If you could go back in time, would you change anything?
Time is like a river, flowing in a single direction, carrying everything along with it. Some try to swim against the current, but they're swept back, powerless against its force. Others accept the flow, letting themselves be carried, believing that fate is already sealed.
But what if there were someone who could split the river in two? Who could reshape its course, transforming every drop, every moment, every choice?
Ikki looked at the destroyed Camp Half-Blood, at the bodies of the demigods who were once his allies, his friends. The smell of blood mixed with wet earth still lingered in the air.
He wasn't someone who just let himself be carried by the current.
But neither did he know if he should swim against it.
If he went back in time, if he could undo all of this… should he?
No.
The answer came cold, without hesitation.
Time wasn't just a river or an ocean; it was a fragile balance, an intricate tapestry where every thread was interwoven with millions of others. Cutting a single thread could unravel the entire fabric.
Ikki could go back to the past. He could prevent this tragedy. But at what cost?
Every action generated a reaction.
If he interfered with the flow of time, he would create ramifications that even his expanded mind couldn't fully predict. He wielded over ten thousand authorities, yes! But even that wasn't omnipotence. There were variables beyond his control.
Saving his friends now could condemn them to worse fates later.
He felt something that should have been guilt, but logic drowned the emotion before it could grow.
What was done, was done.
The future could be shaped. The present could be rebuilt.
But the past?
The past was a corpse, and he wouldn't waste power trying to resurrect it.
Yet, even as he thought this, something within him rebelled.
His human side.
That part of him that, despite all the cold logic, still saw the faces of his friends. Still heard their voices. Still felt their presence in the world that had now erased them.
It was an almost sickly kindness, a goodness that refused to die, even in the face of absolute reason. A weakness or a strength? He could never tell.
Because, even knowing he shouldn't go back, that he couldn't go back… He wanted to.
And that desire gnawed at him.
Guilt grew like a shadow, slithering through his mind, seeping into every crevice of his existence. If he hadn't disappeared, if he had been here from the start, all of this could have been avoided.
He didn't need to change the past.
He just needed to have done more.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Ikki looked around the room in the Big House that he had just rebuilt.
The Big House had never seemed so small.
The few remaining campers were gathered there, crammed into a space that once felt welcoming. Now, the atmosphere was heavy, suffocating, as if the walls were closing in on them.
Ikki stood, observing the faces around him. Closed, pale, empty faces. Many had makeshift bandages, stained with dried blood. Others clutched beaded necklaces as if they could hold onto fading memories.
Out of hundreds of campers, barely more than a dozen remained.
Ikki should have felt something. Anger, guilt, grief. But everything seemed… distant. As if he were looking at it all through thick glass, separated from the pain that filled the room.
Percy stood beside him, silent. Annabeth was nearby, watching him with a concerned look, as if expecting him to break at any moment. Sadie, Carter, Zia, and Walt were close, strangers amidst the chaos, but equally tense. No one asked who they were. No one cared about that now.
Chiron, fully recovered, stood before them. His normally kind eyes were dark, heavy with a weight Ikki didn't want to imagine.
"Before anything else…" Chiron began, his voice graver than ever, "we must acknowledge that we are only here because Ikki saved us…"
The silence deepened.
"He rebuilt Camp Half-Blood. He healed you. He gave us a second chance…"
There was a low murmur among the campers, but no one truly reacted.
Chiron took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment.
"But that doesn't change what happened."
His voice faltered slightly.
"I taught these young people. I trained each one of them, saw their victories and failures, watched them grow… and now they're gone. I should have been able to protect them."
A knot tightened in Ikki's throat.
"But I failed."
The word hung in the air.
That's when Clarisse stood up.
Her chair scraped across the floor, making a sharp noise that cut through the silence.
"That's beautiful, Chiron…" Her voice was sharp. "But no one's saying the obvious…"
Ikki already knew what was coming.
"Where the hell were you, Ikki?"
His name was spat like a curse.
Clarisse took a step forward, her eyes blazing with anger and pain.
"When we needed you most, you weren't here!"
The weight of those words was heavier than any spell or blade.
"You showed up now, saved everyone, killed the monsters and Titans, healed us all, rebuilt the camp… Great. But before? When we were fighting to the death? When we watched our friends get torn apart in front of us? Where were you?"
She took another step closer.
"Tell me, Ikki. What right do you have to be the leader of Camp Half-Blood after this?"
Ikki didn't respond.
Because, deep down, he knew she was right.
Chiron placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her.
"Clarisse…" His voice was gentle but firm. "Blaming Ikki won't bring anyone back…"
"No, but at least someone has to speak the truth."
She stepped back, breathing deeply, trying to contain her emotions.
That's when Percy spoke.
"We should have known…"
All eyes turned to him.
He'd been there the whole time, silent. But now, his voice sounded strangely cold.
"Annabeth, Clarisse, Tyson, Rachel, Nico… Grover… and I failed."
A part of him was relieved that Tyson had returned to Poseidon's forges after escaping the Labyrinth of Daedalus and that Rachel hadn't come back to camp either. He didn't want to lose another sibling in this fight, like he lost Grover… Something only Annabeth, Nico, Clarisse, Rachel, Tyson, and he knew.
Annabeth lowered her head. Nico said nothing.
"We couldn't stop the enemies from using the Labyrinth of Daedalus to bypass our defenses…"
The weight of guilt hung over everyone.
The silence returned, heavier than ever.
Ikki remained motionless, his eyes scanning the campers' faces. Then, with his usual calm, he asked:
"Who died in this battle?"
Chiron closed his eyes for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. When he spoke, his voice sounded older than ever.
"Drew Tanaka… The Stoll brothers… Katie Gardner…"
Each name seemed to weigh in the air, like stones thrown into an already turbulent lake.
No one noticed when Ikki's fists clenched behind him. Hard enough to break the skin. Hard enough for blood to drip onto the floor.
But his face remained neutral.
Only his mind wasn't quiet.
The Stoll brothers…
He could see them, one on each side, mischievous grins, throwing their arms over his shoulders as they plotted some absurd prank. How many times had Ikki been their accomplice in a joke? How many times had he helped them set traps? He should have felt their deaths. His ancient ability, the one that tied a part of his soul to every camper, should have warned him.
But no.
The ability had changed. The bond was gone. Now it was just a divine blessing, without the effect that once connected him to everyone. He didn't even get back the gift he'd given them, the unique ability…
He didn't feel them go.
Katie…
He remembered their talks in the garden, the way she dragged him to help plant something even when he didn't want to. She always said the earth was patient, but Ikki knew she wasn't. There was passion in what she did, a constant energy. Now, that energy was gone.
Drew…
How many times had she tried to charm him? How many times had she thrown flirtations, glances, provocations?
And now…
Now there was nothing.
He took a deep breath.
The silence around him became oppressive. No one wanted to be the next to speak.
Ikki looked at Chiron. At Clarisse. At Percy, Annabeth, Nico. At Sadie, Zia, and Walt, who watched without saying anything.
Then, finally, he broke the silence:
"Anyone else?"
His voice was neutral. Controlled.
But inside…
Inside, he was etching every name.
And deep in his soul, a certainty grew:
One day, when he became a god, when he had absolute power… He would bring them all back.
The silence dragged on, heavy as a storm about to break.
Then, one of the campers swallowed hard.
"Malcolm…" The voice came weak, almost broken.
Annabeth flinched at the name. Her half-brother.
"Jake Mason…" The next voice came from Nyssa, another daughter of Aphrodite who was dating the son of Hephaestus. A boy who spent most of his life fixing weapons and machines for others, but in the end, none of them could save him.
"Lee Fletcher…" The voice of a son of Apollo trembled. The former leader of Cabin 7. Died fighting as he always lived: on the front lines, protecting others.
"Michael Yew…" Another son of Apollo. Quiet and steadfast, but always ready with a sharp retort. Died without giving a single step back.
The list went on.
"Alabaster… Castor… Ethan…"
The voices blended together. Some spoke with anger. Others, with a pain they could barely contain.
A daughter of Hermes sobbed loudly, hugging herself, unable to say anything more. Her older brother was dead.
One of Ares' sons clenched his fists, trying to hold back the tears burning his eyes. His brother fell fighting, as he should have, but that didn't make the loss less painful.
Others simply lowered their heads, unable to say anything.
Chiron remained standing, listening to everything in silence, until he finally let out a heavy sigh.
"We lost many," he said, his voice laden with grief. "Heroes, friends, brothers, and sisters… and nothing we can say now will bring them back."
The silence took over the room once more.
Then, Ikki spoke.
The question that should have been asked from the start.
"Where are the gods?"
The silence grew denser. Some campers shifted uncomfortably, others looked away. No one seemed to want to answer.
But Ikki didn't stay silent.
"Why didn't they intervene?" he continued, his voice calm but sharp. "Where were they while you were dying?"
Chiron closed his eyes for a moment, as if gathering strength to respond. When he opened them, he seemed to have aged decades.
"The gods were facing problems too," he said slowly. "They couldn't help."
Ikki frowned slightly.
"Apparently…" Chiron continued, "Cronos attacked on two fronts. Olympus and Camp Half-Blood."
The silence was absolute.
The revelation weighed like a stone in everyone's chest.
The gods, who had always been above everything, had been dragged into a war so brutally that they couldn't even protect their own children.
Ikki studied each face around him.
The silent anger. The frustration. The despair.
And above all…
The feeling of abandonment.
Ikki didn't say anything.
Instead, he slowly turned toward New York. The dark horizon seemed quiet, but he knew it was just an illusion. His perception crossed miles in an instant, piercing through the magical mist, through the barriers of Olympus. And what he saw made his mind freeze.
The gods were at war.
But not against Titans.
Ikki frowned. The battlefield above the Empire State Building was chaos. Lightning crisscrossed the sky, fire danced among the clouds, the very space trembled with the clash of divine forces colliding.
He recognized them all due to one of his authorities capable of doing so.
Perun, the Slavic thunder god, dueled Zeus. His mace tore through the air with crimson thunder, clashing against the golden lightning of the king of Olympus. The impact shook the entire structure of Olympus, cracking marble pillars.
Veles, the serpentine god of earth and the underworld, fought Poseidon. His body shifted between human and beast, claws tearing reality as water and darkness clashed in a furious battle.
Svarog, the god of the forge and fire, faced Hephaestus. The flames of the two divine smiths mingled, twisting the metal around them, turning Olympus into a blazing furnace.
Morana, the goddess of winter and death, sliced through the air with ice blades, her attacks keeping Artemis and Demeter occupied. Each of her movements made the temperature plummet, freezing the very air around her.
Dazbog, the sun god, dueled Apollo, their powers overlapping, light against light, each trying to extinguish the other's radiance.
Other Slavic gods were there, spreading chaos and destruction across Olympus.
And there were no Titans.
Cronos wasn't there. None of his were.
Ikki narrowed his eyes, feeling the truth slot into place like a cold blade driven into his mind.
Cronos had deceived everyone.
He distracted the Olympians. Pitted the Slavs against them, creating a war between pantheons while he… did something elsewhere.
For a moment, he considered going.
Launching himself against the Slavs, helping the Olympians, turning the tide.
But then he stopped.
His mind visualized Artemis.
She moved with the lethal grace of a predator, dodging Morana's attacks and countering with surgical precision. Beside her, Demeter conjured thorny vines and ice storms, holding the Slavic goddess in combat.
She was fine.
The relief was immediate. An invisible tension he didn't even know he was carrying dissipated for a brief moment.
His eyes then turned to Zeus.
The king of the gods faced Perun directly. And, to Ikki's surprise, his father was… winning.
The Slavic thunder roared, his mace tearing the air with crimson energy, but Zeus was pure power. Each lightning bolt he unleashed made the sky shudder, each strike forced Perun to retreat. The Slavic god was losing.
In fact, all the Greek gods were winning.
Hera dominated her opponent. Athena had already outmatched her rival. Apollo was outshining Dazbog, forcing him to retreat. Poseidon was drowning Veles in an ocean of attacks.
The Greeks were taking control.
But Ikki wanted to ensure it.
Without hesitation, he used one of his authorities, created a perfect poison through one of his abilities, and sent it through space to Olympus instantly, targeting only the Slavic gods.
The Slavic gods felt nothing at first. But then…
Perun staggered in the air, his face contorting in pain.
Morana gasped, her blade trembling in her hand.
Dazbog tried to attack Apollo again, but his movements slowed, his radiance dimming.
One by one, all the Slavic gods began to weaken.
The pain hit them like a tide, burning their veins, consuming their strength. They were still standing, still fighting, but now they were… suffering.
And none of them knew why.
Ikki let out a silent sigh, withdrawing his consciousness from Olympus. The battle's outcome was already decided, but a part of his mind stayed "watching" just in case.
He returned to the present, to the weight of the silence in the Big House, to the smell of earth and blood, to the empty gazes of the surviving campers.
That's when Annabeth broke the silence.
"Ikki…"
He blinked and turned to her. The daughter of Athena was watching him cautiously, as if studying every minute detail of his expression.
"Who are they?"
She pointed at Sadie, Zia, Carter, and Walt.
The four stiffened as all eyes turned to them.
The campers, previously immersed in grief and anger, now had something new to focus on. Intruders.
Clarisse crossed her arms, her eyes still full of distrust. "Yeah, good question. Who are these people, and why are they here?"
Sadie huffed, crossing her arms. "Wow, what a warm welcome. I swear I thought after almost dying together, you'd be a bit more polite."
Clarisse narrowed her eyes at her. Sadie just raised an eyebrow.
Before an argument could start, Carter cleared his throat. "I'm Carter Kane. This is my sister, Sadie Kane. And these are Walt Stone and Zia Rashid."
"We're magicians from the House of Life," Zia added, her voice firm and controlled.
The name House of Life meant nothing to most of the campers, but Chiron frowned immediately.
"Egyptian magicians…" he murmured. "So it's true…"
Annabeth looked directly at Ikki, her gray eyes piercing. "And what are they doing here?"
Ikki ran a hand through his hair, closing his eyes for a moment before facing the group.
"I was bringing them here when the war started," he said, his voice calm but firm. "The plan was to arrive before everything turned into chaos. But the Titans and monsters attacked through the Labyrinth of Daedalus…"
The campers didn't respond immediately.
"I promised I'd bring them to help," Ikki continued. "They're my friends from the Egyptian side."
"Egyptian?" Percy repeated, frowning. "What do you mean by that?"
Ikki sighed. He knew this would require more explanation.
"A long time ago, the Egyptian gods existed," he explained. "But they disappeared a few months ago."
Chiron, who had been watching in silence until then, shook his head slightly. "I heard about that…"
Clarisse crossed her arms. "Great. Another pantheon to worry about."
Percy, however, still seemed stunned by the information. "Wait a second. You're telling me there were Egyptian gods? And these four are, like… their magicians?"
"Yes," Ikki confirmed. "The House of Life trained magicians to channel the gods' power and protect the world."
"Trained," Zia corrected, her voice tinged with bitterness. "That doesn't exist anymore."
The silence that followed was heavy.
"Okay, but hold on." Percy looked from Ikki to the magicians and back to Ikki. "How did you meet them? I mean, since when do you have Egyptian friends?"
Ikki held his gaze for a moment before answering.
"About a year ago. When I disappeared."
Percy blinked. "That whole year you were gone?"
Ikki nodded.
Clarisse crossed her arms, impatient. "Great. So these guys are magicians, you met them in Egypt, and now you brought them here. That still doesn't explain why we should trust them."
"Because you trust me…" Ikki replied calmly.
Clarisse opened her mouth to retort, but Chiron raised a hand, silencing the discussion. His gaze settled on Carter.
"You fought alongside Ikki?"
Carter nodded. "Yes, he saved the world with us several times. We didn't come here as enemies."
Chiron reflected for a moment before nodding. "If Ikki trusts you, then you'll have my hospitality. But it will take time for the other campers to do the same."
Sadie sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "Great. I love winning over new fans."
Clarisse groaned, exasperated. "Someone get me an axe before I have to deal with this."
Ikki let out a sigh.