Chapter Text
August 18, 2045
More than thirty-five years ago, she and her companions - the heroes of Olympus, as they came to be known - defeated Gaea once and for all, shattering her consciousness into so many pieces that it could never be reformed.
Piper McLean could never have imagined that her already chaotic life would become even more so after that, but alas, it did. Just when she and her friends thought they could finally rest, the Gods offered them immortality as a reward for saving Olympus and the world. Still buoyed by adrenalin and devastated by Leo's 'death' to defeat Gaia, they had accepted without giving much thought to what they were committing themselves to.
Thus, the Heroes of Olympus along with Nico Di Angelo, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano and Will Solace had obtained the gift of eternal life. And that was the nuance: they had become immortal, but they were not gods. The fact that Leo was in fact alive only served to reassure them even more, the fact that he too had acquired immortality in another way was just an added bonus.
The problem was that the many traumas they'd all suffered for months didn't go away because the war against Gaea and the Giants was over. They had all been affected in their own way and needed time to recover.
Piper had broken up with Jason Grace, who until then had been her boyfriend. The problem with their relationship was that it had technically been fabricated by Hera, and although they felt a lot for each other, they needed to find that out for themselves. The problem was that their break-up had made their relationship rather...awkward.
Percy and Annabeth had also broken up, and what a surprise it was for everyone, including her mother Aphrodite who thought they were the perfect couple, due to the fact that Percy had discovered his strong attraction to his own sex. Yep, Percy Jackson was gay. They had tried to remain friends, but it had been ( extremely ) complicated.
Will and Nico finally admitted their feelings for each other and became a couple, thank Gods.
Hazel and Frank had married a few years after the end of the war, earning them an acid comment from Hera that they were stupid to get married with someone so early in their immortal lives. Very ironic coming from the Goddess of Marriage.
Leo was happy with Calypso, who was finally free, and in love with a man who loved her just as much in return.
Reyna had immersed herself in her duties in New Rome and as far as she knew, had never made the ‘mistake’ of falling in love with someone else again, as sad as that was.
But try as they might, they couldn't help going their separate ways and 'cutting ties' as the saying goes. So even though more than three decades had passed, and none of them had aged a day, they were no longer really in touch, if distant. Another problem with their quick, ill-considered decision was the fact that while they were no longer aging, their families were. And Piper could confirm that there was nothing worse than watching her father age more and more each year and realizing that he would eventually die and she never would. Her father, Tristan McLean, was now old enough to appear to be her grandfather!
And now, for the first time in years, they were all coming together for Percy Jackson's fifty-second birthday. And how odd it was to have received this invitation from a man she hadn't seen in nearly twenty years, but she also saw this as an opportunity to reconnect with everyone, and she wouldn't let it pass for anything in the world.
So, on August 18, she went to the address given in the message from Poseidon's son. Percy had apparently chosen to settle in Canada, in a huge house (seriously, how had he bought that?!) next to an immense lake of clear blue water. The house and lake were in a valley surrounded by mountains and forests, the perfect place for peace and quiet, and Piper had to admit it was simply stunning.
She parked her car on the grass where other cars were already parked. Looking up, she met Annabeth Chase's steely gaze and a nervous smile spread across her face. Another person she hadn't seen in years. Looking around a little, she realized that most of the others were already there, all the 7, their others friends like Reyna and Nico, and even Grover and his wife. She said hello to everyone, although it was one of the most embarrassing moments of her life. She avoided Jason's gaze like the plague.
"We've been waiting for you to arrive. We thought it'd be best if we all went together," Frank declared, scratching the back of his neck nervously. Piper could see that he didn't really know how to behave with this reunion, as they all did.
Before she could reply, another car pulled up beside them, and Sally Jackson, Percy's mother, along with her husband Paul Blofis and their daughter Estelle, got out. And ouch, the shock. Sally had always been a beautiful woman, and even though she'd aged and her hair was white, her smile remained warm as she said hello to them.
"Oh you've all come for my Percy's birthday, I'm so glad you've all accepted, it'll make him so happy."
Estelle Blofis was now a young woman of 35, and it was really odd that she looked older than all the people here who had seen her when she was just a baby of a few months.
"Come on, we've got other things to do, we shouldn't let people miss us," she declared with a smirk.
And it seemed she'd inherited the same behavior as their black-haired friend.
"No, we can wait a bit, I think Percy invited his father too, he'll be here any moment." replied Sally gently.
And okay, that made sense. Since they'd become immortals, their divine parents had been allowed to spend more time with them, although not much and they were already adults.
And indeed, some twenty seconds later, Poseidon, the God of the Sea, the Father of Horses and the Earthshaker, appeared in a shimmer, the smell of the sea with him. He was dressed in his famous Hawaiian shirt, flip-flops and Bermuda shorts. His black hair and green eyes, that his son had inherited, were as captivating as ever. He contented himself with a smile for the immortal demigods before greeting Sally with a sad, wistful smile.
He wasn't the only God to appear, for a few seconds later, Apollo, was here too, in all his golden splendor, so bright as the sun that it made your eyes ache to look at him.
"Sorry the youngsters, I’m late, I had some business to attend to." he announced with a big smile.
Okay, so Percy had invited two gods to his birthday party? That was odd. But then, who was she to question that? If she could have invited her mother to her birthday party, she would have too. But this invitation, after all this time and all the different guests, made it seem as if Percy wanted to make a big announcement, which was rather disturbing.
"Well, now that everyone's here, we can finally go." huffed Estelle, who didn't wait for an answer before heading for the door. The fact that Estelle didn't seem at all surprised by the appearance of a literal God before her eyes was further proof that she had inherited her mother's ability to see through the mist. Poor Paul must have been often confused, even knowing that all monsters and gods really existed.
Without speaking, because the atmosphere was already tense enough, they all ended up following her. Once in front of the door, it was Leo who threw himself in front of everyone to knock like a child, over thirty years had passed, and he was still the same Leo, which brought a smile to her face.
What none of them expected was for a man they'd never seen before to open the door. He was very tall, over six feet, with extremely broad shoulders and a highly developed musculature. His hair was jet-black and just long enough to shade his eyes, which were a brilliant electric blue. He had numerous tattoos all over his left arm. His gaze passed over each of them, all too shocked by this stranger and asking themselves twenty-thousand questions in their heads as to who he was or what he was doing there. Was he Percy's lover? But before they could continue asking themselves too many questions, Sally stepped forward in the man's direction.
"Tobias, look how much you've grown. Oh, you're even taller than the last time I saw you." Sally laughed with a big smile before taking the stranger in her arms in what seemed to be a customary gesture. The man also hugged her for a few seconds before releasing her and smiling.
"In my opinion it's more you who's shrinking now, Grandma." he replied cheekily, which made her laugh. By contrast, the rest of the group had completely frozen at what they'd just heard, including the two Gods. Grandma? Grandma, like... Wait, wait, wait... What?! The man called Tobias looked at them all again before addressing them. "You must all be tonight's guests, pleased to meet you, I'm Tobias Jackson, and I believe you already know my father."
Most of them had their mouths wide open like fish and their eyes so wide that it would be comical if they weren't all collectively in shock. And it was also the first time Piper had seen Apollo at a loss for words.
"Hi big boy, tell me where my favorite niece is?" exclaimed Estelle happily after kissing her nephew on the cheek.
"Be careful Iris doesn't hear you, you might offend her." he snarked, before turning and leaving the door wide open, and beckoning them to follow.
Stupidly, they did so, still too stunned to use their vocal cords.
However, they weren't at the end of their surprise when they entered what must have been the living room, which was just huge, and some twenty people were already there, standing and talking, or sitting on the room's many armchairs and sofas.
What the fuck?
Piper could count twenty-two people, twenty-three if she counted the newly-appointed Tobias.
Estelle rushed forward to hug a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties and had beautiful flaming red hair. What made Piper swallow nervously was the fact that the young woman's eyes were an all-too-familiar sea-green.
Sally and Paul didn't seem the least bit surprised by all these strangers and went off to say hello to everyone. Piper could see that Annabeth's face had paled considerably, and Piper could understand why when she realized that many of these people had the same eyes as their friend.
She had a sinking feeling in her stomach, the longer she looked at all of them. Oh, she had her theory, probably the same as Annabeth's, but she couldn't confirm anything just yet. She took advantage of her (former) friends' silence to look at as many of these strangers as possible.
A tall, muscular man with red hair, blazing orange eyes and a well-groomed beard was arguing with a man with curly black hair, so muscular that Piper knew he could knock someone out with a single blow.
A man with short blond hair who was honestly one of the most gorgeous men Piper had ever seen in her life, yes she had a thing for blonds, was sitting in an armchair reading a book and wireless headphones in his ears. Across from him on a couch, two men were engaged in what looked like a rather important discussion.
Three completely identical men, from their tanned skin to their black hair, the only difference being that all three had different tattoos all over their bodies, were in one corner of the room seemingly content to ignore everyone else.
A young man with black hair that seemed to look dark purple if you looked at it a certain way and dark violet eyes was sipping from a glass of wine in his hand, talking with another blond-haired, blue-eyed young man who looked an awful lot like Will, and seeing the look on Nico's face she wasn't the only one to think so.
Piper was interrupted from her analysis of the various people in the room when one of them, a tall tanned man, with black hair reaching to the back of his neck, with a stubble, and piercing sea-green eyes stood up and clapped his hands to attract attention. He was dressed in dark green shorts and a dark blue shirt with ocean motifs on it, all the buttons completely open, showing impressively sculpted abs as well as pecs that would make more than one salivate.
"My dear brothers and sisters, we have guests," he declared in a deep, gravelly voice, pointing in their direction as they entered the room. At his declaration, all eyes turned to them and Piper almost felt like hiding behind Frank. "So on this special night, let's try not to be barbarians and cause trouble."
"And you're the one saying this, Alec? Stop it, you're going to make me laugh." sneered one of the strangest-looking women Piper had ever seen. She had luscious, jet-black hair that came down to her shoulders and almost seemed to wave. Her eyes were a piercing gray, even more so than Athena herself. Her skin was dark violet, darkening to black on her forearms, and her fingernails were blood-red and talon-like. Finally, her ears were pointed, like an elf's in the movies. The black and silver dress she was wearing only accentuated these features. And although there was something terrifying about this woman, and her appearance was very strange, she was nonetheless what Piper would call deadly beautiful.
"Thank you, Lydia. I love you too, lil sis. All this to say, once my dear family has finished introducing themselves to you all, we'll just have to wait for our father, who should be here any minute, so we can get to the table. As for me, my name is Alexander Jackson, Alec for short, and I'm thirty one years old. A pleasure to meet you all."
Piper (and all the other 'heroes') could do nothing more than stand frozen, eyes wide open.
She suspected the invitation was suspicious, but she hadn't expected that at all.
One thing was certain, it was going to be interesting.