Family reunion

Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners.

Once upon a time, Annabeth Chase, taking the advantage of the fact that the war with the giants was over, decided to go and visit her dad, Dr. Chase. (Her mother, the Olympian goddess Athena, was more used to visiting her instead, and on a relatively regular basis, being not just the goddess of sagacity but also an advisor of demigod heroes, such as Annabeth herself.)

"Mom, dad? Are you in here?" Annabeth cried, as she opened the door with her key. (She was not a daughter of Hermes, so she had to open doors in a more ordinary way.)

"Hey, squirt!" her cousin Cordelia – a few years older, already mature and built like some Hollywood actress (say, Charisma Carpenter) – greeted her instead. "How's life?"

"Fine, thank you," Annabeth said rather stiffly: her uncle's family had never approved of her dad's lifestyle, and Annabeth herself was just too young to be of any interest to her cousin...though Cordelia usually was nice to her cousin, to give her her due – but there was another problem. "You're dead," Annabeth continued, as she peered at the other woman through the Mist.

Nothing, no change, though Cordelia did acquire some sort of a faint whitish aura in the process. "I wouldn't exactly say dead," Cordelia admitted. "Rather, I have ascended and ended up working for The Powers That Be – have your camp councillor mentioned something about them, maybe?"

Annabeth muttered something indistinct. Chiron had mentioned TPTB in one of his lectures, generally implying that they were some of the entities that the Greco-Roman gods were sharing this world with, and that they should be left alone: they do not like outsiders at all, including demigods; if cousin Cordelia now worked for them... Annabeth realized that she had no idea what the fact that cousin Cordelia now worked for them entailed – the two branches of the family were not very close, after all.

"Annabeth! Earth to Annabeth! Respond please!" Cordelia sighed and bopped the younger girl on the nose. That was a mistake, as Annabeth pulled out her blade and swung at Cordelia's arm. That was also a mistake, as Cordelia dodged it just in time – the blade passed her by inches, but no hit, and as Chiron said, if you were not quick, you were dead, and how close you actually were, does not count.

"Girls, please, simmer down!" Athena, the goddess of Wisdom looked into the room. "Cordelia, please, no high-handed-"

"Of course aunt-"

It hit Annabeth at this time that her cousin and aunt never liked each other very much. Sure, none of her relatives on her uncle's side like her mother (or her) but Cordelia appeared to be the one who genuinely disliked the incognito goddess, and was not just a snob. Now, as she and Annabeth's mother stared at each other, Annabeth was hit with a very bad feeling.

"You're not going to fight, are you?" she muttered to Cordelia, who was closer to her. "I don't know who or what you are, but mum's a goddess! She-"

"Sprat, we already had it out of our system," Cordelia calmly replied. "Is it my turn to repair?"

"Repair what?" Annabeth blinked and hurried into the back room. It was repaired, of course, divinely or supernaturally, or otherwise, but the repair work was also obvious. "What has happened?"

"I came to talk to you on an official business; your mother came to talk to you because she's your mother; we met," Cordelia admitted reluctantly. "We met, and had a discussion."

"And then what happened?" Annabeth sceptically asked.

"Nothing!" the other two women replied as one. "Nothing happened! We just cleared the air between each other!"

"Right," Annabeth was not convinced, "sure. You know that I am a teenager now, right?"

"And that is part of the reason why I am here," Cordelia grew noticeably more serious now. "Kiddo, you defeated Chronos, and you defeated Gaea, and I'm as proud of you as your parents are."

"Well, Percy was the one who technically defeated Chronos, or helped Luke to stop him," Annabeth blushed. "I helped, of course, but still. Gaea's defeat was equally dicey in this manner, yes?"

"You really need to work on your self-esteem," Cordelia said, but kindly. "That, however, is beside the point. My bosses were very impressed with your world-saving abilities...and that isn't exactly a good thing, BTW."

"Why?"

"Your mother will probably explain it better – remember, I work for them?.. Anyways, two more things. One, if you ever meet a certain character named Whistler – keep your wits sharp. He may be my co-worker – sort of – but he always looks out for himself, first and foremost. And secondly? My bosses think that something – or someone – else is stirring in the shadows, someone bigger yet, big enough to even make them worried."

"And we will have to save the world, again," Annabeth groaned. Seriously, what sort of world they lived in that needed to be saved all the time?

"Yes, but this time you'll have help, I promise," Cordelia looked honestly apologetic.

...It was then that Dr. Chase finally returned home, and the womenfolk stopped talking about saving the world, and had tea instead. Oh, and the back room had to be finished and fully repaired too, but that is another story.

End