The Old Jackson Twins Book 2

Chapter Seven

Aria had been to an underwater palace. She had been to a palace floating over New York City. She'd even been to an Underworld palace. None of them had prepared her for Queen Valkyrie's palace.

Not that it was amazing and stunning and awe-inspiring. No, it was pretty much the exact opposite. It was a little shack by the sea, with blankets hanging on the walls to keep out the chill. All in all, it would not have made Aria's Top Ten Vacation Spots.

The queen didn't match her palace at all. Her crown was non-existent, her royal dress was a vest and jeans, and her high heels were winter boots. But she stood straight-backed and tall, and her face had a sort of regality that made Aria flash back to the weeks after the end of the Titan War, when even the mention of any of the gods made her shiver, sure they'd kill her at any second.

Reyna squeezed her hand, no doubt sensing her insecurities about being so close to someone who technically was a goddess and who Aria was pretty sure already hated her. "Your Majesty," Reyna said, nodding slightly out of respect. "We've come with a warning."

Aria quickly realized what Reyna's plan was. The Avengers clearly considered the twins to be a high enough threat that the Asgardians should know about them - Reyna must have talked to the Avengers about it while Aria was in Florida - but to make them seem less dangerous, Reyna was bringing another threat to the queen's attention, the same threat the girls had been battling since Gaea's destruction: the uprising of monsters Mother Earth had caused.

The queen raised an eyebrow. "A warning? How... interesting."

"A little under two years ago," Aria began, "the Oracle of Delphi gave a prophecy known as The Prophecy Of Seven."

"The Oracle?"

"You Asgardians were believed to be gods by the Vikings," Reyna added, shooting a look at Aria that clearly said maybe we ought to start from the beginning, genius, did you think of that? (Aria had gotten very good at reading Reyna's expressions, as typically they came when she'd fucked up). "But you aren't gods. The notion of gods originated with the Greeks, who believed in deities they called the Olympians, along with many minor gods and goddesses. The twelve Olympians were Zeus, king of the gods and god of storms, Hera, the goddess of family and marriage, Poseidon, the god of the sea, Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, Apollo, the god of the sun and of music, Artemis, the goddess of the moon and of the Hunt, Ares, the god of war, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, Hermes, the god of travelers, messengers, and thieves, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, Dionysus, the god of wine and madness, and Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmithing. They also believed in gods such as Hades, the god of the Underworld, Thanatos, the god of death, and Hestia, the goddess of the hearth. When the Roman empire came into power and conquered Greece, they adopted their gods, but slightly changed their names and personalities to make them more Roman. Zeus became Jupiter, Hera became Juno, Poseidon became Neptune, Demeter became Ceres, Apollo remained Apollo, Artemis became Diana, Ares became Mars, Aphrodite became Venus, Hermes became Mercury, Athena became Minerva, Dionysus became Bacchus, Hephaestus became Vulcan, Hades became Pluto, Thanatos became Mors, and Hestia became Vesta. Those gods fell to the Roman Catholic Church, and eventually were dismissed as myth. They were never myth, however, and their children both Greek and Roman carried on their legacy in secret, vanquishing monsters and saving the mortal world. Aria is a daughter of Poseidon, and I am a daughter of the Roman goddess of war, Bellona. She and I are... vigilantes, fighting monsters and saving the children of the gods, known as demigods or half-bloods." Reyna paused, and Aria took that as her cue.

"As I was saying, our Oracle, Rachel, gives us prophecies for quests. Two years ago, Rachel gave a prophecy predicting that seven demigods would save the world from herself."

"And you were two of these seven?" the queen asked.

"No, we weren't. My brother was, though. The prophecy began about a year later, when the Greek and Roman demigods, previously unknown to each other, met, and promptly went to war. Gaea, primordial goddess of the earth, began to stir. And lemme tell you, Gaea is a nasty customer. She's not exactly Snow White. I would know, I met her in person multiple times. When she began to stir, her children, the giants, born to oppose the gods, were reborn. She woke on August first last year, about two weeks before I turned seventeen, and was destroyed within hours by the Seven. For a month before that, the Seven sailed across the ocean to Europe, and one of them, Annabeth, recovered an ancient statue called the Athena Parthenos, that could heal the ancient rift between the Greeks and Romans." Aria glanced at Reyna with a smile. "Though some of us managed it without the statue. Anyways, I'd been traveling with the Seven because my brother was there, my cousin, Nico, had been rescued by the Seven in Rome, and a satyr named Hedge was our chaperone. When Annabeth recovered the statue, she and my brother- well, they fell into Tartarus, which is basically Hell, and is where all monsters go when they die and wait to be reborn. Because Annabeth is Annabeth, they managed to survive, and sent a message to Camp Half-Blood, Greek headquarters - from fucking Tartarus - saying that Reyna had to be the one to bring the Athena Parthenos back to New York. She arrived the same day we got Percy and Annabeth back to the mortal world. The four of us parted ways with the Seven, and while they fought the giants, we shadowtraveled with the statue, fell in love-" Reyna elbowed her. "Ow! And brought the statue back to Camp Half-Blood just as Gaea woke. The Seven - well, actually, Leo destroyed her. She's gone for good. But the monsters she woke and saved from Tartarus are not. We've been tracking as many as we can, but at the end of the day, monsters always come back from Tartarus, and we will both eventually die."

"So you've come to warn us of the scourge of monsters?" Valkyrie guessed.

"Yes. We've been trying, but half-bloods are, ah, having a rough time with this," Reyna lied. The half-bloods were, in reality, surviving, and in most cases, thriving, but flattering gods, immortal and all-powerful or not, was always a good idea. "So if you would be on the lookout for Greek or Roman monsters, that'd be helpful."

The queen nodded. "Of course. But I doubt you're here to warn me about the monsters. SHIELD sent you to warn me about you."

Aria's heart skipped a beat, which was a much better feeling when Reyna was kissing her than it was when their carefully crafted story had been torn apart. "I- yeah, they did. Specifically, me and my twin brother, Percy."