Blessings from Khaos

|Kulang Ang Araw Ko Kung Wala Ka|

As the two of them walked out of Temple Hill, Medea spent the time teasing Percy about Octavian. It reminded him very much of Drew teasing Lea about himself.

It was as they were walking down the side of the hill that the son of Háidēs seemed to bleed from the shadows. Father tensed before turning slowly towards his brother with an unimpressed frown. Háidēs himself shrugged unrepentant.

"Hey," Medea called, nodding her head at her technical prince for Trivia was a goddess of the Netherworld and Nico's Father was its king. "I've brought a blast from the past."

Nico turned to look at them, dark eyes peeking out through messy black hair.

"Percy Jackson," Medea announced with gravitas. Not that she needed to since they all knew each other though the son of Poseidón wouldn't remember that. "Percy, this is Nico, the son of Pluto."

Percy scowled. "I—I know you."

Nico raised his eyebrows. "Do you?" He looked at Medea for explanation.

"Drop the act," Medea scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Percy's lost his memory." She explained what happened since Percy arrived at the gates before turning to look at the son of Poseidón. "Nico travels all over. All I know is that you helped him out one time, but Lea didn't explain much more."

"This story about Gaea's army," Nico said, changing the subject. "You warned Reyna?"

Percy nodded. "Who is Gaea, anyway?"

"She's the earth goddess." Nico glanced at the ground as if it might be listening. "The oldest goddess of all. She's in a deep sleep most of the time, but she hates the gods and their children."

"Mother Earth...is evil?" Percy asked.

"I wouldn't say that," Dēmḗtēr mused. "More as in she's protective of her children as she rightfully should be. It's just the fact that there is no right answer in how to treat them."

"Very," Nico said gravely. "She convinced her son, the Titan Kronos—um, I mean, Saturn—to kill his dad, Caelus, and take over the world. The Titans ruled for a long time. Then the Titans' children, the Dii Consentes gods, overthrew them."

"That story seems familiar, but I don't think I ever heard the part about Gaea."

Over in the armory, Reyna stormed in with her dogs, looking troubled. "Magnus. That's enough with the armor. Go find Medea. Get Percy Jackson down here. He's been up there too long. I don't want Octavian..." She hesitated. "Just get Percy down here."

Her words would be insulting if she knew that the two of them were khaos-mates, but alas she did not. She had good reason to worry though. The Son of Troy was mildly power hungry, but more in the effect that if he could, he would bring New Roma out of the shadows and establish it as the world's leading power all over again with a healthy dose of money being poured into underdeveloped avenues like mental health, ocean exploration, and scientific research to expand on the human body.

Truthfully they should be glad that the boy was so busy fighting against the corruption within New Roma and subsequently adjusting his plans when Apollō or Dīāna or Venus or Mārs killed any adult that dared to touch him before he became of legal age.

That was also without mentioning his new passive aggressive stance against Reyna by weaponizing the law book and paperwork against her since she was the last to see Jason Grace.

The boy was the last of a great legacy... Well, one of the last. Mercurius wouldn't bring up attention to the other line and carefully pushed that thought to the deep recesses of his mind. Either way, the boy had lost so much in life that he would kill to hold onto what he carved out for himself.