BY fates design

God gone missing

The next morning came all too soon for Cassiopeia, the warmth of her bed and husband was hardly something she wanted to leave, but duty was impossible to ignore.

Reluctantly, the day was set in motion as she pulled herself from the comfort of the sheets, Percy following close behind, hands hardly leaving her skin as they went through the motions.

"Morning." He murmured, voice thick with sleep as his chin rested on her shoulder, one arm around her waist with his fingers splayed over her stomach as the other reached for his toothbrush.

"Mm" nodding, Cassiopeia kissed his cheek fleetingly, sleepily focusing on brushing her own teeth.

When they entered the Grand Hall after making themselves presentable, they found it mostly full, couches occupied with groups of gossiping mages and demigods.

"Peia!" Achlys's voice carried across the stone walls, greeting Cassiopeia's ears with a brightness unbefitting of the early hour. "Come here." She urged, grinning as she waved the dark haired demigod over.

Sighing softly, Cassiopeia kissed Percy's cheek, bidding him a quick goodbye as they parted ways, him going to sit beside Nico and Thalia, while she joined Achlys and Jake just as the screen flicker to life.

When she'd launched herself off the cliff to chase after Annabeth, she'd truly had no idea about what would happen afterwards, could never have predicted that they would simply vanish and reappear somewhere new - somewhere ancient and sick with evil. It was palpable, a vile taste to the air that made it thick as it crawled down her throat with each breath.

A dark hillside shrouded in fog. There was no sky here, only a close heavy darkness that pressed down on the earth. Old broken Greek columns of black marble were scattered around like the evidence of a mighty blast many years ago.

Stone bit into her knee, cold and bruising, and once more she was forced to consider the situation she'd found herself in. Crushing weight sat atop her shoulders and back, constraining her to kneel beneath the monumental pressure.

This force, however, paled in comparison to the weight that lived in her chest, had made its abode in her ribcage and toyed with the beat of her heart. That weight had no body, no fingers nor teeth, and yet it clawed and tore at her mind, shredding her sanity with a hounds canines and a bears jaws. That monster inside her was heavier than the sky in every way that mattered.

The sky.
Yes, that's what she was holding, supporting with her body, becoming the only thing between it and the earth, the sole barrier preventing the world from being flattened.

Annabeth had been taken somewhere when they first arrived, Luke had dragged her away after Cassiopeia had been restrained by shackles of cloud and ozone.

Annabeth and Cassiopeia struggled up the hillside, "Thorn!" Annabeth cried. "Where are you? Why did you bring us here?" She scrambled over a section of broken wall, Cassiopeia's hands reaching out hastily to steady her as they crested the hill.

A gasp caught in Annabeth's throat.
There was Luke. And he was in pain.
He was crumpled on the rocky ground, in a futile attempt to rise. The darkness around him swarmed thicker, fog swirling hungrily like ravenous beasts. His clothes were tattered and his face scratched, drenched with sweat from straining

Jake frowned at the sight of Luke, he had never been close to the boy, even before everything went so horribly wrong, but over the years since he abandoned camp, Thalia had taken to sharing stories about the son of Hermes when sleep eluded them.

Perhaps there could have been a world wherein they were friends, where Luke had found the support he needed at camp rather than in the claws of a titan. Perhaps that was the world that would be born of this ripple in time.