Celestial Reign

Percy is currently being interrogated, by the dad he buried millennia ago, on his love life. Not the most fun position to be in, but maybe he should have expected the younger Olympians to tell his dad of the water tendril he had sent for Apollo. Oh well.

Maybe an explanation of how exactly he got here would help.

After promptly ending his speech in the most awkward way possible, both with his mention of the Olympians and the whoopy cushion, he had immediately booked it for Apollo.

He had stayed by his lover’s side for a while, snarking comments here and there, welcoming back old friends. He had barely payed attention to the people that had once ruled his life. The Olympians had simply slipped out of his mind. Mostly.

In fact, he had only registered Aphrodite and Piper aggressively talking and shouting, before Silena had jumped in. Five seconds later, all three of them were crying on the floor, holding each other with love only a mother and her daughters could feel.

He felt an extent of that love when with his mom, Paul and Estelle. As the Celestials of Familial love, they went under the sea with him, like Silena, Piper, Beckendorf, and, eventually, Leo.

Percy had been one of the last demigods to choose immortality: it seemed hypocritical to do it now. Plus, he held too many things dear to his heart in the mortal world: mainly his parents and Estelle.

So when they had come to a shattered Olympus to seek refuge from the apocalypse below, Percy had made a decision.

He took it.

And in exchange, got his family to be granted immortality too.

Apollo was talking to him as they held hands under the table they were sat at, when Apollo heartily laughed at one of his remarks. The laugh sent shivers down his spine, and in contrast, warmth bloomed in his stomach. Fates, that laugh was beautiful.

However, Apollo stopped abruptly, looking scared over Percy’ shoulder. He felt cold waves behind him, and knew exactly who it was. Nobody had such a similar aura to his own.

He told Apollo to go talk to Hermes or something, before turning around to face his father, Poseidon. Which had buried a few millennia ago.

He looked younger, less battle hardened. He had the start of a beard coming along, contrasting his usual appearance. He didn’t have his Hawaiian shirt too, the ones Percy had found too many of in his father’s closet, (thank the Fates he cleared that out) and instead wore traditional Celestial clothes. His sclera was a dark blue, like Percy’s, while his green eyes shone with monster like energy.

Poseidon seemed to take in Percy’s own features. His slight fangs that were probably showing from his slightly open mouth (the one Apollo would kiss senseless were they anywhere private), his fins across his limbs, his scales, the Atlantean wear he had on.

“Dad?”
“Percy?”

They said at the same time, bringing both of them to laugh. Percy was reminded of how much he resembled his father: their laughs were the same. He had forgotten that in all the years apart.

“It’s good to see you, dad.” he said, stepping forward, holding an arm out in case Poseidon wanted to hug. It seemed it was the case.

The hug was a little awkward, their limbs unsure of what to do exactly, but they managed to fit.

“Good to see you too, son. How are you holding up?”

Percy pulled away from the hug, rubbing the back of his neck in shyness, something quite unusual for him.

Sue him, he was taking to his dad he hadn’t seen in millennia and had literally buried!

“Holding up good, thanks. How was being dead? Did you end up in Oblivion? Or in the Evernight?”

Poseidon quirked up an eyebrow at the name.
“None of those: it felt like we were… dreaming? Floating? Anyways, what’s the Evernight?”

Oops. Forgot about that.

“It’s the Underworld, dad. Its name changed after Nico took over. As well as the management. And the aesthetic. A lot of things, actually, but not its purpose, that’s for sure.”

“Well, it’s good to see you good, my son. Tell me, I heard you were leading Atlantis? How is it? Are you overwhelmed?“

Ok, Percy knew Poseidon was protective, but not that much. Damn, he sounded like Percy’s mom. Which was a good thing. His mom was never a bad thing.

“I’m fine, dad. You should come and visit! After the feast of course. Me and my fellow Celestials on the Atlantean council are going back tomorrow morning. Care to join us?”

It was like someone had lifted the curtain of worry over his dad’ face.

“Oh, I’d love too. Tell me, Percy. Did Sally have a good life? Did her, Paul and little Estelle live plentifully?”

Oh, that was funny! Percy barked out a laugh, gathering the attention of nearby immortals, but he payed them no mind.

“They are immortal with me, dad. You know that with my fatal flaw being loyalty I never could have left them alone.”

Relief flashed over Poseidon’s face as they both maneuvered over to a table to sit.

“What a relief! Are they here?”

Percy shook his head.
“No, they stayed to watch over Atlantis while I’m gone. Paul is a surprisingly good person to leave the kingdom too, and both mom and Estelle are loved by the folks.”

“Good, good. Now tell me, Perseus…”

Oh no.

Oh no.

Percy had been in enough trouble with his mom to know what this tone meant, especially with the use of his full name.

“What’s your relationship with Apollo?”

Oh shoot.

Welp, someone’s dying tonight.
—

Nico was unsure of what to do now. He wasn’t the best at socializing, and he knew that. But somehow, spending millennia under ground, ruling a kingdom made of darkness didn’t make him better at socializing.

Who would’ve thought?

Honestly, it was more Will’s style to go ahead and talk to people. Nico just waits for them to come to him. Why move and purposely try to engage in conversation if he can avoid most of it by not doing that?

Speaking of Will, Nico’s husband was currently talking to Rachel about new prophecies that she was aware of, mostly ones related to the Evernight and death in general. It was thanks to one of them that Nico had learned about a misbalance in the cycle of life and death.

Turns out that disturbance was the Olympians being brought back from the dead, despite having been long buried. Thanks to Will, he didn’t have to search too long, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t pissed.

The balance between life and death was one of his primary domains, and Fates knew what would happen if he didn’t keep said balance. Probably a zombie apocalypse.

A wave of darkness washed over him as Apollo’s chariot sunk below the horizon. It felt refreshing, but not as much as the pure darkness down in the Evernight. The sun had always felt a little too warm and bright for him after too much time down there.

He could deal with it better when Will governed alongside him Persephone style.

Nico looked around and saw Percy leading Poseidon away from the temple, passing by Hestia and giving her a nice “Goodbye”. Nico was very happy that people were now giving his favorite aunt some respect (though the other options were a cereal obsessed farmer and a jealous peacock, so Hestia didn’t have much competition). And it wasn’t just respect for her because of her position as High Celestial, whatever that meant. No, everyone loved her and genuinely cared for the Keeper of Hope. She was Aunt Hestia, their Tia. She was the glue and the reason everyone came back. Without her, Celestis and its adjacent kingdoms would lose their main source of power: love and family.

That love and care had been plentifully expressed at that confrontation at the plaza earlier, which Nico had learned all about from Will.

Their time as demigods had impacted them all, and it showed. Because of their godly parents’ awful parenting, even after Percy’s speech, they had grown closer to each other as a result, in friendship, love or rivalry. Nobody was excluded, and Nico could attest to that.

As a result of this link between them all, love and family were extremely important to the Celestials. Pride and Power had been the base of many generations of immortals before them, and the Celestials really wanted to do better: not for themselves, like with the gods and titans, but for each other and their loved ones, including any children they may have.

Nico was snapped out of his thoughts as the magical plates and cups appeared on the table. He raised his cup high with everyone else to thank Hestia for this meal, and set it down to order his drink.

“Pomegranate juice.”

“Pomegranate juice.”

Nico looked up in shock at the man beside him.

To his utter surprise, it was his father, Hades. He looked as surprised as Nico was, looking slightly more emo than Nico himself in his demigod days.

Now, he preferred to say that he wore black to match his surroundings in the Evernight.

Hades sat there, taken aback, holding his cup a little dumbly as Nico recovered and drank the red juice. He made sure he didn’t spill any in his clothes: last time, Lou Ellen had teased him by calling him a vampire.

“So… Hello, father.”

Contrary to a couple people in the hall, Nico did want to acknowledge Hades as his dad. He was (had been) close to him, after all. Not exactly as close as a mortal father and son, but better than others in Camp.

“Hello, Nico.”

They stayed in silence for a while, both drinking from their cups and waiting for the other to talk. It was awkward, that was for sure, but none of them were too eager to talk to each other. Eventually though, Hades spoke up, clearing his throat.

“I see you’ve found a lover,” he said, glowering over to where Nico knew Apollo was, Will chatting with him happily.

So his dad had been watching him this whole time! Creepy much. He didn’t change much from when he was a god, then, for good or for worse. Nico knew better than anyone how death could affect people.

But he still didn’t need to stare at Will like that!

Or was he staring at Apollo? Either way, Nico was not gonna let him get away with it.

“Well, whether you like it or not, Will and I are married. Case closed.”

Hades looked at him weirdly.

“That… isn’t what I meant.” he huffs, shaking his head. He takes a moment before looking Nico directly into his eyes.

“I’m happy, Nico. I’m really happy. People from the Underworld like us usually have either a bad reputation or a bad ending. So, if anything, I’m relieved you found someone.”

His father looked… sincere. And long ago, Nico would have agreed with him on everything he had said. But that was when he was a demigod. Now he was a Celestial.

And things had changed.

“Things aren’t like that anymore, dad. Deities associated with death and the dead are respected now. Everyone is. No one’s afraid of me either simply because they don’t know me. No, we all love in each other so much that people should be scared of others when any of us get hurt.”

Hades had his eyes slightly wide open, his mouth slightly ajar.

Nico continued.

“If anything mildly bad happened to me, Will would be the first to tear whatever hurt me to pieces. Then, Percy would come along with Jason, ready to whisk me to safety. The entirety of the Evernight’s council would obliterate anything that hurt me. And I would do the same for them.”

Nico didn’t really know why he was telling this to his dad, but it felt good to reassure him. He felt like his dad’s son now, chatting happily together.

A look of relief passed over Hades’ face, before confusion ruled it.

“The Evernight?”

Ah right. He hadn’t told his dad that yet.

“The Evernight is the Underworld. I’ve… revamped it, let’s say. With one of my domains being the night sky, the whole dead aesthetic didn’t fully fit anymore.”

“Nyx gave you power over the night?”

“Not fully. It’s like Ouranos and Zeus. The Sky will forever be Ouranos, but Zeus used to control it, right? To an extent at least.”

Hades nodded.

In fact, that part of his ascension had been quite confusing. He’d woken up in the mansion of Night at one point, but he had managed to withstand the sight of it.

It had been mesmerizing. And terrifying.

Slightly less than meeting Nyx in person though. And her willingly giving him control over her domain.

“Well, now, Jason rules over the skies, but that’s not important. The Evernight is still the resting place for the dead, but is also home to the deities with power over darkness, magic and sleep, mainly. As well as death, obviously.”

“Is Thanatos still alive?”

Oh, that was a loaded answer. Technically, he was, but Thanatos had passed the mantle of “Death” over to a bunch of lower deities, like in Hermes’ case. Except that Hermes didn’t exactly want there to be many messenger gods necessarily, because he had died before they chosen to do that.

In other news, Cecil was having loads of fun dealing with his many little “Deaths” that kept bothering him.

Nico explained this to Hades, witnessing his dad’s face carry a variety of emotions.

“And where exactly is Thanatos, then?”

“He retired to a private part of the Evernight meant for retired gods. Took quite a bit to make the place, but gods like Thanatos, Zagreus and Melinoe are there, among others. Some of our own Celestials have retired there as well. We call that place the Palace of Eternity.”

The only gods that were still alive and not in the palace were Kymopoleia, who was still causing storms, and Fleecy, who was helping with Iris messaging alongside Iris’ children.

Nico’s dad stayed quiet for a while eating his food in silence and staring it down like it had offended him somehow. It wasn’t until Nico finished his own place that the god spoke up.

“Do you… do you think the Palace of Eternity could have space for us?”