The Daughter of War and Medicine

When Kassandra reappeared on the deck of the Argo II, she made her way straight to the mess hall. Her eyes were wet and she needed people to take her mind off of what just happened. Ikari would not escape her again.

The seven had gathered once more in the mess hall and the daughter of Bellona joined them, they were already talking. Percy looked pretty shaken and Frank was messing around with some sort of device latched onto his fingers.

"...never mind. First we have to deal with this bounty on our heads," said Jackson.

Coach Hedge had lost interest in the conversation and wandered toward the bow of the ship, practising his roundhouse kicks and complimenting himself on his technique.

Annabeth gripped the hilt of her dagger. "A bounty on our heads... as if we didn't attract enough monsters already."

"Do we get wanted posters?" Leo asked. "And do they have our bounties, like, broken down on a price list?"

Hazel wrinkled her nose. "What are you talking about?"

"Just curious how much I'm going for these days," Leo said. "I mean, I can understand not being as pricey as Percy or Jason, maybe... but am I worth, like, two Franks, or three Franks?"

"Hey!" Frank complained.

"Knock it off," Annabeth ordered. "At least we know our next step is to go to Charleston, to find this map."

Kassandra felt her back pocket. Her map was still there, and apparently the demigods also needed a map.

"Hey, how did your excursion go? Find this guide thing?" asked Jason to Kassandra. She squirmed in her seat.

"Well... sort of yes."

"Well that's good. What did you find?"

Kassandra had a terrible poker face, so she submitted and threw the map on to the table in the centre of everyone to see.

"I met an old friend and my mother. Bellona gave me this and told me it used to belong to my father so it was mine to inherit. Apparently it shows all the important location I'll be visiting. And if I'm supposed to guide you, it'll probably show a few places important for you. Not all of them, but some."

Leaning over the table, she stretched out to unfold the map so the whole thing was on display. All the little dots glowed and it drew in everyone's attention.

"Ooh, we get to go to Spain!" said Leo, rubbing his hands together. Gods know what he had planned.

"Turkey? Why are we going to Turkey?" asked Annabeth.

"Like I said, it's apparently all the places I'll be going. So whilst I will be joining you in many of these places there are many locations we will not be going together to."

Inside of Kassandra's head, Hector looked at the little glowing dot on the East coast of Turkey. He knew exactly where that was.

Kassandra grabbed the map back off the table and closed her eyes tightly. It was time to practice another skill she had seen her mother use. Concentrating, she focused her power on the map in her hands until with a resounding pop, it vanished from thin air.

Leo looked around frantically like a confused cat at a laser light. "Where'd it go?"

"It's back in the storage cupboard with my bow," she said. "I don't want to risk losing something so valuable, so I'll just 'teleport' it to me whenever I need it and leave it there when I don't."

Piper leaned against the control panel. She'd done her braid with white feathers today, which looked good with her dark brown hair.

"So we need our own map," Piper said. "But a map to what?"

"The Mark of Athena." Percy looked cautiously at Annabeth, like he was afraid he'd overstepped. She must have been putting out a strong 'I don't want to talk about it' vibe.

"Whatever that is," he continued. "We know it leads to something important in Rome, something that might heal the rift between the Romans and Greeks."

"The giants' bane," Hazel added.

Percy nodded. "And in my dream, the twin giants said something about a statue."

"Um..." Frank rolled his miniature handcuffs between his fingers. "According to Phorcys, we'd have to be insane to try to find it. But what is it?"

Everyone looked at Annabeth. Owl head had to have some sort of idea of what it was. Unfortunately, it seemed she had not found that idea yet.

"I- I'm close to an answer," she said. "I'll know more if we find this map. Jason, the way you reacted to the name Charleston... have you been there before?"

Jason glanced uneasily at Piper, though Kassandra wasn't sure why. "Yeah," he admitted. "Reyna and I did a quest there about a year ago. We were salvaging Imperial gold weapons from the C.S.S. Hunley."

"The what?" Piper asked.

"Whoa!" Leo said. "That's the first successful military submarine. From the Civil War. I always wanted to see that."

"It was designed by Roman demigods," Jason said. "It held a secret stash of Imperial gold torpedoes- until we rescued them and brought them back to Camp Jupiter."

Hazel crossed her arms. "So the Romans fought on the Confederate side? As a girl whose grandmother was a slave, can I just say... not cool?"

Jason put his hands in front of him, palms up. "I personally was not alive then. And it wasn't all Greeks on one side and all Romans on the other. But, yes. Not cool. Sometimes demigods make bad choices."

He looked sheepishly at Hazel. "Like sometimes we're too suspicious. And we speak without thinking."

Hazel stared at him. Slowly it seemed to dawn on her that he was apologising. Jason elbowed Leo.

"Ow!" Leo yelped. "I mean, yeah... bad choices. Like not trusting people's brothers who, you know, might need saving. Hypothetically speaking."

Hazel pursed her lips. "Fine. Back to Charleston. Are you saying we should check that submarine again?"

Jason shrugged. "Well... I can think of two places in Charleston we might search. The museum where they keep the Hunley- that's one of them. It has a lot of relics from the Civil War. A map could be hidden in one. I know the layout. I could lead a team inside."

"I'll go," Leo said.

"That sounds cool."Jason nodded. He turned to Frank, who was trying to pull his fingers out of the handcuffs. "You should come too, Frank. We might need you."

Frank looked surprised. "Why? Not like I was much good at that aquarium."

"You did fine," Percy assured him. "It took all three of us to break that glass."

"Besides, you're a child of Mars," Jason said. "The ghosts of defeated causes are bound to serve you. And the museum in Charleston has plenty of Confederate ghosts. We'll need you to keep them in line."

"Okay." Frank relented. "Sure." He frowned at his fingers, trying to pull them out of the trap."Uh, how do you-?"

Leo chuckled. "Man,you've never seen those before? There's a simple trick to getting out."

Frank tugged again with no luck. Even Hazel looked like she was trying not to laugh. Frank grimaced with concentration. Suddenly, he disappeared. On the deck where he'd been standing, a green iguana crouched next to an empty set of handcuffs.

"Well done, Frank Zhang," Leo said dryly, doing his impression of Chiron the centaur. "That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas."

Everybody busted out laughing. Frank turned back to human, picked up the handcuffs, and shoved them in his backpack. He managed an embarrassed smile.

"Anyway," Frank said, clearly anxious to change the subject. "The museum is one place to search. But, uh, Jason, you said there were two?"

Jason's smile faded. "Yeah," he said. "The other place is called the Battery—it's a park right by the harbour. The last time I was there...with Reyna..." Jason glanced at Piper, then rushed on. "We saw something in the park. A ghost or some sort of spirit, like a Southern belle from the Civil War, glowing and floating along. We tried to approach it, but it disappeared whenever we got close. Then Reyna had this feeling- she said she should try it alone. Like maybe it would only talk to a girl. She went up to the spirit by herself, and sure enough, it spoke to her."

Everyone waited."What did it say?" Annabeth asked.

"Reyna wouldn't tell me," Jason admitted. "But it must have been important. She seemed... shaken up. Maybe she got a prophecy or some bad news. Reyna never acted the same around me after that."

A stormy expression made its way on Kassandra's face. All this talk of her sister and it wasn't exactly positive stuff. She didn't know Reyna for long yet there was already that protective sense she had when her name was brought up.

"A girls' adventure, then," Annabeth said. "Piper and Hazel can come with me."Both nodded, though Hazel looked nervous.

"So then, that leaves Percy and I back on ship," said Kassandra.

Annabeth nodded and she made eyes with Percy. God damn lovebirds. Then again, she needed some downtime after Atlanta. Maybe she could reach out to her mother or something like that.

"So that's settled." Annabeth turned to Leo, who was studying his console, listening to Festus creak and click over the intercom. "Leo, how long until we reach Charleston?"

"Good question," he muttered. "Festus just detected a large group of eagles behind us- long-range radar, still not in sight."

Piper leaned over the console. "Are you sure they're Roman?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "No, Pipes. It could be a random group of giant eagles flying in perfect formation. Of course they're Roman! I suppose we could turn the ship around and fight-"

"Which would be a very bad idea," Jason said, "and remove any doubt that we're enemies of Rome."

"Or I've got another idea," Leo said. "If we went straight to Charleston, we could be there in a few hours. But the eagles would overtake us, and things would get complicated. Instead, we could send out a decoy to trick the eagles. We take the ship on a detour, go the long way to Charleston, and get there tomorrow morning-"

Hazel started to protest, but Leo raised his hand. "I know, I know. Nico's in trouble and we have to hurry."

"It's June twenty-seventh," Hazel said. "After today, four more days. Then he dies."

"I know! But this might throw the Romans off our trail. We still should have enough time to reach Rome."

Hazel scowled. "When you say should have enough..."

Leo shrugged. "How do you feel about barely enough?"

Hazel put her face in her hands for a count of three. "Sounds about typical for us."

Annabeth decided to take that as a green light. "Okay, Leo. What kind of decoy are we talking about?"

"I'm so glad you asked!" He punched a few buttons on the console, rotated the turntable, and repeatedly pressed the A button on his Wii controller really, really fast. He called into the intercom, "Buford? Report for duty, please."

Frank took a step back. "There's somebody else on the ship? Who is Buford?"

A puff of steam shot from the stairwell, and Leo's automatic table climbed on deck.

"What the hell am I looking at," asked Kassandra, looking the table up and down.

"This is Buford," Leo announced.

"You name your furniture?" Frank asked.

Leo snorted. "Man, you just wish you had furniture this cool. Buford, are you ready for Operation End Table?"

Buford spewed steam. He stepped to the railing. His mahogany top split into four pie slices, which elongated into wooden blades. The blades spun, and Buford took off.

"A helicopter table," Percy muttered. "Gotta admit, that's cool.What's in the bag?"

"Dirty demigod laundry," Leo said. "I hope you don't mind, Frank."

Frank choked."What?"

"It'll throw the eagles off our scent."

"Those were my only extra pants!"

Leo shrugged. "I asked Buford to get them laundered and folded while he's out. Hopefully he will." He rubbed his hands and grinned. "Well! I call that a good day's work. I'm gonna calculate our detour route now. See you all at dinner!"

Kassandra stayed in the mess hall a while longer whilst the others departed back to their own cabins. She sighed with her head in her hands on the table as Hector crawled out of her diadem, across the table and to a seat opposite her.

"I think you need to take your mind off this. Off everything for that matter."

The daughter of Bellona groaned as she moved her head upwards to face the prince. She stared at him for a good half a minute before Hector pulled out his blade and stabbed down on the table. It made the noise it would, but didn't actually damage the table in any way.

"If your mother or even your father were here, would they want you to be in such a way? Come with me, let's take your mind off of this."

Hector then turned around and walked straight through the wall behind him with his sword in hand. Kassandra didn't have the energy to argue, so she followed after him, but through the door like a normal person.

The prince of Troy had a certain traceable aura as a spirit, so she followed it out onto the front of the deck where there was a decently large amount of free space. This was where she had practised her development of godly abilities and combat so often over long nights. She wondered if the others thought she was seeing things as only she could see Hector so it must have looked like she was fighting thin air.

Now, Hector stood at the end of the air-ship with his hand on his hips.

"Let us spar."

She rolled her eyes and a small smile crept to her lips. She reached for her hip and pulled out her dagger. It glistened in the light beautifully. And she readied herself into a battle stance.

It was Hector who moved first, his blade cutting through the air and almost at her neck if she hadn't ducked under. Now in an advantageous position, she slammed the blunt end of her dagger into his stomach and swept her legs directly into his ankles in an attempt to catch him off guard.

Unfortunately he was ready and managed to crack down on her shin, not before being forced back after the blow to the gut. Kassandra grimaced at the blow to her shin but in a second she was back as if it never happened. With Hector slightly off balance, she moved in knowing she needed to take any opportunity given to her.

A thrust forwards, roundhouse to his shoulder, overhand to the cheek and front kick to his gut set up a clean combination of an assault which had Hector slammed backwards into the railing. However, she overstepped with too much confidence as she want in for a stab to his chest.

Hector had recovered, and when Kassandra's arm was out in the open he brought his sword up, eyes flickering with burning red strength. His angle, force and precision was perfect. He had never felt so alive as his blade arched upwards.

The slash was so perfect that it took a second or two for either of them to move after it had landed. Hector's eyes went wide as he stared with shock at the wound inflicted. Normally when he stabbed or jabbed or cut the goddess, his sword wouldn't inflict any major damage, perhaps a thin bloody line. He never tried to hurt her, and he certainly didn't change that rule in his previous swing.

But it had just happened. Kassandra just gazed downwards as her forearm fell to the floor, now a stub attached to her arm that cut off at her elbow. Golden ichor flowed from the wound. Hector had hit a lucky shot and Kassandra hadn't properly reinforced her body to enhance her durability. When she ascended to true godhood that wouldn't be something to be concerned with, but it was something she actively had to do in her current state.

"That's... interesting," drawled Kassandra as she squinted at the severed limb.

"Oh gods!" cried out Hector, "I'm so sorry m'lady, I had no intention!"

"It's quite alright Hector. This could be an opportunity presenting itself," she mumbled.

"An opportunity? I'm afraid I don't understand. Should I fetch medical supplies or something of the like?"

"No, just watch."

Kassnadra (L/N) had been theorising lately; theorising on how she could take energy manipulation to the next level. Now she could try out her theory.

Whilst going through some of her fathers stuff in his house back at camp-half-blood, she had been careful not to touch anything that looked too important to him. However she did allow herself access to his study.

That room was filled with texts and scrolls thought lost to history, and Kassandra had poured herself into skimming through to find anything about her father when she was still searching for clues on him. Her skimming had led her to find many works that her father had inserted into said books, including a whole cabinet of various novels, documents and biographies he himself had written.

One such topic was the energy in gods. The existence of gods and titans and their strength is all a bi-product of Chaos' creation after it made existence. The energy coursing through her body was the same as that of Zeus, that of Kronos, that of Gaia, just in varying quantities. How that energy was put to use was the real differentiating factor in power though with unbridled opportunities.

The writing was clearly meant to run deeper with a greater understanding of said usability but it cut off for reasons now clear to Kassandra. She would continue his work though by exploring every aspect of his concepts for energy.

Back on the ship deck, Kassandra clenched her fist tightly as she poured her energy into the wound. She could attempt to heal it, but that would take up too much strength. If this were a situation out on the battle field then she couldn't burn her stamina, it was something she needed to preserve. Her ability to utilise energy in her body for various methods was arguably her greatest win factor.

So instead of healing or cutting off the blood flow, she began to form a second limb. Golden tendrils curled off from her elbow and began to take the shape of her forearm, wrist and finally her hand. The new limb was slightly transparent, and ichor still squirted from the wound and onto the floor.

Kassandra flexed her new arm reaching to the floor and picking up her real forearm. It vanished in her hand.

"I've transported it to a freezer on board to be reattached later. It will probably take me a while but nothing too strenuous if I just take my time."

As she talked, she began to twirl her dagger around in her hand. She could no longer feel the injury, or at least she was in such a rush from creating a new limb that she wasn't registering the pain. She sat down on a seat connected to the walls of the ship and Hector followed suit.

"So, are you going to try and contact Bellona?" asked the warrior.

"I think she'll come to me first. The Romans are on their way and I'm going to try and meet up with Reyna. I think our mother will come. I don't know for sure, but I feel like she will. If not, I'll call on her then. Reyna needs to meet her and Bellona needs to meet Reyna. That will be one step closer to reuniting family."

Hector smiled as he began to fade from view to re-enter her mind to rest. Manifesting a physical yet spiritual form was tiring.

"You seem to have this all sorted out, young master. Good luck."

Meanwhile, on a resort island in the Caribbean sea, six figures were enjoying the beach. It was night, but they didn't really care about that. It was for the better if anything, they had the whole place to themselves.

Fake (Y/N) lay back on a sun lounger whilst sipping some beverage from a cocktail glass. 'He' was in 'his' female form whilst wearing the same dress they did at the palace of Aeolus Ichiro sat next to him on another lounger with his summer outfit, and the one who picked it out for him sat merrily on his lap wearing a flowing white robe.

Meanwhile, Adamantios and Elara played in the sand. The snake-monster was busy constructing a sand palace of epic proportions whilst the son of Poseidon manipulated the salty sea water in the sand to make patterns. They were sharing their experiences of mortality, just out of earshot of the four further up the beach.

Last and possibly least, Ikari was buried up to his head in sand at the end of fake (Y/N)s lounger. His mask was off, as was the rest of his battle armour and he had buried himself there to help further regenerate his body, surrounded by natural land. It was a process he had practised before, yet it never felt so humiliating as it did now.

"What did we learn?" asked fake (Y/N).

"That Kassandra (L/N) can't-"

He was cut off from finishing his sentence with a swift kick to the head.

"Not to act alone," he grumbled.

"Better," was all the vessel of Gaia had to say.

There was silence on the beach a little longer, Ganymede laying back and twirling his finger in Ichiro's hair whilst the two reformed ones playing in the sand shared quick glances at fake (Y/N).

"Ssssssso how long were you with him?" asked Elara, shooting projectile from her gauntlet into the air.

"A couple years at the most. My best years alive though, something I'd never take back. You?"

"Ssssssame really, a few yearssssss. We never got assssss much time together asssssss either of ussssss wanted due to the whole Titan war thing, but what we did have wassssss... enough."

It was during the peace after the battle of Manhattan that the two had been brought back through the doors of death. Elara would have reincarnated like any other normal monster, but Ichiro wanted her the exact way as when she was. Neither of them really knew why they were helping Gaia or the summoner, but it just felt like the right thing to do.

In reality, they had been brought to a child of Hecate and had a simple mind manipulation spell cast upon them. One strong enough to subdue them whilst they were needed. Something (Y/N) never would have stood for. But from his situation there was nothing he could do.

"How long do you think his soul will maintain you?" asked Ichiro, half glancing over to his mother whilst his face was peppered with kisses.

"Perhaps a couple years at the maximum, but this vessel will not be needed for that long. And besides, if I really need to do any lifting for the cause that time may be shortened."

"Speaking of lifting, what have you even been doing this whole time?" demanded Ikari. "I've been out there getting kicked to the curb and Ichiro's been gathering all his little monsters around the continent, but I haven't seen you do anything!"

Another swift kick was delivered to his head.

"I've been out doing duties a simple being like you can't handle. Striking a deal with Tartarus is difficult work, and the giants aren't going to rise by themselves. Someone's got to go around and do such things."

Fake (Y/N) nodded. In truth, they had been doing all that, but also exploring the world. They had gone to Egypt, China, Brazil, Russia, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand, Chile and many more. Inside, it was the drive of (Y/N) that influenced Gaia to embark on such journeys around the globe.

It was deep inside of the body of (Y/N) that there was an intense fight for survival going on. (Y/N) (L/N) was not killed alongside Luke Castellan, for gods cannot die in such ways. Instead he was brought to his knees on deaths doorstep, heavily weakened and in no way to consciously act for a few months as his body repaired.

However, when his body was stolen away and inhabited by the parasite that was a fraction of Gaia to enact her will, such a vessel could not be harnessed without a power source. So to save on her own strength, Gaia utilised the soul of (Y/N) to power the body.

And so for months now (Y/N)s soul has been suffering, drowning in its own body whilst it helplessly fuels the being intent on destroying everything close to it.

Kassandra didn't sleep that night as she worked. She reattached her arm successfully and mopped up the deck, narrowly avoiding an awkward conversation with Annabeth who was on patrol at one point.

Morning arrived soon and Leo docked the ship at a pier in Charleston Harbour, right next to the seawall. Along the shore was a historical district with tall mansions, palm trees, and wrought-iron fences. Antique cannons pointed at the water.

Jason, Frank and Leo disappeared quickly, and it wasn't long after that until Annabeth, Piper and Hazel vanished as well. Kassandra was going to find Percy, but after scouring the ship there wasn't a trace of him. He had probably jumped into the harbour or something like that being a son of Poseidon.

So now Kassandra was all alone on the ship. Hector was out of commission and she didn't really want to strain her arm by training. It was a fun trick she had pulled last night but didn't really want to repeat it if it could be avoided.

She kicked around for a while on deck before huffing off down to the storage closet she had come to call her room. Swinging the door open, she flopped down on a cardboard box filled with packing peanuts and moaned, filled with boredom. There was nothing to do, it appeared she had been struck with a case of demigod ADHD.

Searching for anything to scratch her attention, she snatched her dagger off of the wall and began to pick her nails. She admired it as dirt flicked from under her nails, the subtle glints catching her eye. Ever since Lady Artemis had gifted it to her, it had kept the same appearance. No chips in the metal, no rust, no stains, no damage whatsoever. It had to be-

"Morning," spoke a voice behind her, scaring the ever-living goddess out of her.

"HOLY- Oh, mother," she corrected herself, Bellona standing tall behind her. In one arm she held her torch and in the other a pilum. Her head almost reached the ceiling.

"Yes, me. I said I would be by your side and since we both currently have some spare time on our hands I might as well visit you now." She looked around the room with a frown. "Kassandra... are these your sleeping quarters?"

"No! Uhm, not at all," she rushed, "I just keep my stuff in here."

The ex-huntress gestured around the 'room' before she grabbed the door handle and opened it, leading into the corridor. She slid her dagger onto her side and dropped out.

"So, would you like a tour?" she asked nervously. Beads of sweat threatened her brow. She had obviously spent time with her mother and father on Olympus, but that was when she was only a couple weeks old and not even a teenager. Now she was actually spending proper time with her mater.

"If that's what you want to do, then of course," smiled Bellona warmly.

She had shrunk herself as to be only slightly taller than Kassandra now. And her daughter noticed that whilst she held her traditional military items, her armour was lacking. Instead she was wearing a soft, flowing blouse and well-fitted jeans pretty simple sneakers. On the side of the shoes was a silhouette logo of Hermes.

Kassandra laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. Gods, why was she so nervous?

"So, you've already seen the storage room. Here on our left are the demigod dorms, I'm sure it's fine if we go in..."

Kassandra wrapped the tour up after about 15 minutes, finishing things off at the same place she was the night before, at the front of the deck.

"So that's pretty much the whole ship. The Hephaestus kid Leo Valdez constructed most of it and he did a pretty good job. It's kinda a shame I didn't get a room, but he didn't know to account for me so that's my fault."

Bellona smirked. It was at the start of the tour that she had put away her gear, and she strolled to the tip of the ship with her hands behind her back. She stared out into the harbour, and Kassandra had

"What will you do when this quest is over? Presuming you and the seven succeed of course," she asked, not looking back.

She was a little taken aback by the question to say the least.

"Well, I'd like to see more of the mortal world. Maybe return to the hunters for a while and see how Thalia and the others are doing. I'll probably spend some time at Camp Half-Blood playing volleyball on the beach, even go to New Rome and see what's going on there."

"And what of home on Olympus?"

Again, she was caught off guard. Her voice caught in her throat.

"Of course I'll return home eventually. It's just that what with pater and all I don't think I can come home straight away. I know you've spent your fair time in a world without him, but I haven't done that yet. I need to take some time away from everything after this is all over."

Bellona slowly nodded, still facing out to sea. Then she turned to face her daughter.

"You know, he's also by your side as I am. I don't think you've realised that."

She glided across the floor and stood in front of Kassandra before reaching down and taking the dagger from her side, holding it up to the sun.

"Lady Diana gave this to you, but do you know where it comes from?"

The daughter of (Y/N) shook her head. "She gave me the weapon but explained nothing past that, only that it was a gift."

A small smile turned the corners of the older goddess' mouth upwards as if she were remembering a fond memory.

"This dagger was forged from the metal of a very special blade. Well, the fragments of one anyway. The blade was called Angelo."

"Like Nico di Angelo? Hazel's brother we're going to save?"

"Exactly like Nico di Angelo. It was a Xiphos and shattered before it could serve its master one last time. The metal reforged into a dagger has seen combat against Titans, monsters and demigods alike."

Kassandra already had an inkling of a suspicion whose blade it was, but she didn't want to second guess anything.

"Who... who did the blade belong to?"

"I think you've already found the answer to that my daughter."

She hung her head for a moment, thinking her answer over one last time.

"(Y/N), father?"

"Yes."

Kassandra had no idea. She had been carrying her fathers sword in another form this whole time and had been none the wiser. Bellona passed the weapon back to her.

"Travel easy knowing that even if you see him as Gaia's vessel, his blade serves you still. And here, for everything that I have missed."

Bellona put her hands to her head and 'mimed' removing a helmet from her head. She held out her arms expectantly to her daughter.

"Uhm, I don't get it," said Kassandra.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot to remove the cloaking."

She flicked one of her wrists and suddenly a helmet was in her hands. The helmet of a Roman legate if he remembered correctly. Its plume ran straight forwards and the metal cut down to the chin for protection. It was a beautiful silver plated design.

"Is this really..."

"My galeae? Indeed, or at least one of them."

Kassandra took the helmet from her mothers hands and admired it in her own. Its shape seemed to morph and shift to the size of her own head.

"This is for you to wear. It will enhance your physical body in combat, served me well and will do so for you too."

The daughter of Bellona gently removed her diadem and placed it on the floor. It was connected to her mind by Hector in some way, but she had no issue physically removing it whilst maintaining a physiological bridge. Then, she picked up the helmet and gently slid it onto her head.

The effects hit her straight away. She grew a few inches and suddenly went through extreme muscle hypertrophy, the tissue in her muscles snapping and mending to grow. A process that took mortals weeks and months of work and was all happening to her in a split second.

However, she noted that she couldn't feel the weight of the galeae itself. It was weightless as it rested on her.

"It's of a similar property to that diadem of yours, the metalwork from Vulcan being infused with godly energy. Because of that its form can be manipulated to that of what the wearer desires. I personally hide it from view, but since I now pass this one on to you that is now your choice."

Concentrating, she focused on the thought of a sun hat. After a moment of thinking, she opened her eyes to a shady sight. A straw sun hat, similar to the one her parents wore in her dream recently, had appeared on her head. Bellona laughed to herself.

"Just like your parents, aren't you."

Kassandra went a little red and giggled. "Like mother like daughter?"

They shared a laugh, Kassandra leaning on the railing to peer into the harbour. So many ships ready to sail into the great domain of Poseidon/Neptune.

"Well then daughter, I must be taking my leave-"

"Wait!" she jolted, lurching around. "Could you stay a little longer?"

Bellona squinted her eyes, piercing through Kassandra and turning her legs to jelly. "I can see your intent child. You wish for me and my demigod daughter Reyna to meet."

****

"Uhm, maybe?" she confessed.

The goddess of Rome sighed and leaned on the railing just as Kassandra was. An albatross screeched as it flew over them, soaring through the sky and off towards the sea.

"Why is it you want us to meet? You know what the deal is between gods and their offspring, right?"

"I do," nodded Kassandra. "But Reyna is my sister and your mother. She's related to two goddesses through direct family. Plus, her and pater were so close that she might as well be part of the family. I've seen what it's like for her at Camp Jupiter, and yes she's well off but she's alive, not living. I'm sure she wants to meet you and that's one step closer to a complete family."

Bellona's head dropped down, her free-flowing hair dropping past her shoulders. Then she chuckled quietly.

"Family. Such a difficult concept for the Olympians to grasp. Well, how can I refuse a request from my own daughter?"

Ichiro and Ganymede lay together in their bed. They were still on the same Caribbean resort island, as was the rest of the crew, that being fake (Y/N) and Ikari. Adamantios and Elara were out somewhere doing something. Ichiro never and couldn't absorb them, they were very much people, alive ones at that.

But right now, he didn't care about any of that. All he truly cared for was in the same bed as him, head nestled into the crook of his neck. The cup-bearers long hair tickled his skin as he shuffled around.

"So, what was your excuse for the big man?" asked the summoner as he twirled a finger in his lovers hair.

"Same as usual. That I needed to trek around the North to find a new flavour of nectar for him and the other gods."

Ichiro laughed. "When will he realise that there aren't different versions of nectar?"

"Probably never," shrugged Ganymede. "To give them all some credit, I think Hera may be on the verge of becoming suspicious. Do you think we need to do anything about that?"

The son of Gaia shook his head. "That cow would be pleased if anything to find out you were seeing me because it would give her something to laugh about when her husband commits infidelity for the hundredth time of the month."

They both shared a smile and snuggled in. It was a nice break from the norm they had been put through since Ichiro's mother came back. Whilst cuddling, Ganymede snuck an eye open.

"So, you've been collecting a Tartarus amount of monsters right?"

Ichiro nodded.

"And has that affected your abilities in this domain?" he followed up, pushing down the covers and stretching out across the bed.

"Not at all my love," beamed Ichiro as he crawled up.