
“Okay, that’s fair,” Jason resigned. He turned back to Thalia. “Why are you here?”
“Well, I was at Camp Jupiter before Artemis asked me to come here. She figured Chiron would need a little convincing before he let Helena go on the quest.”
“What were you doing at CJ? How’s everyone?”
“Oh, just...visiting,” she smirked. “Hazel’s as sweet as ever, and Frank seems to be filling your shoes pretty well, kiddo. And speaking of praetors, Reyna is impressive.” Thalia let out a low whistle, eyes sparkling. “I don’t know how you turned that girl down, because damn.” Jason turned a brighter shade than the Camp shirt, and Piper grinned, giving Thalia a thumbs up.
“Thalia…” Chiron warned.
“Sorry, Chiron. Anyway, I’m here to confirm Artemis’ endorsement of Helena for the quest. She may be tiny, but she is scary as hell.” Helena beamed. “So we’re all set then?”
Chiron was speechless for a moment, but then seemed to surrender. “Alright, I guess we have our three. Meeting adjourned.”
As the campers returned to their normal schedule, excitement buzzing in the air, Percy shot me an exhausted smile with Annabeth’s arm around his waist before they walked away. Thalia slung her bow over her shoulder and strode over to Jason, giving him a bear hug and ruffling his hair.
“We should catch up,” Jason said. “It’s been a while. What’s this about Reyna?”
Thalia raised her eyebrows mischievously and motioned for Jason to wait. She grinned at me, and I returned it. Then she saluted Chiron and called to Helena, “Yo, go easy on this one, okay?” pointing her thumb at me.
“I’ll try,” Helena called back, winking at me and causing butterflies to flutter in my stomach. Fuck.
I must have pulled some kind of face, because as Jason, Piper, and Thalia walked away, Rachel elbowed me in the side. “You okay there, bud?”
“Yeah,” I replied, my voice cracking. Ah, puberty. I hadn’t been spared from that, either.
“Hot,” Rachel bit back a laugh.
I glared at her. “Shut the fuck up.”
Helena flicked her hair over her shoulder before she glided over to us.
“Hey,” I croaked, my mouth suddenly dry. Way to make a first impression.
Rachel smiled at her. “Hey! I’m Rachel. I am — well, at least I was — the Oracle.”
“That’s why I’m here!” Helena assured her. “To help you get the Oracle back and Apollo get his immortality back.”
I wasn’t particularly paying attention to what she was saying so much as I was to her. She had so much confidence and optimism. With my charm and charisma, I’m sure we’d have a great dynamic.
Just then, Laura walked up behind her and cleared her throat. What a buzzkill. Helena turned around and tilted her head upward to see who it was.
“Laura!” she exclaimed, pulling her into a hug. “It’s been a while!”
“Yeah,” Laura said, eyeing me menacingly. “I’ve missed you.” Helena pulled away, and Laura let go with some degree of hesitation.
“So, uh,” I began, desperate to regain Helena’s attention. Smooth. I quickly made an attempt to regain my composure. Helena looked back at me, and my heart skipped a beat. “You’re a daughter of Aphrodite, right?”
“Gods, why does everyone think that? I’m a daughter of Hermes.”
“I mean, because you’re gorgeous. But Hermes makes sense, too, because you just stole my heart.”
I took a step towards her, mentally high fiving myself, and a romantic swell of music began playing in my head. Rachel groaned, and Helena placed her palm on my chest, pushing me back. “Stop right there, pretty boy. That’s not going to get you anywhere.”
She thinks I’m pretty! I thought. I’d hated that about my mortal form just a day before, but I started to think it could grow on me.
“Aw, why not?” I grinned flirtatiously.
“I’m a Hunter,” she said matter-of-factly. “Artemis has a strict no romance rule and is currently the only god that doesn’t want you dead. So I’m not sure you want to fuck that up.”
“Not even for her own brother?” I pouted.
Helena rolled her eyes. “Also,” she whipped around and pulled Laura down by the shirt collar. Their lips met, and though Laura seemed surprised at first, she quickly melted into the kiss, as if they’d done this a hundred times. When they broke apart after a few seconds, Laura had a dazed, longing look in her eyes, as if she’d never wanted the kiss to end, but Helena simply looked amused. “Also, I’m gay.”
I looked from Laura to Helena and back to Laura. “Are you two a thing?”
“Nope,” Helena replied, failing to notice Laura’s hand lingering above Helena’s arm before letting it drop to her side, dejected. “She’s just a really good kisser.”
Laura smiled weakly, but said nothing. The painful silence from her was becoming too much to bear, so I figured I’d change the subject.
“So are all of my kids gay?” I asked jokingly.
“Yes.” Laura said matter-of-factly, looking at me with a fierce glint in her eye, “You know, if you’d ever checked in on us, you would know that.”
Ouch. I didn’t know to respond to that, nor did I particularly want to, so I gestured vaguely behind me. “I’m just gonna…go over there!” I walked away hurriedly. “I’ll catch up with you guys about the quest...sometime in the future. Yeah. Later.” I called over my shoulder.
Holy shit. See? This is exactly what I’d been trying to avoid.
Rachel jogged up from behind me. “Wow,” she intoned, falling into step with me.
Hello! I was trying to post today's chapter aaaannnnddddd our wifi went out. Genius. I'll be keeping my eye on it, but unfortunately, I may not be able to post until tomorrow. Sorry! - @wearetheseven
Wow, what's this??? The beginnings of an actual plot??? Anyway, enjoy Apollo being an absolute piece of shit, as per usual!
(As a general PSA, starting from this update, we'll probably be moving to an every-two-week schedule, since both of us have been really busy and haven't had a lot of time to write. Sorry and thank you for understanding!)
Thanks to the true fave, @somethingmorecreative1 for beta reading! You're the best!
- @wearetheseven and @zoenightstars
I sat at the Hermes table. It would’ve been weird sitting at my own table, forgive me for wanting to put off the awkwardness of talking to my own kids for just a little while longer, and like hell I’d sit at Zeus’.
Food appeared on a plate in front of me. My plan had been to stare at it in silence, but my body decided nourishment was necessary and not just some excuse to get out of a conversation I didn't want to have. Rude.
"You have to give the best part of your meal to the gods," someone said as I lifted a roll to my mouth.
I gritted my teeth. I knew that. I'd been on the receiving end of the offerings less than twenty four hours ago. Everything was just insult upon insult, and I couldn't catch a goddamn break. Dropping the roll back on my dish, I stood up. I grabbed my plate and stalked over to the altar. "Fuck you, Zeus," I muttered, dropping in the entire dish for good measure. "Fuck you."
The flames shot up in a angry wall. The campers gasped in horror.
"Yeah yeah," I grumbled. "Be thankful I gave you anything, asshole. You don't deserve even that."
“What did you do ?” someone hissed when I sat back down.
“I took sweet, sweet revenge on Zeus,” I responded. Nobody really talked to me after that. Which was fine with me, I guess. I wasn’t in the mood to draw attention to my wonderful self right then.
The constant buzz of conversation and the clattering of cutlery on plates as all the campers ate quieted respectfully as Chiron moved into the center of the room and listed off his announcements, including calling the counselor meeting after breakfast to discuss...me. So much for keeping myself on the down-low for the moment. I was about to become the shining sun at the center of Camp Half-Blood’s solar system, whether I liked it or not. And then, I’d need to face my kids. Exciting.
Breakfast was adjourned, and all the campers filed back to their cabins while I returned to the Big House. Despite Percy’s tears and protests, Chiron had ordered that Sally depart earlier that morning, leaving the Big House feeling empty I hadn’t gotten to say goodbye. I hadn’t gotten to say thank you. But I brushed it off, because I was supposed to be a god. I had to.
Dionysus was waiting in the doorway of his office for me, holding a can of Diet Coke. Once I’d plopped down into the chair in front of his desk, Chiron entered the room, taking his place next to Dionysus in all of his centaurian glory.
I spun around in the chair in slow circles. “So what are we even doing?” I asked. Not that I wasn't having the time of my life sitting in a room with my absolute favorite brother and the guy who had to deal with kids that I'd ignored.
Dionysus shrugged. “Waiting for all the head campers to show up so we can discuss what to do with you, kid.”
“Don't trivialize me.” I sunk further down into my seat. “Zeus has probably already told you exactly what to do with me.” Zeus was a controlling asshole like that. I was a marionette, he was my puppeteer, and I hated it.
Dionysus and Chiron exchanged a look. Like an old married couple, those two.
Chiron folded his hands. "We have to do this as a Camp, that's how things are done around here. All decisions are made by the head campers as a whole."
"Yeah, the democratic process. So sacred. It'll definitely change the fact that Zeus wants you to throw me to the gorgons." I slowed my spin when the first campers entered the room.
The room filled with jokes and conversation as teenagers came in. There was a sort of melancholy to it— there was no way they didn't know something was wrong. A random mortal being let into Camp with Sally Jackson? Seemed fishy.
Percy sat down and rested his arm on the pool table. He stared forward at the wall, but I could tell he wasn't seeing it. The dark look in his eyes was slightly more pained, but aside from his eyes, you couldn't tell anything was more wrong than usual.
I tore my gaze away before I did something stupid, like try and talk to him. My eyes immediately landed on a boy with blond hair, blue eyes, and strikingly familiar features. Will Solace, I presumed.
Karma's a bitch.
I settled for spinning back around to look at wall. Looking at the demigods was decidedly a Bad Idea, and I'm a huge fan of putting my problems off to deal with at some point in the future.
Dionysus put a hand on my shoulder and spun me back around. I looked up to where the wall met the ceiling. "We've called you here today," he said gruffly, "to talk about him ."
"Thanks for the sparkling introduction," I muttered.
"Go ahead and give it yourself," Chiron said.
I twisted around to give him a surprised look. "Wait, really?"
He nodded.
"You're giving me full reign?"
"Well—"
"You're letting me corrupt the children?!"
Chiron sighed, and Dionysus turned me around again. They might technically have to listen to Zeus' orders, but that didn't mean I was going to make it easy for them. You are talking to the King of Being an Asshole.
My original plan was to sort of just word vomit like I had to Sally and Paul. They were a lot easier to talk to than teenagers. Fuck, a bunch teenagers looking at you makes you feel super self conscious. "Uh... Where do I start?"
"The beginning," one girl snapped. Yup, that'd be Clarisse. Part of me wondered if I was going to get punched before I left the room. I wouldn't be surprised.
I raised my eyebrows. "The beginning? Okay, well, several hundreds of thousands of years ago—"
"Ugh," someone groaned.
I folded my hands. "Hey, you said the beginning. I'm starting at the goddamn beginning."
"How about you start by telling us who you are," Annabeth suggested. Because she couldn't spare me and just tell them herself. Even if she didn't believe me, couldn't she just do me that solid?
I hesitated. What were the odds that they'd actually believe me? Only like one person in the room had ever met me, and like hell Percy was going to be on my side. His stepfather died because of me. The kid wasn't going to be volunteering to support my claims anytime soon. "I... Well, I'm mortal."
"You're mortal?" one of the Stoll brothers asked. See? I do half pay attention to my family. "Why would you be here if you're mortal?”
"He's definitely mortal. Someone had to tamper with the gate to—" Annabeth stopped as I snatched Riptide from where Percy had been twirling it between his fingers. Calmly, I uncapped the pen and spun the blade towards me, plunging it through my stomach.
All the air was sucked out of the room by their gasps.
Rolling my eyes, I yanked the sword out. "Tada," I deadpanned, holding out my arms. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week." I capped Riptide and tossed it back to Percy. "Thanks, Squirtle."
"Okay, so he's mortal," Clarisse said. "So fucking what? Rachel's mortal too, I don't see you dragging us here to talk about her."
My ears perked up at the mention of Rachel. "It's not like that. I wasn't mortal yesterday morning."
Will raised his eyebrows and his gaze darted to Dionysus. "What do you mean you 'weren't mortal'?"
I rubbed the back of my neck. "Well..."
Piper shook her head. "Just spit it out already!"
"I'm Apollo."
There was a pause.
"Yeah right," Nico di Angelo muttered. Remember when he was a cute, obnoxious little loser with an obsession with a card game? Neither do I, all I can see is the moody emo teenager that replaced him.
"Hey, Mr. Grumpypants," I snapped. "I shouldn't have to deal with your shitty attitude just because you woke up on the wrong side of the Underworld. I have enough bullshit going on in my life right now."
"Language," Chiron said seriously.
“Fuck you, you aren't my real dad,” I said.
Chiron ignored me. “So, assuming he is Apollo, what do you propose we do with him?”
“Presuming he is Apollo, that means he's a son of Zeus. Meaning I am the head counselor of that cabin and I refuse to share a room with him,” Jason piped up.
“Jeez, I see how it is, Pikachu.”
“What is it with you and Pokémon?” Nico asked.
“I am— was— a god,” I replied. “I had a lot of free time to watch crappy kids cartoons up on Olympus.”
Sensing that the meeting was getting nowhere, Chiron spoke again. “Alright,” he said, turning to me. “We're putting you in the Hermes cabin with the other unclaimed campers. And we're bringing Rachel back to either confirm or deny that he’s Apollo.”
Percy’s head jerked up.
“Sucks for the Hermes cabin,” Dionysus muttered.
Chiron glared at him. “Behave!”
“Hold on,” Percy said up. All heads turned to him. “How are we getting Rachel here?”
Chiron gave Nico an apologetic look. “We were thinking shadow travel.”
“WHAT?” Will exclaimed. He grabbed Nico by the hand, who blushed furiously but didn't push him away. “He is not shadow travelling on my watch.”
Still red in the face, Nico responded, “I can do it.”
“Nico, I don’t want you to become a literal ghost!”
“Oh my gods, ” Jason groaned. “Just kiss already.” Nico’s blush deepened, and he jerked his hand away.
“It’s okay. I want to be useful for once.” Nico squared his shoulders and faced Chiron. “What do you need me to do?”
The rest of the meeting was mostly logistical mumbo-jumbo. Nico would get Rachel from whatever location and bring her here by tonight, leaving Ella and Tyson to continue their quest without her. Then, based on whether she believed me or not, we’d...well, we’d wing it.
Then the meeting was adjourned, and all there was left to do was wait.
The Fall of the Sun, ch 4: I Go Through a Midlife Crisis at Roughly Age 6000
on Ao3
ch1 | ch2 | ch3 | ch4
We both really love Sally and Paul.
Warning: discussion of suicidal thoughts and mental health
Thanks to @somethingmorecreative1 for beta-ing!! <3
Enjoy! - @wearetheseven and @zoenightstars
After a much needed shower, I dried myself off and started to put on the clothes Paul had set out for me. They felt wrong on me, like they didn't fit. Not only in the visual sense, but also in some weird metaphysical way that I couldn't quite place. I gave myself a once-over in the mirror.
“Well at least I'm still hot, amirite ladies, gents, and humans of all genders?” I said to my reflection. I saw myself deflate. “Who am I kidding.” Percy’s clothes were baggy on me. He was much taller and much more muscular than I was— would you look at that! Zeus hadn't only made me a teenager, he'd made me a scrawny teenager. Scrawnier than even Valdez is— well, was. Awesome.
My tan, freckled skin was cut all over. I had a black eye, a cut on my lip, my nose was bleeding, and my jawline was bruised as all hell. The front of my dark brown curls were matted down with blood from a scrape on my forehead and another next to my eye. The only thing that still resembled my preferred form were my eyes— they were still a piercing golden color. Maybe I would’ve looked pretty without the injuries, but I preferred to look hot, no pun intended. I generally looked muscular and filled-out, but this form looked tiny— I couldn’t have been more than 5’4”. I seemed delicate. I mean, how the fuck was I supposed to pick up hot guys like this? That should’ve been the least of my worries right then, but still. Let my bi ass live.
Also, the guy seems great and has good intentions, but honestly, who let Paul Blofis attempt to match clothing? He had given me a pair of dark blue jeans and an orange shirt. Orange? Really? Upon closer inspection, I realized the shirt was inside out. I righted it and stared at the black text in the middle. Camp Half-Blood. In a single surreal, almost cartoonish moment, you could see me do a double take and a lightbulb flicker above my head. That's it! I thought, Camp Half-Blood. They'll help me there… Right?
That could be debatable. But what other choice did I have? I couldn’t just mooch off of Sally and Paul until my powers and immortality just magically showed up again. I mean, I could. That’d be a dick move, though.
I didn't have options. Well I did , but none of them were great options. Camp Half-Blood... Camp Half-Blood was as close to home as I was going to get. Not that I necessarily wanted to be home, but I also didn't want to be chased down by monsters. I still didn't know how that was going to work, and I'd rather not find out. To be surrounded by people who would at least somewhat understand... Because at this point, who hasn't been subject to Zeus' fuckery? Yeah, Camp sounded way more appealing than being homeless and wandering around New York City until I sorted things out.
I pulled on the orange shirt. "It's a good thing orange is my color," I said jokingly, winking at myself in the mirror. Fake it till you make it, kids. Orange is ugly as fuck.
Deciding this was as good as it was going to get, I unlocked the bathroom door and peered from the hallway into the dining room. Paul was sitting at the table reading and drinking tea. There was another steaming cup across the table from it. Hearing the door creak, Paul looked up from his book— coincidentally, The Odyssey— and gestured for me to come over and sit. So I did, and he pushed the drink toward me.
“I know it’s 7 at night, but I figured you’d need some caffeine,” he said. I nodded in acknowledgment and lifted the cup to my lips. Coffee. It wasn’t ambrosia, but right now, it was good enough for me.
Smelling the coffee had reminded me of my hunger. I set down the cup. “Sorry to ask, but do you have anything to eat?” Paul smiled and went to the kitchen, returning with a plate of blue cookies. I’m not even sorry to say I ate the entire thing in less than a minute.
Looking back, I don’t know why the cookies and coffee gave me an existential crisis, but they did.
"What if I just...die."
Paul choked on his tea. "I... I don't think that's a very...ah, healthy mentality to have," he said once he'd stopped coughing.
I stared up at the ceiling. "No I mean, I can actually die now. That's new, it's never been possibility before."
He sighed in relief. "Oh, thank god. Don't say things like that, you're going to give someone a heart attack."
I shrugged. "Hey, just dealing with my mortality. That's an angsty teenager thing, right?"
Paul pushed up his glasses to press the bases of his palms into his eyes. "Angsty teenager thing? I guess. But when people say things like 'what if I just die' we tend to be a little more concerned than just 'they're an angsty teenager'. Or at least, I tend to."
"Side effect of being a teacher?"
"Side effect of knowing people who are mentally ill," he corrected. "Do gods not have to worry about that either?"
I pointedly looked away. "It's different. Once you've lived a few millennia..."
"You learn to live with it? It doesn't seem as bad?" Paul rested his elbows on his knees. "You just...stop feeling?"
"My brain works a little differently than yours." I crossed my arms. "And I didn't sign up for therapy."
Paul seemed to surrender and returned to his tea, but then he abruptly looked up. “So it’s different for gods than it is for humans, I got that. But… what about demigods?”
I thought about that for a second. “Their issue is that they feel too much.”
Paul sunk down in his chair as if my words had pushed him.
“Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear,” I told him. You know, I hadn’t really considered it before now, how demigods emotions work. Side effects of being a shitty dad, I guess. Shit. Right. I was a dad. I was going to have to go to Camp Half-Blood, and I was going to have to face my kids. I didn’t even know all of their names. And… some of them were older than my mortal form. I shuddered just thinking about it.
“You okay there, kid?” Paul asked.
“Yeah, sorry. Uh, this is going to sound weird coming from my adolescent face, but I was just thinking about my...kids.”
Paul gave me a once-over and chuckled. “Right. You have those.” And then he did something unexpected. He laughed. A loud, resonating laugh that projected outwards and filled the entire room. And it was infectious. I couldn’t help but start laughing, too. It was just then that Sally decided to come into the room.
“And what are you boys up to?” she asked, a smile hinted on her lips.
Paul looked up at her, taking off his glasses to wipe the tears that were welling up in his eyes. “This nerd,” he wheezed, in between laughs, “has kids.”
“Holy shit,” Sally responded, and then she started to giggle as well. Then, it was just the three of us, sitting at a dining room table, laughing our asses off and gasping for air. This is what a family is supposed to feel like, I thought. It was comforting and warm and supportive and not at all what I was used to. And it was beautiful. If Percy Jackson weren’t Percy Jackson, I’d kill to trade lives with him.
“Sorry to kill the sheer hilarity of this incredibly stupid situation, but speaking of my kids,” I cut in. “I probably should go see them.”
Sally looked at me quizzically before glancing over my shirt. “Oh.” She looked back up at me. “You want us to take you to Camp Half-Blood.”
“Yeah,” I replied. "I figure I’m inconveniencing you by staying here for too long, and it’s my best shot at getting my immortality back.”
“You’re not an inconvenience,” Sally began, surprising me. That was a new one. “But also, the drive to camp is incredibly dangerous.”
“Oh, in that case I’ll just go there myself if you give me the directions.”
“Oh gods no, I can’t let you do that. In the state you’re in right now, that would be bad news. If you really need to get to camp, I’ll go with you.”
“Me too,” Paul piped up.
Sally paled. “No. It’s too dangerous. ”
“He came here, meaning he’s my responsibility, too. Plus, I need to know you guys are safe,” Paul insisted.
She gave in. “Alright, fine. But Paul, you need to promise to trust me, and don’t try to protect me from what you don’t completely understand, alright?”
“Okay,” he promised. “I’m just the moral support. Not the bodyguard.”
“Thank you,” said Sally, the color returning to her face but the worry remaining. “But if you get hurt, Apollo, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Paul gave me a knowing glance, and I returned it. “I’ll stay alive. I can promise you that. So when do we leave?”
“I’m thinking later tonight, when it gets darker,” Sally said. “Just so nobody asks who you are or what you’re doing with us. Or thinks you’re…” she trailed off.
“Good idea,” I replied, and she sighed in relief knowing she didn’t need to finish the thought. “Tonight it is.”
