Chapter Text
The once god Apollo, now a mortal with mostly reliable godly powers partly gained and the name Lester Papadopoulos on his New york’s license stumbled through some California dry brush. A wooden bow gripped in my left hand tightly and with a half-full quiver on his back, one that included a splintered eternally silent arrow of Dodona. A few arrows spilled out as he spurred his body to go faster, hopefully not the one that I considered my dead friend, though also was an inanimate object. Well no time to think about that anyways.
I was quite busy running from monsters. Or had been. I looked behind me, the dim light of the stars and moon didn’t make it easy (no offense sis, you’re just not as dramatic and shiny as me) but it appeared I had gotten away. Until next time of course. Even though the very concept of being in danger had been ludicrous before when I was a god (Pre-toa, trials of the undeserving god Apollo, clever acronym no one has ever thought of before I know). I had become a lot more accustomed to them in the past months, however this time was a new experience contrasting from all those previous running for my life.
You see, I’m actually alone. And no, not in life.(well maybe in the romantic sense, but just temporarily). But what I actually meant was I woke up, with a sense of deja vu in a dumpster all alone. Which sadly is a semi-normal occurrence and not what surprised me. I was in the middle of nowhere and things were off if I had to describe it - well it’s actually really confusing and I don’t even understand what’s going on. Though that’s not the most atypical. Honestly at one point I considered purposefully drawing zeus attention with his name or something, but even in my lowest It’d never be that desperate.
I’m especially concerned with whatever is going on. I’m as per usually the butt of the joke of and not aware.But I kind of thought things were going to the climax Nero had been defeated, the triumvirate shattered and capable allies gathered, I was off to face a giant snake that haunted my nightmares and actually gave me trouble as a fully fledged god in my multiple battle injured, mortal, already exhausted teenage mortal body, because somehow that was going to go well.
I couldn’t even rely on one of my occasional (though more like once a millennia) good ol’ prophecies of Delphi. Because he was the one controlling them, attempting to manipulate them against, so other odds stacked against me.
But enough monologuing the reality from what I can discern was, we clashed, I was severely beat down. The arrow of Dodona sacrificed himself for me. Me and python had had a final all out slug out. And I’m not sure if I won…
There was a bunch of tumbling off the edge of chaos, dissolving into nothing sure to follow. But I guess it didn't because I woke up in the dumpster again like I said.
And apparently in 2006, I realized that at some point. It probably means something I. But I had no idea.
My godly powers seemed reliable to some extent so that was good, but in more ways than one the world was now unrecognizable to me. I was in unknown territory, what could I do. All alone, my children were probably fine, a lot of the older ones already at camp most likely and the younger ones too young for any monster attacks. None of the prophecies had come to pass, at least in a way that would anger the counsel (cough good ol’ daddy dear) yet. Perseus Jackson hadn’t even learned of his heritage yet. Not that heading to Sally Jackson's house was an option too dangerous to draw attention or even feasible in this state.
I wondered how my dear demigod friend Meg was doing. Was she living happily in bliss with her loving father, or had she already been snatched up by nero. My imperfect slightly spotty mortal memory couldn’t pinpoint the exact year or age those pivotal events had happened. I desperately hoped she was okay. I hoped everyone okay. Although quite a fair amount of the good people I have met in my trials were only so inconvenienced because of me or events/people relating/related to me. Though a fair amount had troubles nothing related to me, so it probably evened out. Maybe. I wish.
In any case, while my hope was to find a demigod haven or trustworthy ally I could take refuge in until this a) passed/ I went back to my normal time b) otherwise resolved or c) became too big for me to not do anything about. But in any case the plan was to do nothing, or more accurately since it was hard to do nothing about running from your life. Not get involved in any major events, or targeted by any real serious threats, and this included my family sadly. Even Artemis unless it was dire. I just didn’t know how they would react. And this was the past, there was probably the still-god Apollo around anyway, They had no reason to believe me or even hear me out. They would probably be insulted and blast me to smithereens, past-me would’ve.
But the main point was I knew how prophecies and fate and destiny or whatever went. This was the past and there was nothing I could do to change it. Everyone would grow and learn without my doing anything of the sort, not that I was in any position to help anyone anyways.
Lay low and avoid any attention of anyone who was still mad at me or the likes. It’s not like I had anything else to do while I was here. No prophecy or endgame boss monster was driving this “quest”.
The sun was setting, which wasn’t the best thing for me, there had to be some sort of shelter nearby I’d been walking for a while. At least no monsters for a while either, whatever that meant.
I mentally reviewed all my options and current plans.
Shelter. Refuge. Law Low. DON'T DRAW ATTENTION.
Then I smelled it, only a split before I saw it. Smoke.
And fire. The orange light was far away but stood clear from the growing darkness. Something was burning.
It was California. They were pretty dry, and windy. This could have been a completely normal forest fire or accident. At night. I hopelessly rationalized.
Some vague, important memory trickled at the back of my head. Something bad happened in California, approximately 6 years ago. It could have been anywhere in the
state, but I had a feeling it was here. What was it? Why couldn't I remember, or maybe I already did. I just didn’t want to acknowledge it. I should just walk away. A voice said, sounding vaguely like selfish-Apollo. Or maybe that was self-preservation talking. Either way it was right. Nothing good would come of me getting involved, it was none of my business maybe, I only risked death. This was a wide open dry land, they were multiple directions away from the fire that would probably lead to somewhere more safe. I should go.
Was what I probably would have done pro-toa. Instead I took a step forward, toward the fire, toward the danger. And then another and then another, and then I started running. Sprinting as fast as I could in this already drained condition hoping this desperately wasn’t what I thought it was.
Nero POV
Everything was going according to plan. The silver wives were one thing, an actual threat if in any ways they ever could have possibly been achieved but just in case this was getting two birds with stone. Margaret McCaffrey was one of the most powerful daughters of Demeter he had seen in a while, and this was just her as a child. A small, helpless child whose father had tragically just died. She was going to need a stable supportive father figure in the tough times ahead. Not that she knew anything about them yet. But she would come to learn. To obey. To fight. For him. With unquestioning loyalty, or she would pay the price, simple as that. But that was for the future. Now he just needed Phillip McCaffrey’s daughter to understand that anything bad was the cause of her and she held the responsibility for any pain and sorrow she would experience and that anything good would only come through his permission.
“What a tragedy, but it's time to go now, Margaret."
“Wha- I don’t-”
The poor girl still didn’t even understand what was going on. Her face was scrunched up but frozen in fear. Tears had fallen like a waterfall down her cheeks, and even now a small line still dribbled down. Soaking the ashy ground. Too overwhelmed to comprehend the magnitude of how her entire life was now changed, her eyes were focused on a withered rose laying on the ground a few inches in front of her. Nero stood in front of her, looming over her with intimidation the bleeding body of her father lay behind her. She couldn’t bear to face either one.
Nero held out his hand, if the girl wouldn’t come willingly he would force, or get one of his henchmen to. He didn’t want to give her a bad impression after all. But she had to learn, she wasn’t the one making the decisions here. Only Nero would.
“I don’t understand.” She gasped finally making a move. “What happened to daddy, why isn’t he moving? Someone needs to help him, please!”
“Your father is like this, because of you.” He said. That definitely left an impact.
“You were a bad daughter, a bad demigod and now because of your careless actions your dear former father is paying the price.
“No, no, it can’t be-I-I” She trembled pitifully before him, the tiny six year old crumbling before the weight of her sins on her shoulders.
He took a step forward.
“He’s hurt,” He said, taking another step forward. “Essentially dead,” He took another step, meg freezing under his harsh shadow flickering with the roaring fire’s light all around them.
‘Because of you.”
She whimpered a soft sound. “I-I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to. I-”
“But if you come with me, if you do as I ask without question. Learn to be a good demigod. A good daughter. Perhaps it might be enough. “
She looked up, her eyes brimming with tears. She wiped away about half of them with the green sleeve of the striped green shirt she was wearing.
“Really?” She asked with all the innocence of a child. And that’s when Nero knew he had her.
“That depends on you.” He held out his hand touching her shoulder. She would be a good replacement for Demeter, a powerful tool, stepchild that wouldn’t dare fail him.
The next moment an arrow flew by out of nowhere, skimming his hand. It didn’t touch him but the complete unexpected threat made him flinch away. He looked up in front of him, and Meg turned around to see what it was.
A young teenager, maybe 16, with curly brown hair, and acne on his face. He had on a loose black shirt with some sort of inscription. He could barely make it in the inconsistent firelight. But that didn’t matter. What was important was that there was no reason anyone should be here. And even less reason for a teenager, most likely a demigod. This development was problematic. While his presence posed no threat. His present existence offered no explanation.
“Get your disgusting hands off her. Piece of human garbage." He said. Another arrow already drawn and pointed dead ahead at him.
Nero narrowed his eyes. At least his intentions seemed mostly clear. Was he an old friend, or someone with a previous connection to the McCaffrey’s? What was the reason he was here? What did he possibly think he could accomplish?
“Who are you, what are you doing here?” He questioned. He took his hand off Meg's shoulder, not because of the request of the demigod. But to get a closer look at the peculiar teenager. Casually he strode toward him, without a care in the world, like he wasn’t walking on the burning ruins of a young girl's childhood.
A bead of sweat, apprehension evident in the boy’s face glimmered in the darkness.
He continued forward at an even pace, the boy moved fast, darting towards. Nero’s eyes tracking the movement for whatever foolish move he was going to make. But to his surprise the boy rushed past him. He turned around to see him move in front of the smaller demigod, meg. In a protective manner, like he could possibly prevent him from doing anything to her.
His tightened around the bow, pulling the string even more taut,the tension surrounding them strung tighter than his drawstring.
“Get away from her.” He spat. Anger evidently clear.
“I don’t think you understand what’s going on here,” he coughed. ‘I never caught your name.”
The teens eyes narrowed, his teeth grit in anger.
‘Well that’s a bit rude, I just asked for name, I’ll even tell you mine, I’m-”
“I know exactly who you are- Nero.” The demigod finally spoke Venom in his voice, so much unbearable anger was contained in a mortal frame. This was a surprise. ‘And I know exactly what you’ve done, and what you plan to do.” He added.
This was… an interesting development. While that other stuff was explainable, he couldn’t think of any teenager that would somehow have learned of his identity and lived. The boy obviously knew him, or at the very least of him very personally. This was actually.. Quite inconvenient. And could potentially pose a problem.
“Do you now? Mysterious stranger who showed up threatening a poor little girl even after her father just died.”
The said girl, said nothing,even more lost as to what was happening now hiding behind the teen’s leg.
His eyes brimmed with a fury that would rival the gods.
“I didn’t- you were the one responsible for everything, don’t try to turn this around.”
Even that information he knew, though that one wasn’t the most surprising, he could have picked that up easily from the obvious mess around.
“Well,” He laughed calm as ever, everything was still as he planned and any minor road bumps had to only to be reworked to be turned opportunities, after all he had demigods to make back into the twelve Olympians, he had a Demeter replacement, but he still needed one for Apollo.
“Since you know me so well you should know you’ll never make it out of here, no matter what strengths you have, I have an army at my disposal. Any attempt at resistance, I wouldn’t be able to keep you from harm anymore… or the girl.”
The boy scowled. Nero had taken longer than usual and a few loyal Germani had come to check on him. The subtle display of his power must be pressuring, slowly he was closing in on them, outnumbered and clearly outmatched whatever game the young demigod thought he was playing would end, he would have no choice.
Nervousness rang true on his face seeing the odds. But his determination refused to dim. His arm pulled the string tight again, repositioning his aim, all his soldiers tensed on the edge of action. Bracing for battle or attack Meg’s eyes flicked up and terrified and wild, the other boy’s eyes darted around searching for the perfect target, Nero’s eyes steeled whatever happened he would not lose.
On the other side, a hand let go. An arrow flew over Nero and his soldiers' heads.
And straight into the burning headboard above them. With a terrible crash, the destruction of their own doing came crashing down on them
Everyone cried in surprise, the fire wasn’t lethal not to them but would prove a difficult obstacle to circumnavigate. Nero gritted his teeth in frustration, fighting through the fire, to see what the boy was doing.
His soldiers hustled in a frenzy around him. Taken down by a teenager with a lucky shot. He barked out multiple orders at the same time. If both of the demigods got away, someone would die today. Very slowly and painfully. He scowled a mighty thing.
The wreckage was cleared a few seconds later but by that time they were both gone. Nero had already expected that, but the visceral, even temporary disappointment stung. But he refused to lose to children, this only made Nero even more determined.
“Assemble the germanus and every able foot soldier within 10 mile radius." He venomously spat.
Apollo POV
Apollo stared at the remains of Meg's childhood home. Up in flames, just like his plan to literally just lie low and not attract the ire of anyone dangerous. So much for not interfering with fate, and the future. Hopefully this wouldn’t affect things too much, or at the least everything would go back to normal by the time things got more than he could handle, which technically wasn’t yet.
In his right arm he still clutched his bow his hand trembled from nerves and strenuous use,and under the other a squirming child.
“Put me down- what are doing-are you stupid-you stupid-face-idiot!?!?” Meg so eloquently spoke.
Well, at least one thing was still reliably the same 6 years ago.
“Look, meg, I’m not sure how to explain this but that man-Nero- is- that is he wants- well- you see- “ This was more complicated than he realized to say, it also didn’t help that this was a pretty spur of the moment thing.
“You can’t go with him, he was going to hurt you.” He finally settled on. He set her down, now that they were at a somewhat safe distance.
Meg stood there for a second, in her green striped shirt and yellow skirt. She had her rhinestone glasses on but they were almost falling off her nose. Apollo had no idea how she hadn’t lost them in the chaos. She squinted her eyes, sizing him up. Then she blew a raspberry and dashed off.
“Oh no, this is not-where are you even going?” He hated to restrain her, but getting caught by Nero literally five seconds after escaping from him was not a good start. He dashed in front of her, mirroring her movements to whichever direction she tried to get around him. Eventually she got irritated.
She hissed and ran straight into him, full speed ahead. Knocking Apollo flat.
“Ow.” He said. Not even pausing to go around him, she stepped on him on her way back to the fire and all of Nero's henchmen. Apollo made a wild grab to stop her.
“You don’t understand. You really can’t go back.You have no idea-”
The hand stopped her short and she promptly facepalmed into the dirt.
Apollo immediately let go. Moving up to assist.
“Oh my gods, I’m so sorry are you okay?”
In response she kicked a cloud of dirt into his face. He sputtered trying to recover without any more damage being done to either party. Clearly even before she was trained by Nero, she was a lethal weapon.
“Meg, where are you going?”
“I’m going back to my dad! he’s hurt, and-and I need to make sure he’s okay.Why won’t anyone help him? I don't understand… what’s happening?” Her pace slowed and a small trail ran down her eyes. Apollo slowly approached her, he knew how dangerous and volatile approaching a wild meg was. But he understood more of what was happening than she did, and knew she needed that.
“Meg?”
She turned to look at him.
“I don’t understand, why did he hurt my dad, he didn’t do anything! Why did he say it was my fault, was it? Why do you act like you know me?How do you even know my name!”
Apollo was at a loss, one of his domains was poetry and he had prided himself on always having the right words in the right order and format and everything.
But there was nothing he could say or even do, to fix this, he knew in time Meg would recover. But what could he possibly say now, that would stand against the loss she had suffered today, the way her entire life had now been diverted.
The little girl balled her hands into fists, summoning all stubbornness ready to face the secret mortal god, current stranger head on.
“Who are you?”
Once the question was asked he didn’t stop to hesitate to answer.
“My name is Apollo, (former) god of poetry, archery (as you may have seen, not at top notch right now though), and oh “ He lightly touched a slight burn on meg’s shoulder “healing, it’s kind of complicated what I’m doing here, and also I’m sort of from the future where we’re friends, but right now the priority is get the Hades out of here. Very fast preferably.”
“You’re a god? From the future? Is this normal? How dare you just give me more questions!!” She said irritably. “Wait, you said healing was one of your things, you can help my dad then!” Her dismal mood immediately vanished the pep back in her step and she tugged Apollo back where the body of her father lay still.
What was he supposed to say to that? He couldn’t exactly y'know, especially still in his mortal form. But Meg seemed pretty set on it. Unable to decide, he let her drag her to her father, (avoiding the germani of course).
She finally let go on his arm, and looked hopefully gesturing at her father. Apollo hesitated, his face forlorn.
“Meg, he’s gone.”
“NO, no he isn't, he's just a little hurt, just sleeping or something.”
“Meg…”
“NO, he can’t-”
She struggled to approach but was unable to turn away.
A small trembling lightly patted his scratchy beard. The small child knelt beside her father’s body, the older teen standing beside warily looking around them for lurking germani.
“It doesn’t make sense, we were so happy just a little bit ago but now everything I knew is gone.” Her eyes were red, blinking back a continuous flow of tears.
“Meg, if there was anything I could possibly do to bring back your dad I would do it. I know what it’s like to feel the crippling loss of something’s presence that seemed so concrete.”
Awkwardly manipulating his limbs he sat down next to the mourning girl.
“I wish you had the time to properly grieve him , but Nero killed him because he wanted you to live free and happy, we need to make sure you’ll be free to come back here when it’s safe.” He looked at her gently, wishing he had the power to snap his fingers and fix everything. But even as a mortal, especially as a mortal, he could still do something. He could still be there for her.
“But know this I will do everything in my power to make sure you are safe and cared for. “
Meg didn’t respond, and maybe because she didn’t know what to say. He was still a random stranger, hopefully his word was better than Nero’s in her mind. He knew Meg's stubbornness better than anyone, and he would not be able to get far if she wasn’t helping.
He looked back at her, her face was still scrunched up but a look of determination crossed her face and she grabbed Phillip McCaffrey’s arm tugging at it.
Apollo stared in confusion at Meg's actions not for the first and definitely not the last time.
“What are you-”
She continued grunting in exertion, finally the body budged just a bit, but enough that she was able to put his hand in multiple small stems
Grasping both his hand and branch of the bush a small flower grew into his hand, it was a red poppy. With a clear amount of reluctance she let both go.
“Okay.” She said standing up, wiping her nose with sleeve. “Now I’m ready to go.”
“Whew, well, okay time to skedaddle,” With approval gained from the 6 year old he picked up the pace he wasn’t completely sure where they were going but away from Nero a good start. They scuttled a little ways off, pausing as Nero's henchmen passed by.
“So far, so good. “ He mumbled. Meg still trailing behind him.
They quickly ran past that, Meg looking back only once at the ruins
of her home. As they briefly brushed over it.
More running, more dodging, some unfortunate circling back to avoid some dangerous germani. At another crosspath that had Apollo going back and forth Meg decided to chime in.
“Are we there yet, wherever we’re going, do you even know where we’re going or what we’re doing?”
Apollo opened his mouth but was saved from having to lie as another voice interrupted them.
“You two kiddies aren’t going anywhere.” Said the gruff voice of Germani Luguselwa.
Oh good, Apollo's first thought was: Lu, finally someone I trust who’s capable, that can help me. Then he was reminded of the actual circumstances under which they were meeting and did a 180 degree correction.
On no. Lu’s here, someone very capable who I actually can’t trust and will probably not help me and instead turn us into Nero.
Well. This was unfortunate.