Heroes of Olympus: Endgame

Chapter 1

Chaos never lied, that much Gaea was sure of. Sure, he manipulated and whispered, but every word he spoke was the truth. Or at least what he believed was the truth. Which is why she was surprised to have not disappeared when Chaos enacted his plan. Chaos had promised that all immortal beings would disappear come the fulfillment of his plan. From what Gaea could guess, everyone else disappeared. All the Olympians were gone, the minor gods were dusted, Titans were dead, and the Primordials were nothing. Except Gaea. She was the only one left, and she wasn't one-hundred percent sure why. It might be because once Chaos claimed his soul power it ripped her divinity from her, but she wasn't completely sure. However, one thing that was certain was that she was alive. And because of that, she was intent on helping.

      "The entire time I knew Chaos, he only ever had one goal," Gaea whispered, she stared at the window as everyone sat around in the living room of the Big House.
"To wipe out all immortal beings, and half of all mortal life."
Annabeth nodded,
"I guessed that after he wiped out all immortal beings and half of all mortal life."
Nico chuckled darkly, but everybody ignored him.
"Oh screw you guys," Annabeth said, "that's funny."
Gaea sighed,
"Look, I never truly understood my father's reasoning. He is a horrible creature. His reasoning was that immortals were horrible creatures that abused their power. By wiping out all of them, mortal life could start over."
"And the half of all mortals thing?"
"To show mortals what they were doing wrong, and help them understand."
Sadie sat in the corner, her legs crossed, and her head bowed.
"I recently made contact with Brooklyn House, a good chunk of the magicians there are gone," she murmured. Gaea couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy. Everyone here had lost so much in an attempt to stand up to her father, but they never would've had to if she had kept her secret better. Alex perked up,
"Hotel Valhalla's einherjar that were dusted haven't come back yet. We're starting to think they aren't coming back at all, and a good chunk of the Valkyries are gone."
Most of them had feared the einherjar being dead permanently. Magnus had died outside of the hotel, so it made sense as to why he wasn't back. However they had hoped the ones inside the hotel would follow the same rules as regular einherjar. However it seemed that Chaos' power trumped the magic of the hotel, and they were gone permanently. Gaea looked over to Percy. The raven-haired man sat in the corner, Destroyer leaning against the wall, a heavy coat around his shoulders, his hands intertwined and arms on his knees.
"Is he going to be okay?" Gaea asked, gesturing to him. Annabeth glanced over,
"Yeah," she murmured softly, "yeah, he should be. He just, he's drowning himself in self-loathing right now. Granted that's not really healthy, but then again all of us are, so I can't really blame him."
Hazel ran her hand up and down the arm of the couch,
"He knows it isn't his fault, right?" she murmured. Percy spoke up,
"I had him, right there, I had my ax planted into his chest, and I could've killed him. But I let vengeance overtake me, Hazel. Because I wanted to see him suffer, everyone died. So yes, it is my fault."
Everyone was silent for a moment, before Nico said,
"I'm not opening that can of worms."
Another moment of tense silence, before Nico said,
"Here's my question, what do we do?"
Everyone looked to him,
"What do you mean?" Sadie asked. Nico shrugged,
"Look, we know that Chaos completed his plan. So what do we do about it?"
Annabeth shrugged,
"What can we do about it?"
Alex clenched his fists,
"I'll tell you what we do, we go to wherever Chaos is, we take him down, and then bring everyone back."
Annabeth shrugged,
"I would love to, but we don't know where he is, much less how to beat him."
Gaea spoke up,
"He's on Ogygia."
Percy looked to her,
"What?"
"He told me before he went on his first rampage, he told me he had a plan. That when it was completed, he would settle on a small island I had created. Ogygia. That was long before the gods put Calypso on it."
"If we do go in," Sadie said, "what's going to make it any different from last time?"
"Because before you didn't have me!"
Everyone turned towards the strange new voice. Destroyer flew into Percy's head and charged itself with lightning. Shadows collected around Nico's sword. Alex's feature took a vague wolf shape. Sadie's fingers glowed with magic. Everyone stared towards the new visitor, before Percy asked,
"Who the hell are you?"