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Rhea knew her luck was weird on the best of days. This, however, was a little too much. She was essentially retired, dam it! Of course, she was spending the weekend at Camp, and there was a god present. She would go to the guy directly.
"I was glowing this morning," she told Dionysus flatly.
"Well, good morning to you too, Renee Johnson."
" Glowing ," she emphasised.
Something must have registered, because her cousin's eyes widened and he was cursing in- is that German?
"You might want to get drunk for this."
"I'll pass."
Dionysus shrugged and might have muttered something along the lines of 'your loss'. He sighed, and then took a deep breath. "How much do you know about my story?"
What did that have to do with anything?
"Uh, well," she began, "After your mom died due to godly supernova, your dad took foetus you and kept you in his thigh until you were born and-"
"Not that part," he interrupted, " After I created wine."
"You went all over the world to market your new product, punished people who disrespected you, and had a cult of wild partying," she guessed.
"And then ?" he prompted.
"I'm pretty sure you died and became a god at some point. Or you became a god without dying. I'm not sure."
The camp director groaned. "I'll take it."
"What does-"
"I glowed occasionally," he dropped conversationally.
" Oh no ."
"Oh yes ," he looked way too gleeful at her possible situation. Then, he turned sober (get it?) once more. "To become a deity, you need power and believers."
"I don't have a cult!" she sputtered.
Now it was Dionysus' turn to look at her flatly. "Yes, you do."
"Who?" she challenged.
She really shouldn't have. The wine god just pointed to the entire Camp of demigod children. And look , just because Leo called her 'our lady and saviour' at campfire the other day did not mean they were her cult. It was a joke, right? Right?
Of course, Dionysus rejoiced at her misery, because he added, "I've seen some kids give offerings to their parents and then you ."
"That's the nice smell I keep getting during mealtimes?!"
Dionysus hummed.
"I- I'm having a crisis," she declared. And then she left.
When she asked Annabeth if kids sacrificed their meals to her, she confirmed it. Apparently, she was enough of a 'figure' at Camp for them to do it. Then, Piper added that some of the Apollo kids with help from literally anyone she'd been on a quest with were planning to write her biography – in poem format. Kayla's unrepentant face was all the confirmation she needed. Also, while yes , her powers were getting stronger, she'd just assumed it happened as you got older. It wasn't like she knew any Poseidon demigod who lived past twenty personally!
It was getting too hard to ignore. The crisis got even worse when she heard a camper praying to her about winning Capture The Flag ( seriously, why? ) and then she thought it would be pretty neat if they did win – and then they did! Coincidence, she told herself.
It did not scream coincidence when whatever one of the little kids prayed to her about happened. Every fucking time.
So, she went to Nico. Completely logical.
"Your life force is getting pretty weird these days, yeah," he mentioned. At Hazel's panicked and stricken look, he hurriedly added, "You're not dying! Actually, you seem more alive somehow? Does that make sense?"
Oh fuck .
Next stop, the immortal centaur mentor.
"Am I becoming immortal?" she blurted out.
He looked like a deer, erm, horse caught in the headlights. "Well, ah, that is to say-"
"You knew!" she accused.
He smiled sheepishly. "It is rather obvious when you know the signs, child."
She ran into the hunters one day. Lady Artemis was with them. Jackpot, she thought. She owed Thalia some cheeseburgers anyway.
"Lady Artemis," she greeted. "I had a question."
"Ah, Rhea," she smiled. "I've asked you to call me Artemis. As for your question, I think I know what it is." She raised her hand when Rhea opened her mouth. "No, we do not know your domains just yet. I believe the Fates will announce it when it is time."
Rhea stood there, stunned. "Oh gods," she did not squeak! "That's not- I didn't- I can't- I'm turning immortal?"
Artemis looked at her strangely. "Into a goddess, yes," she informed. "I would give it a week before the change finally settles and you get your domains for certain. Did you not know?"
"I was in denial," she mumbled. "My crisis isn't over." A pause. "Can I take your Lieutenant for, say, an hour or something?"
Artemis blinked. "Thalia?"
Thalia, who was trying not to die laughing (spoiler: she literally couldn't ), stopped and said, "My lady?"
"You have permission to go for no more than two hours."
"Thank you, my lady," Thalia said. Then, she turned to Rhea, "Let me guess, cousin meeting?"
"Cousin meeting," Rhea agreed.
After calling Mrs. O'Leary, taking Nico, and then kidnapping Hazel and Jason from Camp Jupiter, they ended up at a McDonald's… somewhere.
"Why is it always me?" Rhea bemoaned.
Jason looked confused, which, par for the course, really. "What happened now?"
Thalia answered cheerfully ( too cheerfully), "Rhea will turn into a goddess by next week according to Lady Artemis' guess. The process has already begun. She was in denial about it until now."
"Is that why you asked about the life force thing?" Nico said through a mouthful of cheeseburger.
"I'll get back to you about the designs you want on your temple, my lady," Jason teased.
Hazel squeezed her hand and gave her some more ketchup.
"Thank you, Hazel ," Rhea responded, "You are officially my favourite."
"Thank you, my lady."
"I take it back," Rhea grumbled. "I hate you all."
"You adore us, kelp for brains," Thalia countered.
Within the next week, there was a meet-up with the Seven as well and it went a little bit like this:
"Give it up for our literal lady and saviour!" Leo announced.
"We'll build you a shrine, babygirl," a (slightly tipsy) Piper decided.
"Does this make you Cabin 7's soon-to-be immortal stepmother?" Jason asked.
"Please," Annabeth shuddered, "Calling her 'immortal stepmother' gives callbacks to You-Know-Who."
"New and improved immortal stepmother," Frank decided.
Rhea knew fighting back was pointless. Not even her mother was taking her side in this! Even Triton (stuck-up extraordinaire), Rhode (one of the nicest people she knew), and Kym (soul sister and biological sister) had joined the teasing. As of now, Estelle was her favourite in general, because all she did was babble and call her Ray-Ray. She could even excuse the whole pulling-her-hair – although, she always let it go for Estelle because a, she was a toddler, and b, she was too cute.
Correct to Artemis' assumption, Rhea was called to Olympus exactly a week since that fateful conversation.
The minute she entered Olympus, the nature spirits began kneeling. Oh gods, why ?
"No kneeling!" she yelped.
"But, my lady-" a particularly brave dryad tried to argue.
"No." Rhea said firmly, "No buts, nothing. Not a single one of you kneels. Please ." The please was a little desperate, but she thought she deserved being a little desperate these days.
Rhea entered the throne room, where all twelve Olympians were seated alongside Uncle Hades and right near the hearth was Aunt Hestia. In her head, there was a mental listing of every curse word she knew.
Relax, Apollo's voice sounded in her head, You'll be fine.
I don't recall having a mind-Apollo.
Telepathy. God thing. You'll learn.
She shot him a very light glare for that. Next to him, Hermes gave a thumbs up. She looked around, and yep, Dad definitely looked very smug. Hera and Athena looked at her like they always did. In the best decision she'd made during this entire fiasco, Rhea decided to focus solely on Aunt Hestia, who was giving her a soothing smile. Then the Fates appeared.
Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool-
Right. She was supposed to kneel to them, right? No need to give them ammo to cause more problems. Okay. Kneeling now.
"Rise, Rhea," all three said as one. Whoa, that was creepy. Kind of like the ghosts in horror movies, you know? "Goddess of heroes, loyalty, battle, storms and rivers, patron of demigods, protector of children."
Okay. That was a lot. She could deal with it. Dionysus also looked smug?
"Told you so," he mouthed at her. Ah. The demigod cult. Of course.
Then the Fates left in a flash of light. For a while, there was silence.
"So," she began, "That happened." Zeus closed his eyes in what seemed to be pain. Huh. "Can anyone give me my job description? What exactly am I supposed to do now? Also, don't we already have protectors of children?"
Artemis decided to answer her, because she was helpful like that.
"I believe you will be helping my brother and I in our duties as protector of children. Your father and siblings will help you with the river and storm domains. You might want to consult Ares and Athena over battle," Rhea inwardly winced. "Heroes, demigods and loyalty… Those are wholly yours."
"Thank you, Lady Artemis."
"Artemis," she corrected, again, "I've told you already."
"Yes…" she nodded. "May I be excused?"
Zeus gave a sharp nod and she fled out before her uncle could change his mind. In hindsight, maybe deciding to sit at the bottom of a lake in Olympus for hours was not her best decision, but hey, she needed it. When she finally surfaced (get it?), Apollo was sitting cross-legged on the ground, golden hair shining, waiting for her.
"She returns to land at last," he teased. She tried to splash at him playfully, but all the swordfighting lessons had somehow made his instincts even sharper. He dodged. Rhea tried (and failed) not to preen. "How are you feeling?" he asked softly.
Rhea paused for a bit. "Forever is a long time."
"You have me."
"Yeah," she quirked up her lips in some semblance of a smile, "I do, don't I?"
"Uncle P asked me to tell you to go to Atlantis as soon as you were done with this," he said after a while. "He said something about letting you cool off after the week you've had."
Dad was watching her. And said nothing . Fucking bastard.
Rhea came out of the water and took Apollo's arm. "Teach me how to do that teleporting thing?"
"My pleasure."
Rhea made sure to kiss Apollo thoroughly during the goodbye kiss at Atlantis, right in front of her father as payback.