The Chaos War

I guess I had a rush of Inspiration. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and thank you to all those that went back to reread my AN, and weighed in on the Civil War Percy game.

One day, I’ll work at Disney and make it happen, lol.

This chapter will mainly be talking, with everyone getting settled into Hotel Valhalla, and Piper sitting down with her former friends to finally get some stuff off her chest. And since this story takes place in the continuity of Piper’s Untold Story, which has the unfortunate acronym of PUS, that means Jason will be making his grand entrance.

Let’s begin!

Disclaimer: I don’t own PJO or any author crossover material herein

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Shin’en barely finished collecting the shot glasses from the toast he just led when Chaos appeared with a small pop.

“Great job out there tonight, sport!”

“Thank you.”

“Here’s your objectives for the war. Complete them, and you win.” Chaos handed Shin’en a piece of paper with words on it.

Shin’en looked the paper up and down. It had a very simple layout.

OBJECTIVES:

• Capture Camp Half-Blood, Camp Jupiter/New Rome, Brooklyn House, and the Waystation
• Find and liberate the remaining Olympians
• Rescue Hecate
• Defend Hotel Valhalla
• Kill the all the bad guys and establish world peace

*This list is subject to change however I feel like

Followed by the “cool” emoji with the sunglasses.

“Have fun, kids!” Chaos chirped before vanishing with another pop.

“How bad is it?” Leviathan asked, pointing at the paper.

“Short, simple, easy to follow,” Shin’en said. “Along with a lot of pain and suffering. Wheels, pull up New Rome, Camp Half-Blood, the Waystation, and Brooklyn House.”

Wheels hit some buttons, and live overhead images of the four locations came up. Just as they did, the computerized voice chimed, “Space-time activity detected. Many portals are opening. Massive movement of monster energy detected.”

Everyone watched as millions of monsters poured into the areas on the screens, effortlessly securing and occupying them given that there was no one there to defend them in the first place.

“Divine energy signatures detected. At New Rome: Porphyrion, Otis, Ephialtes, and Clytius. At Camp Half-Blood: Polybotes, Periboia, Enceladus, and Mimas. At Brooklyn House: Thoon, Erysichthon, and Harpolykos. At the Waystation: Orion, Damasen, and Hippolytus. More signatures detected on Mt. Tamalpais: Iapetus, Koios, Krios, Hyperion, Atlas, Perses, Prometheus, and a weaker unknown energy signature that bears similarities to Kronos that is steadily getting stronger. Conclusion: Kronos is returning.”

“Of course, he is,” Shin’en said flatly.

“I suppose we’re going to have to retake these places?” Leviathan said.

“Correct.”

“What about the Duat?” Virgil asked. “Setne retreated before I could destroy him.”

“While not on the list of objectives, the Duat is certain to be a concern in the near future.”

Piper spoke up. “What about the rest of the Olympians?”

“Part of the objectives,” Shin’en answered her without missing a beat, as opposed to doing something like giving her a weird look for opening her mouth as the new girl.

To Piper, it demonstrated how he thought of her as a full member of the team, able to answer questions and put forth ideas. A showing of respect, if you will, which Piper appreciated. She had been through way too much shit in the past two years to have to deal with being treated as the rookie.

“How are we going to do that?” Piper asked.

“Currently unknown. The exact words here are Find and liberate the remaining Olympians. Obviously, we will have to look for them, and once we find them, assess the situation, and then proceed accordingly.”

Piper nodded.

Gunslinger raised his hand. “Who’re Harpolykos and Erysichthon?”

“The banes of Hera and Demeter, respectively,” Virgil answered.

“Oh, thanks.”

“When do we get started?” Kraken asked.

“In due time,” Shin’en said. “This has been a long night, and I think we have earned a moment’s rest. Besides, we need to relocate and begin planning. This location compromised, and a campaign like this requires numbers. Luckily, I know a place.”

Shin’en’s eyes briefly settled on Annabeth, and she got the message. “You don’t mean-”

“Yes.” Then Shin’en directed a look just as meaningful at Piper. “There are old friends waiting to see us.”

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One might’ve thought that Shin’en breaching the dimensional boundary and bringing the fortress of Olympus into the general airspace of where Hotel Valhalla was located on Yggdrasil would have been hard, but no. With nothing more than an application of his Rinne-Sharingan’s Ame-no-Minaka, and the entire mountain was…right there. Of course, considering the throne room was closed, very people actually knew they were in a different dimension.

The funny thing was, barely a few seconds passed since Shin’en’s cryptic statement and the teleport. There wasn’t any reason to hang around atop the ruins of Manhattan, and the hotel itself did have admittedly wonderful amenities. Also, getting to the hotel meant Shin’en could wash his hands of all the nonessentials and instead focus on the campaign instead of dealing with a million questions.

He just had to get through a few minor obstacles first.

He stood up and looked at Virgil. “Hold down the fort while I make arrangements?”

“Always.”

Shin’en nodded, and out of the goodness of his heart, hit a button that made the ridiculous playpen surrounding the main heroes vanish, thus releasing them from their timeout, and then he looked at Wheels and Tobi. “You had both better play nice with the other kids.”

Wheels and Tobi held up their right hands with resolute expressions, while their left hands had crossed fingers behind their backs.

Shin’en’s eyes slid over to Virgil. The Assassin nodded, saying I’ve got them.

Shin’en nodded again, and then took his leave, vanishing in a swirl of water, leaving behind his team, the ruined body of Loki, the unconscious Emperor Lafreniere, and the incapacitated Khione who still had the Facehugger attached to her head.

When Shin’en was gone, Annabeth made a beeline for Piper, to finally get some answers to things, but Piper’s expression became tight, she took a step back, and Virgil was moving in front of her, angling his head in such a way that his hood hid the top half of his face.

Arguably just as imposing as Shin’en, being of similar height and physique, thought boasting many more visible weapons on his person, and the black coat with the black hood certainly created the image of a person not to be messed with, if only perhaps because of how edgy/emo he looked.

Of course, though, the large Bible currently holstered at his side was very unnerving.

“Not here,” Virgil said. “Not now.”

“Then when?” Annabeth demanded. “When can I talk to my friend?”

“Later,” Piper answered. “When I’m ready to talk to you and get some things off my chest.”

Tobi held up his scalpel with a helpful smile. “I can help you get those things off your chest!”

“Tobi!” Virgil snapped. “No.”

“Awwwww! I thought it was funny.”

Virgil shook his head and then turned to Piper. “I’m sorry about him. He had a very bad upbringing-”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Leviathan muttered.

“-and he is quite touched in the head,” Virgil finished.

Tobi nodded enthusiastically.

Piper looked upon Tobi with an expression one might wear when they were driving down the road and happened across a ran over dog that had a collar. Sadness and sympathy that was quickly replaced with a dismissive Darn, that sucks. Sorry, that happened.

Piper had seen a lot of things in the past two years during her crusade. Piper looked at Virgil. “So…do we have any kind of relationship where you’re from? Like, what’s your Piper to you…if that makes any kind of sense.”

“Technically speaking, you are my adopted grandson.”

Piper short-circuited. “Huh?”

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Being possessed of manners and professional courtesy, Shin’en knocked on the front doors instead of just reconstituting himself inside the hotel. Seconds later, the doors were opened by the manager of the hotel, Helgi, dressed in his green pinstriped suit, his beard and hair still monstrously unkempt. He looked more than a little scared to be in the presence of Shin’en Yūrei.

“M-Mr. Yūrei,” Helgi stammered. “It is an honor to meet you, sir. The Norns visited us today and informed us of your imminent arrival.”

“Excellent,” Shin’en said professionally. “Then you are aware of the situation at hand?”

“Ragnarök.”

“In a manner of speaking. Are you aware of current events?”

“Setne has taken the Duat, Loki’s assault was repelled, most of mankind has been wiped out, the remaining humans are mostly military personnel, the Olympians have been captured following the Mist warp caused by the New Triumvirate, you just routed Tartarus’s assault, and now that you are here, I am assuming you are seeking asylum for the humans and demigods you were able to rescue, along with, er, a parking spot for Olympus?”

“Along with making Hotel Valhalla my extradimensional base of operations,” Shin’en concluded.

Helgi made an ah face. “I’ll have a special room prepared for just that reason, sir.”

“No need for a special room. The Feast Hall will be fine.”

Helgi paused. “The…Feast Hall…sir?”

“Yes. A wide-open area in which many can stay and watch. I will have constant access to minds and muscles that I may deploy at my leisure. The coming campaigns will require numbers, and I am sure that the einherjar are quite eager to finally go to battle, along with the special forces division. This is what they were robbed of a peaceful afterlife for, after all. Besides, as this campaign involves everyone that’s left, everyone has a right to be informed of current events.”

“I-I…yes, sir. I understand. I’ll get to work on making arrangements in the Feast Hall.”

“That will be unnecessary. I will handle the arrangements. How many rooms have you made available?”

“As of now, 300.”

“Poetic,” Shin’en observed. “I will need 291 more rooms, however.”

“Almost 600 total between the demigods and their families,” Helgi noted.

“Yes.”

Helgi nodded. “It will be done, sir.”

Shin’en nodded as well. “How fare your gods?”

“They fare well. The Mist in Midgard has less of an affect here, and here, there are exactly 424,200 einherjar that all collectively believe the Aesir to be alive, well, and ready for battle.”

“Thank you. I imagine the einherjar are frothing at the mouth to march into battle?”

“Oh, yes, sir. Very much so. Odin himself had to bring peace to the hotel as many of the older warriors attempted to force their way into Midgard. They’ve been here so long, you see, and are ready to fight.”

Shin’en nodded. “Tell them their patience is soon to be rewarded. The enemy is numerous, and I will need numbers to most effectively combat them. Please notify me when you have the required rooms available. I intend to put the humans into a slumber so that they are not troubled by these events, and combine the Greco-Roman forces with those of Valhalla. Has anyone from the House of Life made it here?”

“Many members, yes, including the Kane family and other notable magicians.”

“Very good. Thank you for your help in these matters, Mr. Helgi. I will hold court when the rooms are ready and then address all personnel at once. Please have them gathered in the Feast Hall when you are ready. Including the special forces. I know the reason for their secrecy, but that reason is now null and void.”

Helgi nodded. “Yes, sir. Is there a specific way to contact you…?”

Shin’en pulled from his pocket a solid black smartphone. He opened it and pulled up his contacts page, hitting the “+” button. “Here.”

“…oh.” Helgi took the phone and started putting in his contact information.

“Surprised that I have a phone?” Shin’en asked, eyes glinting with amusement.

“A little, yes.” Helgi handed the phone back.

Shin’en took it and sent a quick text to Helgi’s number, causing Helgi’s own phone to buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at it. “Thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, and Helgi?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to need the power of the einherjar applied to all demigods, and the respawn feature of the einherjar in the hotel to be applied to all incoming denizens of the hotel. Given the circumstances, I do predict that some situations will be best handled by simply killing somebody instead of putting up with a headache.”

Helgi understood the assignment. “I understand, sir.”

“If Odin has any problems with this, tell him to call me.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Until next time, then.”

Shin’en vanished in a swirl of water, and Helgi shut the doors, spinning on his heal while shouting for Hunding to get to work on preparing 291 more rooms.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Shin’en appeared back in the Olympian throne room, everything was as exactly as he had predicted: calm, peaceful, and orderly. The benefits of putting Virgil in charge.

It was by no means a slight against Asteria and Leviathan, as if they couldn’t handle this crowd. It was just that they, objectively, were not leaders. They were bosses. Asteria commanded a ten billion-strong hive of beings that never questioned her, and Leviathan led an army of beings that were either completely subservient to him, or so stupid that they died rather soon. Asteria and Leviathan weren’t the type to connect with people on the emotional level in order to get them to follow; they were the type where if they told you to jump, they expected you to ask how high.

Also, Shin’en wasn’t about to burden them with being in charge of this daycare, anyway.

As for why Virgil after those two, it was pretty obvious. Shin’en wasn’t going to put Tobi in charge of anything sans turning someone into a pile of meat; Kraken was still coming into his own as a leader, and this wasn’t the time or place for him to get practice; Gunslinger wasn’t the leader type at all, and it would be hard to get anyone to take him seriously given how he was strafing the line of being a crossdresser, what with the way his shorts, shirt, and hair were cut; and that only left Piper, who, while having four years of experience under her belt of working with the Native spirits, was too emotionally charged right now to be placed in a position of leadership over this specific congregation.

She was too volatile. Shin’en could tell her emotional dam was cracking and crumbling, and she was maybe only an hour or so from breaking down completely and laying it all out there on her friends.

Shin’en didn’t know exactly what Piper had been through in her two years as a solo, but he knew all that she had been through. The price of the crusade.

Shin’en noted that the Ghoul triplets were salivating over the body of Loki, the mischief god now slowly repairing himself after being subject to Tobi’s ritual. Shin’en also noted that Khione had given birth at some point, the Facehugger lying curled up and dried out next to her face, her chest cavity having been exploded from the inside, and the pure white Chestburster was currently wrapped around Asteria’s neck like a macabre scarf, gently nuzzling its mother’s cheek.

Asteria looked every bit the proud and loving mother at having a new baby.

And the new emperor was also still unconscious.

As for the congregation, they had broken off into groups. The main heroes and their living family members had formed a big circle, other demigods and their families had formed circles of varying sizes, and of course, his team was their own circle. Well, not really.

Asteria and Leviathan were together, Virgil was in discussion with Piper, his Bible out and open, the two of them no doubt discussing scripture, and based on the tired, haunted expression on Piper’s face, she desperately needed the power of the Word. The Ghoul triplets were being held at bay from ravaging Loki’s corpse by Tobi, obviously a territory dispute on the grounds that Loki was Tobi’s sacrifice, and Gunslinger and Wheels were making customized guns.

From the perspective of this being a military operation with little room for nonsense, it made Shin’en happy that Wheels hadn’t displayed humongous LGBT flags with the red cross-out all over the throne room just to antagonize Nico and the rest of the gays. He’d let Wheels have his fun later. They were due to make their home in Hotel Valhalla soon enough.

Shin’en’s appearance went largely unnoticed as most were focused on their devices, but Asteria and Leviathan saw him.

He came to stand by them. “Anything fun happen?”

Levithan pointed to the sentient scarf currently around Asteria’s neck.

“And who’s this adorable cutie?” Shin’en said stoically, drawing a snort from Leviathan and an eyeroll from Asteria.

The Xenomorph goddess stepped closer to her brother, and the Chestburster uncoiled enough to lean forward, gurgling and cooing, its jaw open in such a way that it appeared to be happily smiling, giving the impression of a puppy excited to meet new people. Shin’en reached out and started tickling the horrifying creature under its chin.

It started making happy noises.

“What’s the plan?” Leviathan asked.

“Helgi is getting Hunding to set up enough rooms for everyone here. Once he has accomplished that, I’m putting the humans to sleep and teleporting them to their rooms so they stay out of the way. I’ve arranged for the demigods to be given the same blessings as the einherjar. If they are to fight in this war, they will need the additional power. As for us, once the enemy has finished setting up their board, I will give assignments. Given the nature of this conflict, hopefully we will not have to be here anymore than a week.”

‘Will we require reinforcements?’ Asteria asked.

Shin’en looked at her, pausing in his attendance to his newest niece. “Hopefully not, but since this is a Chaos War, it can not be ruled out that additional support will be required.”

‘My children need the exercise.’

“Mine could also do with a good workout,” Leviathan said.

Shin’en eyed them both, grimly. “Do not forget what happens to any of us that would die here. Our survival, and theirs, is not a guarantee, especially with Chaos directly involved.”

“I am confident that my children would preform admirably in this war,” Leviathan said with a chin slightly upturned and a chest slightly puffed out.

“I hope we will not have to bear witness to their abilities,” Shin’en said.

Piper and Virgil came over.

“This is Valhalla, isn’t it?” Piper asked.

“It is,” Shin’en answered. “Jason is inside. The two of you will be reunited within the hour.”

Piper breathed. “Good.” She looked over at her old friends, then back at Shin’en with a small smirk. “What do you think they’re going to say when they see Jason again?”

“They will be angry at you for knowing he was alive this whole time and keeping that from them-”

“But I-”

“I know,” Shin’en said calmly. “You are a member of this team now, and they will have to get through me if they have any choice words.”

Piper shifted, obviously not having adjusted to these circumstances yet. “Er, thank you?”

“You’re welcome. That being said, though, I will need you to be of a clear mind for the coming campaigns. That means I need you to sit down with them and get everything off your chest that you need to. Sooner, much rather than later, please.”

“Yes, sir,” Piper said.

Virgil placed his hand on her shoulder in a reassuring manner. “We can be there if you need us to.”

Piper reached up to squeeze his hand, showing than in the scant few minutes Shin’en had been gone and the two of them had been conversing, they had already reached an emotional level of attachment.

“Thanks. I think…I’m going to need someone there. I don’t think I can connect with them like I used to.”

“You won’t,” Leviathan said simply. “You and them are now worlds away from each other. They will only barely be able to grasp who you are now.”

“Is that what happened to you in your world?” Piper asked. “Whatever happened to make you like this happened, and then when you met them again, you were a complete stranger?”

“Yes.”

Piper’s mouth set into a thin line. “How did you handle that?”

Leviathan shrugged. “I was courteous and professional for the most part, but it was clear that we were no longer friends, but colleagues working on a project together.”

Piper hummed. “Sometimes I wonder if that’s what we really were—me and the other Seven, I mean. Were we really all best friends with bonds beyond words or something sappy like that, or were we just colleagues? Friends that were only friends because we were put into a team by the teacher and had to work on the project together, and that was it.”

Asteria touched Piper’s mind. ‘You tell us.’

Piper winced a little. “That feels weird.”

‘You’ll get used to it.’

Piper gained a look of concentration as she tried to speak telepathically. ‘Testing, testing, one, two, three?’

Asteria’s lips quirked up. ‘Loud and clear.’

‘Oh, cool. So…is this just, like, an open channel for mind-to-mind talking, or can you actually read my whole mind?’

‘Just an open channel.’

‘Have you read my whole mind?’

‘Not yet, but I will if I ever feel like it.’

Piper bristled slightly. ‘Hey-’

Asteria turned to fully face her, the amusement gone from her eyes and expression. The Chestburster around her neck lowered its head, angling its face in such a way that it was a clear snarl. Asteria didn’t say anything; she didn’t have to. The look in her eyes was telling enough.

She was not a friend. She did not see Piper as an ally or a teammate. Piper was just another person to her, and Asteria didn’t care about people, their boundaries, their privacy, or anything about them. If Asteria wanted to dig through Piper’s mind and see her memories, everything from her very first clear one from when she was a toddler and tried to stuff the TV remote into the back of her diaper only for her dad to come around the corner at just the right time to catch her, to this very conversation right now.

Nothing in Piper’s mind would be hidden from Asteria if she decided to go poking through it.

Now, that wasn’t to say that Asteria would simply be able to just go about that without interruption, of course.

Virgil moved to stand slightly in front of Piper, head inclined so that his hood covered his upper face. “You will respect her privacy, Asteria, or we will have words.”

In what was a clear contradiction to how this situation would typically play out in our modern media, Piper did not get heated and get onto Virgil about how she didn’t need his protection and could stand up for herself just fine. Instead, she was quite grateful to have a friend in this new “team” she was on that was already willing to take a stand for her, especially when he was standing up to the cosmic space monster with freaky mind powers and a tendency to technically rape everyone and everything.

Yes, by all technical counts, Asteria was a serial rapist, as she forcefully inserted her genetic material into unwilling participants via the proboscis of her Facehuggers.

Asteria stared impassively at Virgil, showing neither fear of his threat, nor dismissal, but she did back down.

Piper swallowed, having to wonder just how powerful Virgil had to be in order for Asteria to concede to him. Or was it that Asteria felt it beneath her to brawl with him? Or perhaps that if it did come to blows, that Shin’en would be quick and fierce to put an end to it. Piper looked at the leader, and she saw how he was glowering at Asteria, who was pointedly ignoring him now in favor of cuddling her new baby.

Leviathan looked amused by the whole ordeal.

A faint buzzing was heard, and Shin’en pulled his phone from his pocket. “The hotel is ready for us.”

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This chapter was originally going to include Shin’en’s speech to the einherjar and also Piper’s big talk with her old friends, but I’m not sure I was going to have enough time tomorrow (this chapter being posted on 12/23/2024) to finish all of that and have the chapter out either by Christmas, or on Christmas, and so I have decided to play it safe and call it here.

So, Merry Christmas to all those readers here, new and old!

I hope this chapter was enjoyable enough to read, and that the next one is as well. The action is soon to come, as is the grit and the death. I want everyone to pay special attention to what Shin’en told Asteria and Leviathan about what would happen to them, or anyone they brought in to this current world, if they died. It’s going to be really important later.

In other news, I’m going to be building my first PC with my old college buddies in a few weeks when I get all my parts in! No, I am not technically joining the PC master race. I am only getting involved with this because I want to try out some NG+ mods for Cyberpunk 2077, and also try out the Elden Ring Convergence mod, along with some other mods, like pre-nerfed Impenetrable Thorns and Perfume Bottles.

More on my progress with that in the days to come.

In the meantime, please Fav, Follow, and Review!

And if you want to get me an extra special Christmas present, you can buy my original novel on the Kindle store. This year marks three years since it was first published!