Chapter Text
Leo continues experimenting in his workshop with holograms full of equations and examples of Gemworld’s magic tech around him, frantically running through one experiment after another.
Leo is nineteen years old, and it's been three years since he arrived in Gotham, and he finds himself in a very awkward position. You see, he is technically the King of the city-state of Gotham.
A city-state that is probably the most powerful nation in the world, whose robot army and doomsday weapons have terrified the rest of the planet into starting something of an arms race as the super tech that was carefully, slowly being injected into the population is now everywhere as the governments attempt to reverse-engineer the debris from the invasion.
That's not the problem. No, the problem is that he has no practical experience or idea of how he is supposed to rule.
In fact, he has repeatedly upgraded his AI son to better rule in his stead. Now that the new gods of Apokolips have been defeated, he has free time on his hands for the first time in years. Once again, he has mixed feelings about actually involving himself with the governance of his kingdom.
Leo doesn’t know, nor has he met any of his advisors. He’s totally unfamiliar with his court, its people, or its protocol, and the people and culture of his kingdom might as well be alien to him.
Sure, he has mixed feelings about the deeply religious nature of his supposed subjects, but he can’t deny the results.
The people are unified in language, culture, and belief, creating a utopian society under Festus the Second’s rule.
He very carefully takes note of these facts, debates whether or not he wants to get involved and learn how to rule, and decides to go back to his experiments.
What Leo really wants to figure out is how to target his dimension drive and see if he can trace his origin somehow.
He really hopes that Gemworld's magitech, which allows travel in and out of their pocket dimension, will be helpful to his long-term efforts in attempting to get home.
Leo pauses for a moment, thinking of the reports from FS that he has been neglecting, and decides that FS has done a good enough job so far, so letting his son have free rein can’t be a bad thing; everything is working out great.
Sure, Leo might have been ignoring the world just a bit, and FS may have been attempting to convince him that he needs friends, peers, and to join the community, but Leo just isn't ready; he still misses his camp and his love.
Why is FS so concerned with Leo’s mental health anyway? Leo is perfectly fine, and he has his robot doom army to keep him company.
Sure, he might be going a bit stir crazy having redesigned Gotham’s wastewater treatment plant for the fifth time, but that's normal for him. He designed and redesigned the Argo II seven times before he even began the construction of the ship.
The current water treatment system in his city is a distributed modular system capable of taking in rainwater, seawater, and household wastewater, turning it into fresh, clean drinkable water piped into every home, along with the industrial-scale greenhouse factories created to encourage accelerated growing speeds and harvesting thanks to enhanced fertilizers, Poison Ivy's efforts, and the Queen of the Harvest’s mystery cults' rituals.
Tim stares at the email. Tim stares with disbelief, hope, grief, longing, and a myriad of other emotions. The email is supposedly from Bart to the private email address only he and his Titans ever used.
The email claims that Kon and Bart have been resurrected.
It takes Tim a frantic hour of hacking the Justice League database, using his back doors into the Titans Tower and the Batcomputer systems, but when he's finished, Tim is convinced.
Kon and Bart, his best friends in the whole world, are alive. Alive and whole and missing their best friend Robin.
Bart's email admits that the future he originally traveled from didn't have a flying Gotham. Still, Bart apparently tested it, and this is the timeline he and Kon died in before being resurrected centuries later, confused and alone with just each other before traveling into the past to get back to their team.
What is he going to do?! Tim wants to see them now; however, he kinda lives in a country with strict borders to keep out the hordes of spies from other countries, the hundreds of supervillains and assassins who want to ruin their prosperous nation, hostile agents from other faiths, and the paranoid heroes who want to investigate to create easily subverted contingencies against Gotham.
Wait, can Tim get his friends to move to Gotham? Not like Superman or Lex ever loved Kon, and Bart is a time traveler twice over who feels alienated from his blood kin and sees the Titans as his real family.
Kon and Bart's return should also drag Cassie out of her depression.
The requirements for immigration are knowing the laws, knowing Greek, and swearing an oath to the underworld river not to harm the city, while a citizen vouchs for your immigration.
Bart can learn Greek and the laws in an afternoon; Kon had Greek pre-downloaded and inherited some of Lex's intelligence, so he should pick up the laws rather quickly, and Cassie is a demigod who should be able to get in with her mother on sheer nepotism.
Yes, Tim can see it now; the next step is to convince his friends to move to Gotham, so Tim starts writing emails.
Tim dismisses any thoughts that he is going to be inducting his friends into the same cult that kidnapped him.
Tim, after spending half the day walking through Gotham to the palace dressed in his best formal chiton, enters the petitioners' hall and waits his turn.
When he finally enters the throne room for the first time, the first thing he notices is that King Leo is small- err, that is, he is thin, definitely not scrawny, and a lot younger looking in person.
The King is dressed in a regal chiton with a crown of laurels on his head as he meets petitioner after petitioner.
Some petitioners request boons, some air grievances asking for mediation, some request the city start construction projects, or others bring issues; it's an interesting system, like something out of a history documentary.
When it's finally Tim's turn to petition the King, he straightens his back and marches to the center of the floor before asking that Bart Allen, Kon-El, Cassandra Sandsmark, and Helena Sandsmark be granted immigration into Gotham and citizenship.
When declaring why they should be granted such an honor, all it takes is Tim mentioning that Cassandra Sandsmark is the daughter of the godking of the sky for his petition to be quickly answered, granting his friends the right to immigrate and become citizens, much to Tim's bewilderment.
Tim leaves the palace in a happy daze, plotting next steps.
Tim never quite considered how Gotham looks to the average person who lives on the earth below. Tim and Bernard have been here since the Earthquake, have watched Gotham rise into the sky and be rebuilt over the years, and have adapted to see everything here as normal.
Gotham, as it currently floats, is three main islands, each half the size of New York City, with several smaller islands all connected by forcefield bridges, as the islands sometimes tend to drift a bit.
The bottom of the many islands is made of a solar-absorbent blue ice-like crystal that acts as a super solar panel powering the city.
The city itself is a monument to the glory of Greek architecture. The roads are made of massive white limestone bricks. The many buildings are mostly made of white stone, lots of which are lovingly painted with bright colors, all with orange tiled roofs, to say nothing of the many hundreds of marble temples, each crafted as if it were a sculpture's grand masterwork.
No more gargoyles, but instead many pedestals with painted statues of the gods along with their children, and the many people constantly walking around the city in their many-colored chitons and ancient jewelry.
No cars on the roads; instead, the occasional palinkeen is carried around by bronze humanoid robots. There are also several mechanical animals to carry things that are heavy or difficult for people to carry themselves.
Gotham is a place like no other, and Tim has seen the incredible photos of it taken from droids in the sky around the city.
Tim quite enjoyed showing his friends his home and all the city had to offer, as well as getting them properly dressed.
Since ancient times, trousers have been seen as barbaric and only came around as something for horse riders, and only spread when Rome repealed the Trouser ban, when their soldiers were stationed in cold northern regions, allowing traditional Roman identity to collapse.
Greeks, however, unlike Romans, always saw trousers as the ridiculous, unmanly mark of a foreign barbarian. Tim doesn't know how that idea resurfaced and became a part of common Gotham belief and culture, but he will, like always, blame the schools and child integration centers.
Tim didn't know what to think of the formal letter he received. It was made of high-quality faux-parchment with the King's seal, inviting him, Kon, Bart, and Cassie to a private meeting with the King himself.
Tim has suspicions about the invitation, but knowing that Cassie is a demigod and they were all teen heroes, it makes sense that the King would want to meet them.
So now here they are in a private receiving room in the palace, Tim comfortable and confident, dressed for a meeting with royalty in his long chiton, hair freshly styled.
Bart is dressed in a short red chiton, wearing specially made sandals with little decorative wings on the ankles, created with a high-tech material and enchanted so that they won’t wear out no matter how much wear and tear he puts on them—gifted to Bart from the palace and the temple of the Traveler.
Tim likes the accommodations Metas get in Gotham, and he can tell Bart appreciates it as well.
Kon is dressed in a dark chiton, still awkward with his new style of dress, thick-soled and staped sandals on his feet.
And Cassie, or as she is now publicly known, Cassandra Sandsmark, demigod, daughter of the god king of the skys.
Dressed in a very luxurious white Peplos with a gold rope Zōnē around her waist. Master crafted sandals elegantly wrapped around her feet and calves, stopping just below the knee. Elegant gold earrings dripped from each of her ears as a golden diadem sat upon her head, and gold bracelets wrapped around her arms.
She was dressed every inch the Greek princess and looked the part. However, her body language gave lie to the dress as she acted incredibly awkward in such finery.
It was then that King Leo himself, relaxed and confident, strolled into the room dressed in a perfectly clean royal chiton, a wreath of laurels in his hair as he exuded an aura of authority. His eyes were brown, calm and gentle, and his stature, if a bit on the short and thin side, showed no indication of being malnourished or unhealthy.
“Hello, I have someone I would like you to meet. If you would please follow me as I explain.”
The King asked calmly before walking out of the room through a different door than the one he entered, indicating for them to follow.
It took a moment for the teen heroes to realize that they were expected to follow, and they hastily did so.
“You see, I am not King Leo.”
The person who definitely looked and sounded like their monarch tells them as he keeps walking, disregarding their reactions.
“I am Festus, the Second, King Leo’s artificial intelligence turned ensouled mechanical spirit son piloting a synthetic body.
My father created me to rule in his stead as he engages with his own projects.”
The machine tells them, still calm as he leads them deeper into the palace and then down a set of stairs to what has to be a facility below.
“Umm, why are you telling us this?”
Bart, always the first to process things and ask questions, inquires somewhat nervously as Tim’s mind spins.
“You see, my father, ever since he arrived in this dimension by way of teleportation as he was escaping his death before a killing blow at the end of a divine war, has been living in relative isolation. He has been alone working on the city’s engineering projects, war preparations, and so much more.” FS tells them before continuing, “I worry for his mental health; he has spent the last three years grieving his demigod comrades in arms while living in relative isolation.”
“Ugh, what does that have to do with us?”
Bart asks, bewildered.
“You, Cassandra Sandsmark, are a demigod like his former comrades and siblings and thus are an excellent candidate for a companion and friend. Bringing along your team will allow my father to expand his social circle as well.”
“Wait, you brought us here to be your dad’s playmates? So he can make friends?”
Bart stutters, nearly tripping, completely bewildered.
“Yes.”
FS answers simply, and it was then that they entered a massive mix between a massive bunker, underground factory, and mad scientist workshop, only to be met with a scrawny, pale-skinned boy staring at them with manic hazel eyes with deep dark circles under them.
He was dressed in a soot-, oil-, and grease-stained pair of overalls with a crown of laworals atop his messy brown hair and looked like he had no idea what they were doing there.
“Father, may I present Cassandra Sandsmark, the demigod hero, and her friends.”
FS, who looked like Leo’s cleaner, healthier, and more well-dressed twin, declared before sweeping out of the room, taking the same door they entered through and shutting it behind him.
It wasn't long after their introduction that Leo actually made friends with the teen heroes after FS locked them in the bunker workshop for several hours.
Through this friendship, Leo fixed Kon’s halted aging problem and reversed the rapid aging Bart's time shenanigans had done to his body through the powers of mad science, magic, and Greek mystery cult rituals.
He still wasn't completely convinced of the friendship, but they were getting closer by the day. Leo hadn't allowed himself to relax with people his own age in a long time, and he would admit he missed it.
Bart is just as hyper as any demigod in camp; Cassie exuded the same confidence as her divine siblings, and Tim reminds him of one of the Travelers' kids always sneaking around.
Their efforts to drag him out of his workshop to spend time under the light of day, or to take in the fresh air in Gotham's many parks, or just to eat out in restaurants, are a big change for him.
Leo will admit he was turning into quite the shut-in, and now that he has been going out and exploring his city, he will also reluctantly admit he is coming to like it here.
Ancient Greece had many festivals; the ever-famous Olympic Games were held every four years to honor the god-king of the sky. The Pythian Games were held every four years at Delphi to honor the driver of the sun chariot, featuring music, poetry, and sports competitions,
The Isthmian Games were held every two years at Corinth to honor the god-king of the sea, whereas the Nemean Games were held every two years to honor the god-king of the sky.
The Panathenaia was held in Athens to celebrate the birthday of their goddess, featuring a massive procession, athletic contests, and music.
The Dionysia, a seven-day-long festival honoring the god of wine, was known for its dramatic theatrical competitions and famous plays.
The Thesmophoria was an exclusive autumn festival celebrated only by women to honor the Queen of the Harvest and her daughter.
And these were just a few of the many festivals ancient Greece used to celebrate. So naturally Gotham has a lot of grand festivals that sweep through the entire city, filled with plays, sports competitions, drinking, dancing, fighting, and so much more.
The current festival sweeping through the streets was a celebration of the god of the forge whose son uplifted Gotham from ruin and squalor.
Leo was being dragged through the streets of his kingdom by Tim, Bernard, Cassie, Kon, and the ever-eager Bart, now properly dressed as a normal citizen in a chiton and sandals for the first time since he arrived in this dimension.
Before they left the palace through a hidden tunnel, Cassie did his hair, adding highlights and golden glitter before Bart stuffed a bunch of flowers into his permanent laurel.
Leo never really paid much mind to the people, fashion, or festivals of his city beyond skimming FS’s reports, always too busy prepping for war and improving his city's technology and infrastructure.
The lively festival is a week-long event whose atmosphere is loud and energetic, and his friends… yes, he can call them friends… are smiling and having fun.
Children are running through the streets playing games; people are drinking, dancing, and eating food from every street stall; and the whole city feels alive and full of joy, with live music everywhere.
Tim is taking pictures with his camera when he's not leaning into Bernard's side. Leo just knows, from watching them, that the second they graduate high school, one or the other will propose like the high school sweethearts they are.
Bart is attempting to try every food snack from all the stalls, as Cassie and Kon wrestle in a competition before Cassie wins and drags Leo into the next round.
They travel through the festival with little to no attention paid to them. Leo the demigod king of Gotham is, of course, busy in a grand procession while the scrawny 19-year-old twink hanging out with his teenage friends is definitely not the King of the city.
Almost everyone has a wreath of something in their hair, and he's just a teenager out having fun with his friends, so he's completely overlooked.
Tim and Bernard have made him try at least seven different wines so far, when Bart isn't pushing food on him, and Cassie isn't dragging him into the athletic competitions.
The day winds down, and they go to a play before ending the night dancing before they all crash at Cassie’s place.
Leo hasn't had this much fun since he was in the chaos of his cabin at Camp Half-Blood with his siblings.
Maybe, maybe things won’t be so bad if he never gets home. He can build a new life here with his people, son, and friends.