Chapter 8

Kindness and cruelty are not mutually exclusive. Be careful, and never fall into the trap of thinking that you can do no wrong.

-Quote attributed to Chiron, Mentor of Heroes

Percy opened the door to his room. He had come here first, even before stopping to clean the sweat and dirt from his face, half-expecting to find Ingvild dead or missing.

Thankfully, his worst fear was just plain old paranoia. Ingvild slept deeply, still snuggled beneath the duvet and curled in on herself. She looked about as peaceful as she had before he had gone to the Netherworld. And she still snored like a motorcycle. Everything seemed fine.

He scanned the corners of the room, just in case.

Entering, he went over to kneel beside Ingvild. Hand on her shoulder, he tried to wake her up again with a shake. A snore for his effort was all he got.

"Fine, be that way." He stood and, after gathering a new set of clothes, left for the bathroom. He left the bedroom door cracked open.

Inside the bathroom, he ran cold water from the faucet and scrubbed his face. Taking a shower would have been nice, but Tiamat was waiting for him. Later, he promised himself. He really wasn't all that dirty anyway.

Deftly, he pulled off his torn shirt, wincing as a phantom ache blossomed across his gut. He checked the skin there more closely—it was the same place where Thanatos' projected cut had struck him—but he didn't see any visible sign of damage. The curse of the Styx had protected him from the worst of that attack. It couldn't save him from everything, true, but it was more than enough to save him from even the sharpest scythe.

Experience taught him that.

He rubbed the back of his shoulder and winced. Getting hung up on the past was a mistake. It was making him needlessly miserable. He knew that.

The past didn't want to let him go, though.

The past was kind of scary in that way.

As he swapped his rumpled clothes for what he'd brought with him, the ache lessened. He thought back to Thanatos' question. Well, the two questions, though they were practically in the same vein.

When Kronos had killed him with Backbiter for the first time, Percy didn't think his soul could be affected by time. Souls didn't strike him as being bound by the laws of time or space, after all.

But he had been brought back… and then Kronos had killed him again.

Souls were weird. If Thanatos' scythe could cut the soul like Kronos', then Percy wasn't sure what to think about the state of his soul now.

Mild aches and pains were hardly anything to write home about, though. Maybe he really had become geriatric, coming down with a bad case of arthritis at some point.

If only he were so lucky. A herniated disk would be the least of his troubles at any given point.

Percy looked at himself in the mirror again.

Yeesh, Tiamat was right. I look rough.

With a flick, he sent Riptide spinning through the air, catching it between two fingers only a second later. Even now that the pressing threat of Thanatos was dealt with, he wouldn't be able to let his guard down. Both Hades and Nyx were dangerous, and he wouldn't put it past them to come looking for revenge, especially considering how poetic it would be, universally speaking.

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that. Nyx knew a lot more about him now that she'd seen him fight. She didn't know everything, but she knew more than Thanatos had.

That was… not great. It wasn't terrible, either, but it really wasn't good.

There were never any good choices to make. This time, he hadn't even had a choice. Thanatos admitted he would have returned if Percy hadn't gone looking for him.

It had to be this way.

This was for the best. Thanatos had actually been much easier to fight than he had been expecting, too.

That said, he didn't think there would have been a fight at all if they had been by ordinary water. The River Lethe had resisted his control, oddly enough, which he'd noticed all the way back at Hades' temple, and which had thrown his first plan way off-kilter. He had needed to buy time so he could finally control the river's water properly.

Why the Lethe had resisted was still beyond him. He hadn't had that much trouble even with the Styx back in his timeline, nor when he'd first controlled the Lethe during his battle with Iapetus.

Percy flexed his hand. The water all throughout the building blipped on his metaphoric radar, proving that his powers weren't on the fritz.

He looked down at Riptide.

"And you're still with me, too."

Percy didn't need to take the cap off his pen. He could still feel the leather fitted into his palm.

"Thanks for sticking around."

He pocketed Riptide, threw his old clothes into the hamper by the door, and walked out into the living room. The blinds had been drawn closed in his bedroom, but here they were wide open, and bright sunshine reflected from the nearby buildings to light up much of his apartment.

"Ingvild is still asleep," he announced upon entering the living room.

"We weren't gone for that long," Tiamat reminded him from her position on the farthest sofa. She had already busted out the drinks if the pitcher on the coffee table was any indication. There was also dried meat set out on a big platter, which Percy assumed was from her own stock. "I can examine her once we finish here. My experience with this particular illness is practically nonexistent, though. I think the best option we have is asking Ajuka."

"Buckletot?"

"Beetlejuice—I mean—Beelzebub," Tiamat caught her mistake quickly, but gave him a small glare regardless. "Stop that. You weren't even close and you know it."

"Close enough," he said, sitting on the sofa nearest to hers.

"Not really."

"Come on, it was close."

"If you're in this kind of mood right now, I shudder to think what some alcohol will do to you," she grumbled playfully.

"There's only one way to find out." Percy reached out for one of the decorated cups on the table. It was only half-filled, but he remembered how strong this stuff was. He took a sip. The edges of his vision wavered, and his world slowly started tilting to the left. He put the cup down and whistled. "Dangerous."

"Too true." Tiamat also sipped. "Would you mind if I started?"

He shook his head, sure that he would have to turn down some of her questions just on personal preference.

Tiamat let her eyes wander. She must have looked him up and down a few times before even opening her mouth, and when she did, she thought better of whatever she was about to ask and stayed quiet. After another drink from her cup, she finally settled on something.

"Why are you here?"

Percy scrunched his face. "What do you mean?"

Tiamat's fingers drummed slowly along the length of her cup. "Why did you come here? What brought you here—to this reality?"

He smiled bitterly. "I didn't choose to come here, and I don't know why I'm here. Honestly, I don't. I'll be real with you… I should be dead. I'm not, but I should be."

"I'm not one to say otherwise, but maybe you should be more grateful for the life you have," said Tiamat.

"No, I wasn't trying to be a buzz-kill or overly dramatic or anything. I mean I literally should be dead."

Tiamat ran the nail of her thumb over an arched eyebrow. "Thanatos said your soul is overdue. He said you should have died years ago. Was he right?"

"He was spot on." Already seeing the next question, Percy said, "Sit back and relax; I'm gonna have to give you an abridged version of what happened if you want any hope of understanding."

"Well then, allow me to get comfortable." Tiamat adjusted herself so she could lie on her stomach. Using her elbows to prop up the front of her body, she smiled prettily at him. "Much obliged."

"I'll keep it short," Percy promised. "You already know I'm a demigod. You probably already know that I'm a Greek demigod. And you know I'm not from this timeline. That saves me the trouble of explaining a few things."

"Go on."

Percy drank from his cup again. He blinked hard to get rid of the headiness that slammed into his senses. "You've heard of Kronos, right? King of the Titans. Lord of Time. Cannibal grandpa. I'm sure you have. Anyway, he'd spent a few thousand years rotting in Tartarus before returning for revenge against the Olympians. We—the demigods, I mean—tried to warn the gods, but they dragged their feet for a few years before doing anything big. That sucked."

"I assume that's where you learned to be more proactive," Tiamat said.

"Maybe," he agreed, eyes wandering to her crossed legs. Was his face already going a bit numb? Was he looking at her too much? It gave him something else to think about, at least. "Uh, anyway, it took some time, but eventually, Kronos gathered enough strength to attack New York. There weren't many of us defending. While he did that, Typhon—the big storm monster guy—was also on his way to New York, marching over from the west. The Olympians focused on him at first, but when Kronos got closer to his goal, a few came to help us in the city. They died. Typhon killed a few more in Nebraska and Kentucky."

"Why New York?"

"Olympus was above the Empire State Building. Kronos wanted to destroy Olympus. It all adds up."

"Ah. So, Kronos won?"

"Not exactly. He was never able to attain his full power. Somehow, the body his soul was being hosted by lasted long enough for us to take advantage of his mortal limits. The last thing I remember was when my friends and I were making our last stand, then, it was just Kronos and me. My friends were just... gone. Poof. He never told me what happened, but if I had to guess, it would be that he jumped ship into a new timeline. He lost. And he took it out on me."

Percy didn't have as much information as Kronos did. Only the Titan would know why he did what he did.

Still, it wouldn't make sense for Kronos to give up when he'd been so close to winning. Not unless he hadn't been able to win. Percy assumed the Titan had gone through more timelines, but failed in each of them. It might have had something to do with still being Luke's body.

"What happened then?"

Percy blinked. "He killed me." Backbiter flashed through his mind. "Every time he killed me, I woke up where we started in that first branched timeline. And he killed me again. Rinse, repeat. It was just the two of us for... for a long time..." He shrugged. "Until I killed him. After that… I don't remember. I ended up in Heaven."

Tiamat stopped lounging, rising to sit up properly. "The fact that you're here—alive—must mean something." She rubbed the side of her head thoughtfully. "How long did it take until you finally managed to kill Kronos? I imagine it took a few tries."

"Years, probably. It felt like years, at least."

"Years," Tiamat repeated. She pursed her lips. "I suppose your skill with a blade makes sense in that case. Was Kronos really so powerful that he could exert his will upon you for so long?"

"Yes."

"How did you kill him?" she asked.

He felt his eye twitch. "That..." Percy cleared his throat and wiped his sweaty palms against his shorts. "That doesn't really matter. He's dead. Definitely dead."

Tiamat squinted. "Hm. Before, you mentioned a prophecy going unfulfilled?"

Percy scoffed. "A half-blood of the eldest gods shall reach sixteen against all odds—Olympus to preserve or raze. It went something like that."

"You weren't the half-blood?"

"Prophecies are…" Percy could have settled on a dozen different words to sum up his opinion. "Prophecies have a tendency to work out in weird ways. I thought I was the half-blood—at least until my sixteenth birthday passed without the world ending. I was nineteen by the time Kronos attacked. My pal Nico, on the other hand, turned sixteen on that very day."

"With Kronos content to kill you, perhaps Olympus was preserved in some way? In your original timeline, I mean." Tiamat, if anything, sounded troubled by the possibility.

"That could be true," he said skeptically. "As far as I know, he never destroyed the Olympians' seats of power, though more than half of them ended up dying to either him or Typhon. I guess they could reform… if Typhon didn't destroy Olympus regardless."

"Improbable," Tiamat said.

"But possible," Percy finished.

They drank in unison.

Tiamat wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, sighing heavily. She scratched at her eyebrow and gave him a pitiful look. "You bear… much."

Maybe the drink was getting to him, but he couldn't help chuckling. He thought it was an understatement. His head almost felt too heavy to keep upright. "Honestly, I don't even think I can argue with you there."

She hummed noncommittally. "You know," Tiamat said, "since we're being honest and whatnot, I'll let you in on a little secret."

Percy wondered if the alcohol was getting to her too. He knew it was hitting him pretty hard. Still, he nodded and waved her along. "Feel free to share. We're all friends here."

"It's a little embarrassing to admit. Don't take it personally."

"Hey, when you say something like that, I get the urge to take it personally."

"I urge you to fight that urge."

"Oof. Too late. I am in... unending pain... all thanks to you."

"Why is it that I... sincerely doubt that... you strange boy?"

"I get the feeling you're mocking me."

"Oh, my apologies," Tiamat covered her mouth in shock. "I assumed you were trying to create a bad haiku. Playing along seemed natural."

"No, sorry, poetry isn't my thing."

She shook her head at him, smiling all the same. "I'll just get on with it." Reaching out, she took some meat from the table and tossed it into her mouth, chewing noisily as she spoke. "I half-expected you to die in the Netherworld. The odds were so far from favoring you that I almost can't believe you're still alive. To say that I'm impressed would be quite the understatement."

Percy leaned forward, already sitting at the edge of the sofa, and clasped his hands together. "No offense taken. I'm used to being the underdog."

"And I see you've managed to weaponize it. Very smart."

Weaponize it. The way she spoke made Percy wonder if she was actually praising him. It didn't sound patronizing, which helped make the case.

"Regardless of all that..." Tiamat rubbed her cheek, her expression softening even further, gaze directed at his hands. "You must miss your home."

"I... Uh... I mean, yeah... I try not to think about it. No point, I guess."

"What happened to you wasn't fair."

"Yeah... I know."

"Family?"

Percy looked away from her. He shook his head. "I don't know what happened to them. Maybe they got away. Maybe they did. Maybe. Well... Yeah... Maybe..."

It was wishful thinking, but the alternative was too ugly to think about. If his original timeline still existed, and if Typhon hadn't made it to Manhattan, maybe they were still alive.

Hopefully.

All he could do was hope at this point. He wasn't going to fool himself into thinking he could ever go back to that timeline.

Gods, his throat hurt. He quickly finished the rest of his drink, rubbing the bridge of his nose as his stomach turned. He shuddered. His throat was even drier now.

Tiamat pushed herself off the sofa.

"I'm going to check on the girl."

Percy looked up at her, blinking until the words registered properly. When they did, he nodded gratefully. Even if she couldn't cure Ingvild, it was the thought that counted—at least in his opinion. The gods from his timeline probably wouldn't have taken the time even if he'd asked them to.

She skirted around the edge of his sofa to pass behind him. Her blue hair was the last thing he saw before she disappeared.

Beautiful blue hair.

He remembered he'd thought the same thing the last time they'd shared a drink like this.

Of course it would be her. I guess my luck only goes so far.

Just as he was about to close his eyes, he felt a gentle hand rest itself on his shoulder. With him being positioned leaning forward, she'd had to go out of her way and stretch just to reach, and he couldn't help but tense at her considerate touch.

Neither of them said a word.

The hand told him enough.

Strange how a few hours in the Netherworld could make him appreciate the few friends he had.

Maybe the best friend he had.

That was a weird thought. His new best friend was a god. Well, technically she was a dragon, but whatever. The disbelief still stood.

He breathed out a soft sigh and hung his head, smiling at every little irrational thought that crossed his mind. Most of those thoughts revolved around how nice it was to have this small slice of calm. Talking about Kronos hadn't been a very pleasant experience.

It never was.

This is nice, though. Percy allowed his eyes to close. He reached across his chest and patted her hand a couple of times, hoping that she'd get the message.

Despite being ancient, she most certainly did not get what he wanted to convey. Actually, that might have been the reason his tactful delivery was so ineffective.

They stayed like that for a few seconds longer. His thoughts slowed and slowed...

Until...

Until all he felt was the ebb and flow of water within her body. Unlike the gods in his timeline, she had blood running through her veins. Real blood.

Blood just like his.

And she had water in her muscles and her bones.

And he could touch that water—if he only reached out further into her.

But he didn't reach. There was no need. Friends didn't deserve that kind of treatment.

She gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze before pulling away. Percy only realized he'd been cupping her hand when she slipped out from under his fingers.

"You should rest... I'll stay to make sure nobody gets any funny ideas while you're sleeping."

"What happened to letting me fight my own battles?" he asked, glancing behind him to see her walking toward his bedroom.

She stopped just shy of the hallway. Her eyes darted to him, but she didn't turn. "I'm sorry. It was cruel of me to have given you that kind of impression. I won't fight your battles for you, and I won't ask you to fight mine for me. But partners help each other, don't they? You've upheld your end of our agreement. Let me uphold mine."

Percy watched as she disappeared behind the wall. He blinked a few times.

Sleep did sound nice.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Hades found Nyx at the edge of the Abyss, where he had expected to find her. The River Lethe snaked through the endless ocean of everything in the grand beyond.

A new pool had been formed just before the cliff. What once had been a typical plot of Netherworld soil was now filled with water from the Lethe. Clods of dirt littered what was left of the natural clearing.

"What a mess this became," he said from his place beside Nyx.

"You sent him to me," she accused, not even looking at him with the corner of her eye. "Why?"

Oh, how many answers he could have given her. Hades knew most of those answers would only bring her ire. He refrained from saying anything too inflammatory.

"Curiosity, I suppose." His arms stretched wide to envelop the infinite red and orange in front of him. "Perhaps the same reason you chose to summon Thanatos for him. Was I wrong to indulge him? I was expecting him to die just as much as you were. When was the last time a human demigod killed a god?"

"Killed?" Nyx scoffed. "It's been quite a while."

"Exactly. I never expected the boy to up and kill a god. And could you blame me? I would hardly think so."

All true. That the boy had managed to kill Thanatos—horrifying. Mortals with that level of competency came perhaps only once every generation. It went beyond strength. It went beyond intelligence. It went beyond charisma. A mortal with the right combination of all the necessary ingredients was rare. They were horrifying, too.

"Why did you come, Hades? Stop wasting my time with talk."

"How else would you waste your time, then?"

"Hades…"

He chuckled. "Would you seek revenge? Revenge for your murdered child?"

Nyx crossed her arms. "The weight of Thanatos' mistakes are not for me to bear. He chose to meet the boy. Nobody forced him to die."

"The boy killed him," Hades said. He made his way to the pool of the Lethe. "Percy Jackson. Or so somebody might want us to believe. Did you know…? Up until two weeks ago… this boy did not have a soul. Oh, he appears in human records—specifically those of the United States of America—but according to the Netherworld's own registry, his soul is almost the same as a newborn's. At the same time, it is old and ready to be reaped, almost like an overly ripened fruit. Strange, yes? I think it's strange. Don't you think so? Who is he? Where did he come from? What does he want?"

"None of those questions matter." Her eyes stared down at the pool. "It doesn't surprise me that the Netherworld gives you such information. He is an anomaly. A creature not born of this place. He is from a different reality. His motives are alien because he is alien." She finally turned to look at him. "His soul is new here, but old elsewhere. He is human; foolish, narrow-minded, and utterly unable to see beyond his own petty whims, he most certainly is human."

"Another reality…? I suppose that explains a few things." Hades gazed into the red and orange. Beyond the endless edge of creation was the Abyss. Beyond the Abyss was the infinite reality of nothing. Percy Jackson had come from that place. "How annoying. Someone will have to educate him about the rules we have. Tiamat seems to be encouraging him, if nothing else."

"Chaos Karma Dragon indeed."

"A dragon is all she remains."

"Be careful, Hades. Your power only serves to heighten your hubris."

"As Thanatos' did to him, and yours did to you." Hades craned his head back toward his temple. "So, you really don't care about revenge?"

Nyx narrowed her eyes. "The boy did you a favor, don't try to pretend otherwise. You don't care that Thanatos is dead. You'll snatch power soon enough."

He nodded brazenly. Of course, she was entirely correct. Thanatos had been a steadfast opponent when it came to his control over the Netherworld. A diligent agent to be sure, but a frustratingly unerring political opponent in just about every way possible.

Now there was only Orcus to contend with. The grim reapers who supported Thanatos would choose a new alignment, as none were powerful enough to rise on their own to take his place. Overall, Thanatos' disposal was a somewhat pleasant surprise. Hades expected most of the grim reapers from Thanatos' group to join him rather than Orcus.

Conversely, Thanatos' death made the Netherworld look weak. If word spread that a human killed the strongest grim reaper…

Hades had to secure control quickly. Others would try to take advantage of his realm soon—like those damned devils. Once the realm was stable, he could look to use his lieutenant's murder to his advantage on the grander stage.

"To answer your question: I don't seek vengeance." Nyx pulled the hood of her cloak down to cover more of her face. "There's nothing down the path for me."

"I see. And justice?"

She sighed. "Leave, Hades. I've grown tired of hearing you speak."

"He is too dangerous. What if he chooses to take yet another radical action? I can perform some measure of damage mitigation. Others cannot. This world must be preserved."

"And you would be its protector?" she scoffed.

Hades put a hand to his chest. "The Netherworld chose me to be its governor. I have upheld the integrity of death for thousands of years." He looked above. "Am I the best choice? Hardly. However, I am willing to do what needs to be done. This… This Percy Jackson has shown me that I have grown too complacent. All the gods have. Evil encroaches upon us with every passing day, and we—the bulwarks—have failed to contain it. We should be ashamed of ourselves."

Nyx turned her head toward him. "Do you have a plan to stop this so-called evil?"

"Not yet." Hades turned around. "I first need to secure the Netherworld. My next course of action will depend on the situation at that point. There is still too much I don't know about the boy, and we have no way of knowing what his pet Dragon King will do in response to aggression. In some ways, she may be the first target."

"And what, exactly, do you think his reaction would be? He'll hunt you down," Nyx said with a certain level of disinterest.

"Yes. Maybe that would be for the best. I'll have every advantage in that case, right?"

"Theoretically."

"Then all I have to do is apply the theory." Hades glanced back into the red and orange. He felt his confidence grow, and he felt his resolve strengthen. This was the only way. "When the time comes, you'll regret not joining me. This is a just cause."

"You sent him to me," Nyx said coldly. "I have every right to turn you away. All of us involved made mistakes, and I refuse to be taken along while you seem intent on manipulating me. I might join you later. Not now."

Hades dipped his head mockingly. "As you say. I hope you can see past my mistakes, then, because the reality of the situation is becoming starkly clear to me. We must act sooner rather than later if we are to preserve this world. I'll do it myself if I must."

Author Note: Thanks for reading.