After all, it wasn't often someone of her existence would help without expecting something in return. But he didn't mind helping her if it also benefited himself. Let it be known that Achilles was a man who liked to benefit from helping others. It was all he'd ever known, and that was something he'd never change about himself, no matter what.
"So, Lady Gaia-"
"Mom. I am your mother," She quickly interrupted and corrected him. Achilles paused for a moment, his mouth still open from trying to say something. He shook his head and corrected himself.
"Right… Mom. So, Mom, what do you need from me? You must want something if you help me with my ability." He spoke in a direct tone, getting straight to the point.
Let it also be known that Achilles was a man who heavily, heavily preferred the truth over lies and half-truths. He believed honesty was the best policy, no matter what.
The Embodiment of Nature chuckled lightly before patting the bush on his head, which was his hair. She also somewhat expected this sort of response from him, so it didn't trouble her.
"Nothing. Nothing at all. I'm your mother, I'm supposed to help you sometimes, after all."
He felt suspicious of her, but there was something around her that just made Gaia feel welcoming to him. He couldn't tell what it was, but he could feel it around him. In any other scenario, he wouldn't think much of it, but right now, in a literal apocalypse, he couldn't really trust anything remotely non-human.
"Ok… Not gonna lie, it feels weird calling someone else 'Mom' when my human mother died a while ago." He spoke in a hesitant, angry tone.
Honestly, from his perspective, it felt quite insulting to call someone else his 'Mom', so he felt justified in being a bit angry. Gaia sighed. She knew he was right, that it was a sort of slap in the face to make him call someone else something he reserved for the woman who was with him nearly all his life.
In all honesty, she did feel a bit bad killing his mother, as well as his father and sister, who was off in college, not that she'd ever tell him that. Gaia had actually done quite a lot of killing these past few weeks, killing off the family members of her rightful children, but who could blame her?
Almost throughout her time of being a mother, her children had repeatedly betrayed or attempted to betray her, especially those little shits using one of her mountains as their home.
She truly hated some of her grandchildren, and the likelihood of that changing was as high as Zeus' restraint from taking another unfortunate human to mate with.
It might seem immoral, even downright cruel, of her, but she'd prefer to have a fresh start with her children of this era without interruptions. Starting with the strongest and one of her most cunning children, Achilles, or whatever he called himself these days. He was quite a lot like her, after all, so there wasn't much for her to mask from him.
"Ah, yes, I'm sorry about her. She was a wonderful woman in life, and she raised you perfectly well, in my opinion. Well, except for that 'pacifism' part, but then again, you never quite liked it either." She smiled, hugging him.
Achilles allowed her to hug him, even if it felt alien to him. She smelled like he expected, of nature. It was a constantly changing smell, going from a sweet, flowery scent to one reminiscent of dirt and wood. He felt a bit wary about how she knew he wasn't much for pacifism, of course, because another thing he'd prefer to be known for was his ability to pay attention to detail.
"So like, free of charge? Is that it?" He asked, still hesitant about her kindness. Surely she wanted something, right? There's no possible chance in his mind that she didn't want him to play a sort of demented game, a well-known trademark of her pantheon.
"Well, yes, and no. All I want you to do, or rather, be, is to stay wary around your companions. I don't trust them, and I know you don't either." She said casually, not that she doubted in her mind that he wouldn't take her words seriously.
Achilles had already been thinking of ways to kill them anyway, from the very start. The advantage he believed he'd have with them was lessening, and their usefulness to him wasn't what he had expected.
Heidi's skill, while having great potential, was used in cheap, short-term ways. Keido had already attempted to kill him, and Achilles was contemplating killing him. Finally, he was almost sure that weirdo Kimsung would kill him at the slightest sign of hostility from him, not that he blamed him.
Maria wasn't even a threat in his mind, since his skill was a direct counter to her own. But he quite liked being with people, especially those who were part of his interests, so he was fine letting them continue.
Of course, if they did do something to gain his respect, he'd trust them again. He sighed, feeling a bit bad that he'd probably be alone again soon.
"There she goes again, that woman. Always trying to keep her family together at any cost…" Spoke a voice behind him. It sounded feminine and cool, a cold, cool, of course.
Gaia mentally sighed. It's not that she was disappointed with the comment against her; it's just that she knew Achilles would've most likely heard it too.
Out from the darkness of their cast shadows came a woman. Another tall woman, with black hair that seemed to absorb light itself as a concept, a very pale skin, black wings, similar to her hair in their light absorption, and covered in a darkness Achilles was physically unable to see. It hurt his eyes a bit as he strained himself.
Nyx, the Night and younger sister of Gaia, had appeared. The sun began to shine less brightly, becoming somewhat tolerant of her presence, courtesy of her roommate. She was beautiful, to say the very, very least, as she sat down in the cover of a large boulder near the Mother and Son duo.
The lake nearby seemed to become restless, as did the sky itself, clouds forming, providing a cover for Nyx.
Achilles noticed the changes, but preferred not to involve himself, because why would he? Clearly, a family issue he wasn't specifically involved in was happening, and he was an unfortunate spectator. So what did he do? Like any child who was aware of their family's issues, he went off howling.
"Hey, Mom? What was Uranus like?" He asked, feigning ignorance.
Gaia turned her gaze to him, the emotions in her eyes turning back to the wings, kind feelings from before.
"Uranus? Well… he was a bit of a… bad choice, to say the least." She chuckled, amused by the question. Nyx frowned a bit, looking up at the sky before giving her own two cents.
"He was an asshole, and is the reason why your nephew is still up there, holding up his corpse from falling and crushing you, dear nephew. Thankfully, he's dead. I didn't quite like him." She spoke in a calm tone, stopping for a moment, as if contemplating something, before she continued to speak.
"Then again, without him, your namesake wouldn't have been born, and all those philosophers your generation seems to 'glaze' wouldn't exist either. Well, not at the time they did, at least." She shrugged.