Two things. One, the Percy Jackson fandom likes talking about bromances yet we forget the potential for one giant six-way bromance. Two, the fandom likes weaseling out childhood trauma and poking it like a stick yet I think that we forget about this one. Anyways, the premise here is a bit unusual but I hope that you can all enjoy it anyways!

Disclaimer: I don't own the following characters or premises.

Dedication: For StackofStories who was just today telling me about thirsty for angst he/she was.

This Bright Future

In this bright future, you can't accept your past.

-Bob Marley

The images they were getting from Hephaestus' espionage robots were grim at best, despicable at their average, and unspeakable at their worst. Nothing less than any of them expected from their dear father.

Kronos himself supervised as armies of his creatures swept over entire neighbourhoods, tearing it to shreds at the best only to rip a single child out of his home- claimed or not. Hera shivered and whispered names and ages.

Telekhines added weapon after weapon to the enormous piles dotting their forges. Poseidon clenched his jaw- he'd seen more than enough of them in the water. He could feel his brothers and sisters' gazes, piercing and unwavering and focused. Also horrified, but that applied to the six of them.

The dracanae threw demigods into their arenas and slew them or watched them slay each other for sport and pleasure.

Cannibals feasted. Hestia had to turn her eyes away and Zeus made sure not to focus too hard on the meat.

A hellhound stampede in Philadelphia. A few demigods were trying to contain it from Pegasus back, holding down nets -some electrocuted- and firing arrows. Some demigods on the ground were trying to control the hellhounds who managed to escape.

A camp filled with demigods in black armour being raided by campers in bronze. A flying chariot burst out of a tent, taking the roof with it. Archers immediately changed their targets to it. One demigod fell from it, plummeting right through another tent's roof. Battle formations on the ground were ploughing through everything. Fires were lit left and right.

The Hunters of Artemis scrambling out of the way of an unusually huge Hyperborean's feet but staying in his legs for annoyance purposes. Half of the hunt distracted him and tried to grapple his ankles; the other half ran forwards, stopped, and aimed to shoot. As the snow giant stumbled forwards the two groups switched jobs. A Hunter tried to climb the Hyperborean's foot but was kicked off. She didn't get up and the girls didn't have the time or numbers to stop for her. Goosebumps climbed Zeus' spine when he saw Thalia successfully lasso the giant's knee and climb up his limb with her spear in one hand. The other girls kept shooting and yelling orders to each other, Thalia could be killed if the wind changed its course at all.

Kronos himself, blond hair dropping in front of gold eyes, sliding the tip of a dagger along a gagged demigoddess' face. She screamed through her gag and tried to struggle her way out. It was all in vain. Her back arched in pain. She tried turning her head away but Kronos' hand trapped her chin in place. She made a brave attempt to spit in his face, which resulted in her lip being sliced off. He felt Demeter tense next to him and decided that that was enough for now.

He cut the image.

"Do we know who she is?" He asked.

"I think her name is Daphne," Hestia said softly. "I believe that she is a daughter of Hephaestus but I cannot be sure."

Zeus nodded. "Whoever sees him first let him know."

"These images are old," Poseidon said. Zeus was used to his brother teasing him. Poseidon was the one who was both calm and lively, the one who lived as if summer lasted forever and never seemed to not have something in the Smart Alec category to reply. Harshness wasn't a composite of his voice often. "She's dead already. He probably knows."

"Send her to Elysium, will you?" He asked Hades.

"If I find her," Hades asked. Pockets hung under his eyes and he looked exhausted with all the extra traffic. Actually, they all did. Gods could function without sleep, especially the older ones, but overwork, worry, anxiety and fear could all get the better of them.

All his siblings had some form of those pockets whether they showed as creases under their eyes, aging in their physiques, extra lines riddling their foreheads or thinning limbs; what's more, the world was peppered with this kind of fear now. Bad crops, storms, droughts… left and right anxiety and worry and fear were scarring the world somehow.

"Talking about what to do with heroes once they're dead isn't getting us -or them- anywhere," Hera said.

"It's too late for that girl," Zeus said.

"That's not what I…" Hera rolled her eyes and left them.

"I'll go after her," Zeus said with a sigh.

"She always did take it harder," Demeter said softly.

"War?" Zeus asked freezing on his way out, remembering the fierceness with which she'd fight when the rest of the siblings were on the line. That wasn't even mentioning how she got as Juno.

"Not war," Hades said. "The… ah… unfortunate circumstance with our… father."

Demeter sighed. "You're not going after her without grasping this."

"It's not his fault," Hestia said quietly. "In his defense, we never spoke of it."

"What?" Zeus asked getting impatient. Who knew where Hera was at and how many marriages had crumbled in the last few seconds of his stalling here.

"Look, you don't know this," Poseidon said. "You're lucky. You were sparred. For you, trouble began… after the war started. We've been in trouble since we were born."

Hestia took Zeus' hand. It was one of those moments when, even though she spent the grand majority of her time as a child, he could see that she was the older one. The eldest sister. The one that, with her tiny body and round face and occasional growing spurts, watched over them and managed to talk to each of them equally. The one who should have been queen rightfully.

"Hera believes in family," Hestia said. "Even the rest of us like to believe in… well, in love. In hope. In mercy. What Kronos did to us… eating his own children… We grew up in his stomach, brother. We grew up hearing the outside world but really not being able to do anything else than clutch each other more tightly when things got bad."

Poseidon wasn't looking at them anymore and his fists kept trying to clench tighter and tighter. Demeter's eyes were shut. Hades' eyes had glazed over in anger. Hestia's eyes dimmed as she spoke.

"I'd never seen sunshine until you gave Kronos that emetic," Hestia said. "None of us had."

"As if eating us wasn't bad enough, it was unceremonious and quick."

Zeus knew better than to ask Poseidon if he remembered anything.

"Had you ever even thought of us and how it was in there?" Hades asked.

"Hades!" Demeter reproached snapping out of her memories and slapping him.

"If I hadn't, would I have gone after you all?" Zeus snapped. "Of course I did. I was raised hearing your names and getting no explanation. When I found out who you were, what had happened to you, who I was… it didn't take long."

"The past is the past," Hades said. "But it naturally can't be that easy. Not for us, anyways."

"I still hate the dark," Demeter said quietly.

"Do you get it now?" Poseidon asked.

Zeus swallowed. He noticed that as they talked about the ancient times, the legends that even demigods classified as stories, they'd all reverted to wearing the long, flowing robes of their childhoods. Demeter's hair had braided and pinned itself to the back of her neck. Hades' smooth face had grown back to the time's beard and cut.

"We're all scared," he said.

"Terrified," Demeter said. She shrugged. "I'll be honest for us all."

"No, you don't understand," Poseidon said. "It's worst for the rest of us. You've never felt how it was when Kronos won. The pain, the fear, the chaos... We have. We remember being at his mercy. We know what to look forwards to if something happens."

"Which is why nothing will happen." Zeus insisted. He closed his eyes for a second; let the words align themselves in his head, before facing his brothers and sisters again. "I never will understand what it was like. I admit it. But I know enough and I see enough to know that it can never happen again. We beat Kronos once, remember. The six of us, all on one front. The oracles are clear- we won't be the ones wielding the weapons this time."

Zeus could nearly feel the weight of the scythe in his hand, feel the leather grip against his palm like he had eons ago… he'd thought of that cursed blade many times. Just never out of the context of a nightmare.

"And that makes it even scarier. None of us want our children to live like we did." Zeus said. The image of Thalia rushing the hyperborean came to mind. He couldn't imagine her fighting anything like that- much less a Titan, much less her grandfather.

He wondered what his brothers were seeing their children at. What death they prayed to keep away. But then again when you were a god, who did you pray to? Nothing. It made these situations worst. Fear more real. Hopelessness even more lamentable.

Fates, Demeter had an entire cabin full of sons and daughter to worry about. Zeus couldn't imagine it right now. s

"But this is a new era," Zeus said. "This war isn't even called the Titanomachy. We have to forget and look to the future. To how this particular war will end, not ours. It's much more than ours."

"That's the scary part," Demeter said. "It's not even in our hands anymore. Someone else needs to save us."

"And we can't even save those people," Hades said.

Poseidon wouldn't say it out loud, but he rolled his eyes at Hades and Zeus saw that he actually believed him.

"But we can save what they believe in," Hestia spoke up, gentle and soft as ever. "And we will. Zeus is right. We shall because we must, as per always."

"Like always," Zeus said. "We have our differences, but there's no time for that in times of war. You are my brothers and my sisters. Nothing will happen to you as long as I'm there to take the hit. That I can safely swear on the Styx- a promise even I can't break."

Hestia's hand rubbed the inside of his palm reassuringly. She hadn't done that in a long time. Not since she'd given up her throne and resorted to sitting in ashes and poking coals.

"I have fires to tend to."

With that the eldest wandered out.

"I need to catch up with Hera," Zeus said snapping out of reality.

"Pull another great speech out of nowhere for her," Poseidon called as Zeus left.

Poseidon calling one of his rambles great. Huh. Maybe they were in for miracles.

Or maybe Demeter had just pinched him. Either or.