Children of Olympia: Apocalypse

Gods Gave Gifts

Nico felt bad for Alex.

He travelled all the way to the past to change the fate his world is facing, only to find he was on wrong tracks. Now, all he had was a direction from Fates that certainly made no sense.

"Alex?" Annabeth said, somehow reading his thoughts. "At least we have somewhere to start."

Alex frowned and turned away. "Why would I follow what you say? You led them in the battle. Your strategies made them victorious. The gods trusted you and you betrayed them. I've seen your worst. What makes you think I would trust you?"

Annabeth took a deep sigh. "I swear on River Styx that I will not do anything that would make our future like yours."

Nico stared at her blankly. An oath on Styx! This girl was serious.

"Also," she continued. "I swear to fight against anyone who tries to do that. Is that enough?"

Nico was surprised. This face of Annabeth was completely new. For the first time, Nico had seen something else in those stormy gray eyes... remorse.

"Are you sure you have interpreted it right?" Alex asked, probably accepting her advice.

"I hope so." Annabeth replied with a warm smile. "Besides, there's no scope to be wrong."

"Twelve demigods." he spoke, "Easy for you to say, with the entirety of two demigod camps. Back in my time, there ain't a single demigod who would fight the New Olympians. Twelve seems like a dream."

"That's what I was thinking." Annabeth said. "We are coming with you!"

"We are?" Percy asked.

"No, you're not!" Alex snapped quickly. "One set of you is enough pain, I won't go for another."

"Moreover," Zeus, who had remained silent for long, finally spoke, "it would be dangerous to let you wander off unchecked."

"Can't we just kill them?" Ares asked.

"No!" Poseidon replied. "You know one of them is your own son, right?"

"Doesn't mean we'd keep you unnoticed." Zeus said. "We'll keep a check on you 24x7."

"Practically, we're grounded." Percy spoke.

"We can't take a risk." Poseidon said. "Look, we know you're our kids and we're proud of it, but you have to keep personal emotions aside when the world's at stake."

"Anyway," Nico spoke, "I'm going to the future. Just to be sure."

Before the gods could comment on that, Alex nodded and spoke, "You have my approval."

That was typically unexpected. Alex approved without a single word? So, did he trusted him? Or he didn't considered him a threat? Maybe he did, but thought it would be easy to kill him in his time.

"So, what's the plan?" he asked.

"Same as before." Annabeth said. "We'll be glad to help you with recruits."

Alex considered. "So, with Nico, I need eleven more demigods."

"Ten." Hera corrected. "The Fates didn't made it particular for demigods. If Mother Rhea chose you as her champion, you are a Child of Olympia."

"I'd like to join!" Conner said with smile. "If the future Travis killed the future me, I feel he needs a lesson."

"I think the gods must choose a representative each to go to the future." Athena said. "One of their demigod children."

"Wisdom has spoken." Hera said. "But as we see, my husband here has both his demigod children grounded. So has Poseidon and Hades. Hestia don't even have any child!"