M. Lively

Both Fredrick and Natalie Chase caught the attention of the Roman goddess of war and conquest. As they were raised close, monsters constantly attacked the extended family, coming to a climax when lycanthropes killed Natalie. Annabeth, at just nine years old, ran away with a seven year old Magnus. They were on the streets for a while, learning to survive and fight (at least in Annabeth's case) as they slowly made their way southward.

Years later, they stow away on a cruise ship heading to the tropics, hoping that not being in the US anymore will save them. They are wrong. The ship goes down, and they wash ashore on CC's Island Resort. Annabeth is welcomed with open arms while Magnus is turned into a guinea pig. Annabeth, knowing she'd meet the same fate or worse if she rebelled, learns all the sorcery she can to finally kill the witch and save her cousin.

When the children of Bellona were 14 and 12 respectively, sons of Poseidon and Athena arrive on Circe's Island Resort. Annabeth sees the opportunity and steals the vitamins from the son of Athena's bag. When they are turned into guinea pigs as well, she causes a disturbance and pulls the three of them out, returning them to human form. She ends up dumping the rest in the cage, restoring Blackbeard and his crew as well. Despite saving them, Percy and Jason abandon them (at least from Annabeth's perspective) and the duo are kidnapped by the pirates.

After escaping, the head westward in hopes of meeting up with Annabeth's dad again, only to find that he had moved on with his wife. They don't even knock before Annabeth runs again, pulling Magnus with her in a desperate bid to keep him safe. They are found by Lupa's wolves who lead them back to the Wolf House and train them to join the Legion.

When they do so, Magnus thrives in a setting with other people who want to get to know them. Annabeth, meanwhile, finds this suffocating, especially considering that they find her magic prowess to be creepy and unRomanlike. She tries to run with him like usual, but he isn't letting her drag him away from potential happiness again. They have a big blow-out fight which results in Annabeth semi-officially abandoning the Legion and running by herself.

Annabeth, seeking security and wanting to build something that'll last, joins the Amazons. She quickly rises through their ranks with dreams of a utopian city where mortals and mythicals alike can thrive without the fear of monsters and violent men coming for them- like New Rome, but better (because she built it).

Magnus, meanwhile, finds comfort in the 5th Cohort. He gets a more formal education and learns to be part of an active community in the Legion. The former guinea pig also develops as a human person alongside/ with the help of former wolf child, Alex Fierro: daughter (unless stated otherwise) of Jupiter. Through dedication and care for the people around him, he quickly rises to the ranks of Centurian alongside Alex, and both are made praetor after leading the entire Legion in toppling Saturn's throne.

1. In Sword of Hades, we see that there's a key that unlocks death in this universe and most of HoO is about the Doors of Death.

Well… what if there were two keys and they locked/ unlocked one of the two entrances/ exits: the one in Los Angeles (TLT) and the one in the titular House of Hades. Each key does different things and is in the possession of one of the princes of The Underworld.

The first key, which locks the LA door, is in the possession of Nico. This key can summon the dead (regardless of whether or not there are skeletons nearby) and can tear open fissures in the earth for them to emerge from. It's embedded in the hilt of his sword (a la the Sword of Hades)

The second key, which locks the Epirus/ HoH door, is in the possession of Hazel. This key is worn around her neck and can give her visions of past death and how the people around her are going to die.

2. I split canon!Nico in half.

Keys!Nico is the mythology nerd who gets in everyone's business. He's Hades/Pluto's Ambassador to other pantheons and is at least friendly with both the post-Iskandar House of Life and the Norse crowd. He's learning magic from both but favors memorization over feeling, favoring magics like divine word and charms (but can also do some combat or death magics in desperation) on the Egyptian side while being fairly proficient in rune magic. He prefers to use cards as a medium as he's used to card-based memorization games like Mythomagic, can draw on and throw them, and they burn up upon use (helpful for remaining discrete).

The depressed Ghost King side of Nico is going to Bianca, who survives the events of TTC (I'll explain my quest reshuffling in another post). After Zoe's death, she runs off and runs into dangerous individuals who claim they can get Bianca's memories and best friend back. She meets Melinoe (who's supporting the Titans), who successfully introduces her to Mnemosyne, the titan of memory who reverses what the Lethe did. The goddess of ghosts then says that she'll need a powerful artificial shell/body to bring Zoe back. That's why they're going after Daedalus.

3. This is less relevant to this au specifically because this is also the case in Limen, but I aged up just about every character.

The prophecy is at 18 instead of 16 and I wanted to give every child of the Big Three a fair shot at being The One. Hazel was the closest when the prophecy was made, Bianca was after Hazel's death, Thalia was after she and her brother disappeared. Ana Dakkar (daughter of Neptune) was the first known on the Roman side and joined the Legion first by a couple months, but Jason is the oldest of the three on the Roman side. Finally, through Lotus Casino and Fate based shenanigans, Percy and Nico will turn 18 on the same day.

Bianca was 17 when she joined the Hunters and has been every day since

Nico is 16 in TTC, 18 in TLO, and turns 20 just after HoO

While Bianca in the Junkyard of the Gods, she finds and picks up three things: the moon/bow hairpin, Nico's figurine, and a mysterious clay (canopic) jar. When she tries to shut down the automaton, the jar breaks, and she wakes up in the Duat.

There, she wanders the vague plain of reality for an indeterminable amount of time with only a comforting pressure of talons on her shoulder and a gentle voice in her head to guide her. This voice begins to teach her Egyptian magic (which is significantly easier in the Duat itself- it's the only reason she learned so old)

Wandering, she eventually meets Khonsu, the god of the moon, youth, and travelers. He decides to take pity on this poor mortal and teach her ways to traverse the Duat as well as tracking and navigation spells. They eventually bond and she agrees to be his host if the need arises.

A little over two years later, she comes face to face with two humans and joins them on the Sunboat.

Design Notes:

Visualizing the Duat (ya know, the ocean otherworld in the sky) using watercolors in varying amounts of mixing :)

Khonsu: As the god of youth, I thought he should look younger. He's now in his early 20s (21 ish maybe 22?)

Timeline:

December: TTC- Bianca gets stuck in the Duat & is presumed dead

She's in the Duat for: BotL(the following July), TRP (July/Aug. the year after BotL), TLO (2ish weeks after TRP), TLH (Jan. after TLO)

(Her animal design inspiration is a common dolphin for the record)

They'd meet when Percy arrives in New Rome.

They're both a little apprehensive- Ana from her brother's betrayal and Percy from fighting sons of Poseidon (not that he remembers the reason).

Backstory:

Shelby would be Ash's first apprentice. She was found still awake and wandering around semi-destroyed Manhattan early on during the final battle against Kronos. The Hunter that found her assumed the four-year-old was a Grekoroman demigod and took her to the Hunters' camp set up on a couple of rooftops so that someone could always keep an eye on her.

Shelby became particularly close with Naomi, the Hunters' resident medic as she stayed out of the battle for the most part. They sent each other little gifts using a magic box Naomi gave her. A cool rock here, a snow globe there, it's all very cute. Naomi was actually the one to tell the real Ash about Shelby.

Suffice it to say, Ash was quite surprised when she met the now six year old at Brooklyn House.

Design:

Shelby looks like how Sadie is described on purpose. She really looks up to her and, if Shelby weren't already there, I'd say Sadie was a terrible influence on her.

Abilities:

Unsurprisingly, she is the most adept at Egyptian magic of all of Ash's apprentices. She is very good at divine word, especially when she writes it like Sadie and Carter do their first day training in Per Ankh.

Shelby is generally well rounded, as she has had the most time and one on one attention with Ash, being the first.

She's the second best with physical weapons (behind Estelle of course) and created a deck of disposable playing card-like runes out of paper that burn up upon use using the same premise as divine word. Not super practical but they can be used quickly and are good in an emergency.