Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Percy was seven when it all happened, when everything began. 

Back then he had still been going to public school, his mom hadn’t thought to send him to boarding school just yet as the schools around their apartment were still taking him. Back then the monsters still stayed away for the most part. He was tiny then, as all children should be, but much too small for his age. No monster would look at him and deem him worth the effort of killing that he should be, not when one could easily see his bones through the nonexistent baby fat. 

His mother was working just as much as ever back then, as many jobs and as many shifts as she could manage to keep herself and Percy afloat, as Gabe refused to do anything to help. Maybe if she had known what was to come she might have stayed home for that shift the night that it all started, maybe things would have ended kinder for them both if she had. Maybe things would have ended worse. 

Percy would never know, and over the years he would lose the care to want to. 

The past was not something that he could change after all.

Percy had just gotten home from school that day when Gabe had stormed towards the door the second that it had closed, the stench of alcohol radiating off of him despite it barely even being four o’clock that day. 

Typical.

The large man grabbed the too small boy roughly by the meat of his arm, pushing the child up against the door that he had just come through as he held on with a bruising sort of grip. The young green eyes only went wide for a moment at the action before settling into something much too resigned for the years attached to the child. 

“Got any money on you, brat?” The man that was supposed to be his step father asked, the words much too familiar to the boy. 

The defiant gaze in the child’s eyes was much too familiar to the man.

“What do you think?” The younger of the two asked in turn, looking up at the monster before him with all the rage of the sea itself on its worst of days. It was the sort of loathing far beyond the child’s years. 

The hit that came then, fiery and hard enough to make the boy’s head move to the side, hard enough that Percy would surely had fallen to the ground if Gabe had not been holding him up in the punishing grip that he was.

It would bruise.

Percy would say that he got in a fight with an older kid on the way home. 

His mom would believe him because the alternative was not something that she could accept.

It was a song and dance that they had done far too many times before. 

“Money,” the man growled like a monster just barely continued in human skin, holding out his free hand to the boy in a demand. It was enough. 

Percy reached into his pocket and pulled out the meager amount of bills and coins that was within it, hardly anything at all, nothing worth what had just been done. 

“There we go, ya just had to be a smart mouth didn’t yah?” The man asked as he finally let the boy go, counting through the bills that he had in his hand as if they meant much. 

Percy knew that it wasn’t even enough to buy cheap beer from the corner store, that his step father had only done this to make himself feel powerful. Percy thought that this was somehow worse than him just wanting the money for money's sake. 

“Remember, this is our little secret, yeah?” The man asked, leaning down much too close as he does so, his fist balled up at his side. “If it's not then I'll just have to knock your lights out, and maybe do the same to that whore mother of yours too.”

And even at the young age of seven, Percy would rather the hits lay across his skin than hers, so he nods as if this is a normal sort of promise to keep, because for him it was.

Gabe smiles then, something much too wide and cruel for a human to wear, and nods as well. “Alright, brat, go to your room then.”

And Percy? He doesn’t need to be told twice, not for this at least. 

Percy’s room was small and smelled of beer even though he had only ever drunk the stuff on nights when the man that his mother had married was feeling particularly vindictive and made him do so because he found the reaction much too amusing to care about the liquor wasted on someone that was only going to throw it up. 

There wasn’t much in the room either, just a mattress on the floor with no bed frame to it, some sketches taped on the walls, the clothes in the closet, and the stash of money that boy had been gathering in a zip lock bag in the space beneath a loose floorboard under his bed. There wasn't much in the bag, maybe forty bucks at the most, but he always stashed away what he could for field trips and things of the like. It was easier for everyone involved when he did so, a few skipped meals weren't going to kill him just yet.

He was sitting on his floor, homework papers scattered around him in something of a semicircle of paper and books and as he switched between one subject and another when the words began to swim a little too much, when he heard the front door open sometime later. He listened silently then, but the silence truly wasn’t needed as so many people began stumbling in, drunk and loud. Percy thinks about the options that he has right then, the things that he could do, and settles on one of the best and worst options that he has. 

Scrambling just a bit, Percy moves silently up from his spot on the floor and lots up the thin mattress and the floorboard beneath it, grabbing the money stashed inside. He wouldn’t dare leave it to one of his step father’s rampages, with his luck the asshole would actually find it then. All that was left in his school bag right then was the sketchbook that his mom had gotten him when he started to see the things that weren’t there, the creatures that flew through the skies and roamed the streets but were gone the next time that he looked. 

The next time that the front door opens and loud steps make their way inside, Percy opens the window to the fire escape right along with it, slipping outside onto the metal with nothing but the bag on his back and the book and money hidden inside of it. He knows that he’ll be found out soon enough, and that when he is he’ll pay for not being there to cater to their every need and whim during the poker games, but his skin was already throbbing like a second heartbeat in more place that one - the colors darkening there as the bruises already were starting to form - he didn’t want to stay and have to figure out just how much more his body could take.

Percy’s feet hit the concrete on the ground below only a minute or so later, and he swears that he can hear the sound of a door slamming from high above.

There is still daylight out when Percy starts walking through the streets of Manhattan, uncaring of just where he was heading but knowing even at seven that staying still would be something of a death sentence in a city like his. There had been a few too many straying gazes during his walks home for him to not know this. So, he stays to the areas that he knows then - even if they are becoming fewer and fewer still the more that he walks - and ducked quickly into alleys if he felt eyes on him for too long. 

It takes a small while, maybe an hour or two, but darkness soon falls over the city and even then he doesn’t have it in him to stop or to try to go back to the apartment that night. He knows that he wouldn’t be allowed back inside the apartment that night after having snuck out. So he lets his legs keep carrying him forwards even as the ache and burn like some sort of avenging god was taking their anger out on him, and walks with the intention of finding a park if he could. He was still small enough that he could sleep in the bushes there till morning and then find his way back to the apartment in the morning, and then sneak in while Gabe is still passed out drunk.

(He didn’t let himself think about the fact that he had wandered so far since he left that he no longer knew where he was, that he very well might not even be in Manhattan anymore at all. He could find a map and make his way back. He would have to)

It’s a while more before he finds a park, a long while more of walking farther and farther away from the streets that he knew as the buildings around him blended just a bit too much in the dark of the night. It’s when he sees the park, just on the other side of the street - so close and yet too damn far - that he notices the thing following him. 

He couldn’t quite see it clearly in the dark of the city at night, the thick clouds blocking out the moonlight, later he would wonder if this was by design. He wouldn’t learn the name of the thing - the monster - before him until later when he was older and had already learned of so many other creatures that this one hardly meant a thing at all. 

It’s a green monster, almost sickly so, with sharp teeth looking to tear its prey apart and dye the cloak draped around it red with the blood of those that it had turned into one of the fallen. 

Percy wished that he could say that he was still with fear as he stared up at it as the creature drew ever closer with a sword in hand. He truly did. But as he stared up at the being before him something like resignation settled into his bones, as if he knew that death was coming for him no matter what he wanted for life to do. He knew that he would never be able to outrun the thing on his weakened legs, and with its greater height even the thought seemed exhausting. 

“Sorry, mom,” is all that the boy thought to say as he closed his eyes for what should have been the last time. 

It wasn’t.

Amos and Julius Kane didn’t get to see each other all that often now that they were adults and each had their own responsibilities to attend to. Julius had two children at home, a five year old and a three year old that was just barely out of the terrible twos, and Amos had the Brooklyn House and all of the trails that it came with to care for, so when they did carve out time for one another it was often while doing something else at the same time. Though that wasn’t to say that hunting creatures, demons, wasn’t a fun pastime for the pair, sibling rivalry would always be a thing and that was a good way in which to do it. 

All thoughts of competition go out the window though when there are others in danger, especially when that other is a child standing before a Red Cap as if waiting for it to kill him, his eyes closed in acceptance.

All it takes is a glance for the siblings to know what to do then.

They each move quickly then, like lighting, as Julius reaches out a hand into the air before him and pulls out a silver blade from seemingly nowhere at all, as Amos moves around the fair creature and goes to the child instead, placing himself between the creature and the boy. 

The fight that follows doesn’t last long, if one can even call it a fight at all. 

Distracted by the appearance of Amos, the Red Cap doesn’t notice the magician standing behind him, a blade running itself clean through the creature before it can make so much as a move at the pair.

When Percy opens his eyes once more, it’s to the vision of two men that he had never seen before.

The brothers look between each other and the child before them, all three of those present wondering just what they should do. 

Logically, Percy knew that he should run, it was the smart thing to do when placed before two strange adults in the middle of the night that you did not know. But he had the feeling that they had just saved his life right then, that didn’t seem like something that someone who is a threat to him would do. So, he bites back his instincts and stays put.

The brothers were having a very different sort of whispered crisis.

The pair took a moment to look at the child before them, to peer at the state that the boy was in. There were bruises on his skin, fresh ones and only. Some of the marks were already overly defined despite how young they seemed, the shape of a large hand making itself known on the arm of much too tight skin. The blooming bruise on the boy’s jaw seemed to have been made by a hand of much the same size. 

“We can’t take him in,” Julius whispered in a quiet sort of voice, no matter how much it hurt him to do so. Even the thought of something like this showing up on one of his kids made him want to kill most of those before him. “Look at the direction that he was coming from, you know that he is likely one of theirs.”

A child of the Greek gods. 

Both of the brothers could all but feel the power radiating off of the small frame before them, the sort of pure power that only came from being as closely related to the gods as one could be without being a minor one yourself.

“If they were to find out that we stole one of their young…” the older brother starts, his words trailing off because the imagination was answer enough for the words left unsaid.

It would mean war between the Pantheons, this Amos knew.

“There are a lot worse things out there than mythical monsters,” is what Amos says in turn, knowing himself to be right. “What does their wrath matter if he never even lives to see that camp of theirs?”

And wasn’t that a question?

Julius takes a moment to look at the boy before them, to look into the sea green eyes that were studying him as if waiting to see if one of them would lash out now that the greater threat was gone. It was a calculating sort of look that soldiers wore before going into a fight, trying to see how much damage they would take. The bruises, the gaze, all of it was something that no one so young should be wearing. 

“Let’s at least explain everything to him first,” Julius concedes, his younger brother nodding at the statement. “Then we ask, and if he says no then we help him back home and set up some charms while we’re there.”

Percy meets their gazes as they both turn to look at him fully then. He hadn’t heard much, but he had heard the word explain and that was enough for him to stay a few moments longer. Because right now he knew that the monsters that he had been seeing for a while now were real, and he really would like to know how.

Amos looks down at the boy and thinks about how to phrase it all, deciding for a more blunt approach. “The gods from all the old stories are real, and you are a child of one of them, most likely a Greek god,” the man says, quick and succinct.

Percy looks up at the man with suspicion clear in his gaze. “Say I believe you,” the boy started, his voice clear with disbelief because no one outright believes such a thing like that even with the proof of it having died right before you, especially not when you were so used to seeing things like that, “what does this have to do with anything?”

It's Julius that chooses to answer this time. “Because you are a demigod or something of the like,” the older man starts, the lecture something of a familiar one, even if the terms used were a bit different, “monsters can smell you and will come after you more and more as you grow older, especially if you are as powerful of a demigod as you seem that you might be.”

And Percy decidedly does not like the sound of that.

“Let me ask you this, child,” Amos starts once more, “do you happen to live with someone very disgustingly human? Someone that could mask any normal scent even by mortal standards?” 

It was such a strange question to ask, but the way that the child touches his arm subconsciously, as he looks anywhere but the appendage itself, is answer enough long before he ever nods his head. 

“Your parent likely knows what you are,” the younger magician continues, his voice not unkind but still very factual as he speaks. “They likely stay with this person because it covers your scent. A love for you and not for them.”

Percy can't help the guilt and resentment that rises up within him then in nearly equal measure.

“It really is my fault then,” the boy says in what is meant to be a whisper, but in the quiet of the night it is heard all too clearly by the two adults.

“It's not,” Julius is quick to reassure, because truly it wasn’t. There were other things that his mortal parent could have done to keep the boy safe, many of them just involved sending the kid away, something that they didn’t seem all that willing to do. “It's just how worlds like ours work. But if you are to stay with them, then they would need to stay as well to keep both of you safe.”

Percy touches the bruises once more as the words settle heavily in his mind.

“If?” The boy asks, catching onto the word quick. “What would happen if I were to go with the two of you, cause that's what you’re getting at, right?”

And Amos smiles at that, reminded that a child’s mind is always quicker than anyone wants to give them credit for.

“You would be trained somewhere safe,” the magician answers then, honest and true, “but you won’t be able to go home again until you’re able to handle monsters on your own.”

He doesn’t say that this is because his mortal parent would likely leave the person that they are with right now once the boy had been gone for so long. He doesn’t have to.

Percy thinks about it for a moment, looking at the place where the monster once stood only a few moments before. He can’t help the guilt that creeps up within his chest at the knowledge that his mother was only living with Gabe, that they were only in the position that they were with that man, for his own protection. It’s a cruel thing for a child to have to learn. But at the same time he couldn’t help but feel a small amount of resentment for her choosing Gabe and staying with him knowing what kind of person he was. He couldn’t help but think that it was unlikely that every parent of a demigod brought an abusive asshole into their home, with their child. He didn’t know what other options had existed for her out there, but he knew that the option before him was better than that. 

For them both.

“Alright,” Percy says then, his voice small with age, but strong in the way that only a true Greek soldier could be. 

The pair smile down at the boy, calculations of how they could possibly go about this without being killed running through each of their minds, as something entirely different runs through Percy’s own.

Percy thought that he likely wouldn’t be going back to his mother again. Bot as a son at least. He thought that he might just love her enough to stay away.

—

Life with Amos Kane in Brooklyn House was nothing like how Percy had lived for so long until then. He spent his mornings learning the things that he would have in school, math and history and science and English, along with the other sort of things that he likely would never have touched. 

It only took about a week or two before Greek was placed before the boy for the first time in his new home, a children’s book of the watered down versions of the myths though they were all written in Ancient Greek. The boy had no idea where the other had gotten it, but he found that he could not have cared less as he opened it and the words didn’t swim on the page before him for the first time in his life. He thought that his worksheets likely would have been switched to Greek as well if Amos actually knew how to read it. Instead he was sled to complete them in English still, but was given a new book every week or so in the Ancient language to read from when his mind needed a reset. 

Along with Greek, there were other languages that were taught to him starting in the early days. It took a lot less persisting than he had thought that it would to make Amos agree to teaching him hieroglyphics as well, the symbols much kinder on the Greek’s mind than the English was. Percy wanted to be able to read from some of the artifacts and old books that passed through the Nome just as his adoptive father did, no matter how twisted the information might be for a seven year old. 

One flash too many of green eyes was enough to make the magician cave, carving out time with it as he added them both learning Latin together along with it. 

It didn’t take Percy very long to piece together the existence of the Roman gods as well with that last addition, especially when Amos had him going over the differences between Greek and Roman personalities more and more as he got older, as if there was some sort of shift in the air that would one day make it a good thing to know beyond just the ways in which current human beliefs shaped the personalities of the gods and monsters of old. 

He knew that there likely was.

The nights were spent training with weapons, Percy taking to it as if he were always meant to hold a blade in his hand. Amos didn’t have any of the traditional Greek weapons to give the kid, nor any ways of procuring one that would actually fit the needs of a demigod, but he did the best with what he had, bringing in skilled members from the House of Life to teach Percy on the weekends when they could with a straight bronze sword, having Percy practice on his own against dummies during the weekdays. 

There were a few people that had raised a brow at the boy and his adoptive father when it had been the straight bladed weapon that Amos had wanted Percy taught in rather than that of the more popular Khopesh, but they had known better than to ask. Besides, Amos had brought in others on those weekend days too to teach the kid how to use a Bo staff so that Percy might have more reach should there be a fight that he finds that he needs it. 

(A flash of a triton would come to his mind many years later as he watched as Percy spun around the training room with the weapon spinning through his hands just as naturally as a sword ever did. He would know then that this was the right choice, even if it brought the boy a bit thin at the beginning)

Amos largely let the boy do whatever he liked during the hours left between those two blocks of time, and on the weekends when the trainers had left. ADHD left the boy with a constant need to move, so Amos wasn’t all that sucrose when the boy started taking up solitary sports whenever he couldn’t wrap Khufu into learning a new one other than basketball (1 v 2 dodge ball had been an experience that Amos had refused to repeat with the pair, though he doubted that it went away altogether even if the number was more even now). 

This need for movement and something to do was how Amos ended up finding himself at a skate shop one day with a eight year old Percy that had watched an anime on the sport and decided that he had to try it. It was also how he ended up at a skate park a few weeks after that once the boy had gotten the hang of riding the thing through the training room without falling even as he did some of the simpler tricks.

The first day that the pair make it to that skate park they are the only two there, the place empty of all of the other children that might have usually been filling it as it was a school day. Percy smiles then before taking off on the board, bright and so much more carefree than it ever was in those beginning days when they had first found the boy and Amos had taken him in, and makes his way over to the bowl, having wanted to try the thing ever since he had heard of it. 

As he watched, Amos found himself wishing that they had brought the knee pads and things of the like as Percy tipped into the waterless pool without so much as a warning as the magician's heart nearly stopped. He watched as the boy made it to the other side of the bowl just fine, knees bent just as they were supposed to be from all of the videos that he had watched from inside the safety of Brooklyn House, but it was when he tried to turn that things went wrong, the board sliding out from beneath him as it didn’t move quite right. 

Amos moved quickly then from where he had been standing, down into the bowl where the boy had crashed, water bottle in hand. He didn’t know if it would do much good for the way that Percy had managed to skin both hands on the way down but he figured that it wouldn’t hurt to wash away some of the dirt and blood now till they could get back home and clean it properly. He knew that it would be some time before they got to do that, as Percy was likely already ready to try again, crazy fool that he was.

“You know the drill, it’s gonna sting,” the man says as he unscrews the cap and Percy holds out both hands to him with a good natured roll of his eyes.

“Aren’t you supposed to say that this hurts you more than it hurts me?” The boy asked, a worrying sort of phrase that he should not know yet but he did, had likely heard the words pointed at himself more than once before.

“Nope, this hurt is all yours,” Amos replied, pushing down the spark of anger at the people that had raised the kid before, and pouring the water over the blood that had gathered atop the raw skin. 

He had expected Percy to flinch then, the kid always did when they wiped alcohol over the cuts, but the reason for his flinching and Amos’s wide eyes had nothing to do with any pain that might be occurring. Instead the pair watched as the skin knitted itself back together before their eyes, something that should have taken weeks for it to do on its own.

Amos has a pretty good idea of who Perry's godly parent is then, even if it was only a hunch.

From then on Percy adds training his water control onto the list as well, he finds this one to be the most fun.

Amos finds it to be the most terrifying.

—

There was water swirling through the air as Percy fought the two brothers, a storm that was not his own crackling about the ten year old’s head as his dad moved on one side of him, Uncle Julius moving on the other, a wand in his hand. The magical weapon didn’t mean much when he was choking on the water invading his lungs that was made by no spell or curse, as Amos had been brought to his knees with a blade to his throat as his storm had been turned on him by the boy that he had raised. Julius found that he soon joined his brother on the ground, no longer having the strength or oxygen in his body to still remain standing just then. 

Julius can’t help the way in which he looks up at the boy that so affectionately calls him Uncle with something akin to fear. The kid was only two years older than his own son and yet he didn’t know if Carter would ever be able to do such a thing like this. Didn’t know if Sadie would either, the girl soon to move to London with her grandparents as she was. It was why he was here after all, to give her a goddess disguised as a cat before she could leave and be without his protection. As he looks up at the oldest of the three children that he called family, he couldn’t help but think that Percy had the eyes of a killer.

The way that the boy looked down at him then was cold and calculating as he watched the man choke on the water that he controlled. It was as if he knew just how close he was bringing the magician to death and didn’t mind pushing it a bit further. 

Everything changes then when Amos hits the ground with his hand twice like a wrestler in a match, a clear sign of surrender.

Julius watches with wide eyes then as the likely son of Poseidon drops both the sword and his heavy gaze, turning instead to look at his Dad as the man rose to his feet and patted the kid on the head in praise for a sparring well done. 

Percy lights up then like a little kid and it's like that coldness was never there at all.

Julius knew then that if the pantheons were to ever cross more than they already had with the boy before him having lived in the Twenty-First Nome for three years now, that he wanted his children fighting alongside the cousin that they didn’t know of yet, never against him.

—

Percy was in his room at Brooklyn House one day reading through one of the issues of Young Justice that he and Amos had been able to find in modern Greek for him. He couldn’t read it as smoothly as he could the ancient source of the modern language, but it was still leagues better than any attempt at English had ever been, when there was a knock at his door. He didn’t have to ask who it was, there were only two beings in the house that could knock in such a way and only one that ever bothered to, the other just dribbling a basketball outside his room until he came out of it. That method, while annoying for everyone, was much better than the time Khufu has walked in while he had been asleep and had tried to pass the ball to him, only for Percy to wake up as it hit him, instinctively using the water by his nightstand to rip it to shreds like a very pissed off Katara. 

“Come in,” Percy calls out then as he closes the comic issue and sits up from where he had been laying on his stomach on the bed. The way that his Dad walks into the room makes him glad that he had. “Is it time?” The now twelve year old asks, his voice becoming more serious than it had been before.

“It is,” Amos answers, watching as his son nods and stands up from his bed, walking over to the bookshelf that held far more comics and manga than it did books on mythology. 

The magician could never blame the demigod for that, when one was a walking myth in human skin it often grew boring to read of the sorties that you had already memorized by the time that you were eleven. Though, Amos had always been more of a Marvel fan himself as the boy had pulled him into it all.

On the bookshelf there was a black leather box decorated with golden paint, the designs a seamless mix of both Greek and Egyptian designs. When the demigod places it on his desk and opens it, he reveals a few bottles of a shimmering black ink that shone just a bit golden in the early summer light. He knew that school would likely be letting out any day now, even if he hadn’t set foot in one in years. 

The demigod grabbed two bottles of ink from the box and the nice paint brush that was set aside just for this many months ago when they had first come up with the idea of it all, turning back to his father as the man motioned for them to sit down on the ground. They both do just that. 

Once there, Percy hands over one of the vials of ink and the brush to the man, opening the other bottle for himself, as Amos sat a piece of paper down on the ground between them both, an image drawn on it by a careful hand. 

“Pull your hair to the side, Percy,” Amos instructs even as he knows that the other is already doing so, this was something that they had gone over time and time again before ever thinking of attempting it. 

Amos nods when the boy turns to bare his neck to his father, the man dipping the paint brush into the magical ink and bringing it to the young boy’s skin, painting a symbol on the neck of the other.

The ink is cool against Percy’s skin as it is brushed on, the demigod fighting the part of his brain that wants to force his skin to stay dry as it is layered on. It wouldn’t exactly help with what they wanted to do if he gave into such a thought. It’s not long before the magician is pulling away though, examining his work with a satisfactory nod. 

It’s then that Percy raises his own hand as Amos pulls his own hair out of the way. The movement that the demigod makes then is quick and precise, practiced, as the ink rises up into the air and settles itself on his Dad’s neck with only a flick of the boy’s fingers and little more, an exact mirror of what now stained Percy’s own neck.

Without so much as a word being spoken at all, the ink on both of their necks shines a bright almost blinding sort of gold, like that of the desert beneath the Egyptian sun, before drying instantly on the skin, seeping into in a way that only could remove.

It was the image of the Egyptian Ankh.

The symbol for life.

“So I might always know,” Amos says then as he moves to stand 

Percy smiles up at him then as he stands as well, and for a moment Amos sees the boy that he first found on the street, beaten and bruised, thrown around like common trash, angry and cold because he had to be. The teen before him now was still a bit colder than he likely would have been, more serious than any child should have to be, but he was free and would live to come back to him, and that is more than he ever could have asked for that night.  

He just hoped that Camp didn’t change that as he watched as his son moved to pack for the summer away. 

Chapter Text

Percy goes to Camp as a storm brews above them all and the radio speaks of a sea raging as if it held a grudge. 

It was exactly the worst time to come to camp.

It was perfect.

The drive was much longer than it usually would have been due to the weather above and around them, much less kind as well as the winds pushed the light car back and forth. Percy would have used his powers, but even he knew that the last thing that they needed in this weather was to add a monster from either of their pantheons to it.

“Any idea why it seems like Poseidon and Zeus are in a pissing match right now with each other?” Percy asks as he tips down the comic that he had been reading so that he could look at the other in the car, choosing to ignore the way that it thunders loudly above them as he does so. 

His Dad liked to joke that he likely would have been an atheist in any other life for how little he cared for pleasing any gods of any pantheon. Percy found that he honestly agreed. 

“I have a hunch,” Amos admits, knowing full and well how the silence that follows Will piss the other off.

“That you won’t tell me in case you’re wrong,” Percy all but finishes for the man as he hunches down into the seat more than he had been before, going back to the inked images before him. It was a collection of about twenty issues in one book, enough to tide him over for the summer given all of the activities that they figured there would be each day and how it was written in English and not a language kinder on the demigod’s mind.

At least Bart Allen was interesting enough to last the summer, Percy couldn’t help but think as the words began to swim on the page even as the art stayed still. 

Percy wasn’t as annoyed as he usually would have been with his Dad for something like this, for hiding away his thoughts in such a manner. 

Percy thought that he might just know anyways the troubles occurring within the world that he was about to step into, after all they had been haunting his dreams to the point that Dad thought to send him to Camp when they had thought of waiting longer before. After all, there was very little at a demigod camp that he couldn’t learn in the home magicians. 

The other reason behind the summer away was that his parental figure seemed to be of the idea that he needed to make friends with someone that wasn’t his father or a baboon. 

When they stop at the bottom of the tall hill, the weather is better than it had been before, not that this was something that Amos had truly been concerned with when his son had the ability to keep water from touching his skin or anything else that he wished it to. 

He can’t help but watch with the gaze of someone sending their child off to war as Percy opens the door and slips from the car, Amos handing him the comic as the boy turns around to reach for it. Everything about it all is mundane, so normal that it almost makes the both of them want to scream because it felt like this should be anything but. It felt a lot like how Amos had always thought that it would be like to drop Percy off at school in the mornings had they actually gone the public school route. 

He hates it.

Hates it because this is the boy that he had raised for four years now and it felt as if he was sending him to his death in a world that he was not allowed in. The only consolation that he had was…

“I’ll be fine,” Percy says suddenly, his sea green eyes holding that strange sort of light to them that they had for two years now ever since the incident, “and if I’m not then you’ll know the moment that I die. Plain and simple,” the child said as if he truly believed it to be anything of the like, as he ran a hand over the mark on his neck.

An Egyptian Ankh. The symbol for life. The moment that the life was lost from one of the pair wearing the symbol, the ink would disappear from the skin of the other. It was cruel in a way, but such was the life that they had both been born into.

“Make sure I won’t have to,” Amos says, the words as close to a normal sort of send off as they would get.

They weren’t be safe, or good,  or anything of the like because he knew that the other could not promise him such normal things in the world that he was about to step into. It was just a promise that the other would come back to him alive at the end of it all.

What more could he ever ask?

And Percy only gives a two fingered salute as he turns, the car door closing with the motion. 

Even as he doesn’t look, Percy knows that his Dad doesn’t leave until Percy had reached the tree at the top of the hill.

He stops by the thing as he listens to the car drive away, paying it more mind for the moment rather than the field laid out beneath him. The tree was strange, both in look and in the way that it felt to him. If one only glanced at the tree for a moment or two, they would see nothing wrong with it, but the longer that Percy stared the more vaguely human shaped it appeared to him, the way that the water ran through it not helping at all. 

Water ran through the tree the way that blood would through a human body, looping and circulating and all of it running through what would likely be a heart if the tree truly were a human. 

Maybe it was that thought that had him thinking that the barrier seemed to strengthen and weaken in pulses much like that of slowed heart beats that one might just expect from a tree if it were to have a heart at all.

An eerie sort of feeling crept up his spine the longer that he thought of this, one strong enough to make Percy tear his gaze away before he did something stupid like destroying a tree that might very well be home to a dryad or something of the like. He turns to look down at Camp instead.

And what a sight it was.

There were buildings off in the distance that looked like the temples of old that Percy had only ever seen in text books and stories, the shining even as there was so little sun as campers canoed across it. There was an arena off to one side and a rock climbing wall of some sort to another. Archery and foot racing. It felt like all of the stories come to life, like something ancient in the modern world.

The sight alone made something in his blood sing.

The feeling only grows stronger as he pushes through the border into the camp itself, the magic in the air washing over his skin as if testing to see if he belonged and finding him worthy of it.

No one pays the boy much mind as he makes his way down the hill. It wasn’t that uncommon of a sight, as close to the beginning of the summer as it was. No one seemed to think anything of the boy until they recognized that they did not recognize him at all, and they note that he is wearing a normal sort of shirt rather than the Camp orange.  

Percy feels the eyes of the other campers on him from the moment that they noticed his arrival when he was already about half way down the hill. The boy was less than surprised when a satyr approached him once he reached the base of it.

The half man looked close to the boy’s own age, though Percy knew that this didn’t mean much when it came to mythological beings, especially ones that resemble the fair folk in any way. His horns were small, barley peeking through his hair, his hooves on full display. 

“You’re a satyr,” Percy notes aloud, Percy notes aloud that they’re a satyr, less surprised about the fact that they existed - that was something that he had known for a long time now - and more that they existed among the demigods like this. He had read some of the stories on them, none of them were all that kind.

“I’m Grover,” the satyr says, his voice bright as he holds out a hand to the other boy. 

Percy takes it, his eyes keen.

“Percy,” he says as he takes his hand back, letting it fall to the side. “So who do I need to talk to about staying for the summer?”

“Ah,” Grover started, lighting up in a way that almost seemed false, from the hint of fear that the demigod could see in the other’s eyes he knew that it very much was, “that would be Chiron and Mr. D. I’ll take you.”

Percy nods and the pair begin to walk further into camp, towards a building that stood out among all of the Greek - like structures, looking more like that of a Kansas farm house than anything else.

Chiron, Percy recognized the name as it was said to him, knew the stories of it. Of the man that had trained Achilles and other heroes throughout time. Mr. D was a name that he was less sure of, given that there was nothing but a first initial to go off of, it could very well be a demigod man that had made it all the way to adulthood for what little Percy knew, but something in him said that the fear that spiked in the other’s eyes when he spoke the name meant that such an idea as that was wrong. 

Seeing the man for himself told him that he was right to think such a thing.

Percy could feel the ichor running through the god’s veins long before he was ever before him.

There were two men sitting on the porch of the large farm house, cards between them on the table. Percy knew them both by sight alone. Something in him itched to reach out and see just what he could do with the gold that ran through their veins, see what havoc he could wreak, but the demigod fought back the instinct. 

It would make a bad first impression after all.

“A new one, huh,” the god said, seemingly having sensed them approaching. Percy could see the swirls of madness coloring the god’s gaze and wondered if that had always been there or if it was a side effect of becoming a god when one had been born mortal. “And who’s brat are you?”

“I do believe that question can wait a moment,” Chiron interrupts before Percy can speak. “I think the more important question is how you got here?”

Percy guessed such a question was fair. Whatever system that they used to bring demigods to the safety of the camp, Percy had not exactly followed it coming here as he did. Security first and all that.

“My Dad is I suppose what you would call a legacy,” the boy lied in a way that wasn’t much of one at all, watching the centaur’s and the god’s eyes flashing at the chosen word. “He’s the grandson of a demigod child of a minor god that was lucky enough to live to adulthood. He trained me as well as he could manage at home with what he knew, and sent me here to learn further since I’m a demigod where he was mostly human.”

Lies, lies, lies.

Lies wrapped so thoroughly in truth that one becomes the other and circles right back around to the previous in the same breath. 

The easiest way to describe a magician to the world of the Greeks would be to call them a legacy after all, it was just pharaohs that the descended from and not the gods themselves.

“Ah, gods chasing the remnants of divinity,” Chiron said then, coming to the conclusion that Percy knew that he would, it was the only logical one after all. “Do you know who your godly parent is, dear child?”

Percy only shakes his head. “Dad was never told,” the demigod says, because it was the truth. They didn’t know for sure just who was responsible for the power that ran through his veins, but they did have such a good idea that they might as well have been. 

Lies wrapped in truth.

“Of course you don’t know,” Dionysus complains, shuffling through his cards as if he hadn’t just switched some of them out while Chiron had been distracted. “That would make things easy for us all, wouldn’t it…” they all watch as the god stops for a moment, as if realizing something that he ought to have thought of sooner. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Percy.”

“Peter,” the god says instead, knowing good and well that he was saying the wrong name. 

Percy couldn’t help but wonder if it was because he knew that name had power in this world of theirs, and the god could already feel how much the demigod had just existing as he did. 

Or he was just an asshole.

“I do have a question of my own before I give you a tour of our camp, Percy,” Chiron started, eyeing the boy before him with a gaze that showed his age much more than he likely wanted it to. “What is that marking on your neck? I was under the impression that a child of your age was not allowed to have a tattoo by mortal standards.”

Both Grover and Dionysus eyed the mark as well as Percy raised a hand to it, feeling the magic embedded into every stroke. 

“Usually that would be the case,” the demigod agrees, knowing that the centaur cared nothing for the laws of mortals and everything for the origin of the mark. “Like I said, my Dad is aware of the demigod world even if he is largely removed from it given to how little godly blood he possesses. He knows how likely it is that I’ll die during a summer away at your camp. If not this year then maybe the next. He at least wants for the body to be identifiable if that is to occur.”

Three sets of eyes looked at the boy with a somber sort of gleam to the, that had not been there before, as reality washes over them all. Percy looks between the three and thinks that he was reminding them all of things that they would rather not have to think of. He also thinks that he might see something that might one day develop into respect in the eyes of the god of wine. It wasn’t often after all that a demigod came in knowing the realities of the world without having to be told. 

Chiron looks as if he doesn’t quite know what to say to that.

Percy can’t really blame him, even as a bitter part of him wants to.

“We’ll place you in Hermes cabin then until you’re claimed,” the centaur says after a long moment, his voice as bit less cheerful than he probably would have liked, the magic in the air shifting as the wheel chair that the man was previously sitting in changed into that of the lower half of a horse. “Come now, I’ll show you around camp.”

Percy didn’t ask about the claiming, he knew that if his godly parent was smart then he would remain unclaimed forever if it could be helped. 

(A twisting sort of feeling on his gut told him that his biological father was likely an idiot)

Camp was just as beautiful up close as it was from a far, more so even. Percy could feel the magic of the place in nearly every step that he took, whether from the barrier of the camp or the godly power that had been poured into the strawberry fields by both the resident god of the camp and the campers alike. The campers moved with all of the grace of those built for battle, even as they smiled like the children that they were. 

It was all beautiful and overwhelming at once.

After all, it had been years since Percy had been around so many people at once, and they weren’t even talking to him yet. Only looking at him as they passed, but pretending not to be.

The centaur at the demigod’s side had just shown off the volleyball courts when one of the questions eating at the man slipped through.

“Tell me, Perseus, how much training have you had so far?” 

The question is meant to come out much kinder than the ancient being feared that it did in the end, but what was done was done.

The older of the pair watched as the boy at his side shifted from that of a child looking around his new world in wonder to a glimpse of the much more serious creature that had stood before the three of them earlier. The child’s face lost most of the emotion that it had held before, as his eyes lost most of the light. It was the sort of switch that he had seen in Achilles during the hero’s training, back when he would wave goodbye to Patroclus for the hour or so, bright and young, but would change so thoroughly the moment that there was a blade pressed into his hands. 

It was the same now, only there was no blade within reach.

“I’ve known how to wield a sword and a spear both since I was seven,” the demigod at the centaur’s side answers very seriously, like that of a warrior god as they spoke of their training. If it weren’t for the boy’s looks, Chiron might have thought him a child of Athena, with how he had just spoken then. 

The moment doesn’t last long though, the gloom of it all changing seemingly instantly as the boy eyes the dining pavilion. 

“Can we stop there for a moment?” Perseus asks then, his expression suddenly much brighter then it had been only a moment before, much more shy too in the way that the child smiled. “I want to slide my book into my bag,” the boy explains, holding up what looked to the elder of the two to be a collection of comics.

Chiron nods, taking a moment to ask about the book, and suddenly it’s as if a different person was before the ancient man, one that was 

smiling and happy and talking about how someone named Impulse stuck his head in a meteor and it exploded, and a robin said that if anyone is going to be taking risks it should be Superboy, and Superboy was agreeing before he even realized what he was saying, and Chiron just nods and listens because at least he sounds like a child once more, even if the words made no sense to the mythical man.

When they reach the cabins, Percy doesn’t really need an explanation as to what he’s seeing. They were the buildings that looked a bit as if they had been ripped from Ancient Greece itself. There were twelve of them, each looking different from the last, more than one of them empty. More than one of them far more full than they ever should be. 

It was cabin three that caught his eye though, the building looking as it did. Everything about it screamed of the sea, from the coloring of it to the decor. 

To the way that something sings in the demigod’s blood at the sight of it all.

That reaction is enough for Percy to know that Amos had been right all those years ago when he had fallen at the park.

“Ah, Annabeth,” the centaur said suddenly, stopping before one of the final cabins in the giant u shape that they had been built in. A dark skinned girl with blond braids stops at the name, turning to look at the pair of them. Her brows go pinched when she notices that Percy is there, her grey eyes studying him as if he were some sort of science experiment that she couldn’t decide if it was worth her time or not just yet. “Would you mind finishing showing Percy here around the camp?”

“Sure,” the girl, Annabeth, said with the sort of smile that said that she would rather be doing anything else other than this. Percy didn’t blame her. “Hermes, unclaimed?” She asks as if it’s routine. He supposed that it was for them all.

Chiron nods before trotting off with a kind sort of look aimed at both of the demigods.

It was then that Annabeth turned the full weight of her gaze to the other demigod. 

Usually new comers didn’t look like much, living normal sort of lives before being brought through the barrier by a satyr or another demigod if a camper happened to find one around where they lived. And at a glance she thought that this might still be true of the boy before her, after all they looked to be about the same age. But there was a bit of tone to the shape of his arms that could be seen even as they were just casually hanging at his sides, old thin scars on his hands that matched the ones on her own from learning to work with a blade. He almost had the sort of build of dancer. 

That didn’t count the strange tattoo.

(Or the way that he felt far too strong for about the age of twelve)

“Annabeth Chase,” the girl said, holding her hand out to the strange boy.

Percy took the offered hand with much less grace then he would have liked. It had been a very long time since he had met so many people.

“Percy Jackson,” he said in turn, the last name sounding a bit foreign on his tongue even as he spoke it, but he didn’t know just how much Chiron and Dionysus knew of the workings of the other pantheons, about the leaders of them outside of the gods themselves. He didn’t know what sort of reaction the name Kane would bring. 

Annabeth nods and the pair walk towards the most crowded of the cabins. 

Nearly every eye in the room turned to look at them as Percy stepped inside the cabin behind Annabeth, standing out more than he would have liked in his blue shirt compared to the sea of orange. Some of those in the room looked alike, with the same sort of nose, and eyes that practically screamed their intent to lit picket you the moment that you drew too close. There were a fair share as well that looked nothing like the others, or if they did it was only like one or two others. Percy guessed that the children of the minor gods resided here as well.

It was more packed then he ever would have liked it to be, for everyone’s sake.

“Hermes or unclaimed?” One of the campers asked from too far back in the crowded room for Percy to be able to guess who.

“Unclaimed,” Annabeth answered, her voice as short and tired as the groans that followed the answer.

Percy didn’t think that him being a son of Hermes would have been any better, at least this way there was a chance that he would leave.

“Now, don’t be so cold,” a new voice said, and Percy shifted his gaze to the side to look.

The teen looked older than all of the rest in the cabin, in the camp if Percy were to be honest. He looked about nineteen in age, with the sort of sandy blond hair that one would see in a surfer, lighter than it usually would have been from the years spent outside in the sun. There was a scar running down his face, the tissue of it raised, yet it didn’t make him look any less handsome then he ever would have. The teen had five beads on the chord around his neck. The same ones that Annabeth wore on her own.

There was something about him that was kind.

(There was something about him that felt much darker as well)

“I’m Luke,” the teen said, a smile on his lips that felt a bit like looking at the devil and an angle all at once, “your cabin counselor while you’re here.”

“Percy.”

It felt as if that was the only word that he was allowed to say today.

God, he did not miss this during the years that he had spent home schooled.

(If that’s what one could call it)

“Like Perseus?” The eldest demigod asked, his smile bright and disarming, as if he was trying to put the younger demigod at ease.

“Yeah,” Luke watches as the new boy answers, but instead of looking happier than before, something somber in a tire slipped in the younger boy’s voice. “Cause he was the only Greek hero to get a happy ending.”

‘Hold fast,’ she used to whisper in the night as men laughed in the other room, drunk and yelling in a way that made Percy want to scream. ‘Hold fast.’

But Percy had let go long ago.

“Smart choice,” the teen comments, trying to stay bright. 

Luke gives him his spot on the floor, apologetic in doing so, the cabin having been packed long before Percy ever stepped foot within it to the point that the boy was sure that beds had sun out years ago. Annabeth eyes him as if expecting him to complain for the predicament, but Percy had spent the past few years sitting on the floor at his Dad’s side reading while his Dad worked at his desk, because it wasn’t like there were any other humans in the Nome except for on the weekends and the chairs were somehow even worse than the floor. (And anything was better than where he had been before Brooklyn house)

“We should continue the tour,” Annabeth says as she watches Percy look down at the space that he had been given, slipping his bag from his shoulders as if to mark it. 

“Is my shit going to get stolen if I leave it here?” Percy asks, looking at the others in the cabin with the eyes of a man much too used to living with a baboon that figured out when Percy was nine, that if he takes people's things, they will come to him eventually within the day looking for them, and he can force them to play basketball with him till they won the object back… it was a habit they were still trying to break him of.

“No,” someone says, as Luke says, “most likely.”

Percy nods and places it down fully on the ground anyways, kneeling down next to the bag and pulling out a piece of paper, scribbling a symbol on it in ink that didn't make much sense to the demigods that stole a peak at it. Nor did the way that the dark ink shimmered just a little gold. 

“We can go now,” the boy says as he stands, walking back to Annabeth's side as the blonde girl gives him a sort of crazed look. 

One that only gets worse with what he does next.

“By the way,” Percy calls over his shoulder as they are almost out of the door, “if anyone tries to touch my stuff, it will hurt a lot more than you want it to.”

Annabeth raises a brow at that, wondering just how the boy could pull it off, but then there is a noise of pain when they're not even three steps out of the cabin and what sounds like Luke telling the camper that they had been warned prior. 

Yeah, he may not look like much, but Annabeth thought that she would likely be keeping an eye on Percy Jackson as she did all new campers that came to them.

Percy sneaks a glance at the other demigod, seeing the way that the girl seemed to want to ask about whatever it was that he had done to protect his bag, but she doesn’t get the chance to do so as newcomer walks up. 

Several of them in fact.

They were buff in the way that body builders and football players often were, with much more muscle than seemed necessary, especially for those meant to wield weapons where speed is more important than strength at many times. Their faces, their expression, were cruel right down to the gleam in their eyes. 

They reminded him a bit of the red cap that had found him that day, seeking to add his blood to the coloring of the fair folk’s cape.

It was not a pleasant sight to see.

“A new camper, huh?” The lead of the group, a girl that looked much the same age as Percy and Annabeth, said as she stepped forwards, in front of those that looked much too similar to not be cabin mates. “You on the tour with birdbrain here? How about we show you the bathroom, yeah? It’s a part of your initiation to the camp.”

And Percy knows exactly where this is going, he lets it happen anyways because they sure don’t. 

“Leave him alone, Clarisse,” Annabeth says, stepping forwards with the stern sort of voice that Percy knew would one day make children shrink away when they find themselves in trouble (it likely already was depending on her ranking within her own cabin). “He hasn’t done anything to you.”

The girl, Clarisse, looks as if she wants to say something to that, but she doesn’t get the chance to do so.

“Nah,” Percy interrupts, all eyes turning to him once more, “let’s go. It sounds like fun.” The words are spoken with a strange sort of voice, flat in all the ways that matter, and yet it felt dangerous in a manner that none of them could explain. 

“You’re an idiot,” Annabeth says, sounding as if she meant it as Clarisse laughed and began to lead the way. 

Percy only shrugs, time would tell after all. 

They’re not three steps into the bathroom before there are hands on his arms, the grip strong, but not so much so that he couldn’t slip one arm free as the owner of it was reaching to open the stall with a too bright smile. 

Clarisee watches the arm slip free and doesn’t think much of it, after all it was three against one, and Chase would do nothing more to interfere in these affairs then what she had already attempted to do, the daughter of the wisdom goddess was cruel that way. It’s not until she watches as the boy’s eyes go as cold as the depths of the sea as he raises that arm, that the daughter of Ares wonders if she might have been wrong. 

It was a wonder that came much too late. 

Water bursts from every pipe in the room as the strange boy flicks his wrist in the air, powerful and rushing with force that threatens to break all that it touched.  

And that’s just what it sought to do.

Percy watched with cold eyes as the water rose up into the air and circled around the throats of the violent three. The force of the action alone was enough to bruise long before it started to constrict around each of their necks, the water seeking to join the rest of it no matter the barrier in the way. Percy wondered what it would be like if he just let it do what it wished, he doesn’t notice the water constricting ever more, his head only tilting as he listened to the three demigods choking on their own actions.

He felt nothing of it.

“Percy!” A voice calls as a hand grabs at his shoulder and pulls him in more ways than one. 

Annabeth watched as the life seemed to come back to the boy’s eyes as she pulled at the top of his arm, as he seemed to come back to himself from wherever it was that he had gone, the water falling down to the ground like rain during a summer storm as he does. She had never seen a demigod so lost in their own power, not even Thalia.

(It was terrifying)

She watched as the children of Ares ran from the bathroom in a way that she had never seen them run before, with fear in their eyes and hands protecting wounds.

“Sorry,” Percy whispered into the air a few moments after the three had left, the words only meant for the ears of the girl at his side. He knew that he had scared her when he had done that, had known the look of fear in another's eyes since he was small (though back then it had been his eyes that held it most often). Had known the look of fear directed at him for a shorter time, even as Uncle Julius had tried so hard to hide it when they had spared. 

There had been many nights spent wondering if the power that he held was the reason that he had never been allowed to meet Carter and Sadie even before their mother’s death. He never asked though, he knew that both his Dad and his Uncle would lie even if it were the truth.

“How did you do that?” Annabeth asked, figuring that it was much safer than anything else that she might want to.

“I’ve always been able to,” the boy answered, the words so simple that they were almost laughable. 

Annabeth just nods, but Percy can see that her eyes are calculating. 

The words that follow are not the ones that either of them really expects though:

“I think that I want you on my team for capture the flag.”

—-

When Percy gets back to his cabin after the rest of a tense tour, he finds his stuff where he had left it, but more than a few kids were looking at him as if he had personally cursed them in some manner. The redness on a few of their skin said that maybe he had. He doesn’t force down the smirk that rises up at the sight.

“That was some protection that you’ve got there.”

Percy turns to the source of the voice, seeing Luke smiling down at him as Percy looks up at him from his spot on the floor, a multitude of things in the older boy’s hands.

“It took far more ambrosia than I really care to admit to deal with it, and there’s still some red leftover on each of their hands.”

Had the words come from nearly anyone else they might have been a reprimand of sorts, cold and cruel, but coming from the child of Hermes right then they almost sounded like praise.

Percy only shrugs, but there’s a small proud smile on his lips as he speaks, “It was just a trick that I learned from my Dad before coming here.”

Luke smiles then, kind and soft even as there’s something a bit sad to it. “Must be a good guy.”

“The best.”

 Percy knows that he definitely wasn’t imagining the flicker of something sad then.

“Here,” the camp consular says, holding out the things that he had brought with him, “it’s a sleeping bag and a few camp shirts that I nabbed for ya from the store. Go ahead and change your shirt, yeah.”

Percy nods his thanks as he takes the gifts, Luke turning to give the younger boy the illusion of privacy as the boy moves to change. He misjudges the time that it takes for the boy to slip from one shirt into another and when he turns back around he can’t help but notice the seemingly old scars that looked to be from that of a cigarette on the kid’s back, some other thin scars that looked to be from about the same time as well criss crossing over the sun tanned skin. He couldn’t help but wonder if they weren’t more alike than the kind father made them seem to be.

“I almost killed some Ares kids earlier,” Percy says as he turns to look at the other boy, the words falling from his lips as if they were a natural thing to say, as if it were normal. “So, if they’re extra pissed at us during capture the flag then that’s why.”

Some of the other campers in the cramped room that had overheard the conversation groan, knowing that this means that Friday is going to be brutal, but no one doubts it as much as they might have had they not seen what a simple ‘trick’ had done to those that had touched it. The smarter of the demigods even find themselves looking on with something like fear in their eyes, because they knew that the kid had left most of his belongings behind and has still been able to do such a thing.

Luke’s smile doesn’t waver though, even as it changes to something a bit more feral. “This because of her initiation?” The teen asks without having to be told who the likely culprits were, knowing that Chiron had been trying for years to get the girl to stop doing this for years. He hoped that maybe this would terrify the girl just a bit. It was a cruel thing to wish, but he honestly didn’t have it in him to care.

It was his cabin that she messed with the most after all, even if some of those campers left soon after, it was still his cabin,and everything that he had ever done and was seeking to do was for those like them.

“It was,” Percy answers, his voice flat  and unsurprised that this was so common a thing that no one even had to ask who he was talking about.

“Okay,” the teen says as if anything about it was at all that, “just try to keep the killing and maiming to a minimum if you want to keep dessert privileges, yeah.”

Percy gives a small two fingered salute to that.

Luke was less than assured.

(But that was fine, wars needed violent soldiers)

A horn blows throughout the camp and everyone ignores the way that the new boy flinches at the sound, most did the first few times that they heard it, even if it wasn’t usually nearly as violent a thing. 

(Those that reacted the exact same often never really left camp again)

“Fall in!” Luke calls out, even as everyone is already moving within the cabin to do just that, long used to the routine.

Percy walks towards the back of the line, knowing where he stands in the hierarchy of it all. It was something that he was fine with, given that it was only his first day and respect was something that one had to earn, but as he moved to take the back of the line, two kids make space for him before them. Percy is about to question it or look around for whoever else it must be, but then he sees the red on their hands and understands. 

These two were children of the god of thieves and they had failed to him. 

Percy takes the offered place.

—-

Dinner is a simple affair, even as it is one filled with magic as food appeared with only spoken words. 

Even as the children of Ares glared at him, bruises around their necks that they had been too filled with shame to get healed.

—-

Percy slips from the hold that had been attempted around him, the thick arms moving slower than his own more lethal build as he twisted and dodged the fist that came flying at his middle, returning the motion with a punch of his own. Clarisse made a small, pissed off sort of noise at that as she dove forwards once more, what should have been wrestling having long turned into a brawl. 

It takes far longer than it should have for two of the older campers to pull them apart from one another, banning them from being partnered with one another again for this class. 

Camp Half - Blood was strange like that, Percy realized over his first week there, they let you push the boundaries until they almost broke because in the outside world no one would care if they were to break. 

Out there being good with a bow was only impressive if you were into hunting, but here it was a required skill, even if there were varying levels of success to it. And even if sometimes one had to dodge a stray arrow that had been purposefully sent their way. 

In the mortal world, being able to run fast might win you a medal, but here it meant nothing because the nature spirits would always be faster, their laughter carrying in the wind.

Rock climbing walls had lava, and  the campfire burned with a goddess inside of it that smiled at you each time that you waved at her.

It was a blending of a world long gone, with one that was still growing.

Being around the demigods settled something in Percy’s bones that always twisted at him whenever he was among mortals, something that made him feel as if he was a monster walking around in human skin. Even knowing the reason behind it never helped, it’s why he only really left Brooklyn House to go to the skate park or comic shop, two distracting hobbies that made the feeling of being in the outside world more tolerable ever since he had all but removed himself from it. 

When the day for his first sword fighting lesson at Camp comes, Percy is restless for it. The other activities that they had been doing till now were fine in nature, but he had been born to wield a triton, a sword, a spear. He missed the feeling of a weapon in his hands.

Luke watched with the sort of calculating gaze that a child of Athena would envy as Percy picked up one of the blades from the rack, twisting it in his hands as if it didn’t quite feel right but that was something that he had long become used to, as if no blade ever had felt right.

The eldest of the demigods gathered set the younger out to do some basic moves as a warm up, moving between them all to fix their stances and things of the like as needed. Percy was at the end of the line of them all, watching the moves and seeing how they differed from what he had been taught so many times before. It wasn’t much, they had taken steps to make sure that it wouldn’t be before he had ever even held a blade in his hands.

Luke watched as the newest demigod moved through the moves as he called them out, shifting and changing into the right form until he was doing everything instinctively as the commands were called out, with just the right movement and amount of power behind each movement, adjusting quickly to the seemingly different weight and length of the blade than what he was used to using. Luke couldn’t help the small bit of envy that rose up within him as he saw the ease of it all, the envy in which he had to fight down. It wasn’t Percy's fault after all that he managed to get a good mortal father when Luke’s mortal mother was… broken. Besides, he knew that whatever the case was for Percy now, it clearly hadn’t always been that way if the scars were anything to go by. 

Still, that ease was something that the eldest demigod wanted to test. 

So, he chose Percy as his partner when they divided up into pairs, the numbers uneven in a manner that meant that he was going to have to join someone regardless.

And gods, Percy didn’t disappoint.

The boy moved as if he had been born with a blade in his hands, every movement natural and powerful in all the ways that they should be. If he hadn't known that Ares was the closest thing that the Greeks had to a god of swordsmen, Luke would think that the younger demigod was the child of such a goddess. 

It strikes Luke then, as they move around one another in almost a dance,  that if what Chiron had said was true, that they had each been training for the exact same amount of time. 

It showed.

Luke had height on the boy, being older and stronger given his age, but Percy was smart and moved with the instincts of a fighter that could take on multiple people at once and not have any of his own blood spilt. 

Luke had never fought with anyone quite like Percy before. 

He'd hadn't had such a challenge in so long, being as skilled in the camp as he was, and Percy looked as if he agreed much the same.

The other campers in the arena stilled as they watch the pair, each of their own matches pausing as the sun beats down on their skin. 

The pair were moving in ways that made more than one camper wish that they were dressed in the clothing of ancient Greece, because they thought that this must be how a fight of old must have once looked. 

They were fast, the fighting pair, quick and decisive movements that the younger had no business knowing and yet used with perfection as both grinned like a feral beast when their strikes were blocked. 

None of them had ever seen such a fight before.

It ended eventually in a standstill, blades pressed against each other's necks as if they meant to take flesh, but there wasn't a city on either one of them. 

“I think that's enough for the moment,” Luke says, dropping his own blade as his eyes track the way that the younger demigod slowly lowers his own as if thinking that it might be a trick. Caution. It was a valuable trait to have. “Why don't we all get water now?”

And everyone did, the other members of Cabin Eleven going off to the coolers, Percy following quickly behind. There was a weariness though, about the others, when the new boy stepped among them, as if they were truly believing for the first time that the boy was truly capable of staining his hands with blood as he had said that he almost had with Clarisse and the other two children of Ares. 

Luke watched the younger campers as he went to get water of his own, more worn then he cared to admit, but having more fun then he had in a while. Fighting had so little joy when there was no challenge to it and somehow a twelve year old was more of a challenge then any of the other older campers at camp. It was a strange sort of situation, but one that made the teen decided upon his future actions.

He wanted Percy Jackson on his side for the war to come.

—-

The first time that Percy had ever donned full armor was for a game of capture the flag. It was almost absurd to the warrior that such an action would not be taken for something more grave in nature, but then again it felt fitting as well. After all, sometimes the world should give the people among it something kind.

(Especially since it hurt more to k is that it would never last)

He walks through the area that he had been assigned alone, knowing that this was likely some sort of trap that had been set for him. Or that he was a trap set for another. Either way, he was placed by a river, so it didn’t matter at the end of it all.

(He knew that both answers were likely equally true when feet started stomping through the leaves on the ground, their owners coming into clear view within only a few moments.)

“You made our cabin look stupid, you little brat!” A voice yelled out near the river. 

Percy sighed as he met the eyes of the owner of the voice, twisting the blade that he held in his hands as he looked at the three from only a few nights before.

The three of them had weapons in their hands, and ugly looks on their faces that spoke of a need for blood to soothe the ache. Percy figured that they must all be a glutton for punishment with the bruises still clinging to their skin. 

“You tried to be an asshat and lost a fight instead,” Percy reminds the daughter of Ares, his voice monotone and uncaring in a way that he knew would be much worse then if he were to outright mock them all. “You did that all on your own.”

“Doubt you’ll be saying the same thing when I skewer and fry ya, you little shit,” Clarisse all but promised as she struck the butt of her spear down upon the ground, lighting racing at the top of it.

She was a daughter of the war god, the best of his children, and she had lost a fight to a nobody during their first hour at camp. A nobody that would have killed her had Annabeth not stepped in as she had. She couldn’t afford to lose now. 

And yet…

The three moved at once, all but diving towards the new boy with their weapons aimed at every spot lethal that the armor didn’t cover. The unclaimed boy met every strike though with the ease of someone used to fighting many opponents at once, deflecting them with his blade or just all but dancing away from the strike altogether. 

Percy was used to fighting many at once though, that was true. When fighting a magician, it was a lot like fighting two or three people at once, spells and the like dancing through the air like rain. Fighting Uncle Julius and his Dad was a lot like fighting six opponents at once, and it was something that he had learned to accomplish with ease when he was only eleven. Only three opponents now with just blades meant little to the boy.

A spear makes a low swipe at his Achilles tendon, the owner of it seeking to weaken him. To limit his movement. It was a smart sort of choice to make, exactly what he would do. 

That’s why he was expecting it.

Twisting, turning on his heel, Percy drove his foot down onto the spear, forcing it to the ground and relishing in the sound as it broke beneath him, as the daughter of Ares screamed as she realized that it had done just that. 

All it took was two more strikes, and the two sons of Ares were falling to the ground as well as triumphant roars filled the small clearing by the riverbed, Luke and the other members of their team pouring in around the four of them, a red flag raised high.

“Looks like you lost twice,” the unclaimed demigod said as he looked down at the girl that had sought to bring him hurt. 

(Sought to do much more than that)

Clarisse looked up at the boy and thought that she might have been looking upon something like a devil, if such a thing were to exist in this world of theirs. The thought only increased when a howl rose up from behind them all.

Especially with what happened next.

Everyone turned at the noise, weapons being held high in their hands with much more seriousness than many of them had ever had to take before. With much more seriousness than any of them had ever had to take within the borders of a place meant to be safe. 

There was a beast before them, three monsters that looked a lot like a dog, but they were much too large to be one, the shadowy wisps of the underworld still clinging to them.

“Hellhounds," Annabeth realized as they all did, her dagger raised in defense.

It was unneeded though.

Percy only sighed at the sight before him, at the summoned creatures. He supposed that he was at least glad that he had made it this long before he did something as truly stupid as he was about to do. 

The unclaimed boy’s sword drops to the ground with a heavy dirt of sound, an act that many would have thought would have been in fear of it weren’t for the dead sort of look in the boy’s eyes as he stepped towards the beasts, only stopping for a moment to swoop down and grab a broken piece of the spear that was still sparking helplessly on the ground. 

Chiron and the rest of the Camp alike watch as the boy walks towards the creatures of the underworld, the water from the river behind him rising and moving to his sides before surging before the boy and encasing the cursed dogs in water as the boy did little more than tilt his head at the action. 

They watched as the beasts howled from inside the water, near silent as it filled the lungs. It wasn’t enough to kill them though, something that Percy had assumed would occur. He threw the broken spear in and watched with flat eyes as the water sparked as if it held a grudge, the beasts shaking violently within it. He would almost feel bad for them if he hadn’t known that they had been summoned to kill at least one of the campers gathered, maybe even himself.

He had people to get home to at the end of all of this after all.

 “Still not enough, huh?” Percy asks, no emotion in his voice at all. He peers to his side and sees a demigod that he vaguely recognized from his own cabin, maybe Travis or  Conner something of the like. He sees that the older boy has a blade in his hands. “Can I borrow that?” 

Connor looked at the younger boy, someone only two years younger than himself and yet wielding power like that. It was terrifying in a way to see it, but he had never been one to run scared.

He hands over the camp sword to the other demigod, and turns to watch as Percy steps within an inch or two of the rolling water and slices clean through all three of the heads of the hounds, one after the other until they were no more. He had the eyes of a killer, Connor hoped that this would keep him alive.

(After all, Luke had come back from his quest with the same eyes, and he had lived the longest of them all)

Chiron looked at the boy and knew that it was like watching the sea on its deadliest of days. 

The water falls to the ground with little more than a flick of the wrist after that, as Percy returns the borrowed blade to the demigod that had brought it into the woods with them, as he turns to walk back and retrieve his own. 

When he stands once more, the woods around Percy fills with a blue - green sort of light, creating ghostly sort of shadows across each of the gathered demigod’s faces. Percy doesn’t need to glance up to know what is there, floating above his head a more than one person gasps. 

He does so anyways.

There was a sort of holographic image of a triton above him, glowing in the darkening sky and coloring the tree leaves with a wash of blue. He knew the owner of the distinct symbol, had known it since he was seven and had first read some of the stories. Had known its connection to himself since he was eight. He didn’t need Chiron to say it.

He does so anyways.

“All hail Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon,” the ancient being speaks as he kneels before the boy, the rest of the camp soon following suit, “Earthshaker. Stormbringer. Father of horses. Hail Perseus Jackson, son of the sea god.”

Luke watches from his spot kneeling on the ground, and thinks that the boy was looking at the triton as if he hated it.

—-

Percy was in the woods again, a sword in his hand once more as he stood before another. It was just the two of them in the woods then, as he knew that it would be for a while given how the rest of the Camp refused to get within ten feet or so of him now that they knew what he was.

All except for the teen before him now, even if his gaze was a bit colder than before.

Percy watched as Luke stood only a few feet away, twisting the borrowed blade in his hands as if it were a weight that he needed to get used to once more. They both knew that it wasn’t.

“Did you lie before? About your Dad?” The teen asks after a long moment, his mind already made up either way.

Percy only shakes his head, looking out into the trees instead of at the other boy. If he let his senses wander for just a moment he could feel the river deeper into the forest, the water that lake the Camp, the water in every living thing around him. Could feel the way that it all called out to him as if begging him to wield it.

 It was easier to answer when his mind wasn’t entirely with the rest of his body. 

“My mother was mortal,” the boy answers, something far away in his eyes that Luke couldn’t place. It was a different sort of cold than what he had held last night, yet it seemed far too similar in a way. “My stepfather was a bastard that hit us both. The man that I call my dad truly is someone of the mythical world as we are. He found me and took me in when I was seven. I would be dead right now if it weren’t for him, and if I weren’t by some miracle then I’m sure that I would have wished that I was.l

Even as the younger boy doesn’t look at him as he speaks, the elder demigod knows that the words that he speaks are the truth.

It’s only then that Percy turns to look at the other demigod, seeing something a bit too much like familiarity in his gaze. Still, that seemed to calm something in the teen that Percy couldn’t (wouldn’t) identify, at least not right then. 

“Alright, raise your blade.”

And who was Percy to turn down such an order when he truly could use a fight? 

—-

There was a storm brewing on the beach, lightning striking down from the sky as two men fought in the distance, the ground shaking with the power of their blows. It was the sort of fight that could bring a calamity if left unchecked, and yet Percy couldn’t help but think it childish in ways that he knew that he shouldn’t. 

They were gods after all.

A better person would have done something as the pair screamed at one another. Screamed of the loss of something else, as the waves crested higher and higher. As the rain came down even harder than before.

A better person would have done something.

Percy only watched.

(It was only a vision after all)

—-

“You want to send me on a quest?” Percy asked, looking between the three visible figures and purposely ignoring the one that had hidden herself with some sort of magic, as he wasn’t supposed to know that she was there just yet.

“I’m afraid that we must,” Chiron said, expecting fear or something of the like from the demigod but only watching instead as the boy sighed as if this were a chore.

And to Percy it was in a way. 

They had only decided that now was the time to send him to Camp because of this, because of what he had learned was the stolen Masterbolt of all things. Because they wanted him to be dragged into this world on his own terms and not on that of god. Percy knew that such a thought would never last, but he had hoped to last two weeks at the least. 

But he would do the quest, not for the sake of his ‘father’ or the demigod world in which he presently resigned in, but because if one pantheon were to fall to war by the hands of two of their most powerful gods he didn’t know what the repercussions would be on the others. 

On his home that was much too close.

“Alright,” Percy agrees as if he had ever had a choice at all.

—-

The attic of the Big House was almost stifling in the summer heat, something that even the gods didn’t seem to care to control given how few people ventured up into the space at all since quests had been all but banned.

Not that he thought that many people came up here at all given the slowly rotting corpse that they kept up there.

Percy stared at the thing, noting the way that it was dressed and its state of decay. Noting the magic that still swelled from it even the spirit within should have long moved on. 

Any sympathy that he felt for the thing though was lost the moment that he appeared in the acid green glow of the mist that spilled from the oracle’s mouth, Percy flinching back from the sight alone long before the man ever spoke.

“You shall go west, and face the god who has turned,” the man in the mist said, the voice having more a demonic sort of sound to it than Percy had remembered from when he had been young, the time away doing nothing to make him feel more kindly towards Gabe than he had when he had been only seven. 

If Percy thought that it would do any good, he might have thrown one of the artifacts in the room at the Oracle and just left it to talk to an empty room.

He didn’t though.

“You shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned.

“You shall be betrayed by one that calls you a friend.

“And take more than what was yours to have in the end.”

Percy listened to the words, rolling them over in his mind before he even thought to leave. He was optimistic in ways that he knew was dangerous, that he would succeed in what was asked (demanded) of him. 

Parts of him still wanted to leave this world to rot though even as he descended the stairs, his mind picking apart the twist that he thought that the prophecy foretold would come. To force the gods to clean up their own messes as he so often had to take care of his own. 

He was more of a bitter sort of person than he cared to admit.

—-

Percy almost wants to laugh as the centaur so confidently accuses the gods of the Greek afterlife of being behind the theft of the Lightning Bolt, but he bites it back before it can ever escape his lips. It was still an absurd sort of thing for the man to say, especially as the population of the world has only grown larger and larger since ancient times, the afterlifes of all of the different pantheons having to shoulder that burden each and every day. The only pantheon that Percy thought might want war even less than that of Hades and the other Greek underworld gods, would be those of the Norse pantheon, as when the soldiers of Valhalla fell in battle they truly remained dead that time.

He stays quiet on the subject though.

It’s not like they would ever believe him even if he was right.

“Now all you have to do is pick two companions to accompany you, and then pack,” the centaur says after he had already doe coded that the prophecy likely meant that they were meant to go to California, a strange choice in Percy’s opinion given that it was the land of the Romans, but he didn’t say anything about that either. “As it turns out, one person has already volunteered.”

“I’m sure someone has,” Percy says, turning to look at the daughter of Athena before she even gets the chance to take off her cap, a face that is met with wide grey eyes meeting uncaring sea green.

“You knew that I was here the whole time? How?” Annabeth asks, unable to hide the shock in her voice as she looked at the son of the sea god. As she peered at a boy that she meant to hate because of their parents. 

(At a boy that she thought that she might just fear)

Percy only shrugs, a non answer.

It was answer enough.

“I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to figure that out for yourself on the quest,” the demigod boy says, knowing that his easy acceptance was shocking to nearly everyone around. After all, he hadn’t exactly been around the girl all that much, but then again he hadn’t really been around anyone since coming to camp other than Luke.

“Alright then,” Chiron starts, wanting to move this along as the clouds above the invisible barrier only got darker by the hour. “And who else will you pick?”

And wasn’t that a choice to be had? It wasn’t like he really knew anyone in the damned place, only having been there about a week or so by now, and those that he had been thinking of getting to know before were acting as if he was a plague now that they knew what he was. 

There weren’t really any choices at all.

Percy still made one.

“Him,” the demigod boy says, jerking a thumb to the satyr that had been sent to retrieve him for all of this, the first person to ever speak to him at camp as well.

“Grover?” Dionysus asks, too surprised to even mess up the half goat’s name as usually did everyone else. “Why him?”

They all watch as the demigod boy shrugs as if he had been asked why his favorite color was blue. It was much too casual a gesture for the institution at hand. 

“The only people that I have actually spoken to at Camp in the past week or so are Annabeth, who is already coming,” Percy explains as he holds up his thumb, as if  counting as he speaks. “Clarisee, who would likely kill me the second that we were on our own and say that a monster got me,” another finger, another much too calm response for the words being spoken. “Luke, who has a cabin to run,” another finger, but this time the true reason is kept hidden away in his mind, “and Grover, who was one of the first people to be nice to me here and hasn't once looked at me as if I’m a monster after capture the flag.”

And if that wasn’t one of the most sad reasons that both Chiron and Dionysus had ever heard in their long lives for something like this, then they didn't really know what was. 

(But when it came to the demigod before them, they both could agree that the world twisted in ways that it shouldn’t when it came to him)

“You know,” Chiron starts, looking from the demigod boy to the satyr who was nervously chewing on his shirt at even the thought, “this could be used towards you achieving your searchers license, if you get both Annabeth and Perseus back alive that is.”

And who is Grover to turn that down?

(He didn’t think that he could have turned the boy down even without such a selfish reason on his own part. It was hard to not want to help the boy when the reasons that he gave were what they were, when one small interaction and being able to meet the boy’s eyes was reason enough for him to be picked.)

“Yeah, let’s do this,” the satyr agrees, a shaky sort of smile spilling over his lips, “I’ll bring so many snacks.”

—-

When the three meet at the strange tree that Percy had first stopped at before going into camp, the one that looked a bit too human, with the magical border flowing from it like that of a slow heartbeat, Chiron is there waiting for them with a falsely kind smile on the centaur’s lips. Percy knew that he wasn’t hiding something malicious beneath the look, but instead a well of worry.

Percy almost wished that it was ill intent that he was hiding.

There’s a guy at the ancient man’s side, one that was covered in eyes from head to toe. With such a defining feature, it only takes Percy a moment to place just who the man was. Argus, the hundred eyed giant, watchman to the goddess Hera. He wondered what had brought the man to be spending time among demigods instead of with the queen of Olympus.

Percy saw the car keys in the giant’s hands and found that he really didn’t care.

“Hey!” A voice yelled from half way up the hill from the Camp side, a voice that everyone at the crest of the hill recognized before anyone even turned. “Glad I could catch you before you left.”

Luke smiled at them all with that warmth that brought heat to the cheeks of the Daughter of Athena each time that she was around the teen. Percy couldn't even tease the girl for it because the next thing that the teen did brought heat to his own.

“I just wanted to give you these, for luck,” the blonde said as he held out a box to Percy, opening it up so that the younger boy could see what was inside. 

It was a pair of shoes, simple as could be, but as Percy lifted them from the box he could feel the magic coursing through them, powerful and unique,milked that of Annabeth’s hat.

“What do they do?” Percy asked as he looked up at the elder demigod.

Luke grinned at the sight, sharp and excited, because he had been hoping for this exact reaction.

“Maia,” the teen said, showing rather than telling. 

It was a sight to see as wings formed on the sides of each of the shoes like that of Hermes’s sandals. The magic that made them was beautiful and elegant in the way that all heist should be. 

“Maia,” the teen said once more, the wings disappearing just as they had come. 

Percy didn’t think that he had ever been given a gift before by someone that wasn’t his mom or Dad. 

It hurt something in his chest knowing that he would never be allowed to use them himself.

“Thank you,” the younger demigod said, something a bit raspy entering his voice at such a simple sort of thing. 

Luke bit back what he was going to say when he heard that all too familiar sound.

They really were too alike in some ways.

“Yeah well, just kill some monsters for me, yeah?” 

“Of course,” Percy said, the words feeling just a bit too heavy.

“Take care of each other, yeah?” The teen said as he looked between the three and patted them each on the head in turn before walking back down the hill,  ever looking back once.

Percy waits until he is sure that the eldest demigod is out of sight before he hands the shoes over to Grover for the satyr to wear. 

“I’m going to get shot out of the sky if I actually try and use those,” Percy explains when the older boy takes the shoes with large, questioning eyes.

“I’m sure it was a well intentioned gift,” Chiron assures when both of the other two shudder at the words that Percy had spoken. Percy isn’t sure that it was though. Another thing that he would be keeping to himself it seemed. “Though I hope that this would be a sufficient replacement.”

They all watch as the centaur reaches into his coat pocket and withdrawals what looks to them all to be a normal ballpoint pen. Percy knows better the moment that he has it in his grasps.

Living with a magician and being the nephew of another, Percy had long been trained to look for the magic in everything around him, to manipulate it in the ways that a Greek demigod could. He could feel the magic in the pen from the moment that he touched it, holding it in his hand the way that one would a blade because something about it felt right that way. 

Seeing this, Chiron stopped before he could explain just what the object truly was, wanting to see if the boy would figure it out on his own.

He did.

Percy pulled off the cap from the pen and watched with eyes that never got tired of the sight of magic as the blade came to its true form. 

It was the first time that a sword had ever felt balanced in his hands.

That it had ever felt right.

“Anaklusmos,” Chiron says as he looks at the boy and sees the heroes of old that had once held the weapon in their grasps. Never were any of them quite like the boy before him now.

(Never were any of them so cold either)

“Riptide,” the boy translated in turn. “Thank you.”

Chiron nods, looking as if he wants to say more, wants to say something that he knew that he shouldn’t. He doesn’t though. He never does. 

“You should get going now,” is all that the ancient man says to the three, “there’s little time to waste.”

—-

The car ride is a silent one for a long while, the three sitting closely together in the back of the van as Percy read through the comic collection that he had brought with him, as Grover ate just a few too many cans for it to truly be from hunger and not from stress of what’s to come, Annabeth tapping her shoe as if the car floor had done something to offend her.

Turns out something had, it just wasn’t the floor.

“You could take this more seriously,” the daughter of Athena said as she looked at the son of the sea god with more contempt than she would have normally turned on someone that had truly done nothing to her other than exist, but such was the will of the gods.

“And how exactly am I supposed to take a car ride more seriously?” The demigod boy asks, not bothering to look at the blonde girl.

… and sometimes the annoyance came naturally.

“You could at least look as if you care that we are on a mission for the gods,” Annabeth says, even as it sounds like a weak answer to her own ears, “that we get to prove that we’re worth something to them.”

That we have a right to exist, goes unsaid but not unheard.

 Percy doesn’t comment on it though, not on that and not on the words that the other demigod had actually spoken. 

“Why do you seem to hate me when we’ve hardly ever spoken before?” Percy asks instead, his tone so genuine that it makes even Grover stop his anxious chewing. 

It was something that he had been wondering since he had been claimed and the eyes of the children of the wisdom goddess had been much colder towards him. He could understand if Annabeth heated him out of fear of what she had seen in the bathroom that day, of what they had all seen him do in the woods. Those are things that would make sense. The half hearted hatred for hatred’s sake didn’t though, especially when there was no fear behind it at all.

“Athena and Poseidon don’t like each other, so we shouldn’t either,” Annabeth answers as if it made all the sense in the world to her.

It sounds like a child’s reasoning. 

“I wasn’t raised by Poseidon,” the demigod boy reminds her, flipping a page in his book, “so it doesn’t really mean all that much to me.”

And it never would.

“It should,” the girl insists as if she was also trying to convince herself. “Our godly parents have a long history of dislike with one another, from competitions for cities to your father bringing his girlfriend to my mother’s temple.”

At that last part Percy does finally look at the other demigod. 

“That’s a Roman myth, not Greek,” he says, his voice flat as he spoke, no emotion there at all, “so that should matter even less than your arbitrary reasons already do.”

Percy sees the moment that Annabeth stops, as if the girl’s brain were a computer that needed rebooting. It would have been funny had he not been annoyed. 

“What do you mean?” The daughter of Athena asks, serious and unsure.

“In the Greek versions of the myth, Medusa is almost always a gorgon from birth,” the boy explains, feeling as if this is something that the other should have known, “it’s usually only in the Roman myths that Minerva turns her from a beautiful woman to a monster after Neptune either sleeps with her or rapes her, depending on the version of the myth. And also depending on the version, it’s either a curse done to punish Medusa, or a gift so that she can always be protected even as she can no longer be a priestess of Minerva, as she is a maiden goddess. The Romans didn’t really like either Athena or Poseidon, so when they conquered Greece the myths were changed to make them both look bad under their new names.”

Percy always hated when people of one pantheon mixed with that of another, a hypocritical sort of hate he knew. But it was still one that he held for the single purpose that it made it hard to discern what rules they were playing by. The Romans conquered and rewrote the myths of the Greeks to make the light of the ancient heroes dimmer than it had been before. Achilles was now more selfish, and Odysseus was all but a monster in translations of their myths from Latin. It felt like dealing with someone with a multiple personality disorder when reading one myth to the next. He never wanted to know what it would feel like to encounter the gods themselves in such a state. 

(He wondered if he hadn’t just cursed himself with that thought alone)

It’s only when he’s done speaking that he sees that both Grover and Annabeth are looking at him as if he’s crazy, more than one eye from Argus peering at him much the same. Percy only shrugs though and goes back to his comic. If he didn’t look at the eyes then they weren’t on him. 

“The version of the myths are important,” is the last thing that he says on the matter as he sinks down into his seat. 

They were all a little too happy when the van stopped for good and the three got out at the bus stop without another word as the storm got worse outside. 

—-

Annabeth and Grover are checking their bags once more as the three are waiting for the bus when they notice Percy looking off to the side away from them, brows pinched as his hand shifts at his side as if he wished for a blade to be in it. The two glanced at one another as they noticed the odd motion, but given just how trained the boy had proven to be they took a moment to look around in hopes of finding just whatever it was that was setting the boy off. 

They almost immediately wish that they hadn’t.

There were three women standing off to the side of the waiting area, each with identical faces that made the pair pause upon seeing them, because they recognized them even if Percy clearly couldn’t place them in their human form.

(Even as he seemed to know that they were dangerous anyways despite this)

“We can’t do anything right now,” Annabeth whispers for both of the boys to hear, “the mist will likely make it look as if we killed three old ladies if we did.”

Grover thinks that Percy might try and fight it, to get rid of the Kindly Ones before they posed a bigger issue and damned the consequences, but the demigod boy only nods, moving to get on the bus in the back of it as the three sisters took the front.

It felt too easy.

It was.

“We should hide you,” Annabeth says as she looks at Percy, concern in her voice, though whether it was for the boy himself or the quest no one knew, not even the daughter of Athena herself. “It’s you they’re likely after.”

Percy only shakes his head though, something a little too ruthless entering those eyes of his, something a bit too reminiscent of that day at capture the flag.

“We should use Athena’s cap to sneak up behind them and slit their throats,” the boy suggests in turn, cold and a bit cruel as he twirled the pen in his hand as if thinking of doing just that. “We won’t be able to get all of them that way, but at least will be able to get rid of one.” 

Grover looks more and more nervous as the demigod boy speaks, Annabeth clearly looking just as unsure with the plan, but she had to admit that them trying to run was something of a fever dream that likely would have gotten at least one of them killed if they weren’t careful. 

Grover watches as Percy slips his backpack onto his shoulders as Annabeth disappears the moment that she places the cap upon her head, the satyr follows the other boy's lead, and they both watch in silence as the Kindly One that was sitting in the seat closest to the middle of the bus turns to dust before their eyes, everyone else acting as if the monster was never there at all.

Everyone but the other two monsters that was.

 The two seemingly old women spring up from their seats with a sort of speed that Percy almost swears makes the mist adjust to make them seem younger as they rush to the back of the bus to where he and Grover were with an unnatural sort of speed.

Percy was already standing to meet them.

Grover stomped his hoof nervously as he brought his reed pipes to his lips.

The plan that Annabeth comes up with was insane, but the moment that she hears the shrill noise of Grover attempting to play music, she knows that it’s a needed sort of insanity. 

The demigod girl moves away from the seats that she had ducked into, and back into the isle of the bus going up it to the front of the bus where the driver sat, the mist hiding the occurrence in the back neatly away from mortal eyes. Gathering her resolve, Annabeth plants her invisible body by the steering wheel of the bus and yanks on it with all her might as the driver screams and tries to take back control.

He was much too late.

Percy and Grover look at one another as the bus suddenly jerks to the side with enough force to knock the four of them off of their feet, the vehicle careening into the ditch and crashing there. The humans on the bus rush for the entrance of it as it begins to smoke. The four godly beings do as well, fighting as they go. 

A gold blade slices through the middle of one of the furies as her hand reaches out to try and clamp around Grover’s arm, the second one getting stopped by vines that circled around her feet and held her there for the moment that the boys needed to get off of the bus before it went up in flames, the final fury still trapped inside.

They weren’t stupid enough to believe that she wasn’t alive. 

Invisible hands grabbed both of their arms, pulling them towards the woods as the mortals looked around and the mist searched for someone to blame. 

—-

The place that they eventually come across is one of magic, the sort of magic that drew in those that could feel it. Percy always thought of this sort of magic like that of the sea, with its sand that one could walk upon until suddenly between one step and the next there was no sand to find at all and all you are is sinking in the chilled water, but you let yourself sink because surely there must be sand soon. But then your head dips below the water, and curiosity has you still going until you dip into a strong current that pulls you ever deeper, and all the while the waves only grow stronger and stronger above your head.

The panic never sets in until much too late.

(Percy would know, it was how he had learned that he could breathe beneath the waves when he was nine)

The enchantment dragging them in now felt like that of a strong current, but he lets it drag the three of them in anyways, because if it's a monster or a god then they are likely to have some type of resources that can be stolen once they kill them. 

Besides, warm food sounded nice.

The door opened to reveal an elegant sort of woman, her skin flushed with the warm sort of tones that one would have expected from that of the Ancient Greeks, her head and face covered in a way that almost seemed middle eastern in nature but wasn’t quite so. There was something wrong with the folds of it all, with the way that it seemed to cover even more than it should for modesty’s sake. The way that it covered enough that one could only see the slightest idea of eyes but nothing more to the point that it seemed as if it would be detrimental to day - to - day life.

Percy dips his head as if in a small bow the moment that he figures out who is before him, the other two follow suit even as they don’t realize who is before them until the demigod boy speaks her name. 

The magic had too tight a hold on them both.

“Medusa,” Percy greets, keeping his head ducked low and his eyes half lidded so that he was only looking at each of their shadows.

The laugh that cracks through the air is one of surprise. 

“So fast, I’m impressed little godling,” the monster compliments in an old sort of voice of hers. “Though the sea and its children have always been unpredictable, so perhaps I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am.

“Tell me, why is the child of my former lover stalking my door?”

And thus the problem with not being able to separate the stories of one pantheon from that of another stands just before him.

Percy stands up straight then, though he doesn’t look at the monster before him as he does, to do so would be suicide after all. Her shadow had shifted as his had, the cloth donning her head undoubtedly falling away. 

That action alone was as good as any act of war.

“If we’re going to play by the rules of foreign pantheons then I can do that well enough,” Percy says, confusing all those around him with the words that he speaks. 

That was fine though, it would be easier for them if they didn’t understand.

(Be easier for himself as well)

“Keep your eyes closed until I say otherwise,” Percy commands, not waiting around the hear the dissonance from his choice.

Medusa watches with a stone gaze as the boy before her, if he could be called that at all, raised his hand into the air beside himself, the appendage dipping into a space of seeming nonexistence as he does so. She knows that she should have stopped him, that whatever the boy was doing would be detrimental to her in a way, deadly even, but she was transfixed as she watched as the boy’s hand reappeared before her with a staff within it, one that was gold and glowed a bit like the gods themselves. The gorgon watched as he twisted the end of the blunt weapon, just once, and a blade popped out at the end.

All of this was done with his eyes closed. 

“How did you do that?” She can’t help but ask, she had never seen such magic before, especially not from a demigod. 

The magic that was just used was different from what the gods upon Olympus use when they summon something to their hands, or create it from the things around them. This magic seemed to allow the boy to reach his hand into another plane of existence altogether. 

But the boy never answers, his eyes firmly closed shut as he takes the first decisive step towards the monster before him.

And she takes the first instinctive step away. 

The fight that follows can hardly be called one at all as the boy moves like the wind in a storm, wild and unpredictable but undoubtedly strong. Medusa, having the gift of being able to see, spent far too much time dodging the attacks as they came, the demigod boy using the gift of a ranged weapon to attack as he wished while keeping his comrades in mind even as he could not see them at all.

He didn’t need to see anyone though, not when he could hear them all, every step and breath, the hiss of the snakes, the stinging sort of sound of a blessed sort of blade making contact with the monster and spilling her blood. 

The sound of a head falling to the ground as he made contact once more.

“I thought that would last longer,” Percy says more to himself than anyone else as he releases the Bo staff from his hand, letting it fall into the air as the Duat opened up beneath it and swallowed it whole. He knew that his Dad would chastise him for being so careless with the realm, but Percy never had been one to learn his lesson as he went to where the head had fallen and stored it away just the same. It would be useful later, of that he was sure. “It’s safe to look.”

Grover and Annabeth feel a bit foolish as they open their eyes and realize that they had been of no help at all with the situation, likely a hindrance if they were to be truly honest with the way that they had caved beneath the magic. It was in moments like these, when the demigod was scarily competent, that Annabeth couldn’t help but wonder if they had only been brought along as they were for the quest because one was required to have three people for one.

It was a sad sort of thought when she had been dreaming of nothing but going on a quest since she was young.

She wished that she was stronger.

(She didn’t know that such strength had a price)

The thoughts slipped away though when they watch as the boy smiles the first true smile that they had ever seen of him before, all proud and bright as the sun itself. 

“I told my Dad that comics totally gave me good ideas,” the demigod boy says, practically shining as he smiled at the other two. “Come on, let’s go ransack this place, yeah? There’s some sort of warm food cooking in there and I’m starving.”

They realize then that, for someone so strong, he is a massive nerd. 

—-

In his dreams, Percy stood before a giant sort of cavern that he was sure went down much farther than he would ever want to fall, as an ancient voice spoke to him as if trying to draw him ever closer. 

Percy knew that he ought to listen, but he had never been good at doing what he was told. Besides, the souls of the dead seemed far more interesting of a thing.

—-

When Percy woke from his sleep it was to Annabeth standing over him with a poodle that had been dyed pink sitting in Grover’s lap. They had made the decision, with the permission of the poodle, to return her to her owner for the reward that had been offered so that they could buy tickets for the Amtrak.

He was told to greet the animal. 

Percy thinks that he should find all of this far more strange than he does, but his best friend is a baboon, so…yeah. 

(Maybe his Dad’d had a point about him making friends his own age… and species.)

—-

They take the Amtrak and are on it for two days, getting as far as St. Louis before they have to get off. The smart thing to do would have been to find another form of transportation as fast as they could, time was wasting away after all, but when had he ever been known to be smart?

Besides, as Annabeth was dragging both him and Grover to the Arch, listing off facts about the structure that she had only ever read in books, it was hard to deny the girl this one ask. After all, she had seen much less of the world than even Percy himself and he had been stuck to the Nome for a very long time without his Dad or Uncle at his side because there was no Gabe anymore to conceal his scent from the monsters seeking to take his life.

“I say we give her an hour,” Percy whispers, just low enough that only someone with the hearing of an animal would pick up on it as they walked into the museum structure at the bottom. 

Grover nods as the shade chills the three of them from the summer heat, passing jelly beans stolen from Medusa’s place back and forth with the demigod boy.

When they get in line for the elevator going up to the top, Percy can’t help but notice the way in which the other boy was fidgeting at his side, fingers moving as if he would die if the did not, and lips parted so that he wouldn’t have to breathe through his nose. It was as if he smelled something worrisome that he didn’t want to be true.

What a drag.

“What is it?” Percy asks just as quietly as the last time that he had spoken, not wanting to disturbed Annabeth when this was the first time that he had ever seen the girl smile before.

“Nothing,” the half goat answers, his voice cracking half way through, “we’re fine.”

It was a lie, but it was one that the satyr was only truly trying to tell to himself.

Still, Percy brought out the pen from his pocket and twisted it between his fingers in a manner that always kept the hidden blade close.

When it’s finally their turn to get into the elevator, there’s more than just the three of them on the way up, a ‘woman’ and her ‘dog’ joining them. Percy bit back as sigh as the machine started its journey to the top, wondering just how easy it would be to kill the ‘dog’ before it can turn into something worse, because Grover was fidgeting now more than before and didn’t even notice it (ignored it) and the mist seemed to be working overtime right then trying to make the ‘dog’ look like a dog. Working enough so that Percy couldn't tell the true form that laid beneath.

But Annabeth was smiling and Grover was smiling because she was as well, so Percy guessed that it was worth the trouble.

The top of the arch is its own kind of beauty and horror to the son of Poseidon as he steps into the enclosed space. Ever since they got the idea of just who his godly father might be, his Dad had always warned him against the sky, as such, Percy had never been so high up within it before. 

(But it was beautiful in the way that every forbidden thing always is)

“We can wait with you,” Annabeth argues when there isn’t enough space for Percy to fit as well on the elevator ride back down with the other two.

It was a sweet sort of offer for the other to make.

It was a counterproductive one.

“Nah, we don’t want to drag everyone else behind too,” Percy lies through his teeth as a being that wasn’t a dog barked behind him.

They buy it though, just as he had meant for them to do, and the door closes with them on one side and him on the other.

It’s then that Percy turns to face the woman and smiles at her with a sharp sort of smile that makes her eyes flash defensively with a golden sort of light.

His smile only gets sharper.

This should be fun after all.

“You know what I am, and you still had them go on without you?” The woman asks, her voice holding that same sort of silk to it that Medusa had possessed before Percy had cut off her head so she couldn’t speak at all. “How foolish of you.”

She sounds so confident as she says this. It makes Percy bite back a smirk.

“I was raised around magic,” the demigod boy says, the sentence making the woman stop for just a moment as he speaks it, walking closer to the monster. “I know when it’s being manipulated.” The lady’s smile turns just as sharp as his own as he speaks. “Let the boy and his parents go and then we can fight as much as your… dog would like, mother of monsters.”

They both looked off to the side where a little boy, one much too young for the horrors of this world, was gazing down at the river below with wonder that Percy doubted that he had ever truly gotten to feel when he had been the boy’s age. It seemed cruel to break him so young.

He guessed that Echidna agreed.

Monsters so seldom did that.

“Fine by me,” the mother of monsters answered, her wrist flicking as suddenly the mist shifted around them all and everyone but the pair of them were moving to leave as quickly as they could, urgency filling their veins even as they didn’t know why.

And they never would.

It’s not until the last person leaves that Echidna places down the monster masquerading as a dog and lets it change into the form that it favored most once more, the chimera shaking as it was done as if a burden had just been released from its shoulders in doing so.

(Percy understood that more than he cared to admit, sometimes it was hard pretending to be more human than he was.

Sympathy never got you anywhere in this world of theirs though)

“There’s poison in its tail, right?” Percy asks as he uncaps his pen, letting it extend into the full sword, the golden color of it casting an unsettling sort of glow upon the demigod’s eyes, as if they had a golden tint to them.

It makes the ancient being nervous in ways that she can’t explain.

“Yes,” the mother of monsters answers anyways, because why wouldn’t she? 

A demigod, even a child of the sea, should not be any sort of match for a child of hers.

It’s an idea that she seeks to reconsider upon hearing the boy’s answer.

“Good,” Percy says, his voice devoid of anything at all but the violence of the harshest of tides.

Echidna watched as the boy, a mere child, held out his hand then with the gaze as murderous as any monster as he flicked his wrist up, only once. That was all that he needed to make the chimera howl in pain as it fell to the ground, mouth opened wide as poison spilled from it as the boy only looked on it with what seemed to be fascination rather than the horror that Echidna felt. Horror as her child’s poison tore at it’s own insides that had not been meant to withstand the bite of the snake. Horror as the son of the broke every rule of it as if it was a given.

As if all he wanted to do was to push the monster more and more until he became one himself.

(She didn’t think that it would be long before that came to be)

 Fire came out of the monster's mouth then, trying to burn the poison away as a last desperate sort of attempt at a survival that Echidna knew would never come, but somehow the boy had water to block it before the flames could ever touch his skin. 

It took her a moment to realize that the water was pulled from the air itself. 

“I remember this one, drowned in metal,” Percy says, recalling the story with a sort of detached voice that almost made him seem as if he was in a trance. As if he were becoming less and less human by the moment. “Well, I don’t have any of that, so I guess I’ll just have to stop your heart.”

The sentence is spoken as if it were a normal thing for him to do. As if watching a monster rolling around in agony on the ground so much so that it created a hole in the wall, was a normal thing for him.

Maybe it was.

Echidna wanted to curse Poseidon, but for this one she didn’t think that even the sea god could be placed at fault.

“How are you doing this?” The mother of monsters asked the being before her that almost seemed to be one of hers. 

The crazed sort of smile that the boy gives her at the question does nothing to rid her of this comparison.

“Poseidon took on the title of father of monsters after Typhon was locked away,” the boy said as if that explained everything, and maybe it did, “and I am his only demigod child. What else would I be but something of a monster myself?”

She wished that it were less true of a thing for the boy to say.

(They both did)

When the mother of monsters moves to attack the demigod boy, it’s through a spray of dust that had once been one of her most deadly of children. 

She never makes it though.

Instead all she can do is watch as the son the sea fell through the air as he willed the water to catch him.

 She had never wanted to kill a demigod more.

—-

“We need to go to Santa Monica,” is the first thing that Percy says once the other two had found him after he had drawn himself up out of the water, the demigod boy trying to force away the image of a woman that looked much too like the blurry sort of images that he had of his mother from when he was young.

Remembering them wouldn't do him any good anymore after all. 

(Besides, Percy couldn’t help but think that seeing her in such a way should have hurt more than it does.)

Grover and Annabeth both have to fight back the instinct to strangle the boy before them (a true feat given how little Grover liked violence) but gave into the change once they learn why. 

—-

They get off of the train once more the next day, the summer sun annoyingly bright but making for just enough light for the three to create a rainbow in a car wash of all things with the water that came out of the hoses. One that Percy is unashamed to admit that he just created the spray for himself by controlling the water rather than actually paying for it. 

The second round of bus tickets had eaten through nearly the last of their funds and he wasn’t going to waste them on a call to camp.

It’s not even a full thirty seconds of speaking with the oldest demigod at camp before Annabeth gets called away to help with the problem of the noise coming from another car. Percy just hoped that Grover would be enough to keep the girl from killing someone with her bare hands or sharp tongue, whichever would do the mortal in first.

It’s not until Luke mentions the fights that had been breaking out with the possibility of war drawing near, rumors of it spread by someone that the man called a ‘scumbag’ that Percy can see so clearly that the other lying to him through all the layers of truth that he had neatly hidden the lies behind, and a piece that he didn’t want to click clicks for him as cold washes through him.

“Idiot,” the younger of the two demigods all but curses under his breath, ignoring the pain that it brings.

“What did you say?” The teen asks, but Percy says nothing as he knows that the other heard him from the considering sort of look that was in the older set of eyes. 

It’s silent for a long moment.

“You know, don’t you?” Luke asks, though it isn’t much of a question at all.

“Enough,” Percy confirms, the word tasting bitter on his tongue, “more now that you’ve said that.”

And Luke nods, because what else was he to do other than that?

“Hades can be very convincing,” the older of the two says, some last ditch effort to salvage this.

It doesn’t work.

“We both know it’s not Hades that you serve, Luke,” Percy says with that voice of his that knew far too much and paid the price for it far too often.

“Percy-” Luke starts, true panic entering his voice, but is cut off.

“Just tell me a bit about camp, yeah?” Percy asks with the soft sort of voice of the sea just after a storm, when all had settled once more but the violence of it was still fresh in the minds of all. “How sour does Clarisse look knowing that she’s having to side with my cabin in all of this?”

Luke looks as if he wants to say something, truly say something damning, but he sighs instead, because it would do no one any good. “She looks like she ate a lemon every time someone says the sea god’s name,” the teen admits, a bit of that smile slipping onto his lips, the true smile that is small and so different from all of the false ones.

(Percy knew it well. He had seen it in the mirror for as long as he knew what a reflection was)

And Percy laughs then like he didn’t know that Luke was the traitor, like he wasn’t still the closest thing that Percy had to a friend anyways despite it all.

(Because they were two sides of the same coin, at the end of it all)

It’s much too long and not enough before Percy hears a noise that sounds a bit too much like a scream of an adult man coming for Annabeth’s and Grover’s direction.

“I need to go make sure that Annabeth isn’t traumatizing the mortals,” the younger says, knowing that the older demigod has heard the scream as well from the way that he nods.

“Bye,” the teen says. 

Percy only stops the water and walks away.

“What did Luke have to say?” Grover asks when Percy makes it over to the pair, the daughter of Athena smiling triumphantly as the truck sped out of the car wash as if the devilish was hunting his soul.

“Nothing interesting," Percy answers, because in a way it was true.

(It was nothing that he hadn’t already suspected before)

—-

Eating lunch with a god wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, Percy decides, especially not when it was a war god. 

“Retrieve my shield and I’ll get you three on a ride from here to L.A.” the god commands in a way that almost sounds like an offer.

Almost.

“And why can’t you get it yourself? Shouldn’t it be as easy as” Percy raises his hand into the air and snaps. 

It comes off a little sassy, enough to make Annabeth and Grover both kick the demigod boy in whatever sorts of him that they could reach under the table, but it’s a genuine question. And somehow Ares realizes this, it’s the only thing that keeps him from trying to kill the kid

“You’re an awfully easy seeming kid for someone in the presence of the war god,” Ares remarked, noting that he had much less of an effect on the child than he would have thought for someone so utterly ruthless thus far. 

Someone over following with kindness didn’t choke or drown those around them as often as the child before him did. 

“Well see,” Percy starts, his voice going flat in that way that it so often did when the next things that he said or did were bound to be horrifying, his eyes taking on a dead sort of look to them that made every word that followed all the more believable, “being in your presence makes me want to kill you, makes me want to take my fancy new sword and jam it into your eyes until I get to see if gods have brain matter or not,” the boy continues as all three of the other members of the table take on varying looks of shock, the son of the sea twisting the pen in question through his fingers as he never looks away from the war god’s eyes, “but one doesn’t usually voice those sort of thoughts aloud.”

Ares laughs like he just won a sort of award. 

Annabeth and Grover are horrified, but so much less surprised then they would have liked to be. 

“Aren’t you a spunky one!” Ares says, his voice much too bright for someone that had just been told that the boy before him wanted to carve his eyes out. “I bet you do want to give that a try, ocean brat. Like I said, get me my shield, I get you a ride. The why doesn’t really matter, just that I’m getting you where you need to go.”

“So a trap is waiting for us there, got it,” Percy said, all visible signs of the killing intent from before gone in the blink of an eye. “Wise girl, your call.”

And Annabeth wants to scream just a bit, because of course this would be the one time that judgment was truly placed in her hands, but instead all she does is shrugs. “We’re not getting to California any other way,” she says even as she looks uncertain.

It was never a good thing to have to mess around in godly affairs, especially not when one was already doing that for another god altogether.

“Sketchy deal with a war god it is,” the demigod boy exclaims with false cheer as he stands, burger in hand. “Grover grab some silverware to last you on the road on the way out, yeah?”

And Grover smiles, because if he had learned one thing about the other boy through all of this, it was that when he wasn’t being unsettling he was kind. Maybe all he was, was just strange. And maybe that was fine. 

After all, most of the gods were.

—-

“We're breaking into Hephaestus's place?” Grover bayed, as he looked up at the strange Waterpark, the whole place reeking of metal and oil and old water. 

It wasn’t a pleasant smell.

“Looks like it,” Annabeth agreed, the exact opposite of what he had wanted her to do, but when did he ever get what he wanted. “But, hey, look.”

Both of the boys followed the path of her hand to where the demigod girl was pointing at. 

A gift shop, one filled with clothes. 

“They look so bad though,” Grover whines as he instantly understands what the girl meant, and truly the satyr was right. They were all tide dyed and far too much at once, clothes best meant to be mixed with plain shirts or shirts if anyone dared to wear it at all.

Percy knew that the three of them were going to wind up wearing them all anyways. 

“You two go ahead and do that,” Percy starts, standing just a bit away from the other two, always removed from them even when right at their sides, “I'm gonna scope this place out, and see if I can't find that damned shield.”

Annabeth wants to argue, truly she does. Nothing about this quest was going the way that she had always thought that one would. Percy was so much different than what one would expect from someone that had only been at Camp for two weeks, much too competent, much too powerful. 

Definitely too powerful.

“Yeah, okay,” the daughter of Athena concedes, turning to the gift shop once more. 

Grover only sighed and followed suit.

As Percy walks closer and closer still towards the Tunnel of Love, he can feel the water pipes running beneath his feet, ones with more and more water gathered within then the closer that he got to his destination. 

It was a good thing to have though.

When he finds the shield, it's at the bottom of what would likely be a pool if there actually any water within it, now it was just the sort of pit that Percy would have really liked to ride into with his board. 

He knew better than to go into it now.

Percy crouches down at the edge of the empty pool, focusing on the water that was just out of reach of where it wanted to be. He would help it get there though. 

Percy drags his wrist from the side, watching as a thick trail of water mirrors his movement, slipping beneath the shield and shooting it up into the air like a geyser. 

It was just the shield though, not whatever pink cloth that was also down there with it. 

The godly weapon had only been in his hand for a moment before the world begins to break down below, like that of rusted doors slowly opening, as a net dropped down around where he would have been had he gone down there, mechanical spiders crawling down the sides to converge upon the net and cloth. 

It was a cruel sort of trick by the war god to send the daughter of the wisdom goddess down there to retrieve the shield when this was its guard.

Percy walks away from the pit though, listening to the sounds of the godly broadcasting starting up as he held the shield beneath one arm, the other arm was raised high into the air with nothing but a middle finger to direct it, just in case the cameras shifted to catch him as well.

—

Annabeth and Grover both sigh as they see the third member of their trio return with their prize held between both his hands. They both kinda wished that it would surprise them that he would do such a thing, but they don't get their wish.

(Little people in their world ever do)

“What kind of trap did you come across?” Grover asks, knowing that both of the demigods were likely right in there having been one.

“An annoying one,” the demigod boy answers truthfully, he didn't want to think of a timeline where he had actually gone down into the pit himself. 

He didn't know if the ride would have survived such a timeline.

“I kinda want to go back and see what sort of trap the craftsmanship would have used,” Annabeth says aloud, more to herself than the other two. “Can't have been much if you got the shield so quick.”

The three of them all ignore the rumble in the sky at that.

“You really don't,” Percy says, sure in a way that made the other two stop.

Annabeth raised a brow, but Percy only turned to Grover and mouthed a word that a child of Athena would never want to hear let alone see thousands of. 

Grover nods with wide eyes, and each of the boys takes one of the arms of the daughter of Athena, dragging her towards the changing room before she could think about going further into the park. 

She never does make it back there. 

(Her mind had whispered at her the reason why)

—-

The truck that Ares smuggled them into was probably the most shady thing that Percy had ever seen in his life, which was saying something since he had grown up in New York. But the animals were locked up tight, more than one starving, and every single one of them unclean. It was the sort of place that made him sick to look at. 

Maybe that was why he gave in before ever having been asked to do so.

“Don’t worry, Grover, we’ll break them all out when we leave,” the demigod boy promised as he watched the other boy pacing as if to stay still would be to accept defeat. 

The half goat lit up at those words, shining as if he were a child of the sun.

Annabeth rolled her eyes then, but she had been smiling as well.

“What are you doing, my Lord?” The zebra asked as Percy leaned against the bar of its cage, half of a stuffed Oreo in his mouth as the other two slept as well as they could for where they were. 

“Searching,” the demigod boy answers, both truthful and far too vague.

But truly, that was the best way to explain the way in which the boy was digging through the back pack that they had been given by the Greek god of war. To name the way in he was digging through every nook and cranny of the bag as if it would tell him something now that it had not the first time around. 

Because there was something to search for. 

The bag felt off to the boy for some reason that he couldn’t name. Like magic but not. 

Kinda like the Duat as you were hiding things within it. 

He sets the bag at Annabeth’s side, she was the only one that didn’t have one at the moment after all.

—-

Percy walked behind Annabeth and Grover as they walked down the sidewalk, the hundred and ten degree sun beating down on their skin. He was watching the bag that the demigod girl now wore on her back, feeling for the magic of it as he had been taught, looking for any changes or shifts within it as they moved. There were none, and yet it still felt as if there should be.

Maybe this was why he didn’t notice when another magic had taken hold.

They were surrounded by games in a place that smelled like flowers, where time seemed to have no place.

Where the world outside means nothing to them as a sort of haze takes over their minds.

“Just for the afternoon,” Annabeth had said when they had gone up to the room that they had been given and washed for the first time in days, but the words sounded like a lie even then.

They hadn’t even stayed together long enough after that for the lie to be called upon.

Percy wandered through the isles of games, nothing sticking out to him in the ways that something inside of his mind said that it ought to. When he fell to the ground with another body at his side, he thought that maybe that had been a good thing.

“Sorry,” the unknown boy says as he pulls himself up to a sitting position, Percy doing much the same as he studied the stranger.

The boy didn’t look much younger than he was himself, maybe only a year or two. His skin had a more eastern sort of tint to it, the sort that one would expect from Greece or Rome, with black hair that was messy in a different sort of way than Percy’s own, more shaggy in nature. His clothes were a bit strange, more old fashioned then they really should have been. His eyes were a dark sort of brown, like that of the earth itself, though they looked a bit golden as the light shone down upon them as he looked up at the older boy.

He looked far too young for the panic that was set within his eyes.

“Sorry,” the boy says once more, heat rising to his cheeks as he does, “I lost my sister around here somewhere and have been looking for her,” the boy explains, looking anywhere but Percy as he does.

Looking for the missing girl.

Percy nods, knowing what it is to be separated from one that you love all too well, and his had been by choice.

“I could help you,” the older of the two offers as he pushes himself to his feet, and holding out his hand to the other, “if you want me to.”

Light that Percy hadn’t known had ever been missing comes to the other boy’s eyes then as he nods and takes the offered hand.

“Nico,” the stranger says as he’s pulled to his feet.

“Percy,” the older of the two says in turn.

The world felt a bit like magic when Nico smiled then, bright and innocent in a way that Percy had never really gotten the chance to be.

A bit too much like magic.

Percy didn’t want it to, but something in the back of his mind screamed that something was wrong. He looked at the other boy’s clothes once more, noting more seriously now how old they seemed, before looking to the clothes of the others within the casino of the hotel and seeing more wild sorts of variations. He had an idea as to what was going on, but he knew that he had to make sure.

“What’s wrong?” Nico asks once he notices the other boy, Percy, becoming a bit more frantic in nature than he had been before. As if he were the one that was lost.

He doesn’t answer at all in the way that Nico would have expected.

“What year do you think that it is,” the older boy asks. 

And the question sounds insane to both of their ears, but Percy watches as Nico thinks for a while, as his face fills with frustration as he can’t answer even as he so clearly wants to. As if his memories were washed away. 

That in of itself was more telling than what he had originally been trying to find, even if in a completely different sort of way.

He looks at the kid then - lost within memories that he just didn’t seem to have, and within a timeless place where no new memories would ever matter - knowing well enough that Nico and his sister are likely demigods, though from who he doesn’t know, and makes a decision then that Percy knew might very well be damning for them all. 

“It’s fine,” Percy decides, even as they both clearly knew that it was anything but, “come on, let’s sit for a moment, yeah?”

And Nico only nods, letting Percy pull him by their still connected hands.

The pair sat down on the stone of a water fountain that was in the middle of the casino, the water making a calming sort of noise at their sides as they faced one another. Percy knew better than to truly believe that given what he now knows.

Nico watches the older boy for a moment as the other seems to be deciding something, or more as if he had already decided upon it he was just choosing the method to go about it. And maybe he should have cared more about that, but honestly he found himself missing the other’s touch more, as if he had not been held by anyone in years.

He didn’t know if that was true or not.

Everything about that ceases to matter though as he watches as Percy shifts towards the water, dragging a hand along its surface for just a moment before pulling away. 

The water follows though, even as it never actually touches the other boy’s skin.

Percy watches as Nico’s eyes go wide as the son of the sea wills for the water to float above his hand, ever shifting and changing from one impossible shape into another. Changing in ways that no science could ever explain.

“How-?” Nico asks, stunned in ways that would have been embarrassing had it been any other situation at all.

“I am the son of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon,” Percy explains, knowing that the words should have sounded insane, but had been truth to him for too long to do so, “a demigod child.” Nico doesn’t immediately scoff at the idea in the way that anyone sane might, the proof laid out so clear before his eyes that he never could. Percy knew from his own experience that accepting something so impossible was much easier when you had already seen it in earnest. “And I think that you are too.”

The last part though was what got the true reaction out of the younger boy.

“What?” Nico asked, his voice a bit startled at first, but his eyes going more than a bit star stuck only a moment later.

And Percy almost wished that he hadn’t said anything at all, because such light would never remain out in the world that Percy had come from.

(But living locked away was not living at all)

“There’s magic in this place,” Percy explains carefully, quietly so as to not be overheard. “It’s the sort that messes with both the mind and time, and yet you can resist it long enough to try and look for your sister instead of being lost in the games around you.”

To speak with me, he adds mentally.

The younger boy does as well.

“It’s why you have no memories of your life before now other than your sister, even though you should,” Percy continues, “there are rivers in the underworld that could do that with little issues.”

It made more and more sense as he talked.

He hated it.

Nico loved it.

(Percy knew then that he had never looked as bright)

“Woah,” the younger whispered, eyes filled with wonder.

Percy made a decision then that he hoped wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

“Trust me for a moment, will ya?” Percy asked, his lips carving into a smile that he hoped was more convincing than he felt. “I did say that I would help you find your sister, and this would be the best way how.”

The excitement in the younger boy’s eyes face just a bit as panic and apprehension return, as the magic of learning of a new world is replaced with the need to find someone lost. 

Percy knew that sort of shift well.

“Alright,” Nico agrees, his voice a bit accented in a way that Percy couldn’t quite place as he does so. 

Percy nods and pulls up the power from within himself that he wasn’t meant to have, not truly, as he slips his hand into a place that almost didn’t exist at all. 

Nico’s eyes go wide as he watches as Percy’s hand disappears in the air before him, the space shimmering like magic as he does. He had never seen something like this. Though, he had never seen a lot of things it seemed.

When Percy removed his hand from the Duat, he was holding a bottle of black ink in his hand that shimmered with a hint of something that almost looked like gold. 

“I’m going to do a small spell that my Dad and I came up with,” Percy explained as he opened up the small bottle that he had brought from home, the one that he had stored away in a world that so few could control. “It will help you to find your sister, and then once you have her, it will lead you to me, wherever I am on this earth, safely.”

“What is it?” Nico asks, watching as the ink in the bottle shifted as if it were the sea trapped and not ink at all.

“Answer this for me first,” Percy counters, “what’s your full name?”

“Nico di Angelo,” the younger of the two answers, knowing his name and little else.

Percy was glad that he knew at least that much.

The son of the sea nodded. “It will be a guardian angel then,” he answers as if it were that simple.

Maybe it was.

Percy focuses on the ink inside of the bottle, on lifting it from within, feeling the power of the sea running through the dark liquid, and the power of the place that he grew up in. Focuses on lifting just enough that he could do this once more if he needed.

(When)

“Hold out your hands,” Percy instructs of the boy, watching as he does so. 

Percy meets the other’s hand with his own as the ink from the bottle rises up to run along both their arms, staining the skin as it goes, drawing patterns on them both. They both watched as the dark trindles disappeared under each of their sleeves , going down their backs as well as it seeped into the skin everywhere that it touched. 

And then it was done. 

Percy turned his back to Nico then, lifting up the back of his shirt to show off the design that now rested upon each of their bodies. It was that of feathers that now danced across their skin, spreading from the upper middle of the back down to the wrists to make wings. 

Like that of an angel.

Nico knew without having to ask that the same design was on his own skin as well.

The younger of the pair raises his hand then to the other, running his fingers over the patterns there, drawing away quickly when the older boy shudders at the soft touch, thinking that he had done something wrong.

Percy only turns back to the other and smiles in a manner that he hopes is disarming, he didn’t know how to explain that there had only ever been three people in his life to have ever touched him so kindly, and that he had never expected for there to be a fourth.

So he didn’t explain at all.

“Whisper your sister’s name into the feathers on one of your arms,” the older of the two instructs, the request strange, but so had everything else about this encounter been.

Nico lifts his left arm without question. “Bianca,” he whispers, just quiet enough for himself to hear alone. 

The word had hardly slipped from his lips before the ink on his arm had seemed to shudder, rising up from the skin to form a small bird that settled itself in the boy’s palm. 

A crow.

(A symbol of death)

“And you said that it would bring me to you next?” Nico asked, just to make sure.

Percy nods. “No matter where I am,” he assures.

Nico smiles then, bright and innocent and everything that Percy could no longer be. He watches as the younger hesitates for a moment before leaning forwards and wrapping his arms around the son of the sea, hugging the older boy tightly. Percy hugs him back because what else could he do.

(He doesn’t admit, not even to himself, that he couldn’t really remember the last time that he had been hugged. His Dad was a lot of things, and hesitant was one of them when it came to such a thing. Too many flinches at too many sudden movements meant that Percy often had to be the one to reach out to the other, something that Percy never often let himself do)

He pulls away after a moment and guides Nico’s hand up with his own, letting the small crow fly free into the, the wings making their first unsteady movements of its life.

They both stand as they watch it fly just a bit higher, waiting for its owner to follow. 

 “I will see you soon,” Percy promises, somehow knowing that the other kid would never go if he didn’t, “I swear it on the River Styx.”

Something heavy settles within his chest at those words, but it was a kind sort of weight that almost felt like warmth after too long in the cold.

And he turns then, leaving before the other can say a thing, going the opposite direction of where the bird seemed to want to fly. If Nico said anything else, then he didn’t hear it, too busy looking for Annabeth and Grover so that he could drag the pair away before the magic dragged them all under once more.

He knew though, even then, that it wouldn’t be long before the di Angelos found him once more.

—-

Grover and Annabeth both eyed the new ink that was staining Percy’s skin as the taxi driver wove through the streets, each of them sure that it had not been there before. They glanced at one another, each wanting to ask the third of their group about it, but not wanting to be the one to actually do so.

In the end they never did.

—-

The pearls weighed heavy in Percy’s hand as he swam back up to the surface of the water, back to the peer. They were from his biological father, a man that had done nothing to raise him, leaving both him and his mother to the fate that they had been living until Amos and Julius had come along. 

He kinda wants to destroy them.

He kinda wants to keep them forever.

—-

As Charon steered the boat down the River Styx, there’s a part of Percy that wants to reach out and touch the water beneath him, as if it were calling out to him. As if he were meant to. The call of it is stronger than any of the other waters of the Underworld, though they are all still there whispering in the back of his mind. 

—-

When Grover falls from his feet, the shoes that Luke had given to him pulling the satyr towards the hole in the underworld that leads to Tartarus, Percy can’t help but curse himself for not thinking to do away with them earlier. 

Annabeth yelled to him to untie the things, the idea smart but near impossible as Grover was being dragged across the sand. 

The only thing that saved the half goat was the way in which the shoes had never fit on the other’s hooves. 

Percy looked at the bag that Annabeth was still wearing on her back, the one that spoke more and more of magic as they traveled through the Underworld, closer and closer still to the palace of the Greek god of the dead, and wondered if he should do something about it now that he had seen what the other gift from the enemy side had to offer.

In the end he decided to wait. After all, he had something of an idea of just what it might be hiding away.

—-

The palace of the Greek god of the dead was both nothing and everything that Percy had expected it to be. The walls were lined with pictures of death, from great slaughters and plagues to the peaceful sort of deaths that happened in one’s sleep, with a garden filled with plants that Percy was sure would never exist up within the mortal world (they were all the more beautiful for it).

There was a man waiting for them up upon the darker of the two thrones that stood within the throne room, the lonely sort of place that it was, the furies flying high above him like vultures circling prey. 

It doesn’t take the demigod boy any time at all to place the man before them, in more ways than one as the ichor running through the god’s veins called to him.

There was something in the pinch of his brows and the color of his eyes. In the shape of his face that was all too familiar to the boy that had just been speaking with someone holding the very same features only a few hours before.

Well, fuck.

Percy figured that he could use this at the end of the day if he had to.

“You are very brave to have come here, son of Poseidon,” Hades said in a way that didn’t sound like much of a compliment at all, even his voice reminiscent of the boy that Percy now shared a mark with, “or perhaps very foolish.”

“I don’t think that I’m foolish at all,” the son of the sea says, stepping in front of the other two and taking the lead once more. If anything he would say that he was the least foolish one there, but even Percy knew better than to say such a thing out loud. “After all, those two think that you stole the Master Bolt, but I know better than that.”

Grover and Annabeth look at the boy that they had been traveling with for many days now, supposed to hear such a thing. Percy had never said anything to either of them about this, about his sure doubt of what they had considered fact this whole time. 

They wondered just how many other secrets this stranger was keeping.

“And how is that?” Hades asks, looking down at the strange demigod before him, at the demigod that was like none of the others that he had met before, something that he was sure of even from only a few moments of speaking with the boy. 

He knows though, that the boy before him is speaking the truth of this, though he can’t help but think that it is likely because a thief would know best who had stolen what they had taken.

“Because you have nothing to gain from it,” Percy said, daring to take a step ever closer to the god before him. “The underworld will always continue to grow, that’s just the natural order of things, a war would just jam everything up.”

And Hades had to give it to the child of the sea, because he could hardly had ever said it better himself, every word perfectly true.

“But that doesn’t explain why your companion has the bolt now,” the god counters, pointing at the daughter of Athena and watching as panic fills her gaze as she pulled the bag from her shoulders and unzipped it, bright blue light washing across her face as grey eyes turned calculating.

“It does when we were given the bag by Ares and it had some sort of functionality to it that seemed to resemble the uses of the Duat,” Percy said with the voice of someone that knew far too much. 

Someone that had been raised to use knowledge as a weapon when blades would not suffice.

Hades' eyes flashed just for a moment with golden light as panic filled the god’s frame. Percy felt the pull of ichor all the more.

“How do you know this word?” The underworld god asked as the word around the, shifted just for a moment in a way that only the god of the dead and the son of the sea could see.

Percy only bares his neck more clearly in response, the hieroglyphic there clear for all to see, even as so few knew what it meant. 

“Why shouldn’t I strike you down right here for doing the things that you have done?” Hades asked the boy, no longer talking about the bolt, believing that Perseus had not stolen it because he was revealing a far more damning truth.

“Because your son bares my mark,” the godling said as he held up his arms before him so that the Greek deity could see the gold tinted ink that shined upon them, could feel the magic radiating off of them, “it will bring both your son and your daughter to me wherever it is that I am. The ink will ensure their safety in this endeavor, but only for so long as I live, and they will be lost to you long before you can find them again if you are to lick me away in somewhere that I cannot be found as well.”

Son…and daughter…. Hades thought, Nico and Bianca. Those that he had defied his king to protect.

Hades had never felt such dread at the hands of a mortal as he did now.

“How did you know?” The god asked as he looked down at the son of the sea.

At the son that was so much more.

“It wasn’t hard,” is all that the boy answers, much to the dismay of everyone else in the room, from the worried god, angered monsters, and the other two campers that were looking at him as if he were insane. (He ignored the hints of betrayal that he knew were there as well). “Like I said before, if I die then the protector dies as well,” he reminds the god, just to send the message across.

“And why should I trust in this protector at all?” Hades asks, never one to just give in. “You might be a child of the sea, but that is no guarantee if the legend that my brother's daughter has become is anything to go by.”

“You know, Poseidon's domain has always been a strange one to me,” Percy remarks as he walks ever closer to the throne and the god on it. “He’s the god of the sea, that’s fine, but he’s also the earthshaker," they watch as the boy flicks his wrist and the ground beneath them all beings to shake, the palace rumbling in ways that it never had before. “That’s your domain isn’t it?” the demigod boy asks. “The earth and its stones? 

“More than that, he is also the storm bringer,” they watch once more as the demigod opens his palm, holding it out before him as a small storm formed above it, a tiny hurricane with lighting sparkling off of it as if Percy had any right to wield it, “but lighting and the sky is Zeus's domain.”

And if those two actions are enough to worry the god of the dead, what comes next is far worse.

“Right now I can feel the rivers of the Underworld all but begging to be used by me,” the child says, something darker and more powerful seeping into his voice as he does, a sort of song that had been growing stronger and stronger still through the whole demonstration that Percy had been giving, “singing with the boredom of being slowly forgotten.” 

He looks to his companions next as he speaks, the words sending shivers through each of the bodies of those in the room, “I can feel the fluids running through their bodies,” he says as if that weren’t a horrific sort of thought. They supposed that it wasn’t when there was still more to come. “And the ichor signing in your veins as if begging me to drown you in it.”

They all see the boy slip into some sort of trance as he talks then of the golden blood, as if imagining doing just that. As if to do just that was something that he had wanted to do for a very long time now, but had been holding himself back from since the very first time that he came face to face with a god back at camp. 

“Trust me,” the boy instructs, a strange sort of light in his eyes as he does so, “the guardian is strong enough.”

“What is it that you want?” Hades asks, knowing somehow that he could do nothing else.

“Why have you been sending monsters after us?” Percy asks instead of answering at all, everything about him having reverted to a normal sort of seriousness and nothing of that broken power that had been there before.

“My helm was stolen as well,” the Greek god explains, still eyeing the boy warily. 

(His brother always did father such strange children, though this one seemed to be much different than the rest of the demigods that had walked the earth before as a child of the sea. Much closer to that of a monster.

(Or maybe that of a god))

“And you assumed that a twelve year old stole it, got it,” Percy remarks with much more imprudence than one would expect while in the home of the god of the underworld. “I swear on the River Styx that I neither took the bolt nor the helm,” the demigod says, and Hades nods as the boy continues to live. Percy turns to his companions next. “Is this proof enough that Hades didn’t steal it?”

They both nod yes, though their eyes are a bit harder than Percy would have liked.

He didn’t have time to deal with that right then though.

“I’ll retrieve your helm from the person that stole it,” Percy declares, “but when I do so you’ll owe me a favor.” 

And the demigods and satyr can tell that it looks as if the god is having to bit his tongue even as he nods. “Alright,” he agrees.

“Swear if on the River Styx,” Percy instructs, knowing better than to expect any god to just keep their simple word. He had read and heard far too many stories for that.

He does,

(Percy thinks that he looks almost impressed as he does so)

The three bring out the pearls that they had received early, crushing them beneath their feet. 

Hades lets them.

—-

They appear in the Santa Monica bay, with water surrounding them from all sides. Sometimes even Percy thought that the sea could be an annoying thing as he willed it to drag the three of them to the shore, forcing the water to keep them all dry as he does it. They may be pissed with him, but Percy didn’t want the other two sick either if he could help it.

He can see in their stances that both Grover and Annabeth have something to say about the events that had just occurred, but neither get the chance to do so as a god smiles at them from only a few feet down the sand.

“You have the helm, right?” Percy asks, cutting to the chase. 

There was no point in prolonging this affair anymore than they already had.

He guessed that Ares must have felt the same.

“And you lot have the bolt,” the war god remarked, sounding far too smug for any of their taste.

“Because you gave it to us!” Grover all but screams, his anger at having to go to the Underworld on a wild goose chase getting the better of him. 

The underground was never a fun sort of place for a creature nature. 

(Percy was going to get a stomping when they got back to camp if he got any say in it)

“How’d corpse breath like that?” Ares asks, laughing as he crosses his arms over his chest. 

“He’ll like it a lot more once I return the helm to him,” Percy says in a non answer.

Ares only laughs once more, all violent confidence that made the son of the sea god want to sigh. Sometimes he really hated how mortal’s perceptions of gods changed the things that should be true of them.

“And how will you do that?” The war god asks, a sharp sort of smirk on his lips as he does so.

It was a look that Percy was all too happy to meet.

“I’ll fight you for it,” the demigod boy declares with all the intention of someone that truly would do so. Of someone that was all too ready to do so. 

(Someone that had been itching to take control of things that he should have not right to for far too long)

Everyone looks at him like he’s crazy, including the god himself. 

“Come on, I think it’d be fun,” the demigod boy says, a strange sort of smile curving along his lips as he does. 

Annabeth and Grover recognize that look in Percy’s eyes and the tone of his voice right then. They had heard it one too many times - the last time being that last time that the boy had threatened a god - knew better than to be in the blast radius now that it looked as if he was actually going to go off. 

The sea was the safest place that they could be right then, so it was into the serf that they stepped.

“You’re crazy kid,” the war god said then, though there was a lot less humor in his voice than there had been any other times that the god had spoken with the son of the sea.

That’s how Percy knew that his next sentence would be true: 

“And you’re scared.”

“Watch it kid,” the god starts, “I could turn you into-”

“But you won’t,” Percy says, cutting the ancient being off before he could even properly get into his threat. “I can see it in your eyes, you want a good fight just as much as I do. And besides, killing me now would go against the order of that little voice on your head, wouldn’t it?” He asked, tapping a finger against his temple as he did. 

It made him look a bit crazed.

Percy found that he didn’t mind.

Ares found his anger only increasing in waves. “A war god does not take orders,” he all but snarled, as if it meant a thing.

“War is orders,” Percy reminds the other, stalking ever closer to the god just as he had done to the god of the dead. “Is decisions and tactics and maneuvers and orders given to soldiers.” Every section listed off is another step closer to the other. Is another amount of anger added to the other as well. “And you have turned yourself from a war god into a soldier of a king that isn't even yours.”

And if nothing that Percy had said before had dug beneath the god’s skin, that last line alone would have done it all on its own.

“You want to die so bad?” The war god asks in a way that was more anger than a question at all, as he removes his bat from across his shoulders. “Let’s fight then.”

And Percy smiles at that in a way that would have made nearly anyone else second guess their decision.

“Awesome,” the demigod whispers, more to himself than anyone else.

He never had liked bullies after all.

Annabeth and Grover watch from the water as Percy uncaps his sword in the same moment that Ares’ bay changes to that of a sword, the god raising it as if to strike.

Percy never gives him the chance to do so. 

Time seems to all but slow down as Percy gives into the damning sort of feeling in his chest that had been there ever since that piece within him had broken years ago and holds out his hand, feeling the ichor in the god’s body, running through it like blood would through a man. He balls his raised fist then and brings it back to his side as the god of war falls to the ground not of his own accord. 

The ground shakes beneath them all from the weight of it.

Percy walks calmly towards the god as gold begins to spill from the deity's eyes and nose as Ares made choking sort of noises that were far too human for the being before him. 

It was a heady sort of feeling, controlling the ichor as he was, almost like that of a drug that he had been craving for far too long. It made his mind slip farther and farther still into that inhuman sort of space.

“Should I stab you over and over again like Odysseus did to Poseidon?” Percy asked as he dragged his blade down the god’s face, watching as even more blood spilt than there had been before. That crazed sort of sound increased in his voice as he does. “Gods can’t die after all, I think that would be fun, don’t you?”

Someone was screaming behind him, but he didn’t listen this time.

He just didn’t care.

(Maybe should have, maybe then he would have seen the way in which Grover clutched at his pipes as Annabeth held her dagger within her hand as if there were two monsters before her rather than a demigod and a god. As if, if that number were to be reduced to only one monster, it wouldn't be Ares that held that title right then.

Maybe he would have seen the fear that would forever change how the two thought of the boy)

“The helm,” Percy all but demands of the god below him. 

It appears in the sand at the demigod's feet, and Percy leans down and grabs it as Ares opens his mouth to speak.

“Just what are you?” the god asked as Percy released his hold on him. 

When Ares looks up at the boy,Percy’s eyes look a bit more gold then they should then, like that of the blood spilling down the other's face, and Ares has his answer.

The war god wants to curse the boy, but there are some things that one should not do to a threat that you did not know, this, right now, was one of them. He chooses to slip into his true form instead and leaves in a flash of light, his pride wounded but not as much as it would have been if he were to have died then.

(Because something within him made him feel as if he could have)

Annabeth and Grover both scream for Percy to look away as golden light fills the beach around them all. Percy does, but there is a part of him that thought that he might be okay even if he did watch. 

It was a dangerous sort of thought.

When the furies appear before the three on the beach, Percy hands over the helm without ever having to be asked.

“Remind Hades that he owes me a favor,” the boy instructs before the three can leave.

The Kindly Ones nod. 

Percy ignores the way that they look as if something in them makes them want to bow before they flew up into the sky and disappeared.

“You're insane,” Annabeth tells the other demigod bluntly, but in her gaze that wasn't there before their trip to the Underworld, and wasn't there as strongly before the fight. 

Percy only smiles brightly then, like nothing just happened at all.

He was good at pretending like that.

—-

The Empire State Building was much less busy than Percy had expected it to be, given that it was summer and all, though he guessed that most groups must come with their classes during the school year. He wouldn’t know, he had never made it to a grade where that would have been a good idea, and even if he had, Percy knew that he likely never would have been allowed to go. Not with the behavioral marks that he already had against him at the age of seven alone. 

“I need an audience with Zeus,” Percy says as he reaches the front desk, watching as the man behind it puts down the book that he had been reading with a skeptical sort of gaze that changed to something much wider as he placed Annabeth’s bag on the table, opening it for the man to see the godly object within. “I don’t have an appointment.”

Needless to say, the man slid over the needed key with eyes much too wide.

—-

Percy hates how one of the first things that he notices about Olympus is how much of an inverse it was the Underworld. The structures were all set up the same, even as the beings that populated them were much different, but the color here was warm and pristine in nature where it had been dark and cold there. Day where it had been eternally night. 

Twelve thrones in a throne room, where before it had only been two.

They were the sort of differences that he was almost sad to notice, with just how lonely the Underworld had seemed.

(And with how much of a dick Zeus was)

As Percy bows before the king of the gods for longer than what truly felt necessary, Percy reminds himself that he was doing this for the man that had raised him and nothing else. That a war within one pantheon would likely mean nothing for the others, especially not the Egyptian one that was so used to following what has occurred on Earth in their own version of Olympus. 

“Stand boy, speak,” the king of the god commands after just a bit too long, his voice sounding of thunder and rain. 

And Percy does, telling a revised sort of tale of how they had found the bolt, how Ares had tricked them with it. He tells everything and also nothing at all, as he doesn't mention who the real thief was even though he had known for days now. (There were some matters that had to be handled personally). He ends the conversation by setting the bag down at the god's feet. 

“I sense that the truth is being told,” Zeus starts, though it looks a bit like it hurts him to do so, “but for Ares to do such a thing… it is very strange.”

“Because it wasn’t Ares’s idea,” the demigod proclaims boldly, but with all the surety of someone that knew far too much for their young age, “he was under the influence of another, of a being much older and stronger than the Olympians on their own.”

Percy knows exactly what he is implying then, and from their reactions, he knows that the gods do too. Though, what they will do with it is another question altogether.

Poseidon and Zeus look at one another then, skin going a bit pale, as they have a hurried conversation in Ancient Greek. Percy knows that they have come to the same conclusion that he has. How could anything else make them both look so scared?

“I will spare your life to maintain peace with Poseidon,” Zeus decides as he looks down upon the strange boy that seemed to whisper of far too much power for just how young he is, “but I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson.”

“I would expect nothing less,” the demigod answered, his voice slightly strange as he does so.

And the king of the gods almost looked impressed by that. 

Almost. 

Zeus leaves and then it’s just Poseidon and Percy left in the room, neither really knowing what to do with the other. 

"You disappeared from my gaze for some time,” Poseidon says as he looks down at his son, a boy that he had never met before now.

(A child that he had always wanted to know)

“I was safe,” the demigod says then, his voice so devoid of emotion that one would think that he was talking to a stranger.

(And he was, wasn’t he?)

‘I’m sure you were…” the sea god assured, because he knew that there was no way that the boy could have lived so long if he had not been, “you don’t care for me much, do you?”

Percy never thought that he would hear a god being so self conscious as the one before him was being now.

What a day.

“I don’t know you,” Percy says bluntly, his voice spelling out how little he truly wanted to, “but that is a pretty common theme among the children of the gods.”

And Poseidon wanted to sigh, because it very much was and right now it was spelling out to be more trouble than it was worth.

“I suppose that it is,” the god agrees aloud, and Percy watched then as the deity before him stops as if he were considering not speaking whatever words were about to come out of his mouth next. “Your powers, Perseus…”

Those words make the demigod’s heart all but stop as panic grips at it.

“I know,” he says hurriedly before Poseidon could tell too much in a place where far too many could overhear. “I’ve known for some time now.”

And he had, hadn't he? Had known ever since he felt that first crack in his chest when he had been training when he was only ten. A crack that he had pushed much too far that same day because he hadn’t known what it had meant until much too late.

(Until his blood had become tinted with the shimmer of his gold)

“I would have expected more change from your… condition by now, but…” the god starts, trailing off as he does so, not quite knowing what to say despite the thousands of years at his back.

“But it’s almost as if the fates themselves are holding it back?” Percy guesses in a way that wasn’t much of a guess at all. 

It was only the truth.

“Yes, indeed,” the sea god agrees, sounding almost sad as he does so.

“I’m aware.”

And that was all that the demigod had to say.

“I am sorry that you were born, child,” the god says, knowing that his words were cruel but true. “I have brought you a hero’s fate, and it is never a kind one. Never anything but tragic.”

And Percy knew that without ever having to be told, his name was chosen for him because it was one of the few heroes to ever get a kind sort of ending after all. 

(He knew that he was a mistake without never having to be told as well)

“But know,” Poseidon continues when he sees that sad sort of glint enter the boy’s eyes, a sort of shine that he didn’t know if even Perseus knew was there, “that no matter what you do next, you are a son of the sea.”

And the god would never be quite sure what he had been expecting for the boy to say in return to this, but he knew that it was never what he did.

“I am the son of many things,” Percy says as he turns to walk away without being dismissed.

The sea god lets him.

—-

The summer air is pleasant as Percy and Luke walk away from the festivities of a successful quest, the sky bright with stars that Percy never got to see living as deep into the city as he did. He could tell that the older demigod was nervous, the traitor feeling wrong footed with not having been sold out from the start, with the way that Percy was much too calm. 

"You didn't turn me in,” Luke says after the silence had eaten away at him for much too long. 

“No I didn't," Percy agrees, neither his body language nor his tone of voice giving anything away. 

Luke didn’t understand how a child could be like this. 

“Why?” He asks when it seems that the boy was going to say nothing more unless prompted to do so.

“Because I know that you are going to make a move of your own soon, aren’t you?” The younger of the pair asked, turning finally to look at the older. The eyes of the child of the sea were shining in a way that was almost unsettling, far more so than it had a right to be. 

Not for the first time Luke wondered just where this boy had come from.

“Tonight,” the son of Hermes answers, knowing somehow that lying would be useless.

“Which is why you brought me out here,” the younger guesses in a way that wasn’t one at all as he looked at the trees around them, trailing his hand over the wood, and feeling the water within. “If you’re going to try and kill me, it's going to take a bit more than a sword,” he advises, knowing that the other would never have come out here without some sort of blade.

“I’m not aiming to kill you,” the son of the god of thieves quickly assures, even as he somehow feels that he didn’t really need to, but he stops walking and does so anyways. “I want to recruit you”

“For…him,” Percy guesses as he stops walking as well, facing the other as he speaks. 

They were in the clearing that they had used to train when the rest of the camp had turned on Percy once they knew of his godly father. A sentiment that didn’t seem to last now that he could see the fireworks up in the sky.

How mortal.

“…Yes,” the older demigod confirms.

Neither of them needed to say the name of the being to know just who it was.

“…you know ways out of camp right?” Percy asks then, shifting the topic just to the side. “Ways to go nearly anywhere else?”

“I do…” Luke confirms, not entirely sure where the other was going with this, why he wasn’t giving any sort of firm answer one way or the other.

“I want you to take me somewhere,” Percy declares, saying nearly the last thing that Luke would have expected to hear.

“And where would that be?” The older camper asks, the whole conversation so absurd in nature that it had almost slipped right back around to amusing.

“An apartment in Manhattan,” the younger of the pair says simply, as if it were a normal request.

“…alright,” Luke agrees, far too curious to do anything else at this point.

A sword appears in the blonde’s hand then, each side of the blade glinting a bit different in the light of the moon. Percy knew without having to be told that it was dangerous in more ways than one. Such a thought was only confirmed when the teen slashed into the air and ripped the world before them in two. 

“After you,” the teen said, and Percy nodded as he slipped through the rip in the fabric of space and time.

—-

Manhattan was loud as they stepped out into it, the city lights making everything much brighter than it had been only a few moments before. The streets were foreign to one of them, but the other still remembered them far better than he liked to.

At least it made getting where he wanted to go easy enough.

“Where are we?” Luke asked as they claimed a fire escape, watching as the boy above him skillfully avoided each of the loud spots that would have creaked and squealed beneath them had they put any weight on them.

“The place where my step father lives,” Percy answers in a way that only brought more questions. 

“Why are we here?” The teen asks, not liking the feeling of going in blind.

“To kill him.”

And Luke knows better than to think that such words are a lie.

He wants to ask more, but doesn’t when he sees the younger boy pull out a set of lock picks, messing with the window that they had stopped before with them until it opened. 

He looked as if he had done this too many times before. In another life at least.

The room that they crawled into was covered all over, beer bottles strewn about with bags of trash to accompany them, most open and spilling out their contents from within. 

It was a disgusting way to live.

Percy remembered it all too well.

The son of the sea walked through the room with too silent steps, his body remembering just how good of an idea sound ever was within the walls of the apartment. It was a futile sort of thing though as the man of the hour saw them both the moment that they stepped out into the living room where Gabe was sitting in his chair watching tv, a beer in hand.

“Who the hell are ya?” The man yelled as he sprung to his feet with his nearly nonexistent speed, every movement taking far too long. “How did you get in here?”

“Come on,” Percy pushes, “think for me for a moment, won’t ya?”

Luke watched from the side as the large man’s eyes went wide with recognition after a moment, something ugly crossing over his face. 

“You,” Gabe all but snarled as he stalked closer, grabbing Percy by the front of shirt and paying Luke no mind at all, “Sally left me after your good for nothing ass ran away, did ya know that?”

“Pity,” the boy said coldly.

It only made the man hold the boy tighter.

Luke glanced at Percy and his stepfather, his blade coming to his hand so that he could step in, but the younger demigod only shook his head no. He didn’t like it, but the son of Hermes listened and watched instead as the hand at Percy’s side seemed to disappear from the world around them. 

When it returned there was a severed head in the boy’s hand.

Percy looks at the mortal that he had once feared, laughing in the man’s face in a way that he knew always caused Gabe to throw him away so that he would fall to the ground. Percy didn’t fall this time though, merely stumbling nasty he raised his hand and the monster before him turned to stone. 

Percy laughed at the sight, taking far too much joy in it than he knew that he should, but there was something just so cathartic about the sight before him.

He kinda wanted to do it again.

He let the head slip from his hand and back into the Duat before he could, disappearing just as suddenly as it had come.

Luke only watches, when they had walked into the woods earlier he had thought that if anyone was going to kill someone that day then it would be him.

Percy says nothing to the other as he walks off then, searching the kitchen for something that he knew would be there, and grinning like some sort of mad man when he finally found it. 

The sledge hammer was a nice sort of weight in the boy’s hands as he walked across the kitchen once more, twisting the tool in his hand as he stopped right before the stone statue of a man that he had hated for so long. He wasn’t sure if the soul was trapped in the statue once someone looked into Medusa’s eyes, or if they passed on. He found that really didn’t care to find out either way when it came down to it. 

(Maybe he did care, maybe he wanted the monster to have to helplessly watch as Percy raised the hammer then, high above them both and slammed it straight into the stone head. Maybe he hoped that it would cause the bastard pain, that he would have to feel it as his stone body fell to the ground in pieces.)

“He used to hit me and my mom,” Percy says as he drops the hammer at his side, his back to Luke as he speaks (as he kills). It was because of this that he didn’t see the way in which the teen twitched, having already figured this out on the first day. “She only married him because of me. To keep me safe from the monsters. But what use is it to keep me safe from the mythical ones when there was just another one at home?”

And Luke really had no answer for that, after all he, Thalia, and Annabeth had all run for very similar reasons as well.

“She divorced him after you left?” He asked instead, thinking of what the now dead man had said. 

He honestly didn’t really expect Percy to know much. He was wrong.

“Yeah, went back to school too, met someone there,” the boy answers before he turns to look at Luke, something a bit too broken in his gaze, in his voice as he speaks, “I have a little sister that I’ll never get to meet.”

“Join me,” the teen said, “the gods are cruel if this is the world that they have created.”

And the sad thing was, he was right. The gods were cruel to have created such a system as this where safety came at costs. 

But still…

“History repeats itself in our world, you know that as well as I do,” Percy said, moving to the wall and leaning against it as he spoke, twisting his pen through his fingers. “The monsters come back and demigods complete the same feats that have already been completed once before. That’s the way of this world.” And it was, each of them were proof of that, Percy even more so as he has done some of the same exact things as his namesake. “The gods won the first time around, why would this time be any different?” He asks, picking at the fears that he knew were stirring within the other’s chest. “And even if it was, you cannot seriously think that a titan that ate his own children would give a damn about the world anymore than the gods beyond terrifying it more than the gods ever did.”

And in that moment Luke hated the boy before him, hated him for spelling out all of the things that he had never wanted to think about when it came to all of this. All of the things that existed beyond his hate. 

“Then what would you expect me to do, Percy?” The teen all but yelled, frustration and shame that it was far too late to be feeling welling up within his chest. 

“We save each other,” Percy says as if it were such a simple thing to do.

“What?” Luke asked, because what else was there for him to say to such a bold claim?

“The only reason that I am on the side that fights for the gods right now, is because you already exist,” Percy said, knowing that the words were true even as he had never dared think them before then. “Had I been born first, I know that I would be you, just as bitter and driven for change in all the wrong ways. We are two sides of the same coin after all.”

The way that the stone crumbled at his feet really shows just how true that was.

“So,” Percy continued, “we make sure that we both live to see the world after the war.”

“How?” The teen asked, not knowing how such a thing could be done.

“We play our parts for now,” the son of the sea starts, the plan that had been forming in his mind for days now coming to light, “but it’s each other that we side with. The demigods. When the gods win, we use that win to force change. Change that we can hold them to.”

Change with consequences attached for if it is not upheld.

“You sound so sure, but you haven’t even heard the prophecy,” Luke says, more to himself than to the other.

“We were made for this,” Percy reminds him, having known that he himself was ever since he broke his soul when he was ten. “How could I ever be anything but sure?”

And Luke knew then that he must be an even bigger fool than he thought, because all he says is, “…alright.”

“Hold out your hand then,” the boy instructs, everything about him seeming far older than he should for someone so young. 

Luke does, watching once more as Percy’s hand disappears into a space that didn’t seem to exist at all, appearing once more with more than what it had held before, though instead of holding a monster’s head this time he held a bottle in his hand. It barely had any ink in it at all, but what was in there was black and stained with gold. It only took him a moment to place it as the same ink that stained the boy’s neck with a foreign symbol and his arms with what looked to be a bird’s feathers. 

 “What are you going to do with that?” He asks, knowing that there must be more to it than just a tattoo made by magic.

“Give you a way to find me when the time comes that you need to,” Percy answered in a way that wasn’t an answer at all.

It was all that he needed to know.

“You think I will?” Luke asked, though he knew that it wasn’t really a question, not for either of them.

Percy answers it still.

“I know you will.”

(He doesn’t tell him though that it will only have one use, and that it won’t work at all if done with ill intentions. That was a precautionary measure that he would hide away in the shape of it all)

The ink rises from the bottle as soon as their hands touch, rising up to each of their throats and settling there in the shape of a star. Luke’s was filled with ink while Percy’s was the outline alone. 

(It was the first time that they had not been the same, but it was almost the first time that an enemy had been marked.)

“Back to camp, please.”

—-

Luke Castellan leaves Camp that night as the moon was high in the sky and Percy laid awake in his cabin alone, the newest of the marks on his skin burning in a sort of manner that he knew was all in his own mind and nothing else. 

The son of Hermes didn’t leave a note, not to anyone in the Camp. Not to the boy that he had befriended. Not to the girl that he called a sister. Not even to those that he shared blood with. Those that he had led for years by that point. He just quietly disappeared into the night as if he had never been there at all.  

Though no one said it out loud, everyone knew why. Or at least they thought that they did.

Who couldn’t guess the reason behind it all when the timing had been what it was?

Percy knew just how much those at Camp were both wrong and right all at once.

He said nothing of it though, just could sometimes be seen with a hand hovering over the base of his neck where a new design had appeared when no one had been looking. 

Luke had left long before anyone had gotten the chance to see the complementing one on his own skin. 

Somehow Percy knew that it would be a long time before anyone ever would.

—- 

“So it looks like the council approved you after all.”

Grover turned from his spot by Thalia's tree as two figures walked up the hill to meet him there, one with dark skin and hair that shined like gold in the sun, and the other with sun tanned skin and eyes that roared of the deadliest of seas. 

It was the second of them that had spoken.

“All thanks to you and your quest,” Grover admitted as he scratched the back of his neck, feeling a bit of the lingering shame of not having been much help at all during those long days. 

It was worth it though to be allowed to go and search for Pan.

“You almost didn’t go,” Annabeth reminded him, smiling that brave sort of smile that hid too much beneath. Grover knew why it was there and hated to have been the one to place it there at all. 

No satyr has ever made it back alive from their search. 

“Yeah well, that was the me of a few weeks ago,” Grover says, knowing just what a difference such a short amount of time could make. After all, two months ago he never would have thought that there would ever be a demigod that could bring a god to his knees with little more than a thought, and yet the proof stood before him now. “He didn’t know what he was talking about.”

(He had also been the Grover that had trusted Luke more than nearly anyone else in the world. What a fool they had all been.)

“Just… come back to us, won’t you?” Annabeth asked, a raw moment of vulnerability. After all, Grover was the last person that she had from back then, and that fact was ever more apparent when they were standing next to the corpse of one of the others that she had lost.

“You got it,” Grover said the words like a promise. 

(it was one that he would not be able to keep)

—-

The di Angelos show up during the last week of the summer. The ink on Nico’s skin matching the ink on Percy’s so much so that no one is surprised when the boy immediately runs to Percy first, dragging his sister with him rather than letting anyone come to them, a bird made of ink settling into the boy’s skin as he does.

For a son of Hades, Nico smiled as bright as the son itself when he finally made it down the hill and stopped before Percy with stars in his eyes.

“Bianca, this is the boy that I told you about,” the younger boy said, his voice filled with enough excitement that it made his sister sigh.

Percy turned and looked at the girl, finding that she looked to be a bit older than Nico, likely closer to his own age, though probably still younger since his own birthday was so soon. 

“Hi,” Percy said, already expecting the suspicion that shone through in the eyes of the daughter of Hades as she looked at him. One didn’t have one's little brother drag them all the way across the country on the word of a stranger without such being the case. 

“Hello,” the girl said with a bit of chill.

Percy liked her already.

They don't get to say anything more to one another though before the sound of hooves strikes against the earth. 

“Hello,” Chiron greets as he looks down at the strange three, “and just who might you two be?”

The question was posed towards the siblings, but it is Percy that answers the centaur.

“They are Nico and Bianca di Angelo,” the son of Poseidon says, drawing the ancient being’s eyes to him once more as he does, “and I will be taking responsibility for them, as I promised their godly father that I would when I went to see him during my quest.”

It's a bit of a lie, but truth enough at the end of it all. 

Nico smiles as if such a thing makes him happy, as Bianca’s eyes go a bit wide at the last piece of information. Chiron's does as well. 

And Percy can tell the moment that the centaur puts it together, can tell from the way that the half man half horse goes pale, searching the faces before him as if to see all the same similarities that Percy had. He did.

“Alright,” Chiron decides before turning his attention to the siblings, “welcome to Camp Half - Blood”

“Tell me about the journey here, yeah?” Percy asked as he looked down at the other boy, wanting to make sure that both of the siblings were fine. 

Nico smiles brightly and talks of a bird made of ink that slayed every monster, and helped them sneak onto buses and stuff by concealing them from sight.

Bianca looks at him with a complicated sort of expression as the son of the sea god leads them to his own cabin knowing that cabin eleven shouldn't be made to take two more demigods after their consular had just left them, but Percy figures they’ll have a while to work through that. After all, the three of them were stuck together now. 

Though his plan does change part way there as he realizes that it had likely been a while since either of the siblings had gotten to exist freely in a world outside video games. 

“I was actually just about to go canoeing before you two showed up,” Percy says, lying through his teeth. “I could use two others if you guys want to join.”

This time it isn't just Nico that lights up at the idea. 

And when Nico tries to splash them both with water, it's not Percy's fault that the boat turns upside down and Percy is the only one to remain dry.

—-

It’s the last day of summer when the beads for the year are passed out to those that were there to see it. A hand painted bead on a chord that was meant to represent the most important thing that occurred that year. 

The bead was painted as black as the sky on a moonless night, with sea green trident in the middle of it. 

It was a bead meant for him. 

When Percy tied the chord around his neck, he found that the new addition rested perfectly over the star at the base of his throat, right in the middle of it.

He tried not to think of that too hard, instead he watches as Nico messes with the bead at the base of his own throat in the way that one would with a ring around a finger. Percy wonders if he can find the other one to use instead so that he doesn’t worry the paint off before the next summer ever came.

—-

The three demigods walk down the Half Blood - Hill, not one of them bothering to look back at the crest of it, to find Amos waiting for them at the base of it with a raised brow at the sight of two more children than he was expecting to find. 

“I’ll explain at home” Percy says as he moves to the front of the car, his eyes looking more alive than they had in a while, something about him settled. 

Amos only sighs and motions for the other two children to get in the backseats as he takes their bags to the trunk. 

“So, by the way, the Greek gods are not the only gods that are real,” the magician hears his son saying from within the car, followed by one door closing with a bit too much force and a trunk that follows suit. 

Percy can't help but smile at the way that Nico's eyes light up at his words, Bianca only looking tired but undeniably intrigued by them as well.

Amos looked at the three and sighed as he got into the car. He had been the one that wanted Percy to make friends his own age, he just guessed that he was bringing them home now. 

Chapter Text

Amos sighed as the woods around him shook for the third time in only ten minutes. He didn't even have to look up from his book to know the cause of it anymore, there wouldn't be a point when dealing with three children of the big three, all of which that can manipulate the earth beneath their feet.

When Percy had first shown up at the bottom of the hill with two other children by his sides, he had not quite known what to think of the situation, but it wasn't as if they didn’t have the room with Amos and Percy being the only ones living at Brooklyn House at the moment.

So, he let it be, because the only other alternative was to leave the pair behind and he didn't think that he could forgive himself for that after seeing the lost look in their eyes. He didn't think that Percy would forgive him for it either.

He had never seen his son become so quickly attached to another. It was to the point that he hadn't been surprised to see the matching ink on each of their skin.

(Percy refused though, to tell him the owner of the star at his throat. And wasn't that something in of itself?)

Amos sighed and flipped the page in his book as the earth beneath the four of them continued to rumble as the three children trained in the slowly heating spring air. It wouldn't be long before it was time to send them back to camp once more, and the three seemed to have taken this as a challenge to see just how much they could train before then.

It wasn’t a bad sort of thought.

Amos knew that the Greek demigods were supposed to spend their days at camp training, and the months away from the safe haven using the skills that they had leaned to survive the world in which the monsters lived in. It was the same, after all, with magicians in and outside of the Nomes. But, last summer Percy had only been there a week before being sent away on a quest, a trend that Amos wasn't sure was going to change this time around.

So, the three trained during the year harder than they would ever have to during the summer so that they just might survive it.

Because even if Amos wanted to keep Percy close (and the children of Hades as well he supposed, as they were the son of the sea god's self appointed responsibility) he did have to send them back. That was just how this world of theirs worked. Now that the gods knew of the three as current players, they could no linger hide. At least he would be sending them back as a well oiled team he supposed.

It's after a particularly strong shake of the ground that Amos finally does look up from his book once more, and sees Percy with the earth floating around him from the earthquake that he had created as Bianca controls the skeletons before her (animals, it would be concerning after all if they found human bones in the middle of the woods) while Nico covered the three of them with his shadows and used them to deploy the skeletons to separate parts of the forest as well. If the three of them were in any sort of legal system anymore (because every system that they may have once been in now thought that they were dead) Amos thinks that he might have counted this as P.E. Class.

He just knows that they're going to give someone at that camp a heart attack.

"Time to go home," he called out to the three, watching as each of the dark heads of hair turned to him, all three looking at him with gazes much too powerful for how young they were.

Percy was only thirteen. Bianca was as well, though a bit younger than the son of the sea from what they could tell. And, Nico was only eleven. There was so much power between them that Amos knew that Olympus would seek to kill them for it if they knew the true extent of it all.

He hoped that they would only realize when it was much too late.

The three walk over to him with those smiles on their lips from the rush that fighting brings them, the way that it satisfies something deep and ancient in each of their bones. He understood the feeling, it was the same one that he got when he weaved magic around himself as if he could still imagine what it would be like to be led by a god as he was doing so.

(He couldn't though, after all, the magicians and their patrons weren't exactly on speaking terms at the moment. It was a separation that was even worse than the division between the Greek deities and their children)

The four walk to a nearby Nome, slipping through the door that they had been given access to and using the portals there to get to the House of Life so that they could take a separate portal back to Brooklyn House. It was a roundabout way of doing things, one with far too many steps to it, but the three demigods wouldn't really get any good practice for their skills in Brooklyn or New York, so portaging to the country side it was, where they could be as destructive as they liked and no one would be around to say a thing.

He couldn't say that it wasn't a relief though to be back within familiar walls.

The way that they spend their days had changed from the previous year, with the two new demigods being added to them. Instead of Percy being by his side for most of his studies and free time, the teen spent a lot of the time teaching the other two about the world that they now found themselves in because of him. It was hard to say what time precisely the pair had been from before being brought into the hotel, but it didn't really matter when they didn't have any memories of it. So, Percy would learn the things that he needed to know now that he was thirteen and supposed to be in the seventh grade, and then he would teach the other two the things that they needed to know as a roughly seventh and fifth grader. Amos would do it himself, gods knows that he has practice in doing so, but Percy was insistent on being the one to do it.

Sometimes Amos wondered if such care was born from guilt or love.

(He figured that it was both)

The most that the magician found himself doing was supervising training sessions between the three. The other two weren't quite as strong as Percy was, nor would they ever be if Amos and Percy had anything to say about it as there was a price to such power, but they were as eager and quick with learning as Percy himself had been when he was younger. There were reasons, Amos supposed, that it was the children of the big three that the Greek prophecy wanted and not just any demigod that was strong.

There was something just so ancient about the powers that they wielded, something that Amos sometimes found himself thinking that it felt older than the gods themselves as Percy twisted storms between his fingers as if it were something that he was meant to be able to do.

He just hoped that they would all be strong enough to weather the storm until the end of it all.

It was the time after training that both changed and remained the same the most.

The three kids crowded in his office like Percy always has since he was young, as they read through different things. Bianca, he had found, liked to read the classics in a way that Percy never had. Percy read them in the ways in which one would read files on an adversary that they had yet to meet in person, they were blueprints to another's downfall, something violent and twisted. Bianca read them like stories, like tales that she could find joy in. He knows that Percy wishes that she wouldn't, that she would see them for the cruelty that they hold (because he knows that Jo matter the world or life, that Percy always would have done so) but he doesn't force her to do this. He wants to let her have something kind in a world that wanted the three of them dead for simply breathing at all.

As the girl reads through the old stories from the different Pantheons, Percy would still lay on the floor as she sits near him, a comic before him as he read through it. Tales of heroes and vigilantes that were born just a bit too late, a time when nearly everything that could be done already was. Where the team was a second of their title, or a third, or am original in the ways that mattered but unwanted. An abomination. Yet, even as almost all of the major feats have already been completed, they still fought on. Amos knows that his son sees himself in those pages, a demigod born much too late for anything that he accomplished to mean a thing since it has already been done time and time again. It's a cruel fate for someone with so much divinity to be born so late.

Nico was different than each of them, switching between the classical stories, Spider-Man comics, and modern works of fiction, with the indecision of someone that would much rather be playing a game or something of the like but hadn't yet found one that he actually had it in himself to like after so long spent in a casino. Bianca was trying to get the kid into maybe art or something of the like, but Percy and Amos both had seen the kid eyeing what had looked to be a more god centered version of D&D when they had been at the comic shop the last time. Amos knew that it wouldn't be long before they had Saturday game nights or something of the like.

He was right in that assumption, they came two weeks later after Nico had found a used rule book for the game at the book store. Magic card games without the actual magic it was.

Amos wanted to be exasperated with his son for bringing home two other children for nine of the twelve months out of the year, but he really couldn't at the end of the day when he found the three asleep in one their rooms with books and ink and polished weapons strewn about them. They were still much too young to have to be dealing with the things that they were, and yet this was the hand that they were dealt. He couldn't blame his son for wanting give two other demigods the chance at living once more after being locked away like jewels to be brought out at the right time. Loved by their father, but distant.

Besides, he had been the one to send Percy to camp with the idea of making friends. He couldn't fault him for doing just that.

At least Khufu liked having more players for basketball.

—-

"You three sure that you want to go back to camp this summer?" Amos asks as he watched as the three children scurried between each of their rooms, grabbing their belongings from where they had left them in each other's spaces. He was pretty sure that he already knew the answer that he would get, but he had to ask anyways.

Bianca wouldn't mind staying at the Nome year around,but she knew that she was going where Nico went and she knew that Nico went where Percy went. The relationship between them was still one that she was trying to figure out, but she knew from the training that they had done alone that the pair trusted each other with their lives. They wouldn't have ever left the hotel if Nico hadn't trusted Percy with their lives from the start even back when he had no reason to do so.

She knows that it had started out as some hero worship sort of thing, Percy walking into Nico's life and possessing magic that her brother had never thought possible, and showing him a world that should only exist in stories. But hero worship slips away pretty fast when one has to live with the subject of it. Still, the pair were thick as thieves in the way that they were with the other, in a way that went beyond the responsible and the responsibility as she had privately thought would have been her own connection to her brother had they left the hotel on their own time. They chose to stay by each other's sides and somehow that made the bond between them and between her different.

It made her feel less selfish when she thought of creating a life for herself outside of caring for her little brother.

(It was something that she thought of much too often as the days went on)

She honestly was kind of excited to go to camp and make friends of her own that would go to the same lengths for her that Percy had for Nico, even when they had only just met.

She glanced at Percy and wasn't surprised that he wasn't looking at her, but instead at his father.

The relationship between her and the son of the sea god had started out tense. She hadn't trusted the other demigod, hadn't trusted that he'd had good intentions saving them from the hotel or that he had truly been telling the truth about this world of theirs. Overtime she had come to trust him more, but she didn't think that she would ever see him as an older brother, or him see her or Nico as siblings either. Just as Amos didn't really see them as his children despite being the one putting a roof over their heads.

They were just his son's friends, even if she knew that he had a soft spot for the three of them. He was a busy man after all, and yet he still made time for all three of them, not just Percy alone and whoever happened to be around at the time. He got her instructors in archery when she had expressed a slight interest in the weapon, and had started looking into what metals would be best for a child of the god of the dead to wield when Nico had decided on a sword like Percy mainly used. Bianca didn't know where he found the black metal that Nico now wields, and she wasn't sure that she really wanted to. But all three of them had smiled at the way that the youngest of them had lit up with joy at receiving it. Amos Kane acted more like an Uncle to them than anything.

So, she watched her friend and knew that the decision laid with him.

"I want to go back to camp," Percy says honestly, something a bit longing in his tone as he speaks of a lands as close to ancient as he would likely ever get to see out inside of Egypt, which the wrong sort of it. "I want to go back and make sure that Grover is still alive after his first full year of searching for Pan."

They can all hear the genuine concern in the teen's voice as he speaks.

The decision is made.

Amos nods as if he had been expecting nothing else.

—-

The world outside of the window becomes more and more rural as the minutes press on, the sun shining down as if it was never meant to do anything else other than keep them warm in the early summer days. It was such a stark contrast to the last time that they had made the drive to camp, shrouded in storms as it had been. The car is silent other than the music on the radio, but that's fine. There wasn't always something to say when you spent so much of your time together.

He just hoped that he was making the right choice for them all with this.

The car comes to a stop at the bottom of the Hill once more, though this time as he looks up at it, it feels as if the camp on the other side of the hill and the tree that protects it means more than it had this time the year before. He knew that it was because this time he actually knew the people on the other side, they were more than just figures in his head when he thought of the camp that he would one day go to. They were real, and he had fought to protect them and his mortal Dad both last summer. There was something that sang in his bones, his soul, as he thought and remembered that fact.

"Don't do anything stupid that might get you killed," Amos says as the children piles out of the car, bags across their backs and weapons on their persons' as if they were ready for war.

They all know that it's wishful thinking. They nod and smile in agreement regardless.

The three walk up the hill in their camp shirts from the summer before, the trident beads hanging from their necks, and just like last year Amos watches as they go and doesn't leave until they reach the top of the hill.

Though there was something different this time that the magician didn't stick around long enough to know.

The three stop at the tree again as Percy had before when he had first come to camp, though this time it's at Nico's instance as he grabs one of each of their wrists to get their attention. He didn't need to, their feet were already rooted in place.

"The tree feels like rot and death in a way that it hadn't the last time that we were here," the youngest of the three says.

It was almost a mute point to say it at all.

They could all see the physical manifestation of it, the rot, the yellow of the pine needles that were still alive, the collection of dead ones on the ground, and the toxic sort of green sap that was leaking from a puncture wound at the center of the tree. It was like watch a corpse decay.

(That thought was more accurate of a thing than any of them would have liked it to be)

"It's not just the weather," Bianca says, knowing that she's right as she walks forwards to lay a hand against the bark of the tree as Percy looks to the barrier that surrounds the camp, as he can feel how much weaker the magic had become in only a little under a year since they had been there.

Bianca never does make it to touch the tree.

"Stop!" A new voice yells out before she can touch the tree or its sap. It's a voice that they all knew better than most of them would have liked.

Clarisse.

The three turn and look to see the girl with nine other campers, all dressed in full armor with weapons at their sides. Percy knew that it was far too early in the day for capture the flag, and even if it wasn't, most of them look fresh out of the infirmary, some still nibbling on ambrosia as they walked. It wasn't the sort of sight that was seen within the safe walls of camp.

"What's wrong with the tree?" Nico asked, his concern overriding any manners that Bianca and Amos had instilled in him. (Gods know that Percy didn't add any) "It feels like it's dying."

Clarisse looks like she doesn't want to answer, never wanted to comply in any way when it came to Percy or those that he considered to be his, but after a moment she let out a tried sort of sigh that told the son of the sea all that he needed to know about how dire the situation had become.

"Thalia's tree is dying, kid," the daughter of Ares says as she looks at Nico, before turning her gaze to Percy. He found it to be more hollow than he ever would have thought. "It's been poisoned."

Percy wishes that he could say that this was a surprise, but he could feel the whispers of the toxin from where he stood, could see its effects even clearer than that.

Percy knows who it was without anyone ever having to say it.

(He didn't think that anyone would have done so, that actions of last summer being a wound upon the camp that had yet to close.)

He walks towards the tree, ignoring the sound from the daughter of Ares as he does so, and crouches down before it, letting his senses spread as he sets a hand upon its roots. He can feel the poison within nearly every inch of the tree, all of the water and bark tainted by it. Maybe if he had thought to look for it at the end of last summer, he could have fixed it, but it was too far interwoven now for his interference to do anything other than potentially spear the decay on more than it already was.

He rises to his feet a moment, and sees everyone looking at him, Nico with an open sort of hope in his eyes and Clarisse with the hidden sort of it. He shakes his head at them both, and sees far more than one set of shoulders drop in defeat.

"I'm not sure how much even a deity like Apollo, with his healing, or Pan with his wildlife, would be able to help right now," he admits.

He didn't even know how much the pair of them working in tandem would have been able to do in their prime. Sometimes cases were just much too far gone for anything other than a miracle.

Clarisse sighs as if she had been expecting just that.

"You should go and talk to Chiron before he leaves," the daughter of Ares suggests as she tears her gaze away from the tree and the soul within that had protected them for years. She sounds a lot more tired than Percy had ever heard the girl to be before. "You just missed Annabeth. If you hurry both of them should still be in the Big House."

"What do you mean 'before he leaves'?" Bianca asked, her eyes wide with the sort of concern that only comes when the world around someone is changing and falling apart in too many ways. She might not know the centaur, but she understood what he meant within the camp and in the myths of old.

But Clarisse doesn't answer, not really.

"Just hurry," is all that the child of war says to them, and who are they to refuse.

They walk to the Big House quickly then, but even in their haste they don't miss the changes that have come to camp. There was a tension in the air that hadn't been there since the days after his claiming by Poseidon, back when the sky had raged with the sea and each cabin was picking sides. There were no soft noises of feet running on sand as the campers played volleyball, or splashes of water as children moved through the waters of the lake in their canoes. Instead there was only the sounds of weapons being moved around as they were polished and held at them ready, of demigods training harder than they ever had to before.

It was the air of a place that knew that they weren't safe.

Percy can't help but wonder as they walked into the Big House, if this is what camp had felt like all of the time before the barrier had been created.

Chiron smiles at the in a sad sort of way as the three of them stepped into the room where he and Annabeth were standing together, her face ashen and her expression broken in a way that just looked wrong.

"Hello children," he greets, his voice as kind as it could be with the violence that they were all so capable of.

"You can't leave," Annabeth insists for what seems to be not the first time based on the way that Chiron doesn't so much as grimace at the pained noise that her voice had become. She seemed determined to not let the ancient being change the subject now that there were new people in the room.

"You're leaving?" Nico asked, his eyes wide as the pieces clicked into place for the trio. They would rather that it had not done so.

"It's not by choice, I'm afraid," the ancient being admits, packing up the lady of his things. "I've been fired."

And Percy almost wants to whistle because that was a ballsy sort of thing to do to the demigod trainer, but the gravity of it all keeps him from falling into even the darkest of humor.

"Whose going to replace you?" The son of the sea god asks, knowing just how useless it would be to try and fight something like this. There were a lot of places where he had power, but it meant nothing in this case when not even Chiron was willing to try and fight to stay.

The centaur grimaces at the question and the four demigods feel something in their stomachs twist.

"Tantalus," the son of Kronos admits as if he doesn't want to do so. Percy almost wishes that he hadn't. "He's an Underworld spirit, and should be arriving tonight."

Nico had never before wanted to be reminded of his father's domain less than he did right then as he heard that name. There was not a good story attached to it.

"That guy shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children after what he did to his own," the youngest demigod says with the sort of venom that one would expect from a vengeful spirit of the dead and not a living boy, the child grabbing onto Bianca and Percy both as if it would do anything to keep them from the spirit to come.

Annabeth looked at the two siblings, the ones that had shown up at camp last year towards the end of it and had immediately been given the protection of the son of the sea. She had an idea as to who they might be (more than an idea at that) but she didn't think that she wanted to be right.

"It's out of my hands," Chiron says, attempting to placate the child.

They all notice that he doesn't exactly disagree.

"It was Luke that poisoned her, wasn't it?" Annabeth asks, taking all of the eyes in the room back to herself.

No one had thought that she would be the first one to admit such a thing out loud, not with who she was to Luke, and who Luke was to her and Thalia both, but she knew that it needed to be voiced. That the words wouldn't feel real to her if they only existed inside of her mind.

And Percy sighs because he had already guessed as much, he just didn't think that it was as simple as the others in the room thought. Nothing ever was when the son of Hermes was involved.

Nico and Bianca look between the three, between the ones that had actually met and known the man in question. None of the, were denying it.

None of them looked surprised either.

"Yes," Chiron says at last, "it was most likely the last thing that he did before leaving camp that day. The tree likely only has a few weeks left of life, unless…"

"Unless what?" Annabeth asks, desperate in a way that went beyond saving the barrier that surrounded camp, and more towards saving the last remnants of her friend. Her sister.

Percy glances at the siblings and can see in each of their gazes that they had come to the same conclusion as him about what the magic cure all likely was. He had, after all, been the one getting them caught up on the mythologies of the worlds that they had now joined.

Chiron never does complete that thought though as he slings his bag over his shoulder.

"Annabeth," he says instead, "promise me that you will look after Percy," the ancient man says as he looks down upon the girl, talking of the demigod boy as if he wasn't presently in the room with them.

To Percy, the promise feels less about her protecting him from himself, and more about keeping him from going those rebelling against the gods. He guessed that he hadn't painted such a nice picture of himself for the centaur when he had been at camp last summer.

Annabeth finds the very notion of the other demigod needing protection to be laughable, but she promises anyways. How could she not?

The horn blows in the distance, and Chiron nods in a manner that was a clear, but soft sort of dismissal. The three from Brooklyn House left with nods of their own, Annabeth following behind even as it seemed like she wanted to stay.

(How could she not? This was the man that had all but raised her for far too long)

The walk to the dining pavilion was a silent one.

—-

They didn't make it far into the pavilion before a voice had called out to them. It wasn't a voice that any of them had wanted to hear.

"Peter Johnson, well my day is just complete."

The lie was clear in the deity's voice.

"Mr. B," Percy greeted, finding too much joy in the way that the can of Diet Coke in the god's hand momentarily flashed to that of a Diet Pepsi instead before settling back once more.

The slight purple glow to the god's eyes was worth it.

"Causing trouble already," the god of wine said in a manner that wasn't a question at all, just an observation made.

Percy couldn't exactly say that he was wrong.

He turned instead to look at the being at the deity's side, the man with the unnaturally pale skin as he was dressed like an inmate. His bones seemed to poke out just a bit too much, his skin far too dry. The demigod had a feeling that he wasn't the only one out of the four of them to know just who the ghost before them was.

"This one is trouble," the ancient being said as he looked at the king of old as well, "watch out for him."

"A troublemaker, huh?" Tantalus said mostly to himself, though his hate filled gaze was upon the teen before him.

And Percy knew that if he were a normal camper than he should have felt nervous at having a god so blatantly against him as he warned a child murder of him as well, the threat underlying in his words and in the way that the ghost looked upon him with the sort of gaze that made his skin crawl, but instead he grins at them in that way that he almost wondered if the god of war feared after their last confrontation. Bold, and rebellious, and cutting in the sort of way that few ever were to the gods. That fewer still lived to be after.

"If I wanted to cause trouble," the son of the sea started in the way that let everyone that had met him before know that he was about to say something that really should have him striked down for daring to voice, "I would just make you choke on your own blood," the demigod said with the sort of voice that spoke of promises. The sort of sound that you believe every word that he spoke as truth, even if those hearing it thought that he shouldn't be able to do such a thing. "Oh wait, you're too dead and too much of a cannibal to have any. "

Percy could tell without having to be told that the ghost did not like this, but it wasn't as if he could deny any of it.

"I will be watching you, Percy Jackson," Tantalus said in the sort of voice that the son of the sea knew was meant to be a threat. And maybe it would have worked had he not lived the life that he had thus far, one where his humanity was slowly being stripped from his being as his blood became more and more gold each passing year. "And your cabin mates as well."

"Don't watch too much or someone might think that you're a creep," Percy threatened, his teeth bared in the sort of manner that showed off just how sharp his canines were when they really shouldn't be. His eyes seemed to shift to a shade of green with just a bit more gold in them than they had before, as the winds picked up around the boy. It was a show of power, but it was one that Dionysus knew was not intentional from the way that the child was shaking with anger at the clear threat to the children under his protection. He wondered if this demigod might become interesting one day (if maybe he already was much too close to being so). "Then that someone might have to see if that no food or drink curse of yours extends to drowning."

"Go sit down, the lot of you," Mr. D said with a voice that sounded like exasperation, but only because the god knew that the child was not joking in the slightest and had the means to try just that.

Had the means to do a lot more.

It was moments like these that made the god wonder about the blood that flows in the demigods veins and just what shade it might be.

The three gather their food before moving to make offerings, something that they had still done often in the months away. He throws a piece of chicken into the flames and watches as they burn a gold sort of tinted black color as he prayed to Osiris to watch over the Aunt that he had never gotten the chance to meet. Watches as they turn blue as he sacrifices to Poseidon, even if he wasn't sure of the god. As they turn black once more, like the underworld, as the siblings sacrificed a pieces of their own chicken to the Greek god of the dead. As it turned a deep red as they sacrificed to the goddess of spring, before shifting into a lighter blue as Percy sacrificed to Amphitrite.

The three knew that neither of the goddess were likely to ever like their husband's demigod children, but Amos hoped that if they were to show them respect then at the least they would not make things harder for the demigods.

"I wonder if there is something that we could do to the spirit," Nico says quietly as they sit down at the table for the sea god, the words spoken quietly to his sister that Percy almost couldn't hear even as he knew that the younger boy intended for him to.

"There likely is," Percy agrees when Bianca only shrugs, her powers more rooted in skeletal and earth manipulation than souls or shadows as the son of Hades seemed to have branched out into (not that this meant that he couldn't do such things as well), "but you two shouldn't show your hand too soon into the summer."

"Hypocrite," the daughter of Hades calls the son of the sea god, though there is no sharpness to her voice as she does so.

Only glance at Nico shows that the other boy agrees. Traitor.

Percy only shrugs.

"A lot of people already know my tricks from last year," the eldest of the three said, uncaring of such a fact as he had plenty more, "it's the it's the two of you that are the hidden cards up our sleeves right now."

The siblings are a bit placated by that.

Percy was a few bites in when he glanced over to the boy at his side and watched as Nico started sneaking food into a zip-lock bag that once held candy within it before. The older two of the trio glance at one another, but both shrug and let the youngest do as he wished.

It wasn't long after that, that the three were forced to hear Tantalus's grating voice once more.

All of the campers turned and watched as the ghost spoke, most of the words not truly registering to them as they watched as the spirit slowly inched his hand towards his dinner plate as if he were approaching a wild animal, and that maybe if he was slow enough and not looking at it then the food wouldn't mind being caught. From the way that it constantly moved away from the ghost anytime that he good within half a foot of it, Percy figured that the food minded. No one really paid the man any true attention to his words until he said something interesting:

"We are reinstating the chariot races!" The ghost announced, his voice filled with the sort of glee that one would expect to hear from someone that just wanted to use this as an excuse to see others hurt. From the slight murmuring of fear and disbelief from some of the older demigods at camp, the son of the sea figured that his assumptions was likely right. There were reasons that some things were banned. "While I know that these races are done away with years ago because of some… unfortunate issues."

"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations," one of the children of Apollo called out with the sort of disrespect that would never have been given to Chiron.

"And that's just the ones that were reported," a child of Athena added, likely knowing that a lot of the smaller injures from those old races had been dealt with in cabin so that the healers could focus on the more desperate cases.

Tantalus didn't seem to enjoy having the numbers thrown in his face in such a way. Mr. D, from what those at the Poseidon table could see, just seemed to be enjoying someone else being as tortured as he was, no matter who it was.

"Yes, well," the ghost continued as if he hadn't been interrupted at all, "I know that you all will welcome this new change and reinstatement of old traditions. Teams can register in the morning!"

There were other things added after that, but Percy didn't really care. It wasn't like he could participate with injures being as frequent as they were in such races. He wasn't exactly keen on the whole camp seeing his blood shining with far too much gold to it for a demigod.

Besides, he wouldn't mind just watching for once.

Dinner ended not much longer after that, with an objection to the races from Clarisse of all people. Though Percy wasn't overly surprised by this as he might have been. The older demigod was responsible for her siblings, most of who looked ready to jump at the promise of no chores for a month and the glory that came with winning. She may not care about many in this damned camp, but Percy knew that she understood her responsibility them.

The objection didn't matter though, not as Tantalus sidetracked it as much as the ghost could and then called the conversation to an end and sent all of the demigods to the campfire. Percy was surprised when the daughter of Athena sat down with them, her eyes still a bit hollow as the person that was supposed to be there wasn't and no longer could be, as the centaur had been fired and not just left for other reasons.

But there was more to it than that.

There was something worried in her brows that had been there from the start but had seemed less obvious under the stress and grief of Chiron leaving. It was clear now though in the campfire light. Percy didn't want to ask about it, they were friends in a way - no one goes on a quest together and truly comes out of it enemies or just acquittances - but something about it didn't feel like his place. He wasn't sure that he wanted it to be his place either.

"Why don't you sit with her?" Percy suggested quietly to the daughter of Hades over Nico, as he motioned to the blonde girl that was sitting at his side. "Make some friends that don't live with you year around." After all, by their best estimates Percy was only a few months older than the di Angelo sister, so Annabeth would be a good friend to have around her own age.

Bianca glances as the dark skinned girl, her hair done up in the same blonde braids from the year before, though they were longer now than they had been before. She could see the stress in nearly every line of the other girl's posture, though Annabeth tried to hide behind the storm grey of her eyes. She figured that she owed it to Percy to at least try.

(Besides having a friend that wasn't her little brother, or whatever the two of them we supposed to be to Percy, would be nice)

The son of the sea watches the two girls for a moment as they both relax around one another, the pair getting along batter than Percy had at first with either one of them when he had met them each. It was all the assurance that he needed to turn his attention fully to the boy at his side and let the other two be.

"So," the older demigod starts, "what was the whole food thing about earlier?" The teen asks. He knew that they weren't exactly hurting for things to eat within the cabin, Dad had packed them small snacks that should last them the first few weeks if they were careful about it.

The other boy only grind though, the smile the sort that he often saw during training before something appeared where it shouldn't be. Amos had become very good at situational awareness within his own home because of that smile.

Percy watches as the boy dips his hand into his jacket pocket and pulls out a piece of fruit from earlier, grapefruit it seemed, the shadows around them swallowing it whole as it disappeared.

It appeared once more before where Tantalus was sitting on the other side of the fire, the spirit being the one forced to move instead of the food itself moving away from him. It was an entertaining sight to see as the spirit squeaked as it kept occurring, the campers laughing without regard as they watched. The son of the sea thought that this was likely the brightest that the flames had burned since they had leaned of Thalia's tree dying.

"Why is he moving and not the food?" Percy leaned downed towards Nico's ear to ask, his voice a whisper that no one other than the two of them heard.

"Best guess?" The son of Hades starts as another small piece of food appears and the ghost is thrown back once more. "His punishment is that of the underworld's doing, as my powers come from such a place, my will is the underworld's will in this case. If I wish to make the spirit take the this part of the burden for the punishment, then temporarily I can."

And wasn't that something?

Percy had a feeling that Hades' first real conversation with Nico and Bianca outside of burnt offerings might very well be an angry Iris message or something of the like if Tantalus didn't get his act together (maybe even the spirit being returned to the underworld by one of the siblings themselves).

It wasn't long after that the campfire came to an end, the new activities director not wanting to be seen in such a way for any longer than he already had been. The three stood with the rest of the camp then, waving to the goddess in the flames before moving to the cabin that truly only belonged to the one of them.

It was Bianca that spoke first when they stepped through the door.

"Annabeth is worried about Grover," the girl said, a bit of concern slipping into her own voice for the satyr that she never did get to meet. "No one has heard from him in some time, and Annabeth's been having strange dreams that she says feel a little too real."

Percy hums then as the words settle into his mind. In the events that had occurred since coming to camp, Percy had forgotten about the other boy even as he had been one of the many reasons that Percy had returned this year.

"They may very well be real," the eldest demigod says, his voice a bit distracted as he thought, but not so much so that he missed the way that the siblings looked at him as if he had lost his mind. He sighs as he realizes that this was likely one of the things that they had not gotten to talk about just yet. "Sometimes demigods have dreams about real events that are occurring and affect them. Especially when it directly affects them. That they can be almost a real time image of what's going on, or something a bit metaphorical in nature," he tells the pair, watching as the bewilderment in their eyes shifts into that acceptance that comes with living in this world of theirs. "You've spent enough time at Brooklyn House that you two should be able to pick apart a real dream from a demigod one if you feel for the magic within it."

The siblings nod then, but while Nico is lighting up at the idea, Bianca looks a bit daunted. Percy isn't surprised, Nico has always loved this world of theirs more than Bianca does. More than Percy does even.

He hoped that the other boy never lost such wonder.

(He knew that it was too much to ask)

—-

The next afternoon the three of them were sitting down at the docks with their feet in the water, taking a break from the summer heat before venturing into the woods so that the siblings could see what sort of skeletons they had buried there before the first round of capture the flag rolled around. Percy wanted them to be able to get used the different structures and to controlling more of them, more of the earth, more of the shadows, more of everything in their domain before they were trusts into a fight for real against demigods that wouldn't care to stop if they were hurt.

Sometimes Percy found himself wishing that they picked it up as fast as he did, that the could stretch it out as much across domains, that they could manipulate the sea floor just as he could create storms with lightning crackling between them and earthquakes that gave him just a bit too much control of the earth, just as he could manipulate the magic around them with the too godly blood that runs through his veins and ink. There was a reason after all that it was only him that could use the ink and the magic behind it). But, he knew what the price of such power and growth was, and he knew that if either of the siblings were to break their own souls as he had broken his then it would be a much faster decent into godhood than his own that was being stopped by the current Great Prophecy.

That was what he had come to assume anyways.

It didn't stop their slow growth from being annoying though at times, but they were only eleven and thirteen so he couldn't ask for much (even if he was thirteen too).

"I'm pretty sure that Annabeth is using the chariot races as an excuse to not have to worry about Grover," Bianca says as they watched as the fish swam as close to Percy as they dared with the children of Hades so close by.

The pair had been together for most of the day before now, barely leaving each other's side Sind last night at the campfire. A fact that's made Nico pout as his sister has hardly spoken to him at all expect for at lunch. Percy has been distracting the other boy with sword fighting, though he knows that Nico's heart is less and less into it each time that Bianca leaves them for a time that isn't the three of them training together like they were about to.

He understands though, that loneliness that came when someone that was supposed to be by your side walked away. When the world that had been just you and them expands without you. Though he had been the one to leave first, it had still been a slap to the face to track down his mom when he was eleven and find that she had so thoroughly moved on. At least he hadn't had to watch it in real time like Nico currently was.

(He wonders every now and then, if he had stuck around if things would be the same for his mother as they were now only with him slotted in, or if she would still be in that apartment. He didn't think that he wanted to know)

"That's not a bad thing," the son of the sea says, leaning gently in the sun's light. "Distraction was always good when there is nothing that can be done about it."

And it was, he knew that from experience.

"Who is she patterning with anyways?" The eldest demigod asks, knowing that Nico wouldn't.

The other boy was playing with the shadows at the docks as if deciding if he could get away with dumping water on the blonde girl's head from here and no one would blame Percy for it.

"Me, if that's alright," the girl says with a hopeful sort of smile. She never asked for anything like permission before, but here Percy was technically her camp counselor and had more of a right to participate than she did.

"It is," he says, knowing that he hadn't planned on joining at all, though he can see Nico shrinking in on himself just out of the daughter of the god of the dead's line of sight. "I was already planning on just watching the first round anyways."

"Surprising," Nico comments, his voice not really in it, just flat. "I thought that you would want to be in the thick of it."

Percy just shrugs. "Sometimes you have to watch and wait." He was raised by the descendant of a pharaoh after all, leaders couldn't make rash decisions when they had people under their command. Percy turns to look at the daughter of Hades more fully then. "I'll be watching from the stands," he tells her, "and will step in if it looks like someone, from any of the cabins, is about to die."

And Bianca smiles at that like she had expected nothing less, before running off to go and tell Annabeth of her agreement to join, promising to meet them by the woods in a minute.

Neither of the older demigods saw the way that Nico ran a hand over the ink on his skin. Feathers, wings. A guardian angel. The son of Hades was glad that such protection extended to Bianca as well, even if a selfish part of him wanted to keep it for himself.

—-

Percy and Silena Beauregard watched as the Pegasus back away from the di Angelo siblings, the mythological horses spewing the sort of curses that the son of the sea had not ever heard during his time with the Hermes cabin. Which was saying something, as the Stoll brothers cursed like sailors half of the time.

Today was supposed to be cabin three's first flying lesson, but the Pegasus of camp wouldn't let the younger two demigods close enough to even get kicked by the horses in question.

The Aphrodite cabin consular seemed to like the sight just about as much as Percy did.

"Who are their parents again?" The older demigod asked, her eyes stuck to the pair as she watched to make sure that neither of them were going to get hurt as they attempted to con the horses into letting them at least brush them.

Everyone in the camp knows that only the di Angelos were siblings and not Percy with them, that they stay with him because they were entrusted with to the boy by their godly parent, something that supersedes normal cabin rules, kinds like the Hunters and Artemis. It didn't matter where a hunter's demigod side came from once you become one of Artemis's ladies, hers was now the one that you belonged to. And when it came to cabins, it didn't matter who the siblings' godly parent might have been, as they were allowed to stay within Cabin three the moment that they were placed under Percy's protection, saying that there was even another cabin at all for the pair to stay in.

The question that the girl had asked was one that Percy had already thought through how to answer more times than he cared to admit before the pair had ever even come to camp the summer before.

"An underworld affiliated deity," he answers, knowing the words to be truth, even if a simplified one.

Silena hums, cause that would explain the reaction. It was hard for living creatures, especially animal ones, to want to be around those so drenched in death.

"Which one?" She asks next, her voice innocent to the point that it stopped being innocent at all.

Percy can't help but find it strange that the girl is so instantiate for an answer, that what he had already told her seemingly wasn't enough. Percy knew that he had just all but proclaimed the pair to be children of a minor god, so few ever cared for those.

"No oath was broken other than may be some marriage vows in their creation if that's what you're pushing after," the son of the sea said, his voice cold like the ocean floor as he does so.

(It wasn't a lie after all, as the pair were born before the oath)

The way that an embarrassed sort of heat goes to her cheeks is all that he needs to know that he's right.

Percy can't help but take a hard glance at the girl before leaving her to speak with the mythological horses to see if he can con them into letting one of the siblings fly, even if it was only once.

He couldn't.

—-

The morning of the races finds Bianca leaving the cabin early to go and meet with Annabeth at the chariots, the daughter of Athena and the daughter of Hades each wanting to look their over one more time before it can all begin. Nico watched as the older demigod left, that now familiar bitter sort of look finding itself on the boy's face.

Percy hated seeing it there.

(Hated knowing that she was partly to blame)

"Come on," the teen said as he watched the younger boy about to walk back to his bed, "I'm going down to the lake real quick to bottle up some water, just in case."

Nico sighs and goes to walk by the other's side, their shoulders brushing as they walked. The silence that settled over them both was calming in a way that Nico knew nothing else ever was. With all other living beings, there was the whisper of finality, a clock that was always ticking away. Even Bianca felt like that to him.

Percy wasn't like that though.

With him there was the calming silence, something that whispered of eternity. Nico knew that there had to be something, something off, for the other to feel like this to him, but he could never bring himself to care. All he ever wanted to do was to lean into the feeling more.

"Are you going to help her win?" The younger of the pair asked once they had reached the docks, the older leaning down with some empty water bottles in his hands from the bag at his side, willing water into each of them with a grace that Nico never could bring himself to look away from.

"Nah," the son of the sea answered, his voice soft as he worked, "this is her fight to win or lose by. All I'll do for her is stop by her chariot before the race starts to give her back her bow."

Percy can't help but sneak a glance at the other as they walk to the track, finding a nervous pinch to the other's brows. Percy didn't like seeing such a sight on the usually happy boy. He doesn't like that camp and Bianca have been dragging up the darker sort of emotions for the other ever since they had come back. He wanted better for the other, wanted him to be able to live without the darkness that clung to Percy's own heart.

(He didn't think that this was a wish that was going to be coming true)

"She'll be fine," he tells the younger demigod as they walked onto the track, spotting the Athena - Poseidon chariot easily among the crowd.

He chooses not to say anything more when Nico mumbles yeah like he doesn't quiet believe the words that either of them are saying. That was fine though, Percy knew He doesn't quite believe himself after all.

(There was a reason that the races were banned after all, even as so many other things were still allowed)

Annabeth waves at them distractedly as the pair approach, her eyes still glued to the place around the reigns, making sure that the horses won't run off without them during the race. Bianca is the one to smile that them more fully when they stopped before the pair.

"You two are going to watch, right?" The daughter of Hades asked, something nervous in her voice that was neatly hidden away from everyone that didn't know her well.

She knew that Nico has been angry with her for the past few days, ever since she first started speaking with Annabeth. At first, she had wondered if the boy had a crush on the daughter of Athena, but such a thought only lasted for a moment. She's seen the heat in her brother's cheeks as Percy has spent more time with him alone. Even if she didn't really understand the appeal of anyone in such a way, she could tell easily that her brother did.

So, that left another option that, for as bad as it made her feel, she knew was always going to come from the moment that they left that damned hotel.

She couldn't remember what life was like before Nico dragged her out of there with a bird made of ink flying before him, but she knew that ever since then she was her brother's keeper. Even when at camp the first time, and when staying with Amos, Nico was her responsibility just as much as Percy was Amos's. Even when they were staying with others, even when they were under Percy's protection, she knew that this was just how the world worked.

She had thought that this was just how the world worked.

But then months had passed in Brooklyn house, and Amos had cared for them as if they were meant to be there learning from the inhabitants of Brooklyn House like many had in the past when the rooms had been filled with magicians instead of demigods, and she had started to wonder if she could be selfish and carve out a life of her own now that Nico had others to claim as his.

And then they had come to camp, and Percy had asked her to all but look after the daughter of Athena, and it felt like permission to let go, even just a little bit without feeling guilt for doing so.

She hadn't been surprised when Nico had looked at her in such a hurt manner when she had started to leave him time and time again, but she didn't have it in her to feel bad for it either. Not then. Not ever.

"Of course," Nico said as if it had never crossed his mind to skip it all.

(They both know that it had)

The siblings move to cover Percy as he pulls the bow and quiver full of arrows out from within the Duat, the celestial bronze that they were made of was enough for them to survive within it these first few days at camp.

"Thank you," the daughter of Hades says as she steps back and slings her quiver across her body as if it was always meant to be there. As if nothing else would do.

Percy only nods. Nico says nothing at all.

It's not until Annabeth pulls herself away from the chariot to stand before them that Percy even registers that something is wrong with the blonde girl.

The daughter of Athena looks worse for ware, with dark bags under her eyes, and a heavy set to her shoulders that he had only seen during the worst moments of their quiets the year before. The other demigod didn't even notice that Bianca had procured a weapon from seemingly nowhere. Maybe she had thought that the girl'd had all along. It wasn't the sort of way that Percy had ever expected a child of the wisdom goddess to seem.

"Can I speak with you after the races, Percy?" The grey eyed girl asked, her voice tired in a way that he had never quite heard before, not even on days spent after the quest last summer before Grover had left, when the two boys had to drag wisdom's daughter from her room as she had thrown herself into reading to avoid grief.

Seeing her like this, Percy can't help but agree even as he can see Nico glaring at the girl.

"Whatever it is that you want to talk about," the son of the sea starts, "forget about it for now and focus on the race," he advices, expecting the way that the girl's hackles seems to rise and speaking quickly before she could. "It's not just your health and life on the line right now."

Those words seemed to knock something into the girl as all of the anger flooded from her body as she looked around at the other racers that could get hurt if she was careless, her eyes settling on Bianca. She knows that the di Angelo siblings, despite Percy not knowing them as long, ranked higher than her or Grover. She also knew that if she wanted the other demigod's help, then she needed to keep Percy's people safe in the meantime. Besides, it wasn't like Bianca wasn't also becoming one of her people as well.

So she nods because she knows that the son of the sea is right.

Percy and Nico go to sit in the stands near the Athena cabin as the races started to step up into their chariots. Percy was content to watch the Stoll brothers as they tried to sneak something into the Hephaestus Cabin's chariot, but found themselves caught by Beckendorf before they could. It was an entertaining sight to see, but Nico drew his attention away as he tugged on Percy's shirt.

"Look at all of the birds in the trees," the younger boy said, as the pair glanced at them, watching as more and more only seemed to join the numbers.

Percy can't help but think that it's strange to see so many of them, as most stayed in the forest so that they weren't accidentally shot by one of the campers during target practice (weaker bows had to be aimed a lot higher to travel the same distance and reach the same spot as stronger ones. He didn't question the lack of birds around the camp after Annabeth telling him of the one time that one had been flying and one of her brothers had accidentally shot it out of the sky when they had been young) and the loud noises of training often kept them away regardless. He thought that they looked strange as well, their beaks a little to shiny and their eyes as well, but doesn't get the chance to look at them for very long as the races start.

Both boys looked away from the nearby trees as the starting signal dropped and the sounds of hooves hitting dirt and wheels turning against the ground filled the air. The pair watched as almost immediately that Apollo chariot was thrust over as the Hermes cabin bashed into it, the sound echoing like a gunshot throughout the track ad the other cabins continued past them as best as they could manage with the fallen chariot in the way. Which was hardly at all as the fallen horses brought the Hermes's cabin drivers to the ground as well only moments later.

Ares Cabin was in the lead then, but Annabeth and Bianca were only a few feet behind and staying close to the children of the male war god. They were doing well, staying far enough ahead of the Hephaestus cabin that they wouldn't be a problem until maybe the second lap at this rate if the girls were careful enough and their luck held.

It didn't.

One moment, everyone was either watching the races or apart of it, and the next there were screams as the birds from earlier dived down with something of a grudge, ripping chunks of skin from the campers.

Everyone stands immediately, understanding what was needed of them right then, but as Percy opened the bottles and started shooting water at the birds around them in the crowd, slicing through them, and the other campers that had brought weapons drew theirs, the Apollo cabin couldn't do a thing without risking shooting another demigod. It put them at a disadvantage for one of the biggest cabins to be rendered all but useless.

Percy and Nico looked at one another, and that was all that as needed for them to jump down the bleachers to the ground below, slamming their hands against it as they landed. Percy shook the earth the, making it unstable and easier for the son of Hades to manipulate into a dome over the campers that were in the stands, keeping more birds from joining the ones already among them.

It was easy then for the children of the god of archery to do away with the stymphalian birds as all of the campers gathered around them quickly, talking out the birds near the archers as the children of Apollo took out the birds on the empty side of the dome.

There was a long moment of silence before everyone let out a breath.

"Was this any of the cabins' doing?" Percy asked into the golden darkness, the only light being the glow that came from the weapons that everyone held.

He could see it being one of them, a dirty trick gone wrong, but he believed them when there was a chorus of no's.

"Fuck," the son of the sea cursed, because while he had expected that answer, he had wanted to be wrong since being right meant that no one had control of theses things. Since it meant that the barrier had become weak enough to let so many monsters in at once. "Alright. Does anyone have an mind control powers that might work?" He asks next, not sure how much of a long shot such a question might be. They were the children of the gods after all, strange powers were a given, but not a guarantee.

He grinned something sharp though when Silena and another daughter of Aphrodite looked at one another for a moment before raising their hands.

"We have charmspeak," the other girl, Drew maybe, offered up, though she didn't seem too pleased about it.

Percy nodded because whatever charmspeak was, it was likely the best option that they had right then.

The three move to the edge of the dome, meeting Nico there as he laid a hand against the rock to open it. Percy doesn't bother to try and stop the son of Hades from joining them since he knows that the boy is going to come anyways as both Percy and Bianca are involved. He simply pulls the other boy's sword from the Duat and gives it to the younger boy so that Nico didn't have to use a camp one for this. It's an action that he only risks since it's too dark for the daughters of Aphrodite to see.

"Three! Two! One!" Percy calls out, his voice loud and carrying through the dome so that everyone would know to except the inevitable possibility of more birds flying in the moment that a door was made. He could hear the faint sound arrows clicking into place as they notched just under the sound of his voice echoing through the temporary room.

The four run out quickly, their collars drawn high as the birds swooped for them once more, a few of them make it past the swipes of swords and daggers that each tried to make as they ran, the rocks slamming back into place.

In the distance Percy could just barley make out the sight of Annabeth and Bianca driving their chariot off towards the Big House with a sort of fever. He can tell that Nico does too from the way that he shifts as if he's preparing to run after the two, but Percy grabs his hand to keep him close. The two of them were here to protect the Aphrodite siblings right now, not the two that were moving away from the fight. Besides, Annabeth is a daughter of Athena and likely has a plan in the making.

"Leave!" The daughters of Aphrodite yelled out into the air above them, their voices strange and twisting in a way that Nico thought that if it were meant to affect him, he would do anything that they asked so long as they were speaking.

The birds seemed to agree.

Percy watched as the monsters closest to the four of them flew away, the flag of their wings strange, as if they weren't in control. The son of the sea knew that to be the truth.

The boys watched as the girls screamed the commands over and over, a small dent being made to the number of birds each time, as they made marks of their own between commands as the birds that had not heard the pair flew down to attack. Charmspeak, it seemed, was useless against those that could not hear it, and all of the racers, the horses, and the other campers that had been outside of the protection of the dome for this operation of theirs to be a quick one as the birds were still screeching as if they knew silence meant death.

Percy was moments away from redirecting the girls' efforts towards evacuation of the area, when suddenly music fills the track, loud and blaring and enough to make Percy want to cover his own ears even at the risk of stabbing someone else in the process.

It seemed that the birds felt much the same.

The four watched as the birds all fled from the noise as if it pained them much more than it pained the demigods down below. Percy wasn't overly sure about that at the moment.

The son of Hades and the son of Poseidon are quick to turn to lower the dome that they had created, the archers from the Apollo cabin taking aim and firing even faster. corpses fell to the ground but never quite reached it as the birds turned to dust.

Neither Nico nor Percy have to look to know that this had been what Annabeth and Bianca had left to do.

"We have our first winner!" That now too familiar voice called out into the clearing around all of the started and bleeding campers, Tantalus' voice filled with far too much cheer to be true.

Everyone turned to look at the ghost as he placed the golden laurel upon Clarisse's head, even as no one had actually finished the race. Percy glanced down to the girl's face, and found her to be just a shocked as the rest of them, blood running across her skin. The son of the sea wasn't the only one looking at the spirit as if he had gone mad, thinking of a race when they had just been attacked.

"Now," Tantalus continued, looking between Percy and Nico, and Bianca and Annabeth as he spoke, "to punish the troublemakers."

"Does your mind control junk work on spirits?" Percy asked as the punished soul began his walk over to the four of them, the son of the positioning himself in front of the son of the god of the dead, knowing that Percy was the more wanted target out of the pair of them.

It was an act that Nico didn't take too kindly to, pushing to Percy's side with the sort of fire in his eyes that Percy would love to see on a battlefield one day.

"It had fucking better," Drew says as the new director is only a few steps before them, anger in her voice that children of the love goddess didn't usually hold. Then again, there was a reason that Aphrodite's lover was the god of war. "Shut up," the younger daughter of Aphrodite said as the spirit stopped before them, her voice holding that tint of magic to it once more.

He does.

Percy looks to the older camp counselor, curious to see what the older girl would do at the feet of such a blatant abuse of power. Curiosity and the knowledge that he would take some of the blame willingly for the suggestion if that was the judgment that she chose to pass, warring within him.

He wasn't expecting her to smile so sharply though at the cursed soul before them, magic lacing her own words. A magic much stronger than the younger girl's

"You don't think that this is anyone's fault," Silena spoke in a manner that didn't seem like a suggestion at all, but an order that the dead king could never refuse, "other than maybe your own for not noticing the obvious trouble to the charges that you are supposed the be caring for." It was at the end of those words that Percy caught her glancing to her siblings that had been under the dome, seeing the cuts upon their skin as if each one were a punishment of her own that she would like to employ upon the being before her. The son of the sea wondered what sort of things that daughter of love would do to protect those that were hers. "Now leave."

And once again, he does.

"Thanks," Percy says to the pair, knowing that they had done much more for him and Nico both than just buy time like he had first intended for them to do when they had left the dome.

Silena shrugs. "I don't like bullies," the elder camp consular said, her voice like steel.

And Drew looks up at her with the wide eyes of a younger sibling admiring the older one.

(Percy thinks that he's the only one to see the hint of fear hiding deep in the younger girl's eyes. The shame hiding in the older's)

"Good," Percy agrees, "I don't either."

Silena smiles at that.

(Nico does too)

The four of them split off moments later, all of the campers helping to clean up the wreckage that the track had become, salvaging what they can for their own cabins when they could. It wasn't a thing that occurred often.

Percy thought about where to go, and let his feet take him to the strawberry fields with members of Demeter, Dionysus, and Hephaestus cabin making their way there as well to see the damage that it had become. Beckendorf had heat in his cheeks as members of all four cabins glared at the consular for crashing into the camp's source of income, the teen's own siblings included.

It wasn't something that lasted long though, as the children of the inventor god worked to move the chariot remnants away, while Percy and the other two cabins looked after the strawberries. The son of the sea spent his time redirecting the flow of water away from the patches of strawberries that had been deemed a lost cause for the season, as the other two cabins worked to do damage control on the salvageable ones.

It was a simple sort of work for his powers, nothing flashy or even really showing that he was doing anything at all, but he thought that maybe he liked that nature of it better than the destructive things that he could do. The methods that he was using to deprive the flow of water to the smashed berries, were the same ones that he had used to bring a god to his knees as ichor flowed down his face. That he could use to stop a heart with little more than a thought.

He liked the softer use of them better.

(He wouldn't recognize it for a while, but something had shifted then in the godling, as the children of Demeter and Dionysus smiled down at him with gratitude. As the three cabins scooped up the hopeless strawberries and threw them that the four Hephaestus children, ending with red that wasn't from blood - and what a novelty that was - staining them all. He didn't know it, but a decision had been made in the gold that flowed through his veins)

—-

It was after lunch that Percy found himself talking with Annabeth in Cabin Three as Nico and Bianca sat before the pool of water that laid towards the back of the cabin, deep enough to swim in, though the children Hades didn't push their luck to try. it was then that daughter of Athena told the three of them about the dreams that had been plaguing her for days now, ones that had driven her to return to camp when she had. Ones of Grover in danger. Ones where the satyr had found the Golden Fleece.

It was the last two that stuck out the most.

"It could save camp," the blonde girl says, her eyes bright even as her mind thought of the danger to come.

Percy can"t help but agree that it's a damn good possibility.

—-

When the campfire ended that night Annabeth stood before Tantalus could dismiss them for the night, her head held high but the space under her eyes dark. She told them that she had come up with an idea to save the camp, of a legendary fleece that was hidden within the sea of monsters, and coordinates that they Gray Sisters had given her when she had ridden in their taxi to camp that summer. She called for a quest. Everything about her speech was quick and efficient, and Percy saw the wisdom goddess in her more than he ever had before. It felt like this was a law case, and she was intent on winning.

She did, in a manner. A quest was allowed as the whole camp joined in the chant for it. The demand to do whatever desperate thing was needed to save their home. But, the quest was given to the daughter of Ares, a moment of hesitant silence following the decision. One that was quickly overtaken by the hope that a quest brought regardless of who it was that was on it.

And Annabeth looks as if she wants to protest the decision, but Percy only shakes his head at her, a clear no as the siblings pull her down. He knew that you couldn't make someone listen to reason that doesn't want to hear it, and no one wanted to hear it right then, not as the flames were rising higher than Percy had ever seen them before.

—-

The cabin was silent for a moment that night as the three stood within it, none of them making a move to get ready for the night as they processed the events that had just occurred.

"We're going to find a way to go anyways, aren't we?" Nico asked, his voice tired from the day as he does, like someone accepting the inevitable.

And Percy wants to protest and force the other two to stay at the camp regardless of what others decide to do, but he knows that it's no use. Death was just as stubborn as the sea after all, and if Percy were to go right on this quest it would be because of that unmovable stubbornness of death.

"Yeah," he concedes when he sees that tint in the daughter of Hades' eyes. It was the sort of look that made Percy know that whatever choice Annabeth made, Bianca would be doing the same right then, and all three of them knew the thoughts in the daughter of Athena's mind right then. Even if the choice that she was about to make was anything but wise. "Didn't even last a full week this time," Percy says, his voice a bit of a groan.

The siblings can't help but laugh at that, a brightness in the night that they had made for themselves.

Later that night, Percy and Nico walked down to the beach together as Bianca crawled into bed.

Ever since he was young, Percy had always felt the most at home near the water, the waves kissing at his skin. He liked to think when he was by the waves, something in his mind being settled by the sound of them. Usually this was something that he did alone, but he didn't mind when Nico joined at his side, the pair finding a quiet sort of solace in one another. Percy knew that Nico never felt more at home than he did when it was night, the world dark around him and the shadows darker than they ever were in the day. Sometimes he wondered if the other wasn't a child of Nyx instead.

They sat with the water a few feet away, a blanket beneath them as they leaned into one another, and looked up at the stars above them, the infinite amount that they would never be able to count in a thousand years.

(It was nights like these that Percy never wanted to end)

"She's leaving me behind, isn't she?" Nico asks after a long moment, his gaze shifting to the waves as if the ruler of them still held the gift of prophecy and would hold all of the answers that he needed the water to give.

Percy doesn't need anymore than that to know who they were talking about.

"She is," the son of the sea says, his voice soft in a manner that it so rarely was. Sometimes it was when the ocean was silent that it was about to be the most cruel. "Maybe even a bit on purpose," he answers honestly, a pang going through him as his words cause the other boy to curl up in on himself more, as if he were small then it would hurt less. It wouldn't. "You just have to trust that she's not leaving completely, just looking for space in the chaos of our lives. Trust me, I'm an expert on leaving completely."

The younger boy doesn't say anything for a long moment, but eventually he holds out his hand over the sand, three sharks teeth landing in his palm as if they had always been there only seconds later. They were small things, each just big enough to be worn like jewelry and it not be strange.

Percy reaches out and takes one into his own hand, something that Nico allows him to do.

"If we asked the Hephaestus cabin to drill small holes, we could add them to the camp necklaces, if you'd like," the teen suggests, knowing that Nico had summoned three on purpose right then.

The other boy only nods as he takes the tooth back, slipping the three of them into his pocket where they would be safe.

Percy doesn't say anything as Nico lays his head on the other's shoulder, as both of them are comforted by the warmth that the small action brings. Percy could see the other boy constantly changing and growing and loosing a bit of that light that he had come into this world of theirs with now the he knew what the magic of the world was truly like, now that the magic had lost its spark. He sometimes wondered if it was the right choice to pull the siblings from that hotel, but knew that they likely would have left regardless with the prophecy drawing closer and close by the day.

"Aw, aren't you two cute."

The pair are on their feet in less than a moment, and Nico can feel himself blushing at the stranger's words as he puts distance between himself and the unknown man, wishing that he had his blade on him and had not given it back to Percy to store in the Duat.

The only reason that Percy doesn't pull his own sword on the stranger is because he can feel the godly blood running through the man's veins, and knows that a god wouldn't have come to camp for no reason at all. None of them could even bother to come to visit their children when the kids wanted to see them. There was no way that a god, an Olympian at that, would comes this far for some demigods that weren't even his own unless it was something important.

Something to do with the fleece.

It wasn't hard for the demigods to figure out who the deity before them was, not with the manner it which the man was dressed like a mailman. It was hard to look at him though, at the blonde of his hair and the sharpness of his nose and not see Luke. To not look at the god before him and know that the messenger had not idea how to feel about him, something that Percy could agree with entirely. He didn't know what to do with the god either.

(He wondered, in a way that he hadn't let himself do so before, how much the gods knew of his conversation with the son of Hermes before the teen had left the camp. He doubted that anyone had been looking at them when they had gone to his childhood apartment, but one never knew)

"Hermes," Nico said, his voice little louder than a whisper, that young excitement of his that Percy had missed, filling his voice as the son of the sea watched the son of Hades meet a god once more.

He looked so much brighter than he had only a moment before, and for that alone Percy decided to care more about what the messenger god might have to say than he and before.

Hermes smiled kindly at the younger boy before turning his gaze up to the sky as if he were remembering when the stars themselves had been added.

Maybe he was.

"What is your favorite constellation, Perseus?" The god asked, his voice not holding any of the mischief to it that one would expect from a trickster god.

Hermes wondered if the boy would say Hercules, adoring the old hero's strength like so many often did. Or maybe he would answer Andromeda after the woman that his namesake had saved, wishing to live up to such a story. He could see that second one. Not many demigods were named after the ancient heroes because of expectations like that, but those that were often died young trying to live up to tales that only ever ended in tragedy.

The answer that was given was one that the god had not been expecting, but the younger demigod had.

"Canis Minor," Percy answers, his voice so sure that it almost made Hermes stop more than the answer itself.

"Why?" The messenger god asks, confusion flooding his voice. It wasn't often that gods were caught off guard by mortals, even less so that they show it.

And Percy sighs that sigh that comes when he talks of the future as if he could already see it for exactly what it was. It was the sort of sound that drove Bianca mad to hear, but Nico always liked.

Because Percy was almost always right.

"Because the dog is destined to run forever," the son of the sea starts, speaking of a never stilling creature as his body moved almost as much as stone, "to never give up on the chase even as he will never be able to get his prey. Because maybe he knows this, but he has to keep trying forever because the fates have willed it so."

And maybe that would sound sad to anyone else, but Percy knows that his fate is one that will never allow him to rest either, not with the way that his blood shines more and more like gold as the years go on.

Hermes hums, something sad in his eyes as he does that he quickly does away with. It's that hum and that sadness that brings the child of the sea's eyes back down to the earth and the god before him.

That let's him see the way that the god's eyes linger on the star at the base of his throat.

Percy was sure that Hermes didn’t know exactly what had occurred that night, a god couldn't listen in for too long without attracting attention, but he knew enough for the ink to mean something to him.

"Are you here to kill me for what happened with Luke last summer?" The older demigod asks, his words blunt and his voice devoid of emotion in the way that Nico has always hated to hear.

(Even if this time that flat voice gave him questions to ask about the man that the other demigods of camp had only ever whispered of since the son of the messenger god left)

The god and the boy that wasn't quite one looked at one another for a long moment before the elder answered.

"I'm not," the god of thieves says, his voice deceptively calm, but his eyes holding hope to them. It was the sort of hope that seemed weary, as if he had known that they were coming to a situation like this for his child's whole life, but it was now playing out better than he would have thought that it would be. "I'm going to let your interpretation of fate play out for a bit longer before I decide how to feel about the matter."

It was Percy's turn to hum then as he wondered just how far the god would let this go.

"Then why are you here?" Nico asks, his voice holding a bit of steel to it.

He may not quite understand just what the pair had been talking of, but he knew what would happen if a god was suddenly displeased with the outcome of the thing that Percy had done. The gods were fickle in all of the myths, and they were fickle now. He wanted this conversation to move along before Hermes decided that he knew what he thought of whatever the older boy had done.

"I'm here to talk about the quest that has been issued to the daughter of Ares," the god said, a mischievous sort of smile slipping onto his lips as he did. "You are planning on going on it anyways, aren't you?"

Percy wondered if this was just something that Hermes knew as the gods of travelers, or if he had truly been watching so closely that he knew what they had decided.

"It sounds like a lot of work," the older demigod said, meaning it too. The last quest had been a stupid amount of effort on his part. "But, I'm sure that Annabeth is planning to go anyways, which means that Bianca will want to follow her. Amend where Bianca goes, Nico goes," the son of Hades wanted to protest that part, but he knew that it was true, "and where he goes, I go. Might as well try and go from the start."

Nico rubs at his neck because he knows that his friend is right, every single part of it.

(He would never admit out loud that something warm blossomed in his chest at being chosen by someone)

Hermes smiles something small, because he can tell that the teen before him does take great care in the actions that he takes, he feels a bit more settled about Luke's fate than he had in a long time. Only a bit though.

The pair of demigods watched as the god pulled out his phone - something that neither of them had even realized that a deity would have - two snakes making up the case of it.

"The first package Martha, please?" Hermes asked.

The three watched as one of the snakes, Martha, opened her mouth, wider and wider still, until one of the demigods could easily fit their arms into there. It was a bit like a train wreck, as the body of the serpent moved as she spit up what looked to be a thermos from her mouth, none of them could find it in themselves to look away.

Percy barley caught it before it dropped down into the sand.

The two demigods looked at the object, the detailing on it of a dog forever running through the sky. They couldn't see what he was chasing, but Percy couldn't help but think that it might be better that way.

It was hard to hold, even for the demigod with far too much ichor in his veins, as one said was burning hot and the other an angry sort of cold. Nico hissed as he trained to touch one of the stars on the thermos, the cold getting even to him.

Percy thought of another voyage through waters filled with monsters and a gift given towards the beginning of the journey, and made a noise in the back of his throat that the other two could only describe as a whine as he realized what was likely in his hands.

"Usually people don't react like this to gifts," Hermes said, his voice holding as close to concern and bewilderment as Percy had ever heard from a god before.

"Do you remember how long Odysseus took to get home because his crew opened this thing?" the demigod asks, that whine unmistakably still there. "That trip was only supposed to take about a week," Percy continued. "Maybe two if the places that they had stopped didn't have enough food. He was gone for thirteen extra years, and came back with zero of the men that he was supposed to have."

Nico laughs, because he's never seen the other act his age so much before. Never seen him seem so young outside of the realm of game nights, and even then it wasn't often as Mythomagic often had the older boy acting as if he were in a battle even within their home.

"Just don't blind your brother anymore than he already is and I'm sure we'll be fine," Nico advises, humor shining prettily through the son of Hades' voice as the younger boy lays a hand on the other's shoulder.

And Hermes laughs too, because if someone was going to be taking on his descendant's legacy then at least it might be entertaining this time around, and not so damn horrific as it was before.

"George, the next gift please," Hermes says, the second snake opening its mouth as well with a as many complaints as it could manage before his mouth was opened much to wide to speak.

It was Nico that caught the object this time, a bottle of vitamins that were each shaped like mythical creatures.

Percy watched as the other boy read through the ingredients in the chews, his brows scrunching together when he got to one of the later names.

"Moly?" Nico asked, the name familiar even as he couldn't quite place it.

"What Odysseus took to not be turned into a pig," Percy answered before turning to look at the god once more. "You think that we'll run into her?"

Hermes shrugs, though there was something like worry in the glint of his eyes. "Her island has a way of drawing people in," he admits. "It wouldn't be a surprise."

Percy nods and hold his hand out to the other demigod, the bottle being placed into his palm without another word. The son of the sea dropped both of the items in his hands, an action that made the god's eyes go wide with the perceived disrespect before he watched as the gifts disappeared from the air, whispers of foreign magic linger around the three of them.

The trickster god raised a brow but didn't dare speak of what had just occurred allowed, not in the land of the current home of the Greek demigods when anyone could be listening in. Though, the more and more impossible things that the demigod did, the more and more safe he felt leaving his son's fate in the godling's hands.

"Your friends are on the way so the two of you should get ready to go," the deity advises as he hands over four duffel bags to the pair. "There is a ship out in the distance that you should try and make your way to quickly once your friends make it here," Hermes instructs, and in the distance the two boys can hear the voices of girls calling out to them. They turned to look for them, knowing likely who it was, seeing the shadowed figures approaching, and when they turn back to the god, they find him to be gone.

"Quest time," Nico says, a bit more light in his eyes than Percy thought that there would be.

It was nice to see, even if it wouldn't last.

"Yeah," the older boy agrees as Bianca and Annabeth make it to them, worry and panic on each of their faces as they do.

"You're both okay?" The daughter of Athena asked, her eyes wide and something almost a bit like anger in her voice. "I heard both of you calling for help."

"So did I," Bianca adds, still in her pajamas as she stands there with the wind blowing around the four of them.

"Hermes' doing," Percy explained, saying as little words as possible so that he wouldn't laugh at the other two teens as the girls looked ridiculous standing out on the beach at night in their pajamas with their weapons drawn.

"Besides," Nico adds, "we probably wouldn't have called for help even if we had been attacked," the son of Hades says truthfully, pointing a finger at the demigod at his side as if this explained everything.

It almost did.

The pair explain about Hermes visiting them on the beach, about the supplies that the god had given them. Just in the distance the four of them could see the boat that that they were supposed to board if they truly were going to go.

Though, it wasn't really a question of if they were going, but how they were going to get there.

"I have an idea that no one is going to like," Percy says as each of the demigods grabs one of the duffels and puts them on their back in the way that one would a very large back pack.

Nico and Bianca look at each other at that, but Annabeth only sighs with an earned sort of tiredness. She learned not to question what the other demigod does after the events of last summer.

"Just do it," the daughter of Athena says with a wave of her hand.

Percy just grins and beacons the other three to the water's edge. Nico had a thought that this is almost exactly how he thought that a siren would act if they were truly as humanoid as most thought, but brushed the thought aside.

The three watch as the water seeks the four of them out as Percy stands before them, standing on top of the water as a bubble of air was created around them, though somehow they could still see Percy pretty clearly, even as they felt themselves beginning to move through the waters at speeds that they would never have been able to do one their own.

"Knew it," Nico whispers softly as Percy all but surfs on the waters under his command, and Bianca lets out a pleased sort of laugh, too used to the older demigod's antics to really care about the impossibility of it all anymore

To her, the power that the three of them, Percy especially, held was normal. It didn't hold the same sort impossibility that it would to anyone else that had never met a child of the big three before. Her smile didn't even fade when Annabeth grabbed onto the her arm tightly when Bianca tried to stretch out her arms into the arm as if they were on a roller coaster like the ones at the fair that Nico had convinced Amos to take the three of them to back in the fall.

When they make it to the boat, they realize that it's not much of a boat at all, but a cruise ship. The ship was large even without the floors upon floors added on top filled with rooms, nearly all of them brightly lit. On the ship's mast was a large statue of a beautiful woman dressed in a traditional Greek chiton. She would have been gorgeous, anyone could tell that she was meant to be, her hair flowing in the wind of a boat moving through the sea, but her faces was twisted into what could only be described as full and complete terror as she seemed to be almost screaming in pain. Water sloshed up against the boat, and every now and then it would look as if it were trying to drown her with the waves.

Percy wasn't as surprised as he would have liked to be to learn that the ship's name was the Princess Andromeda.

She was the woman that his namesake had used Medusa's head to save. Percy almost wished that he could do the same.

The four climbed up the latter on the side of the boat as silently as they could, using the sounds of the sea crashing against the ship as cover when they could manage it.

The top of the ladder brings them to what looks to be the maintenance part of the ship, the area empty of any workers that they could see.

Unease curled in the gut of the son of the sea as Annabeth went to work on prying the locked double doors open so that they could leave the area. It felt as if the mist was working overtime all around them, magic thick in the air even as there was snow around around them for it to be bent to as they walked through the empty halls of the too large ship.

Both Annabeth and Percy caught the way in which the siblings were looking at one another as they walked past empty rooms.

"What?" The daughter of Athena asked, her voice a whisper.

The siblings glanced at each other once more, though it was Bianca to say whatever it was that the pair was thinking.

"It feels like death here," the girl says, and Percy can't help but think that these were words that she would have whispered regardless of who might or might not have been around to hear.

Annabeth looked as if she wanted to hear those words about as much as Bianca had wanted to say them.

"Why don't we find a room to sleep in tonight?" The daughter of Athena offers, the space beneath her eyes as dark as ever. Percy figured that the girl needed it.

"Yeah, okay," he agrees.

The four of them walk for a bit longer, until they can find a room with two beds in them big enough to fit two people each, the Bianca and Annabeth taking one, while Percy and Nico took the other. Maybe in one life they would have split up so that everyone had their own, but even with so many of them that just didn't seem like such a wise thing to do. A lot could happen between one room and the next.

The four took turns for a few moments, changing into the day clothes that Hermes had gifted them in the duffel bags, all of the, wishing that they could sleep in something softer but knowing better than to try.

Blades and bows were placed on the nightstand between the beds, or on the floor close by it's owner, so that they could reach for the weapons at a moment's notice, like soldiers sleeping with guns beneath their pillows at night.

Out of the two of them, Nico falls asleep first, trusting in the other three to keep him safe. Percy takes longer to follow him, not needing as much as normal humans or demigods might. A side effect of his growing immortality. There was a moment though, as his eyes were finally slipping shut, that he could have sworn that he had heard voices in the halls, walking past their door. Voices that almost sounded like they belonged to the dead. He thought about getting up to go after them, to see what the noise was, but knows that doing so would just give the other three away. That wasn't worth a false alarm.

Before he could even move to decide one way or the other, Nico curls up into his side, chasing the heat that Percy gives off that a child of Hades so lacks. Percy figured that with the way that the other was acting, cat rules apply at that moment, so stayed still, eventually falling asleep himself.

It's a better rest than he had gotten in the years since breaking his soul.

—-

Percy had always been a light sleeper, too many years spent living in the same apartment as Gabe, and then too many after that spent living with a basketball obsessed animal that didn't understand the concept of time or personal space, did that to a person. Nothing had ever woken him up faster though than the voice over the intercom announcing disemboweling practice.

His first thought was panic, the deep seated understanding that this wasn't right. That no mortal cruise ship was have an activity like this. His second thought was that the idea seemed fun.

It was the second thought that he didn't realize that he had said aloud until three other faces turned to look at his as if he had gone insane.

All four of them were sitting up now, the whistle that had predated the announcement startling everyone awake better than any alarm clock ever had. He wished that the others had been still sleeping though, because the looks were not welcome ones.

"It's basically what we do at camp anyways," the son of the sea points out, something that was true but didn't stop the looks as much as it should have.

Annabeth looks at the siblings then, her brows raised at the pair. "Is this a how he was raised thing, or just a him thing?" The daughter of Athena asks, looking as if she thought that the answer could easily go either way.

"Him thing," both of the children of Hades answer without so much as a pause.

Percy pouts at the response, mumbling something about traitors under his breath, and for a moment Annabeth is reminded of the boy talking about comics last summer. He never looked so young than he did in moments like these, usually he feels so eternal, more god than man. She looks at the siblings and sees that such a childish display wasn't entirely normal for them either, but she guessed that it was still more common for them than it was for her.

The four of them get ready quickly after that, brushing their teeth and tying or pining away their hair so that it wouldn't get in the way for the rest of the day. Percy knew that the chances of them making it back here for their duffel bags was more than slim with how their quest had gone last time, so he slips them each into the Duat with the other gifts from Hermes while Annabeth wasn't looking. It was easier that way.

They leave the room only moments later, their weapons in hand as they walked through the ship, the mist feeling heavy on the trio that had been trained to feel for it, feeling especially like a brand on Percy in a way that made him want to twitch under pressure.

They were concerned for a moment what the mortals would think, what they might see when looking at swords and a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

It was a useless sort of worry though.

There were families out now that it was day time, though still less so than one might have expected to see for prom a ship so large, and each and every one of them were acting a bit like robots, their will ripped away. It made them all sick to see.

Percy had a thought then, an almost instinctive sort of urge to drag the ship to the bottom of the sea as he watched the mortals moving around, monsters of different kinds trailing after them. He wondered for a moment if the Titanic had also been filled with something so horrible and that was why Poseidon had deemed it necessary to claim the ship as his own. He had to force the impulse away as the waves became a bit stronger than they should have been, making the ship sway and earning him a look from the other three.

They were near the bathrooms when Annabeth suddenly grabbed the three of them and pulled them into one, voices soon passing where they had been standing only a few moments before. Voices that weren't human even if they spoke English, the pair of them holding too much a hiss to the sound of their voice.

They spoke of recruits joining the cause, joining Kronos. Percy wondered for a moment if it was just monsters, but with the way that they were so pleased at a number as small as six he knew that it had to be something rarer. Someone rarer.

Demigods.

They were about to leave their hiding place, panic having entered their form at having the conformation of just what this ship and the need to leave it growing strong, when another set of voices passed. Ones that Percy and Annabeth knew well.

Luke.

Mono one had ever thought that he would risk fleeing to the ocean after leaving camp, not when it was Poseidon's domain and only last year he had framed the god for theft.

Luke another demigod talk of a bait being placed, a trap being set, as they walked by. A glance shared between the four let them know that they were all thinking the same thing, that the conversation that they heard of Luke's was the bait itself.

Percy thinks about the consequences of going anyways even as they knew that they were walking into a trap, the ones that he was sure that there would be. Just because last time they were together they had agreed to help one another survive this doesn't mean that in the year since Luke has actually stuck to the idea. And,even if it did, they both still had to play their parts, and Luke's part was to do away with him before he could make it to sixteen.

It was still a trap that they were going to walk into anyways.

—-

Seeing Luke again was like a punch to the gut. Quick and brutal and knocking the breath straight from out of your lungs.

Annabeth didn't seem much better.

"Sit," the elder demigod offers, that smile of his playing across his face, so,deceptively kind.

Percy does, knowing that he could easily kill anyone in this room with so little as a thought, or turn them to stone only a bit more than a raise of his hand, the other three choose to stand.

It was only when the pair were sitting before one another that Nico noticed the star that sits at the bottom of Luke's throat in the same manner that one does on the son of the sea god, though the designs were an inverse of each other. He can't help the way that he draws in a sharp breath at the sight, having wondered for almost a year now just who held the other half of the ink. It's that intake of breath that makes Annabeth and Bianca see it as well, the daughter of Athena shifting away from them all once she had.

"Well, it seems that you survived another year," the son of Hermes said, his eyes solely on the son of the sea. His tone was conversational as he spoke, as if the pair were just catching up after a while away from omen another. "How's the adoptive father? How's school?"

Percy shrugs, his voice a lot like Luke when he speaks, though holding a hard sort of note to it that makes the other three demigods relax just a bit. "I haven't actually been to mortal school since I was seven," the demigod admits, something that would bring horror to the daughter of Athena's eyes if this were any other situation, "but Dad keeps my studies up to date. Finally perfected a one handed drop into the bowl while skating."

And Luke nods to that like he's genuinely impressed with the younger boy for doing so, and Annabeth wants to cry or scream or cut someone or something because it's Luke before her, and he's acting like himself, and yet…

"You poisoned Thalia's tree, didn't you?" She asks, drawing every eye in the room to herself, her voice hollow as she speaks. As if she were beyond anger right then.

She seemed to find it though as Luke admits to doing so in the same sort of tone that one would admit to taking a book without asking.

"How could you do that?" The blonde girl all but snarls. "How could you hurt her like this?"

"I'm not," Luke says, his voice sounding so sure that it makes everyone in the room stop. "I'm saving her."

"How could you possibly be doing that?" The daughter of the wisdom goddess asks, her hands moving as she speaks as if she was just barley restraining herself from lunging at the other.

Percy figured that it was a good thing that the girl chose not to sit down, distance was likely the best thing right now.

"Her soul is still trapped in the tree," Nico says, his voice taking that strange sort of tone to it as he spoke of things that he shouldn't know. Most found it creepy, but Percy didn't, not when he knew that sometimes he sounded the same, "alive, and not at any of the sort of peace that most get when they die."

A piece seems to click into place for the daughter of Athena, though the image was not yet full.

"The boy is right," Luke admits with a sort of interest in his voice that makes the son of Poseidon bare his too sharp teeth.

"So you're killing her?" Annabeth asks, her voice sounding like a strange mix between anger, grief and relief. As if she didn't want to lose her friend, but couldn't stand the thought of her trapped within a tree forever either.

"I'm saving her," Luke says, sounding as if he believed it.

Percy knew that he did.

The son of the sea nods and then stands, because that was the confrontation that he was looking for, and there was little else that he needed now and even less that the older demigod could offer him. Luke touches the star at his throat as if he knows that Percy had reached the correct conclusion as well.

"I know where you're going," Luke says, that sharp smile returning to his lips, though Percy could see the cracks in it now. "30, 31, 75, 12, right?" He asks, everyone still at the words. "I heard it from a friend, they keep me posted."

Percy took that for the hint that it was: there were spies at camp. Ones that he had probably been working to lead over to his side for long before they had ever met.

"You could still join you know, Percy," he offered, "Annabeth and your new friends too. For every demigod that joins the cause, he grows stronger."

They all glanced behind themselves to the golden sarcophagus that stood at the back of the room, something cold gripping at all of their hearts as if the being inside were trying to draw them in.

Percy learned two things from the other's words just now, and got confirmation for another:

His idea that other demigods had joined this side was proven right. And, he learned that the pieces of Kronos were actively being dragged up from the pit, that he had grown strong enough to do just that, using the demigods that joined his side.

He knew that his learning this was intentional, that the other didn't have to tell him this or any of the other things that he had. He knew that they were still on the same side.

"Never," Bianca growled.

She loved reading the classics, learning the stories that were now truth. She knew what a life under Kronos' rule would be like, how likely her, Nico, Percy, and Annabeth would truly be to survive it. Anyone that thought otherwise was insane.

The four moved and stood close then, their answer all being the same as hers.

Luke had expected nothing else.

"You're not going to let us go without a fight, are you?" Percy asks in a tone of voice that says that he already knows what the answer will be.

Parts to play.

"Sadly not," the son of Hermes says, as if he almost believes the words to be true.

It was all for show though, the four were always going to leave the boat from the moment that they had stepped foot on it. There were plans to complete, ones that required the four of them out in the Sea of Monsters and not dead here.

Percy hums and raises his sword, the others do the same with a bit of relief at the reassurance that the son of Poseidon wasn't secretly on Kronos' side.

"Alright then," the teen says, his voice as steady as his still blade, "but let's not fight here. This office is pretty nice, you know."

The words were the truth, growing up poor for so long before Brooklyn House and then in the home of priceless books and magical artifacts had instilled in him an urge to not destroy anything as nice as the things around him, but at the same time he wanted to see as much of the ship as he could for future reference. Because he knew that somehow he was bound to make it back here.

"Alright," Luke agrees, standing as well, as two guards, mythical bears of some sort, move as well.

The creatures lead them out of the room, one taking the front while the other stood behind the four, the demigods walking in pairs in the middle of the two bears as Luke took up the rear. It should have felt like a funeral procession, but it didn't.

They made it to the deck of the ship, the four demigods and monsters getting pushed apart by the mortals that were still moving through the motions of living rather than truly being in any sort of control. It was what the four needed to make a run for it.

The four ran, their feet carrying them quickly across the deck as Luke and the bear twins ran after them, the monsters moving at full speed even as Percy knew that Luke wasn't, close but not quite. Just enough that if Kronos was watching he wouldn't think that they were let go even if they all but were.

The older demigod gains ground for a moment, closing in on the son of the sea as some of the mortals had gotten in the way. It's in that moment that the man makes a slash with his sword at the teen that Percy knew that he would be able to avoid of at the least counter as it got closer. Maybe not easily, but it could be done.

Nico knew this too, and yet he still found himself raising his hand up to the eldest demigod as death seemed to all but look in the air.

The two watch with wide eyes as the son of Hermes' body locks up, his movement still as if he had just lost the ability to control his own movements. Percy knew that he had. The son of Hades was controlling the bones of the living, something that he shouldn't be able to do.

The action makes both the eldest and youngest demigods scream out in pain as a crack sounded through the air. It was a sound that Percy had heard before.

He watches as both of the demigods fall to the ground then with the sound, Luke making horrible rasping sort of sounds as Nico only twitched from pain. Percy knew that the younger boy wasn't going to be moving on his own anytime soon, not with what he and just done, so with little more than a thought he runs forwards and takes the bother demigod into his arms as best as he could while running them to the small boat that the girls had found, Bianca and Annabeth already working on the ropes as they watched the pair approaching.

They fell into a free fall towards the sea below only moments after his feet meeting the boat.

It's without a thought that Percy hands over Nico to Bianca, wasting no time in grabbing the thermos from the Duat and opening it as quickly as he could, steering them away from the Princess Andromeda with a speed that not even the monster infested ship could quite match as the daughter of Hades held her brother close, tears falling from her eyes. It takes her longer than she would ever admit to get herself together to even think about speaking after watching Nico just fall in the way that he had.

"What happened? What's happening to him?" The girl asked, her voice sounding foreign even to herself.

Percy waste no time in handing the thermos over to the daughter of Athena when she moves close to take it, rushing back to the siblings at a speed that would have someone mistaking him for a flash.

He doesn't answer Bianca right away, instead reaching out to lay a hand across the other boy's forehead, finding the usually chilled skin hot to the touch.

"Annabeth," he calls, the only indication that he gets that she is listening is the slight tilt of her head at her name, "lend me your dagger for a moment."

It takes longer than the son of the sea would have like, the daughter of Athena being careful with her control of the modern windbag, not wanting to drop it into the ocean and loose it for good or let a storm loose that could further derail their goals. But, when Percy does get the blade into his hands he immediately brings it down to the other boy's skin, making a shallow cut upon it. Just enough to draw blood.

He almost wished that he hadn't.

Blood welled up on the cut, the red standing out stark against too pale skin, but Percy could just barley see the slightest shimmer in the blood.

It's enough to make him curse, something long and ancient in nature, drawing the gazes of the other two to him as he does so.

"He fractured his soul," Percy said, speaking into the air the words that he had known to be true ever since he had heard that crack. He had just hoped that he had been wrong.

He knew now that he wasn't.

"Are you sure?" Annabeth asks, never having heard of someone doing such a thing.

Bianca doesn't ask though, she knows that Percy wouldn't say it if he wasn't sure, not when it came to the two of them.

"How bad?" Is what she asks instead.

"Small," he says, though almost every crack feels small in nature when your own soul was shattered beyond any sort of repair. "Though I don't know to what extent." He stops for a moment before tearing his eyes away from the son of Hades' to look at the god's daughter. "Though you might be able to tell." It's a desperate sort of plea, but all she does is nod. "If what I'm about to have you do hurts even a little bit, stop" he instructs fiercely. "We don't need you pushing the bounds of your powers and breaking your soul next."

She nods and follows his instructions as he tells her lay a hand on Nico's chest and feel for the soul within him, to try and find where it resides. Annabeth and Percy both can tell the moment that she finds it, her brows scrunching together in discomfort. Percy almost tells her to stop, he realizes that the look isn't from pain but from something feeling wrong within her father's domain.

"It's definitely fractured," the teen decides, her voice far more steady than Percy had thought that it would be, "but I don't know what a soul is supposed to look like on either side of this, so I can't tell just how bad of break this is."

Percy had feared that would be the case.

"Use me as a comparison," he tells her, knowing that he's throwing her into the proverbial deep end of whatever pool this could classify as.

It was necessary though.

The daughter of Hades reaches out more confidently this time, keeping her other hand on her brother's chest still. It's a confidence that she looses though as she jerks away only a moment later as if he had burned her with that simple touch.

Maybe he had.

"How are you still alive?" She asks, her voice coming out with a rasps as she looks between Percy and her brother, wondering if this was what he was bound to become.

They both ignore the way that Annabeth gasps.

The son of the sea shrugs.

"There's a prophecy keeping me human," he admits, his voice loud enough for both of the other two to hear.

Annabeth takes in a startling sort of breath and he can tell that she understands.

Bianca nods because she thinks that that would likely do it, that it might just be the only thing that ever could.

"Then what about Nico?" the daughter of Hades asked, that concern back in her voice that wasn't often there. In the almost year that he had known her, the only time that she had heard it was in the first few days of camp last summer as they did activities for the first time, and then when she made a bad roll on Nico's game and got a bit too close to killing her character.

It was a sound that he was hearing all too often now, and he hated it.

"We'll have to wait," he says, hating that he doesn't have all of the answers on this, that he's letting down both of his charges in different ways because of his lack of knowledge. Because of his inability to function as a normal demigod, to see what Nico was about to do before he had raised his hand and had already done it. He felt like failure in a way that he hadn't in years. Not since before Amos. "Have to see if the fracture grows into a full break, and how fast it goes about doing so."

"You're ascending?" Annabeth asked in a way that really wasn't much of a question at all, no matter how it was phrased.

She had been putting the pieces together as the pair had spoken to one another, but had chosen to wait to ask until the two were at lull, wanting Bianca to be as sure of her little brother's condition as she could be. She knew that the boy was important to her, to both of the powerful demigods, even if the other girl craved a life outside of him.

She knew what was likely the truth, the knowledge that put so many other things into perspective for her, but she wasn't sure if she wanted it to be true. The life of a god was not a kind one, and she thought that anyone that was going to take on the responsibility of the Great Prophecy as their own deserved a kinder ending.

"I am," the son of the sea confirms, not seeing a point in lying if it would only be for a few years. Already to him, the concept of years was starting to seem more meaningless as time ceased to matter beyond how much he grew in that time. "But, it won't be until after the prophecy has been completed, no matter how that ends."

"It could not even be about you," the daughter of Athena said, speaking of logic with her words, even as she knew that she was being delusional right then. Even if she thought that she might be being cruel in saying it at all, giving the other a false sense of hope. "There's always a chance that it could be about another child of the Big Three."

Percy laughs then in a bitter sort of way as he reaches out a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind the younger boy's ear. He knew that for all of the reasons that such words were wrong, Nico might just be the biggest one.

"If that were the case," the son of the sea starts, "then I would have ascended when I was ten or eleven and had had finally broke my soul for good."

It would never be the case though. He had known that the prophecy would be his from the moment that Amos had told him about it, word having spread to the other pantheons when it had been first said by the Oracle of Delphi. When one pantheon went to war, the others often followed soon after, the universe seeking to find balance between them all.

Even if he hadn't heard the prophecy when he was younger, even if he hadn't had broken his soul and it all but had been proved that the Great Prophecy was his, he would take it as his own regardless. He wouldn't place that burden on another's shoulders. Not on Bianca's, who was so close behind him in age, and definitely not of Nico's either. Never on his.

(And yet… there was Thalia. The daughter of Zeus. A modern myth in the way that no other demigod really was these days. He knew that he was right in his assumption of the Golden Fleece being meant to do more than just heal the three and purge its poison, that it was also meant to heal the demigod within. He wondered how old she would be. If she would be a contender to the Prophecy. What would happen to her to make her loose it.

Because he knew that she would in the same way that deep down to his bones he knew that within a year of the prophecy being made complete he would ascend, because fate demanded him to be mortal for this prophecy, but he didn't know about any of those to follow)

The daughter of Athena nods then, bringing him back to the present as she does.

Annabeth figured that the other demigod was likely right, given Bianca's reaction.

"We should find somewhere to dock and lay low until Nico wakes," Percy said as he looked down at the younger boy, seeing the way that he flinched even in his sleep at every too hard shake of the boat. He didn't want him to have to be in more pain than he already was of he could help it. "I didn't pass out when I broke my soul, but I'm also not the child of an underworld god, and the living and the dead likely don't mix well like this. Not when souls are involved,"

It's was why they had been working so achingly slow with some of the siblings powers over the past year, unsure of just how far they could push it without it being too far.

They knew now.

They dock in Chesapeake Bay at the instance of the daughter of Athena, a place that Annabeth had been to before when she was younger, with Thalia and Luke. There was a small, man made shelter, one just big enough to fit the four of them for a short amount of time. Percy carries the sleeping into it, hating that he had to do so. That the other had broken himself for him over nothing.

"How did you know about this place?" Bianca asks as they settle in, Percy laying the younger boy on the ground and summoning one of the duffel bags from the Duat, not longer caring about his cover now that Annabeth already knew the most severe of it.

"Before I got to camp, I was traveling with Thalia and Luke," the blonde girl explains, "we made over a dozen shelters across the Untied States as we made our way to camp."

Her voice isn't bitter as she speaks, just devoid of almost anything at all as she answered the other girl's question. Both Percy and Bianca could tell with ease that the daughter of Athena did not want to be talking about anything to do with the son of Hermes right then after the encounter that they had just had with him.

Neither of them blame her for that.

Percy looks away from the both, diverting his attention completely to the bag at his feet and the boy at his side as he pulls out some of the Ambrosia that Hermes had put into the bags for them. Bianca doesn't need to be asked to come over and place her hand over her brother's chest once more, feeling for the soul inside as small pieces of the food of the gods worked its way through the younger boy's system.

It doesn't do anything for the fracture, not that either of them had truly thought that it would beyond a desperate hope, but it does bring his fever down to normal. Percy lays his forehead against the other's as relief washes through him like some sort of balm when he notices this, his hand holding onto the younger boy's pulse. He didn't bring Nico into their world just for the other boy to get killed so soon after meeting him.

(And maybe, now, he never would have to loose him ever. It was a selfish thought, but it was one that he had regardless)

The moment does get to last though.

(It never does)

"Who is your godly parent?" Annabeth asks as soon as she sees that the youngest of the four demigods had stabilized.

(she thinks that she already knows, she had been down there in the underworld with Percy and Grover that day, but she needed to make sure that this was them and that children of the underworld weren't just finding their ways to Percy because two of them were supposed to be doing so. And maybe, if she were to be honest, she didn't want to be right)

"Can we talk about something else?" Bianca asks, not looking away from her brother as she does. She didn't think that she would be able to do that until he woke up once more.

(A selfish part of her was almost pleased that he had the possibility of growing to become something more, though her reasons were different than Percy's own. Where Percy knew that this meant that he may never had to lose the son of Hades, Bianca almost wondered if it was the fates themselves giving her permission to just leave the boy in Percy's hands.

There would likely be a time where they were the only ones left from now after all. It would hurt both of them less)

"Sure," Annabeth answers, the anger and the hurt that had been pushed down before slipping into her tone as she spoke, "we could talk about why Luke has Percy's mark on his skin in the same way that Nico and Percy share a mark."

The son of the sea sighs, having expected those words to come sooner or later.

"That's a conversation that should wait till Nico is awake to hear it," Percy said, looking at the other two with a gaze that held something ancient to it.

At least now Annabeth knew that she wasn't imagining it.

"Siblings it is," the daughter of Athena decides.

Annabeth says siblings it is.

Percy and Bianca look at each other then, a conversation passing between them as Bianca shrugs, and Percy nods.

"Our father is one of the big three as well," the daughter of Hades answers, not daring to speak the name aloud. Doing such a thing was nearly the same as inviting the god themselves into the conversation.

Annabeth nods, because for as much as she had wanted to be wrong, she knew that she likely wasn't.

"So he broke the oath as well then?" She asks in a way that wasn't truly a question at all.

"No," Percy says, his voice firm as he shakes his head, paying no mind to the disbelief that takes over the girl's face at his blatant refusal of what she had thought to be truth. "They were born before the oath was ever made," he explains, watching her grey eyes go wide, "I found them in the Lotus Casino last year."

Annabeth nods, her eyes shifting to the ink on the arms of the son of the sea and the son of the god of the dead. Such a timeline made sense. More than most things in her life had ever since the bolt had been stolen last year.

There isn't much to say after that

—-

Nico wakes up an hour later, feeling as if he had lost a fight even as he knew that he has taken no hits that he could remember as they were running. He only had the vaguest memory of turning as Luke descended upon Percy, the son of the dead throwing his hand out to the child of the god of thieves. And then pain.

"What happened?" Nico asked as he pulled himself up to a sitting position, almost flinching away when both Percy and Bianca turned to look at him with a speed that he didn't think that they had ever used before outside of training, as the pair sat on either side of him.

A look over his shoulder revealed the daughter of Athena seemingly standing guard at the entrance to whatever hole in the wall they found themselves hiding in right then.

Percy smiles down at the boy, but Nico can tell that it's not a true sort of look.

"You tried to control the bones of the living," the son of the sea explained, not surprised when the other boy's eyes go wide at that, "your soul didn't exactly like you doing that."

"You could have worded that better," Bianca berates as Nico's mind goes all but blank for a moment.

"What do you mean?" The son of Hades asks before turning to his sister, panic rising in his chest, pain lingering there. "What does he mean?"

Bianca looks as if she doesn't to answer as Nico looks at her, the girl turning her head away so that she wouldn't have to meet his gaze.

She answers anyways.

"You fractured you soul," she says with a soft sort of voice, as if she didn't say it loudly then it wouldn't have to be true. "We don't know just how bad it is at the moment," she admits.

And Nico wants to scream at that, at all of it, but one look at Percy makes him stop short.

The other boy's eyes were more earnest, more human, than he had ever seen them before, worry so clear in them that he didn't need to look anywhere else on the teen's face to see it, but he did so anyways. He saw the relief in the set of the other's brows, and the red and gold staining Percy's lips from where he had bitten at them until they had bled and then dug his teeth in some more. His hair was a mess, the pins it'd it coming undone from where he had obviously run his hands through it in stress.

He looked like a wreck.

(Because of me, something deep and almost possessing and pleased whispered within Nico. For the first time he wondered just what it meant to fracture a soul)

"Don't scare me like that again," Percy all but demands, his eyes glinting with something gold and ancient as he does.

He knew that whatever was broken within him was absolutely shattered within the other. And maybe this should have scared him, but it didn't.

"Hypocrite," Nico calls him, something that no one could deny.

And Percy can tell then that the son of Hades' s powers have already grown just from this, from how they were speaking. His gaze was a bit different too, less childlike innocence and a bit more cold and godlike, it's a look that Percy recognizes from the mirror. He didn't know if it was a good thing.

(Something in him sang as if it was, even as he knew that many of the other demigods within the world would look at the pair in horror if they knew the things that they could now do. If they knew just how much more inhumane they would become with each passing day)

"You'll have an eternity to call me such all that you want," the son of the sea assures the other, something in him singing once more at the thought, "but we should take care of you first."

Nico sits up when asked to, nothing hurting within him besides a mild ache that was subsiding more and more each moment that he spent awake. They figured that the boy was likely okay to move from where he was, even as he still looked exhausted, eyes blinking slow. Percy knew that was to be expected, that it was a miracle that he had woken up so soon. He figured that the other boy would just sleep a while more that night when they eventually stop to rest.

Nico raises a hand to the star at the base of Percy's throat after the son of the sea had pulled him to his feet, Bianca and Annabeth moving to stand as well. He looks at Percy with a gaze that demands answers, and Percy knows that he could never refuse.

The older boy sighs. "We should walk and talk," he suggest, knowing that they had ground to cover and time to make up for.

The others agree.

The four leave and start walking up the hill outside of the hideaway, the air tense around them all as Percy thought of just what to say. Of how much to give away when even his Dad knew none of it.

"I spoke to Luke before he left camp last summer," Percy confesses as he walks ahead of the other three, feeling their gazes on his back like some sort of brand. "He wanted to recruit me and kill me if I refused to stand at his side."

The three go still at those words, their eyes wide even if Percy couldn't see them. It was an attempt on the teen's life that no one had heard of. It made them wonder just how much more he was hiding.

"We came to a different understanding instead. Instead of me joining the Titan's side, Luke is joining mine in a way. When the war finally comes, because we all know that it is, we'll both play our parts, but when it ends we'll do whatever is needed to force the gods into change."

More than one of them wanted to ask why they were even bothering with the Titan's at all in this, why Kronos had to be the other side of this war. Why there had to be a war at all. But they knew that that wasn't how fate worked, that you couldn't fight it. If it was destined to occur then it would, and any attempts made to fight fate would only make it worse in the end. It was like trying to swim upstream. Sometimes it was just better to give into the current until either the water gathered into a pool at the end that you could swim out of, or you found something to latch onto along the way.

They were going for the lake at the end, changing the stream once they had already reached the end of it.

"How did you manage to get Luke to agree?" Annabeth asks after a long moment, not sure that she wants to know, but feeling something like hope curling up in her heart at the thought of it all.

(If he had agreed to this, fully agreed to it, then maybe he wasn't as lost as she had thought)

"People will agree to a lot of things when you traumatize them first," Percy answers, and they were sure that if they could see the look on his face then they would be greeted with a too sharp smile that more belonged in the mouth of what most people thought of when they spoke of sirens nowadays.

He doesn't explain any more than that.

She wanted to ask about Luke poisoning Thalia's tree, but Nico speaks first.

"Is that a Mc Donald's?" The son of Hades asks, the words absurd, but sure enough there was what looked to be a Mc Donald's down at the base of the hill.

A Mc Monster's.

(As if that made it any better)

"How the hell?" Bianca asks, uncaring of the cross in religion right then, if it could even be called that as hell was essentially a fan fiction concept at the end of the day.

"It's a monster nest," Annabeth explains, something that makes the other three look at her with gaze that purely said 'no shit.' It was a look that the daughter of Athena didn't seem to quite enjoy. Go figure. "They're why fast food restaurant chains pop up so fast around the world, and are usually born from the thought of food."

This time the disbelieving gaze is turned to the son of Hades, both Percy and Bianca knowing that he was to thank for the Mc Donald's themed monster nest before them. It was his favorite place to eat, even as it was anything but good for any of them.

"You break your souls and see if you aren't hungry after," the younger boy griped, his arms crossed over his chest as they all peered down at the monster below, trying to figure out just what was hiding within the nest.

The sour expression bleeds away though when Percy hands over a water bottle that had been dosed with nectar within it.

They never did make it to the knock off restaurant to see if there was an actual food within it.

"Let's all turn around very slowly," Percy advised as his spine began to tingle, danger creeping into his bones in a way that it hadn't in years. A reaction that he didn't understand until he saw that they standing almost face to face with a mythical creature that was harder to kill than most that they had come across.

"That's," Bianca started with a whisper, but stopped as she shifted slowly to position herself more in front of Nico as Percy did the same. It was an action that the son of Hades hated, but understood with the way in which his body was still subtly protesting every too big movement.

"Yup," Annabeth confirmed, looking as if she wanted to say anything else as the hydra was sniffing the ground, tracking them by scent that they had left behind. Usually such a thing wouldn't quite be enough, but with three children of the big three all traveling together, two of which were by the same parent, it didn't take much more than that.

"Still," Percy whispered, his voice so quiet that he wasn't sure if the other three would even hear it.

Most monsters had horrible vision, which was why their sense of smell was as great as it was, if they were still enough then there was the slimmest chance that the monster would pass over them, thinking that they had just lingered there a few moments longer than normal. It was a wild sort of hope.

One that didn't pay off.

Two of the heads turned to look right at them, their noses moving fiercely and Percy knew that they were beyond screwed.

"Scatter!" The daughter of Athena screamed, the other three hardly needing to be told to move before all four of them were diving into different directions, their weapons held in their hands as if they would do much against a monster that could just regenerate the damage that it takes to it heads. A monster whose only weakness was fire, something that none of them had.

The only thing that they did have was…

Percy thrust out his hand, feeling the poisonous blood running through the monster's body, running through all of it's different limbs. He couldn't tell just from this which of the heads was the immortal one, nor was he sure that he could explode all of them at once even if he tried to. He tried to feel for a heart or anything of the like as the creature swayed for a moment as his blood was being stilled under Percy's control, but monsters didn't have to follow the same sort of antinomy restrictions as the rest of them did, and this monster certainly wasn't.

He was seconds away from just begging to explode head after head, trusting in Bianca to take out some of the others with arrows, consequences be damned, when a strange chugging sort of noise caught all of their attention, even that of the hydra.

There was a steamship approaching them from the river, a familiar voice calling out from the deck of it:

"There! The thirty-two pounder!" Clarisse ordered, her voice wild and manic and completely at home in her element.

None of the four had to be told to dive out of the way as soon as they heard that, hydra guts splattering across the earth only moments after they did. They tried not to breath in the air, knowing that in some versions of the myth even doing something as simple as that could be toxic.

"Losers," Clarisse called them as she looked down at the three from the deck of her ship with far too much glee in her eyes for the situation at hand, but I suppose I'll save ya. Get on."

The daughter of Ares grinned at them in the way that she would before winning a game of capture the flag as she lead the four of them around the ship in an impromptu sort of tour that only the children of Hades seemed to enjoy, their pair all but having the time of their lives as they looked upon all of the skeletons aboard the ship, their finger twitching as they passed each one of them as if they were itching to reach out and take control. The pair had only ever worked with animal and monster bones before, so humans bones were a whole other thing, especially with the souls still clinging to them in the way that they were. It was almost intoxicating in nature to the two children of the Greek god the dead.

Annabeth watched as Percy had to shove down both of the siblings hands from reaching out to try and control the dead around them, Nico even more so than Bianca as the dead sailors edged away from them all, and thought of the ways in which the boy had looked at the gods and talked of the ichor that ran through their veins. She wondered if this was just a thing for the children of the big three and Thalia never showed this side, or if the three before her were just too godly in nature. She kinda figured that it was the latter.

"You've been expelled from camp for life," Clarisse says as they sit down for dinner that night, the five of them. Her tone and her smile are smug, but Percy can see the cracks there in the way that the older demigod looks. No one truly liked the idea of a demigod being expelled from one of the only safe places on earth for them, they liked it even less as more and more demigods left to join the other side.

Percy shrugs, not really caring about being kicked out of camp, not when he and those that he cared for had somewhere safe to go, though Annabeth looks more concerned. Percy figured that if worse came to worse he could bring the girl to Brooklyn House, though his dad might kill him for doing just that.

"Clarisse," Annabeth started, her voice pained at the thought of having to appeal to the daughter of the other war god, "we think that Luke might also be after the fleece," she tells the eldest demigod, a sentiment that Percy doesn't quite believe in, "we ran into him earlier-"

"Great, I'll blow him out of the water while I'm out here!" Clarisse said, no longer truly listening, though Percy can't help but wonder if that's bravado.

"There are mortals on that ship," Nico interrupts, his voice colder that Percy had ever heard it before, like the depths of Hades itself, "and if you try to kill them then I will make sure that their souls haunt you for the rest of eternity," he vowed, the only thing that was missing was an oath on the Styx.

"When did the shrimp get so scary?" Clarisse asks, her voice supposed to be pitched to make it sound like a joke, but it didn't quite make as she knew somewhere in her bones that the child of the underworld could really do just that if he wished to.

Both Percy and Bianca answer at the same time.

"Today."

"When he met Percy."

Clarisse looks to Annabeth, but the daughter of Athena only shrugs.

Percy can see that Annabeth looks like she wants to say something about the quest, something stupid that was sure to make the daughter of Ares shut down from whatever goodwill sort of mood she was in at the moment. They couldn't have that, at least not in the manner that Annabeth was likely trying to lead it. War and the sea were a lot alike when it came to not wanting to be controlled.

"Where are your other two quest members?" the son of the sea asks, sure that he would have seen them by now.

"I let my siblings stay behind," Clarisse answers, but the four can tell that its a lie.

Percy can see her hackles rising at the question and the sheer lack of belief in her weak answer, so he speaks quickly once more.

"That's likely a good thing," the son of the sea says, his voice almost leading in nature as he does, drawing all of the eyes at the table to him, more than one having raise brows attached to the bold words, "since there is a spy at camp."

They watch as she pales at the news before anger coils up in her eyes. Anger, that for the first time since he had met the girl, wasn't directed at him but at the asshole that would betray the only home that so many of them had. The only one that she had.

There's denial in that gaze too, the want to not have to look at everyone around her as if they were potential enemies, but the logic afforded to her as a child of the war god seems to win out as she comes to accept that this was to be expected.

"Though," he begins once more once she had slumped just the slightest bit in her chair in defeat of a battle fought against herself, "I don't like that you were allowed to leave on your own without two other members for the quest." And here he can see that familiar anger welling up once more, pleased to have a tangible target, as the other three demigods and a handful of skeletons brave enough to be around the children of Hades, looked at him as if he had gone insane. He speaks quickly once more. "Quests are supposed to be completed in threes, because even if the other two do nothing, it's still a lucky number to the Greeks."

"Then why are there four of you?" the daughter of Ares asks, her arms crossed over her chest as if she had just won something in doing so.

"Well," he starts once more, holding up four fingers as he does, "if we add in you and Grover to the mix, then that gives us six for this quest, which means perfection, so we're good."

Clarisse mutters the word perfection like it gives her something to think about, he thought that it probably did

She tells them to rest for the night, having one of the skeletons show them to the hammocks below deck. He figured that it was likely the best that they were going to get for the day.

—-

Percy wakes the next morning to the sound of alarms ringing through the ship as its soldiers moved with panicked steps, bones clattering against the metal. He thinks that he would have known without being told by one of the soldiers just what was occurring.

They were at the entrance to the Sea of Monsters.

Percy stood quickly, moving even faster as he made his way to the Upper Deck, to the children of Hades that were under his care and to the daughters of the two war gods whose pride would doom them all if they were to disagree on what was to come.

He was right about most of them being above deck, though he was wrong about one of them.

He stopped as he heard familiar voice floating through the hall, unpleasant feelings and memories welling up within him at the sound of the other's voice alone, at his presence that could still be felt even as he wasn't there at all. Percy made a decision then and went down the extra floor silently so that he could better watch and hear. Something inside of him screamed that this was something that he needed to do.

The idea was reinforced the moment when he was close enough once more to hear the words that were being spoken. Being screamed at the demigod.

(Pathetic he called her)

To see the actions that Ares was taking even if only through the mist.

The war gods raised his fist. Clarisse flinched.

That was all that the son of the sea needed to know.

Percy waits for the girl, standing outside of the boiler room, the positioning crystal clear for the daughter of the war god when she stepped out of the room that the boy had heard enough of it.

Clarisse looked pissed.

(She looked scared)

"You better keep your mouth shut, kelp for brains, or else," the girl threatens, her voice hard.

Percy knew that the threat was real, that she would follow through on it. Clarisse was a cornered animal right now, angry and hurt, they lash out first and apologize never.

The son of the sea god only lifts his shirt and turns to show his back. He knows that she can still see the belt marks there under the ink from the way that she goes silent at the action. He knows that it's not a pretty sight, that Nico only hadn't truly seen it before when he had showed the other boy the ink because he had been too focused on the feathers, the wings. And besides, they had been on a quest then like they were now, if he had seen them he had likely thought that it was from that.

Clarisse knew better.

He turns back around to look at her as he speaks. Her face was pale.

"I ran away when I was seven because of my stepfather," he admits, his voice hollow of any of the emotions that one would expect to hear when telling such a thing, "I went back to find him last summer after the quest and used the severed Medusa's head to kill him." It was here that his eyes took on a glint of steel to them, that they turned cold as the deepest depths of the sea, dangerous as the strongest storm, "I don't tolerate shit like that from anyone," he tells her, "not even gods."

"You killed someone?" Clarisse asked, her eyes wide and her lips missing that signature smirk. She looked shell shocked by it all. "A mortal?"

"That's what you fixate on?" Percy asks, his voice filled with disbelief as he does. "Whatever, it doesn't matter," he adds, pushing the thought from his mind, they were pressed enough for time right now as it was. "If your father tries something like that with you or one of your siblings, come to me. I'm not afraid to put my dear cousin in his place like I did last summer."

He knows that she wants to be angry about the idea that he was more capable of handling the war god than the children of him, about the idea that she might need help, but a deep seated tiredness and fear seemed to win out in the end. Percy knew that it was as much for her own sake as for her younger siblings.

Still…

"Just because you won once that doesn't guarantee anything else," Clarisse points out, her voice lacking the haughtiness, the defensiveness, now that she knew that the other had been in the same boat that she was.

She expects the other to give into her words and maybe back out on the offer altogether, what she doesn't expect is for Percy to draw a dagger from seemingly nowhere and then use it to cut the skin on it his own arm until it bled.

The blood that ran down his arm almost shines as red as it does gold.

(She thought that the gold might be shining through just a bit more)

"You're ascending?" She asks, stunned in a way that she had never expected her own voice to sound. This whole damned conversation was doing that over and over it seemed.

She had only ever heard of one demigod ascending naturally before, all of the rest had to be blessed by the gods themselves. The one that ascended naturally became an Olympian, the ones that didn't became little more than minor gods.

Something in her bones told her that Percy was going to be more than both of those.

"It won't be until the prophecy is over," he tells her, wiping the blood away before it could stain his clothes, "but yes, I am. Even as I am now the ground between myself and him is much more even than you could hope for it to be between the two of you."

And Clarisse's pride has her wanting to argue and hit the boy over that, to do something, but she doesn't because she knows that this isn't pity, it's understanding coupled with the power to do something. Power that she just didn't hold right then no matter how much she might wish that she did.

"Maybe you aren't so bad," Clarisse says, even as the words seem like they are causing her pain to do that much.

Percy just shakes his head, knowing that was as close to permission as he was going to get.

"We should get to the deck now," he says instead, turning back to the stairs, "the sea of monsters waits for no one."

He doesn't need to be facing her to see the vicious sort of grin on the daughter of war's face right then.

The pair go quickly.

When they reach the deck of the ship, it looks as if there is a storm just before them, wild and swirling both above and within the water. Percy knows better, he can feel the monster that was standing just below the water, her mouth opened wide as she sucked in water in hopes of trapping food within it.

(he could feel another monster, one much larger and much older beneath her as well. One that was both slumbering and near waking as well, paying no mind to those above because they had nothing to do with the event that the sea serpent was preparing itself for, had been preparing itself for since the creation of the world itself almost. Percy didn't envy the Norse pantheon right then, not if this was the beast that could circle the whole world, and the monster that they were about to face was smaller than one of the serpent's talons from what he could tell. He doesn't tell anyone else about this monster though)

One glance at the siblings shows that they have an idea of who the monster before them was as well, even as Annabeth was in something like denial at the idea.

"Charybdis," the daughter of Athena said in a voice that seemed to wish that someone would, for once, call her wrong and a fool for thinking such a thing.

No one does.

Percy looks to Clarisse, looks at the way that she is eyeing the whirlpool as if it was something achievable. Dream fills him then.

"Choose Scylla," he tells her, something like desperation clawing at his throat. Charybdis was someone large enough and powerful enough that if they were to become trapped, Percy wasn't sure that he could save all five of them, and he knew who he would pick if it came down to that.

It wouldn't be the daughter of Ares, maybe not even the daughter of Athena, not so long as the children of Hades were by his side.

(not so long as Nico was there)

It was cruel, but it was true.

Still, he wanted to find a way that no one ended up dead.

"My canons can't shoot high enough to reach her," Clarisse explains, the others on the ship are shocked to hear even taking the suggestion of another at all.

"We don't need them," Percy answers, his voice sure as he opens his palm, the faint scent of ozone filling the air as he does. In the middle of his hand sat a small storm, lighting arching out of it strong enough to singe the deck when it made contact. "Leave it to me and Nico," he asks, knowing that this was the best chance that they had right then. All four of the other children of the gods look at the like he had gone crazy for including Nico in this. Percy doesn't mind, he was wondering if he had gone a bit insane too. "There are likely a lot of souls around Scylla that want revenge on the monster that killed them," he explains, seeing the idea settle in the minds of the others and the son of Hades turned to look at the rocks that the beast had made a home within, as if wondering if he could feel them from so far away.

His fingers twitched at his side as if he did.

"Now would be a good time to test just how great of a boost you got," Percy told the other boy when he turned to look back at him, "besides, my plan has a better chance of the ship staying together without or without help. Its a miracle that its held on this long when these are not the sort of waters that its meant to be in."

As if on cue the boat groans something fierce.

Clarisse gives in, and the other four wonder if the world is about to end.

They veer towards Scylla, as everyone moves to go below deck while Percy conjures a storm with Nico at his side, lighting arching from his fingertips and striking the monster, stunning her for a moment even from so far away. But, Nico doesn't get the chance to use his own abilities, and the others never make it below as the ship begins to lurch and resist.

Percy drops quickly and presses a hand against the floor of the ship, he could just barley feel it tearing itself apart as they moved into deeper and deeper waters still. A different sort of child of Poseidon might be able to feel more, but his powers have always been more veered towards liquids than other mechanical aspects of the sea and the things upon it.

"The ship is likely going to explode," he yells out over the deck, knowing that the others had gotten the message from the way in which they ran away from the entrance to below deck, knowing that going down there was a death sentence.

Percy looks off to the side and sees safety just inside the sea, if they were just fast enough to reach it.

If they timed it just right.

"Okay, everyone let's play grab the son of Poseidon," he says as he pulls the thermos from the Duat once more, ignoring the questioning looks from Clarisse and Annabeth as he does so.

The other four move quickly, holding onto him and once he was sure that they had a good grip, he opens the thermos once more, the boat exploding only moments later as he does, the flames still managing to kiss and singe at their skin even from the air. Percy adds his own abilities to the wind, making them go even faster than they should, taking the storm within under his command as they soar through the air and then later the sea, moving for as long as they could. It's when Bianca and Nico's hands start to slip that they finally make it to land.

He felt the magic of the island wash over him from the moment that his feet touched the sand of it, all but drowning in the feeling of it. It was everywhere, but not in the manner that it was everywhere in camp or Olympus, created and sustained by the belief of many. No, this magic all belonged to one person, someone ancient that held more magic in their bones that was solely their own that most gods did and than any magician that Percy had ever met before or grown up around. That second part scared him more than he cared to admit.

He had been raised by one of the most powerful magicians in all of the Nomes.

He could see the siblings shifting uneasily as they were able to feel it more than Clarisee and Annabeth, not as trained or as broken as him quite yet for it to be as choking as it was for him, but they could feel it nonetheless.

(How could they not?)

Percy bored back a curse as he gets an idea as to just where they might be if the Odyssey was anything to go by, but he supposed that the reaction wasn't as hidden as he would have liked because the other four were looking at him with raised brows and hands on weapons as if they expected for danger to appear out of nowhere.

Smart, it likely would though it wouldn't look like it at all.

"Annabeth," he starts, his voice low as his eyes glanced around to make sure that there were no mythical being approaching, "can you lend me your knife once more, please?" He asked, not wanting to use his own magic with what he was about to do. Not even to summon his own dagger from the Duat.

She hands it over, unquestioning and trusting in a way that he really wished that she wasn't, but to try and change now would just be a hindrance to them all.

The four watch as he takes the blade to his skin for a second time that day, the cut from earlier standing angrily beside the one that he was adding with one slow, decisive cut through the layers of skin, gold tinted blood welling up in moments.

Annabeth looks as if she wanted to rip the blade away the second that he moved the knife towards himself, knowing that he intended to harm himself but not why. She didn't though, Bianca and Nico each grabbing an arm to stop the daughter of Athena from startling the son of the sea and making him actually hurt himself in a manner worse than this.

Clarisse just watched, knowing that the last time that the other teen had done this had been to prove a point. She knew that it was more than that right now, something ancient and older.

(A bit like a sacrifice)

The siblings watched with understanding, knowing what the other meant to do. He hadn't brought any of inks, hadn't even stashed any within the Duat, before they had set off for camp. Percy had made an excuse about already having enough tattoos as it was, but Nico wondered now if it was Percy not wanting to use the ink now that Luke knew about it, not wanting the other to have a chance to steal some away and make his own version.

When Percy makes the inks, his pulls the magics that run through his veins from his body, golden blood spilling from his body and into a bowl as it was mixed with ink already in there. Other than blood loss, the magic in his body drains as well. The amount that he uses for the inks is such a high concentration that he almost seems like a normal demigod for a few days after, because even he had his limits. But it had to have so much for the impossible feats that he was able to do with it to become possible.

(Nico had watched the last time that he had made a refill, curious as he wore the product of the last batch. Percy had passed out, overdoing it, and Nico had spent the time going between mixing the blood and ink and pouring it into bottles, and laying wet cloths on the teen's head until he regained color once more.

He didn't think that he had ever been more terrified in his life then he was when he watched the other crumple on the ground)

"Hold out your hands," Percy instructs, his voice almost clinical in nature as he does, looking at the girls as the blood began to run down his arm. "Quickly," he urges, moving quickly as they do.

He gathers the blood up onto his thumb smearing it over one of the three's hands before moving to the next teen, though when they look down at the blood it was just gold left behind, the red falling down and staining the sand.

Each of the three can't help but look disgusted even as the guessed at what the son of Poseidon was doing for them, but Nico just finds himself running a hand over the feathers on his arms, feeling the magic run through each one.

You always appreciated a gift more once you knew the price.

"Think of it as a one shot does of godly power," Percy explains, wishing he had time to say more, but there was a lady with a clipboard coming their way, and time just wasn't on their side. It never was. He just barley had time to shake one of the vitamins from Hermes into both his and Nico's hands before it felt like they were approaching in on damning. "Go along with whatever happens next and use it if you need to escape."

"Welcome!" The woman with the clipboard said, her voice bright as she approached the group, making the other four turn to face her, each just barely resisting the urge to grab for their weapons. She looked normal, if a bit out of place being in the sea of monsters and dressed as a knock off flight attendant, but knew better than that if he was right about where they were. "Is this your first time with us?"

"Yes," Bianca answered, her smile polite and gentle.

It was the look that Percy and Nico had seen her give one too many nosy adults when they asked why the three of them weren't in school and she explained in her most condescending tone that they were home schooled and that they should mind their own business before she started minding theirs.

The stranger smiled and wrote the answer down. Nico wondered how it couldn't be when this was the damned sea of monsters and he doubted than many people ever left any of the islands once they found themselves stranded on them. And even if they did leave, they still spent more time than they should have in one place. Odysseus and his men had spent a year with Circe before they had left.

So much for wanting to get home.

She looked the five of them up and down as if they were math problems to solve and she wasn't sure which formula to use just yet.

"I'll just take you to speak with C.C. so she can decide what it best for the five of you," the woman decided on, though her eyes stayed on Clarisse, Nico, and Percy for a moment too long, nose wrinkling at the daughter of Ares as she looked at the boys with barely hidden disdain.

C.C.

Circe.

Sometimes Percy hated being right.

He slipped the dagger back to Annabeth as they walked, looking at the other four to see if they understood just where they were right now. He didn't know, and he hated that he couldn't just ask.

The area that they walked through was beautiful, designed with architecture from ancient times, waterfalls, and tame animals of all sorts roaming around as if they were never meant to be anywhere else. There was music floating through the air as a woman sung of magic, and if Percy looked for long enough he could spot the nymphs as they moved at home through the island, safe from all of those that would dare to do them harm on their Lady's island. He wondered how long some of them had been here, how many were by choice or just cast off like trash.

He thought that maybe it was an answer that he didn't want to know.

(He didn't let himself think about how much he was like them in a way. Even if leaving had been his choice, he had left a place that wasn't safe and then found home in a place of magic.)

When they finally stopped, they did so in a room covered with windows and mirrors and white furniture that made everything feel like some sort of museum. The only color was the tapestry that was being weaved - the image of a waterfall shimmering as magic ran through the threads - the dark hair tied through with gold of the woman weaving it, and the cage of hamsters in the corner of the room.

He had a feeling about that last one.

The woman smiled, kind and soft as she looked upon the daughters of the gods, almost motherly in nature. She was beautiful like that, when she was being earnest and caring for others, even as she sent the three away with an attendant - Hylla, she called her - to be able to change out of the old, singed clothing and tour the place, already fitting them into her home without having to be asked as Nico and Percy were made it stay behind.

Such beauty became cheap as she looked upon them, the eyes of a killer contrasting like oil and water with the soft - increasingly strained - smile as she looked upon the two of them.

He supposed immortals never did change.

(He would just have to become someone good before he became, a kind god if he could)

"Circe," the son of the sea greets, bowing his head in respect.

He hoped that it would do more in this case than it had with Medusa, but even if all it did was buy time then that would be fine.

Nico bows his head as well, his hands kept together at his front, fingers ghosting over the feathers there. He wouldn't attack unless she did first, something that the son of the king of the dead hoped that she would extend to them as well.

The cage filled with Guinea Pigs told another story.

The goddess seems surprised that she was recognized so fast, whatever speech she had prepared dying on her tongue at the fact.

"I likely wouldn't have recognized you if I had just met you and hadn't felt the magics of this place first," Percy admits before looking around the room, seeing how sterile and without life it all was. There were no beautiful plants to decorate the room, no true whispers of magic besides the tapestry, the cursed mirrors, and whatever had been used to turn the men into animals. It all felt like the bare bones of a myth, being broken down to spa. He didn't know how she could stand it. "The mortals' perception of you has turned you shallow," he says more to himself than either of the other two, though he still meant the words all the same.

She was supposed to be a goddess of magic, she held so much that he almost felt sick off of it, and yet time had turned her into little more than a manager of an island in a cursed sea.

(He almost wondered if the Marvel comics depiction of her - Sersi - or the DC one would be better than who was standing before him, even if their personalities were actions of fiction and not truth)

Her eyes flare for a moment at the blunt words, cold and cruel and shining like the an ancient sun. In that moment she almost feels like who she was supposed to be from the myths. And then it fades.

"I am nothing of the sort," she all but snarls, her voice teetering on the edge of inhuman, a start Percy supposed, "you impertinent demigod."

Even Nico looks doubtful, something that they knew that she could tell.

"There are human souls in the Guinea pigs," Nico tells the older demigod, as he feels some of the souls that were even older than his own within that cage.

Percy hums, and the son of the sea can't help but wonder if it was a better fate than being actual pigs or not. At least they weren't going to be slain and eaten this way.

He wondered if the switch that the goddess made was also a byproduct of mortals perception of her, or if she was truly trying to be kind.

If the second was the case then he couldn't help but wonder…

"Did any of those men actually try anything and this is a just punishment, or did they just have the misfortune of landing on your island and you acted first?" He asked, not truly caring much either way.

He doubted many of them would make it out of the Sea of Monsters before they were to die even if they were to be turned back, and the ones that did would find themselves lost in a world that had moved on without them, time moving differently in places of magic like this.

"It is better not to leave anything to chance when you have others under your care," is all that the goddess says in return.

A fact that Percy knows well.

He almost says as much, but they were on a time limit, they needed to leave here as fast as they could, preferably with a boat if there was one to be found.

"We spoke with Hermes before coming here," Percy tells her, cutting to the chase. "We all know how myths like to repeat themselves in present time. That if you were to fight us now, as we are all but retelling Odysseus' journey, then the fates will have willed it that you will lose."

The words are quick and almost cruel, but she does know that they are true.

She hated that a life that she had lived had been reduced down to a myth, to something to be repeated for eternity or until she one day let herself fade. That there was nothing that she could do because even the gods had to bow to fate.

There were some stories though that she never wanted to repeat, ones that she had managed to avoid by turning men into their inner selves from the moment that arrived and fell under her control, never giving them the chance to try anything at all.

There were some stories that she refused to see repeated.

She hoped that this wouldn't be that one.

"Don't hurt my daughters," she asked, knowing that she could try and fight, but with Hermes at work her magics would not land.

(Would they have landed had the messenger god not interfered? She wondered, unsure. The boy was right when he called her shallow. Almost none of the gods or monsters of old were little more than a shadow of what they once were. They were all blades dulled by time)

The boys look upon her with horror at those words.

"The thought had never even crossed our minds," Nico says, something sick welling up within his gut as the goddess looks at him in surprise. That was not the sort of person that he ever wanted to be. "We didn't even mean to come here," he continues, wanting to wash that look from her face, "we're off to save a satyr from Polyphemus. If anything this is just delaying us."

Percy nods, ignoring the way in which the deity looked between them. "We're kinda doing the Odyssey in reverse right now," he admits, "just avoiding actually visiting the wind god, pissing off my father, and Calypso's island if we can help it," he says, taking off a finger with each feat that the old hero had once done in an attempt to get home. He snaps, as of remembering something before adding, "And we've already been to the underworld last years so there's also that."

And Circe can't help the genuine sort of laugh that bubbles up within her at the absurdity of such a thing being said. At all of it from the start the group's visit to where they found themselves now.

"Are you five planning on going through any other legends this trip then?" The goddess asks, giving into the insanity that was the pair before her as something sort of light began to take place in her chest. She was almost tempted to name it hope.

It was something that she hadn't felt in a very long time.

"We're going after the Golden Fleece, so there's that," Nico supplies, shrugging as if the words didn't mean much them.

Maybe they didn't.

"We've already encountered the Lotus Eaters, Scylla, and Charybdis, so those shouldn't be a problem either," Percy adds with a smile, as if he knew just how absurd it all was, but couldn't do a damned thing about it either.

Circe looks at the two boys, much too young for the feats that they're talking of, but she's sure that they're not lying. Though they both were so young, there was something so Greek and ancient in each of their eyes, more so in the older one's than the younger. She could feel the power of the sea in the boy before her, and ever so faintly on the girls that they had brought with them, and even more so the boy at the elder's side.

She had first thought that it was a harmful sort of thing, but she wondered now if it wasn't a protection charm of some sort, magic at its rawest and finest. There's something about the older demigod boy that makes her want to have hope in the world once more, an emotion that she had long given up on before she had ever become a myth.

She wondered if it would be okay just this once to give into such a thought.

"The girls will be given the offer to stay if they wish, but none of y'all will be trapped here," she decides as she looks at the pair.

She has a feeling what the other three will decide.

Percy smiles at that and Nico thinks that it's the prettiest thing that he had ever seen.

Percy turns to look at the younger boy and doesn't seem to notice the heat in his cheeks, instead his gaze going to the singed, days old clothes that they were both in.

"Do you have any clothes that we could change into?" Percy asks, figuring that just about anything else would be better than what the pair of them were in now. And besides, the other three were supposed to be getting a change as well.

"I do," the enchantress says, something soft playing over her lips as the show of care that she had just been privy to, "but it's only chitons."

"That's fine," the older of the demigods assures, just wanting the scent of smoke out of his clothes if he could manage it.

"Reyna," the goddess calls out, a demigod girl about the same age as Percy walking into the room only moments later, one that looked a lot like the girl that had left with Annabeth, Clarisee, and Bianca. "Can you take these two to go change into some spare clothes, please?" She asked.

The demigod nodded and lead the pair away, before going to get Hylla and the group that her sister had with her. She figured that they should be kept together now that the boys aren't being turned to animals.

The girls are waiting for them when they walk back out of the rooms they had gone into to change, only Clarisee choosing to stay in the modern clothes no matter damaged they were.

All of the eyes in the room turn to the pair when the door open and they both step out.

There's a moment of the loud sort of silence as the five demigods look upon the two boys, as they look upon them and see young gods standing before them, even as only the demigods from camp knew why this was.

Still, they looked as if they belonged in Ancient Greece, not as if they were soon to return to an island off the coast of New York.

"We should get going now," Percy says, not seeming to notice the stares as he made sure that the broach of the chiton was fashioned just right on his shoulder and hip. "Grover and the barrier won't wait much longer for us."

Clarisse grins something fierce at that, cracking her knuckles. "Good, I'm ready to kill me a cyclops."

"We probably shouldn't do that," Percy advises with a barley hidden cringe. "I'm not all that eager to weigh any care that my father may have for me against the son that he spent thirteen years chasing Odysseus over."

"Fair enough," Annabeth agrees with a grin even as the other child of the other war god grumbles.

Reyna and Hylla watch the five leave, something in their bones restricting the life that they had been living as they heard them speak of battles that weren't on the pages of books. As they longed to fight themselves.

Maybe one day they would.

—-

Before all of this, Percy had never gone sailing before. He had gone to the beach a few times, but had never been in the water in a manner like this. So, it was a surprise for all of them when they stepped onto the vessel and it responded to his thoughts and whims like some sort of eager puppy, ropes flying and the ship cutting through the water with little more than a passing thought about it. There was a giddy sort of feeling when you discovered a new power that you hadn't known before that you have, one that made the other four on the ship roll their eyes with something almost fond as the older of the two boys bounced around the ship to see just all that he could do an it as it was moving through the waters of the Sea of Monsters.

The feeling didn't last long though.

Mist starts to cover the waters before them, still distant but no true way of avoiding it without having to turn around. There was something within that mist that made the son of the sea want to bare his teeth as if that would do anything at all.

(Poseidon was the father of monsters after all, maybe it would, one day)

It's only when the other four join him in looking apprehensively at the fog that they were approaching that Percy realizes that he had made some sort of noise in the back of his throat that had gotten their attention. Annabeth tried to meet his gaze, and it took her flinching away to realize that his eyes were flaring gold.

He wondered just what it could be that would have all of his less than human instincts flaring in such a way that was usually only reserved for anger, and then it clicked.

They should have added sirens to the list that he and Nico had given Circe of things to avoid during their journey, because they were passing by their island very soon.

Sirens had the sort of magics in their voices that was stronger than nearly every other mythical being as soon as they heard it. Even gods and goddesses were not immune, the birdlike creatures having been - in part - made by one after all.

No wonder everything about him was screaming to turn away, any sane being would.

"I want to hear them," Annabeth said, knowing that the others had figured out what they were as well. She knew that it was a foolish idea, that it was a death sentence if anything went wrong. A sentence that might just escape beyond her as well, but she still wanted to know. She needed to know. "I want to become wise, to learn things about myself that I wouldn't be able to otherwise."

And Percy wanted to tell the other teen that this seemed like the exact opposite of what someone who wanted to be wise would do, blatantly so, but one glance at Bianca keeps him from doing just that.

"Fuck," he groaned low in his throat, knowing all of the ways that this was a horrible idea. It was a horrible idea that they were doing anyways. "Move to the post."

Annabeth and Bianca smile like they had just won something as he agrees, Nico and Clarisse laughing at his expense. Hypocrites, the both of them. He knew that they would have caved in as well if asked.

"There's some wax below deck," the son of the sea told the son of the dead, "grab it for me won't you?"

Nico nodded and left, his steps quick. They all knew just how little time they had before they were in range.

"Alright," Percy said, more to himself than anyone else, waiting for the moment that Annabeth stopped shifting against the foremast of the ship. "You sure about this?" he asked as Nico handed out the wax, giving her the chance to opt out before it was too late to do so. Once they had the wax in their ears, there would be no way for them to know what was her and what was the siren's influence.

"I'm sure," the daughter of Athena says with a decisive sort of nod.

If Percy ever met the girl's mother, he was telling the goddess that her daughter is an idiot.

a flick of his wrist was all that was needed for the loose ropes to tie themselves tightly around the daughter of Athena, so much so that any movement was liable to cause injury. The others looked at him as the blonde girl hissed from a small movement but Percy only sighed, he was hoping that if it was tight enough that Annabeth couldn't move then they wouldn't have to worry about a runaway daughter of the wisdom goddess in a moment or two.

They put the wax into their ears, the weight of it comforting as the island in the fog drew closer and closer still. Percy moved towards the front of the boat then, knowing that the area around the island was covered in rocks, and wanting to make sure that they stayed away from them, his hands spread out towards the water to take better control of it at any moment that he might need to.

Clarisse, Bianca and Nico stayed by Annabeth, the three watching her from all sides. It was the best that they could hope for.

He can tell the moment that the sirens arrive long before seeing them from the way that Annabeth begins to fight, the ropes that he had willed to move were straining against where he had placed them, though they weren't making it far.

Bianca couldn't look her friend in the eyes as Annabeth fought to get free, the daughter of Athena looking at all of them as if they were monsters for not letting her go. She almost felt like one at the sight, the white of the other girl's chiton being dotted with specks of red as she struggled. The only consolation was that they had ambrosia that they could give her the moment that they made it past.

Percy just looks on with a cold gaze for a moment before turning back to the sea ahead. He couldn't afford to feel bad right then, not about something that was her choice, and not when they were sailing through waters that mythical birds sang within. After their last encounter with birds, he wasn't too keen to be any form of at ease.

He can faintly feel the boat shaking as Annabeth tries to get free somehow, but he leaves it to them, trusting the three to keep her in place as he moved to try something insane.

They were about half way past the island when Percy opens his own mouth, sound bubbling out from within his throat. There were no clear words to the song that he was singing, nor was it yet powerful enough to overpower so many creatures at once after so many days spent using his abilities and just having shared some of his power, but it was enough to make the daughter of Athena still while still being under the influence of the sirens' song.

It made the last stretch of the ride infinitely easier on all five of them, even as Percy couldn't help but ask himself just how monstrous he really was.

He wasn't sure that was something he wanted an answer to just yet.

Percy lets the ropes fall away and stops singing as soon as they were out of the fog completely.

"Do you feel wiser?" Bianca asked the other girl, he head titled to the side.

"I'm not sure," the daughter of Athena responded, her voice a bit choked as she does.

They all ignore the tears that had fallen down her face, even as she wiped them away and steeled herself once more. It was a good thing too as Percy could see the island that was their destination in the not so distance.

—-

When the five of them land, they tied up the boat and took a good look at the island before them, seeing the way in which it looked straight out of a postcard.

The grass on the island was green in the way that one only ever saw in movies with filters on them to make everything look ore enchanting, the beaches white and fruits growing everywhere like an island in the Bahamas rather than one belonging to a cyclops that tried to kill an entire boat filled with people because they killed one sheep.

It looked like a paradise, and to one it was, but they knew to them it would be a special brand of hell.

They walked on the island, drawing closer to where the fleece was being held, but stop when they see the famed sheep eat a deer down to the bones.

"Grover first?" Percy asked in a way that wasn't much of a question at all. He didn't know which god woke up one day and decided that the already giant sheep should also be able to eat a man whole in seconds, but if he ever found out then they would be having words.

"Grover first," the other four chorused, not even Clarisse looked too tempted to take on one one of those sheep right now when it was bigger than her and Bianca had nowhere near enough arrows in her quiver to deal with them all.

Percy figured that it was better this way anyways, they could use the distraction of stealing Grover away as cover if possible.

There were cliffs on the back side of the island, tall and slick and just barley climbable, but they were able to do it anyways, not one of them looking down once at what was easily a two hundred feet drop if they were to slip. Percy knew that he could have the waters catch them on the way down, that was why he was climbing up last, but he wasn't too inclined to be so panicked right then, sue him.

"When will the wedding dress be ready, my bride?" a loud, booming sort of voice asked as they reached the ledge, the five of them gathered as close together in the shadows as they could manage, Nico drawing them up thicker around them. It would do nothing to hide their scent though.

The demigods knew that the answer should be 'never' from what Annabeth had told them of the situation at hand. It seemed as if in their impromptu reenactment of the Odyssey, Grover had unwittingly taken upon the roll of Penelope for himself. Only instead of a shroud, the satyr was constantly making and unmaking a wedding dress.

Who would have thunk it?

"I have a plan," Nico whispers just loud enough for the other four to hear, though he never looks away from Grover and his shadows never waver, "though it's bats hit crazy." He says those words like some sort of promise.

"Would it work for Spider-Man?" Percy asks, knowing that the other boy preferred the spider based hero to anyone else in Marvel or DC comics.

"It just might," the son of Hades admits, letting the child of the sea know that the idea truly was insane if that were the case.

Percy grins.

"Let's give it a try then."

—-

They snuck in with the sheep, hanging from the their bellies as Polyphemus called them in for the night, Annabeth walking in alongside them invisibly. Silently.

She didn't stay that way for long.

"Hey, ugly!" A voice with seemingly no source called out, though that didn't seem to matter to the almost blind cyclops as he turned towards where the daughter of Athena had been only a moment before.

"Who said that?" The creature roared, anger seemingly singing through every part of his being.

"Nobody!" A slightly different voice, deeper and a big gruffer called out.

Clarisee.

It did the trick.

Polyphemus roared, but only Annabeth paid attention to whatever the monster said, as Clarisse and Bianca moved towards Grover while Percy moved towards the entrance of the cave once more, keeping the large being in his line of sight, Nico doing much the same.

The other three move quickly from what the pair can tell, Grover slipping out of the wedding dress that he had been in before they made a run for the exit. They only make it half way though, before Polyphemus seems to notice the sounds of feet and hooves hitting the floor of the cave.

That was fine, they had expected nothing less.

The three keep running as the ancient being's body locks up when Polyphemus goes to move, the blood within him rebelling against him as if it was never his at all.

Percy held the being where he was, bringing him down to his knees and feeling the heart within his chest, knowing just how easy it would be to stop it. He wished that the hydra had been the same, but the mortality of a being relying solely on one part not being destroyed was a bitch to fight.

The demigod child of the sea doesn’t waste time as the earth shakes beneath their feet as the cyclops falls to his knees, Percy backing up and quickly joining the others outside as Nico and Bianca used their powers to move the large rock and close the cave once more.

The earth didn't stop shaking though.

The now five watched as the demigod child of the Greek god of the sea kept his hand held out, another joining it as the earth continued to rumble beneath their feet, the tremors just as controlled as they had been under the sibling's influence but much larger now.

The roof of the mountain gave way under the abuse that it had been put under, a roar sounding from inside as the rubble fell on top of the cyclops, again and again, until the creature was silent.

"When did you get rock powers?" Clarisse asked, figuring it was a damn good question for what they had just seen.

"Poseidon is the earth shaker," is all that the boy in question answers, even as he knows that there was slightly more to it than just that, "it comes with the territory a bit."

They all knew that he was pushing the idea of a bit there, but when was he not.

Now all was left was the Golden Fleece and then they were home bound.

The group turned to look back out at the field where they had seen the Fleece before deciding to go after Grover, and all six of them bit back a frustrated sort of noise as they saw that some of the sheep had escaped during the chaos that they had wrought, going back to their grazing and protecting of the land.

It wasn't many, but it was still damn sure more than they wanted to have to deal with.

"Grover, how insistent are you that we keep them alive?" Percy asked the satyr as he looked out at the much smaller, much more manageable herd.

"Not especially," the man answered, knowing that the sheep would eat him down to the bones if given the chance, but even as he tries to hide it they can all still hear the way that his voice teeters around the edge of sadness at the thought.

Percy knows that they don't have time for that sadness, he knows this but he still doesn't take the words at face value anyways.

(He was going soft, he knew that he was, but maybe that was fine.

A kind god.)

He holds out his hand to Nico, the younger boy taking it without hesitation as they looked out at the scene before them.

"Focus on the life force of the sheep and steal away just enough to put them into comas for a bit," Percy instructs as he feels the magics hidden within both sets of the feathered wings intertwining once more, making both of them all the more aware of the powers of the other. "I'll deal with the sheep that you can't and slow their hearts till they fall asleep."

No one questioned the pair as they said this, as the wind began to rip through the valley like a storm, fog like that found in graveyard hanging low to the ground, unaffected, as the sheep before the group began to drop, divinity slipping through the actions of the pair as their powers worked together.

It was exhilarating.

The six of them run then, Clarisse grabbing the fleece as the sheep dropped to the earth like the dead.

When they make it to the ship, Nico looks about ready to pass out the moment that they step on the deck, the toll of what he had done catching up with the boy in a way that it one day just wouldn't anymore. Grover raised his pipes to his lips, as if thinking of playing a healing song, but the rest of them knew that it wouldn't do much.

Clarisse hands over the Fleece then without having to be asked, Bianca wrapping it around the youngest of them, watching the way that it makes the world around them take on a faint golden glow as the fleece shifted form to look a bit like a strange version of his avatar jacket, the two pieces of clothing layered over one another.

It would help, Percy knew, but there were some things that even that of the famed Golden Fleece could not hope to fix. The soul was one of them.

"It's because he pushing the bounds of his powers," Percy explains when he sees Grover's hooves stomping near silently in concern as Bianca held her brother close on the deck of the ship. "He fractured his soul on the way here, but his body is still too used to working on the power levels of a normal demigod."

Grover looks at him as if there's about ten different things that he wants to ask about in that sentence alone, but Annabeth beats him to it.

"Is there a cure for this?" she asks, waving a hand in the younger boy's direction, concern clear in her voice.

"He could shatter his soul like I did," Percy answers in a manner that shows that this isn't really a suggestion at all, "but unless we want a baby god on our hands, time would be the best medicine right now. His body will adjust, it just needs a minute."

Bianca at the least looks relived by this.

"Did you press your break further on purpose?" Clarisse asks, she never could be too sure just how many of the things that the boy before her did were on purpose and how many of them were accidents that he managed to play off.

"No," Percy answers, something sad slipping into his smile as he waves his hand and the boat starts its journey once more, "I just broke mine a bit more on the first try, and then after that there was another instance that shattered it completely before I even knew what had occurred."

They all nod, cause yeah they could see him being unlucky enough for something so absurd to happen to him.

Nico mumbles just as much before fulling giving into sleep, they let him.

—-

When they make it to Miami, there is a sense of relief at seeing the coast of Florida that none of them ever thought that they would feel about the damned state, and yet there it was. They idea was to stop and buy some food for the journey home with the money that Hermes had given them in the duffel bags, there was enough that they could even get some sodas to smuggle into camp if they went for the off brand stuff of everything. The plan falls entirely apart as they see the date on a newspaper stand.

"June eighteenth?" Annabeth asked, her voice only half there with shock as she tried to keep it low before the mortals started paying attention to a bunch of kids alone in Miami, all but two of them wearing chitons.

Maybe they could lie and say that were cosplayers, it didn't feel all that far off given that they had just done a pick and choose of the Odyssey like it was a D&D campaign.

"That can't be right," Clarisse said, pushing to get a better look at the paper, at the full date.

It was right though.

"Time works differently in magical places," Nico reminded them, the boy curling in on himself, though honestly he couldn't help but think that they were lucky that it was only ten days. He had lost a lot more the last time that he had been in a place like that one.

Percy's eyes soften as he looks as the two siblings, the son of the sea taking in a breath as he thought of what they should do now. Of what they had to do with the tree being more gone than they had thought that it would be.

He could tell that Grover and Annabeth had come to the same conclusion as him as well.

"Why is it always planes when you are around?" Grover asked Percy, finding it absurd how often it seemed that one demigod that couldn't fly without being shot out of the sky was the one that ended up in situations that needed it the most.

Percy only shrugs, such was his luck.

"What about the Nomes?" Nico asked, Bianca nodding at the idea as the others looked at them as if they had gone insane.

Both of them deflate when Percy shakes his head.

"I don't even know if there is one around here," He admits, "and if there was I don't know if we would even be allowed inside. There's a reason that my Dad has to go with us whenever we visit the other Nomes."

The daughter of Hades curses then in a language that only three of them knew. "You can't fly," she reminds the other teen. "You said that he would get zap happy and shoot you out of the sky if you tried, and I'm not too keen to see if he loves his daughter's memory more than he hates your right now."

And Percy had to agree with that.

"I won't be flying," he decides, drawing some looks of relief and some of confusion. "Only Clarisse will."

Everyone turns to look at the girl then, Nico slipping the fleece off of his shoulders as if it was already decided and handing it over to the daughter of Ares. Percy followed suit and handed over all of the money that was in one of the duffel bags, knowing that it would be just enough to get her there by tonight.

"We're counting on you," Annabeth told her as she took the money with a stunned gaze, the daughter of Athena lightly punching the other in the shoulder.

Clarisse smiled the sort of smile then that let Percy know that she would get it done.

They watched as she got into a taxi and left, nothing but hope and skill to protect and demigod on their own. They knew that it was enough, it had to be.

"We still have enough money to buy some food for the ride home, but probably no smuggling sodas," Percy said, his voice a bit sullen at the idea. One missed actual mortal drinks when there was nothing but healthy and mythical options around.

They didn't even get to have that much though, because when they turned to continue down the street, there was a sword at Percy's throat, resting right on the star there.

"Welcome back to the states," Luke greeted, his voice anything but welcoming as his guards moved to surround the other four.

Well, fuck.

—-

They were fighting as soon as the Iris message to camp ended, Chiron's name cleared for all to hear, sword clashing against sword as Percy and Luke moved through the ship that the older had taken them to, as the other demigods fought the monsters on board. The hits were strong and quick, violent and sure, and yet at the same time they felt almost exactly like summer days spent sparring in the woods around camp, back before everything had gone wrong.

Maybe its because of that, that when Luke takes the lead of the fight, Percy lets him as the other manipulates them both to a specific part of the boat. The control room, where the intercom sat just waiting to be used.

There pair stop there fighting once they make it into the room, knowing that no one else was there, Luke turning the system on for the younger without a word being spoken between them. And words still weren't spoke after that, not as Percy leaned down and sung into the mic, his voice taking on that magical tint to it that it had with the sirens when he had tried such a power on a whim with no intention other than to smother their voices. Now though, there were no other voices to fight, just mortals to get off of the ship while it was still docked before those that were left never got the chance to leave again.

He knows that some will likely die in this stunt, the mythical beings on board wanting to keep as many as they can, but it will be a lot smaller of an amount than what would occur otherwise.

The boat shook only moments later after the song had stopped from something that wasn't the mortals leaving. Percy and Luke looked at each other once more at that, raising their blades without a word being spoken between them and bringing their fight up to the deck. Neither of them felt that they could be blamed for the way that they stopped at seeing the centaurs invading the ship and shooting down the monster that were on board of it, the wild mythical being hollering as if they were having the time of their lives right then doing just this.

Percy doesn't waste anymore time than that though, flicking his wrist at his side and forcing the water of one of the pools to reach out and drag Luke inside as a Pegasus of all things flew up into the air.

It was when another of the large monsters, one of the bear twins, turned to dust that Chiron called for them to retreat, the centaurs grabbing a demigod each and throwing them onto their backs, in that quick second of movement Percy breathed a sigh of relief as he saw all of the other four close by and uninjured as they could hope to be. It was only a moment after being manhandled that the world blurred around them, the mythical beings bending space as they ran.

—-

Everyone in the camp gathers around the poisoned tree as Clarisse places the Golden Fleece upon it, the feeling of death rich in the air.

The feeling of hope was even greater.

Everything in the world around them seemed to become stronger the moment that the fleece touched the base of the tree. The moon seemed to shine with a bright silver through the crispness of the air, the torches that lit the camp and Hestia's hearth burning bright and brighter still with the sort of light that wasn't born from emotion or heat. The dryads and Nymphs that had pulled themselves from their homes for a few moments to come and watch the proceeding all seemed to grow healthier before their eyes, even as they hadn't seemed sick before.

It only took a few moments for the nettles upon Thalia's tree to regain the color that they had lost, losing the yellow that had become far too normal to see. It was a small change, but one would think that they had won a war from the way in which the whole camp cheered.

Percy just hopes that the magic that it is at work is a good thing.

—-

Hermes finds Percy down at the docks a few days later, after most of the others had already gone to their cabins for the night, the stars weren't quite shining over head just yet but Apollo had painted the sky beautifully nonetheless. The sight didn't seem to put the god at ease.

Percy didn't blame him.

(he wondered, for a moment, if this was the look that his mother had worn after he had disappeared, solemn and mourning. He wondered if she thought that he was dead.

He decided that he didn't want to know)

"You saw him, right?" Hermes asks.

Percy doesn't need more than that to know who they were talking of.

"I ran into him twice during the quest," the demigod admits, though he doesn't look at the other mythical being, "but we both know that he can't come home just yet."

He can tell that Hermes wants to ask what the boy means, that the messenger god to know all of the small details that he was being left to assume right then, and that it was killing him not to know a thing for sure.

Percy smiles the gentlest sort of smile then that he knows how.

"Have faith," he asks of the other, touching that star of his. "Greeks may be built on tragedy, but that doesn't mean that the story always has to end at the most tragic part," he reminds the other, something that he was sure that the god knew well.

After all, it was rare in their world half of the heartbreak of it all were those forced to live on for an eternity with the loss.

For the first time Hermes looks at the mark on the side of the demigod's throat and knows for sure that it means more than a simple marking placed so that the dead could be identified on sight.

It had to.

"Okay," the god says, before his demeanor changes to something a bit more professional in nature. All but sensing the shift, Percy turns to look at the deity as he reaches into the bag at his side and pulls out a letter from it, and a notepad for the demigod to sign. "I have a delivery for you, sign here and then go on to bed, won't you?"

The last part feels very parental in a way, and Percy wondered if there weren't laws in place to keep the gods away from their children (and wasn't that a thing? Keep them away for the demigods that they need for survival, but allow them to run around freely making more?) if Hermes would have been a good father. He guessed that only the future could tell.

Percy mostly does as asked, signing where he needed to as he took the letter in hand. Hermes was gone before he had even had the chance to thank the deity.

He looked down at the letter once more, finding it addressed to him at the camp. The envelope was blue like the sea. He opens the letter, having a good idea as to who it was from.

Brace yourself

Percy bites back the disappointment that coiled through his gut at the two simple, foreboding, words. At the virtual waste of paper in his hands.

He knew that it was his fault for expecting anything more than a warning for something that he had already guessed was coming.

—-

Percy and Nico find themselves sitting in the stands once more, popcorn between them and weapons firmly at their sides. Even though the fleece had been placed upon the tree it, and the barrier that it powered, weren't healed all the way just yet, small monsters still slipping through from time to time. Still, it was much better than it was before.

It didn't surprise either of the pair when Annabeth and Bianca won the second round of chariot races, the girls smiling up into the crowd at them as they stood with the Athena cabin and cheered.

What followed after was only a surprise in the specifics of it all.

Nico had offered to take Bianca's laurel to the cabin for her, the already naturally cold boy wanting to grab his jacket that he had left behind now that they weren't going to be in the sun, but the shade instead. Percy would have gone with him, but something in the other teen's feet kept him rooted where he was.

"Annabeth mentioned this group to me while we were fixing up the chariot," the daughter of Hades started, causing Percy to raise his brow. He knew that she wouldn't seem so nervous if it was something as simple as a band. "They're called the Hunters of Artemis," she continued. "They're a group of girls that serve the Lady Artemis and live forever at her side."

Percy had remembered some myths of this, though there was no name for them in in them, but there were nymphs and maidens that served at the goddess' side and accompanied her on her hunts. He supposed that immortality was a nice addition to such an arrangement.

"You want to join," Percy guessed, knowing that it wasn't much of a guess at all.

She nods.

"Annabeth has been thinking about it ever since she heard the sirens sing," Bianca says with a shrug, those words explaining how the topic had even come up at all. "And with Nico and you becoming what you are… I know what it would mean for the present if I joined, that I would be leaving you both, that I would likely never be able to go to Brooklyn House again, but wouldn't it be kinder on us all in the long run?"

And Percy knows that she's right, that if the promise of immortality was true then this would be a much kinder fate for them all then they could have ever asked for otherwise, but he also knew that Nico wasn't going to see it like that in the present.

And maybe not even in the future, when Bianca was beholden to the whims of a goddess that hated men, and spent nearly every day of the year traveling around the world. When Nico would have his own duties to tend to and would hardly ever see her even as they both lived forever. Would hardly be able to speak with her even when they were in the same room. Would likely not be able to write, because Hermes was a male deity, and wouldn't be able to Iris message either because he would never know when he might be disrupting a hunt in doing so.

They would both be eternal sure, but forever apart.

Something told him that this would have been the same choice that she would have made though even if Nico was to die a mortal death, and that was the part that made him respond as he did.

"I won't tell him for you," Percy tells her, his a voice a bit harder than he would have like it to be as he spoke. "If you are going to break his heart by leaving him, then that task is on you."

But Bianca only smiles in a knowing sort of relived way.

"I would expect nothing less than that," the daughter of Hades admits, that smile still there as if he had passed some sort of test. Maybe he had, "though I am going to wait until close to the next solstice to decide either way. Annabeth is planning to do the same."

"Tell him now anyways," he tells her, looking off to where Nico was waiting for the two of them, already so much less animated than he had been the first time that Percy had met him. He was a shadow of the brightness that he had been then, one that only got darker as his divinity grew and his humanity burned away, but maybe that a good thing in the end. Shadows were his favorite powers to use after all. "Give him some time to adjust to the idea."

She nods and they jog quickly to meet the boy in question.

He knows that she had told him when that night Nico sneaks up into his bed on the top bunk and curls into his side with tears on his face. Percy only holds him through the night until Grover comes to fetch the three of them, the satyr knocking hurriedly against the door as if the camp was under attack once more.

It was that urgency that had the three throwing on shoes and grabbing their weapons as Grover lead them up the hill to where Thalia's three stood proud once more, the fleece glowing golden in the dark.

Percy knew that all of the assumptions that he had made since learning of the poisoning were right the second that he sees the girl laying on the base of the fully healed tree.

She had hair that was as dark as those that were currently staying within the Poseidon cabin, and a leather jacket with buttons of bands that had gone out of style close to a decade before.

The children of Hades and the son of Poseidon all share a look for a moment before the son of the sea quickly moves to the girl's side, ignoring the way that Chiron tried to stop him. Just because the fleece had healed the tree, they didn't know if it would actually heal the daughter of Zeus before spitting her out. There was a reason that she had been made into a pine after all.

"I need a child of Apollo down here quick," Percy called out into the stunned group, knowing that at least one should be among them, the only cabin bigger than that of the sun god was the messenger god, and that was only because Hermes took in the unclaimed as well. "She's already almost died once, let's make sure she's not doing so again."

That last part seemed to snap one of them, a boy named Lee Fletcher, out of the stupor they had all fallen into, the boy kneeling down with him at the girl's side, taking her pulse. Percy reached out to the girl's forehead and found her cold to the touch.

"She's not currently dying now, just weak," the child of the sun god assured, something that made Annabeth and Grover both almost sob in relief as they heard it.

There was something hard in Chiron's gaze that Percy chose to ignore, knowing that it was more about Kronos than the situation at hand.

"I could kick your ass right now," a new voice said, belonging to someone that very much couldn't from how much those simple words seemed to take out of her.

Percy couldn't help but laugh as he looked down at the girl that had been newly returned from limbo.

"Do you know your name?" He asked, gaining a nod of approval from the other camp consular.

The dark haired girl nods then, her eyes as blue as they sky on the clearest of days.

"Thalia," she answers, "daughter of Zeus."

Percy nods back, having expected nothing else.

"Bianca," he calls out as he reaches behind the girl and helps her sit up when her body doesn't seem to want to follow her own command to do so, "help me get her to her feet," he instructs, knowing that the three of them were likely the best fit height wise at the moment.

The daughter of Hades is at the other girl's side quickly, the three of them standing before anyone can do a thing to stop them.

Percy just hoped that this was all a good thing as they slowly walked her down the hill that was only safe because she had almost died, Nico walking on Percy's other side as if to make sure that the now living girl wouldn't drop dead if they got too far away from the fleece. There was a part of the son of the sea god that hated the way that he knew that Thalia being alive once more was just as much Kronos' plan as it was Luke's, the titan lord seeking to control the prophecy once more.

Though, he knows from the way that he's not suddenly becoming immortal that this development somehow doesn't mean much when it comes to that particular thing. He hopes that this means that she is younger than she looks, gets made a god, or something because Percy didn't think that Annabeth would be able to loose Thalia twice.

He touched ran a hand over the feathers on his arms as thunder sounded through the sky, and knew that things were going to change.

Chapter Text

The months that followed the trio's return to Brooklyn House were different than the year that they'd had before. Different in the ways in which their days were spent and the ways in which those that lived at the twenty - first Nome found themselves interacting with one another.

Before going to camp, it wasn't often that Percy found himself going on missions alongside his Dad for anything beyond killing the monsters that had come to their attention in the area around them, the pantheons mixing as they did. When Nico and Bianca had joined them, they had still gone on these trips, but Amos had hung back more than he ever had before, letting the three do as they wished. There was a sphinx that they had dealt with near a school a year or so before that they weren't exactly sure which of their worlds it was supposed to belong to, but the baby cyclops that they had found the with damage on his back from the creature had been Greek. He had been young, and it had hurt them all to see him like that when he jumped at the sound of their voices. Percy had led the other child of the sea to the waters and had prayed to the god that they shared that the young one would find his way to the forges below.

When they had come back from camp that year with a new bead on their necklaces and Amos had heard of the plan that Bianca was contemplating, those hunts had changed a bit in nature. Had grown. Sure, they still went on them but Amos didn't accompany them now, wanting them more prepared than they already were. He sent them on small magic based errands over the months, ones that took them around the world as they used the portals between the Nomes. He wanted the three prepared, to have more experience then they already did if Bianca was going to join the Hunters, knowing that Artemis couldn't protect her maidens at all times.

(Bianca was still insistent that she had not yet decided on what she was going to decide when it came to hunt, but they all already knew that she had, that she was lying to herself more than she ever could to them. Her guilt was choking her and Percy didn't have it in him to save her from the drowning this time)

He wanted Nico to have more chances to use the powers that he had gained through breaking his soul to save the magician's son.

He wanted Percy to have a chance to see the world as he grew closer and closer still to sixteen.

(Because all of the goodly blood in his veins wouldn't matter if he was killed by the cruelty of the fates)

When weren't doing that or learning the things that they would have had they gone to school as they should, Percy and Nico were often together, sparring or reading. Never one without the other. Percy knew that it was because Nico was angry with Bianca, but he wasn't going to push or complain, not when Percy was the deepest part of the sea and Nico was the darkness that consumed it.

Besides, it felt amazing to truly let loose with some of the powers that they had as they spared, swords clashing and the earth shaking and ichor being bent in the blood. They didn't look at each other with horror as they did things that they should never be able to as only a half blood, as they pushed and pushed until they broke some more. Even his dad sometimes got a hint of mortal fear in his eyes when he heard of Percy doing things that he thought went too far even for him. Nico only looked at it as a challenge, something that he would want to surpass one day.

They would have an eternity to try.

Though Percy loved sparring as they did, he loved the fight of it, the push and pull as they danced like young gods in the making, he can't help but think that he might just like the quiet moments that came after training more, the pair of them laying on the ground as their chest rose and fell just a bit too fast, their limbs hating any movement that they tried to ask of them. It was a gentle sort of quiet. Like waves washing softly against the shore, or a moonless sky in the desert where you could see all of the stars at night.

It was the peace that he thought forever might bring.

—-

Percy was in his room when Nico went to find him, the sun still high in the sky as he searched for the other boy. The son of the sea was at his bookshelf once more, a box open before him as a bottle of ink was slipped into the Duat, into the magical space that the magicians of the Egyptian pantheon could access and Percy could as well after being raised around it all.

(After having broken his soul and begun his ascension in the home of foreign gods)

Nico was always a bit jealous when he saw the other doing such a thing with the ease that he always seemed to carry. The son of Hades never could get it to work for him the way that it did for Percy, like he was trying to control water or fire, something out of his realm of power. Out of his domain.

Nico couldn't help but wonder sometimes if he was too tied down to a pantheon, while Percy was too loose from a set one. Sometimes that seemed like the only answer that he could find.

"We're just going to spend some time with Thalia and Annabeth," Nico reminded the other as he watched as Percy fiddled with the lid of the box as if contemplating adding another bottle to the one that he had already stored away. There was tension in his frame that the son of Hades didn't like at all.

"Bad feeling," was all that the son of the sea god said in turn, his movements more restless than they ever were. It was a sort of restlessness that Nico had beaver seen from the other boy before.

Like something was stirring.

Nico doesn't question it further, he had long trusted his life in the other's hands before he had hardly known a thing about it, if he was worried then Nico would listen. Instead, he leaves leaves the room with quick steps and retrieves his sword from his own, handing it over to the other without a word when they were before one another once more.

Percy's feelings were usually right, even when neither of them wanted them to be.

—-

Thalia watched with something uneasy in her chest as Percy and Nico laughed together from the other side of the table, the pair seemingly in their own world as her, Annabeth and Bianca discussed where to go next after they had all finished their drinks.

Her and Annabeth had decided to go to an all girl's boarding school in Brooklyn for the year, somewhere close enough to camp that there was help if needed, but far enough away to have an idea of freedom. Once every other month, the school let them go into town so long as they were back before curfew. It was somewhere around the second trip that Annabeth had remembered Bianca vaguely mentioning living in the area with her little brother Nico and with Percy as well. The daughter of Athena had been right in that idea, and soon the two children of an underworld god and the son of the sea were joining them in wandering the city.

It had become quickly apparent during the first outing that the son of Poseidon knew the city better than the rest of them. He said that the had been living in it since he was seven, so it only made sense. The fact that Percy was better at something as simply as knowing his way around the area shouldn't have pissed her off as much as it had, but it did back then. Nearly everything that he did managed to anger her even if Annabeth could do the exact same thing and it not affect her at all.

It was the same with the younger of the two boys, Nico, though to a slightly lesser extent. Bianca as well, though Thalia's annoyance with her ignorable in the face of the other two.

Nearly everything that the pair did angered her for no reason at all, and Thalia couldn't help but hate herself for it just a bit because she had no reason to hate any of the other three at all.

(Except for the godly blood that runs through their veins and the rivalry and jealousy attached to it, but she thought herself better than that.

Except for the way that the other three still looked to Percy instead of her on the rare occasions that monsters had crossed their oaths during outings like this, even as she was older and the daughter of the king of the gods.

Except for the way in which the other teen killed those monsters with an ease that she didn't quite have anymore after so long spent in sleeping state.

Except….)

Maybe all of this was why when saw what she thought might have been the whisper of a monster, she decided to go on her own.

The conversations stopped as Thalia stood, everyone looking up at the punk girl with expectant gazes.

"I'm just going to run to the bathroom before we leave," she said in a voice that she hoped was reassuring. She didn't stick around to see if it wasn't.

Maybe she should have.

"She is lying through her teeth," Percy said with a sigh, the others at the table standing as he did. He caught Nico giving his drink a sad look out of the corner of his eye, all of them knowing that they likely won't be able to come back for them if this goes sour.

"Let's do this," Bianca said with a stretch, she didn't understand what the other grok was thinking, going off after a monster without actually saying that she was doing so (because they knew that it was a monster, nothing else could make the daughter of Zeus so shifty). Percy did a lot of stupid shit through out the year and hall that they had known him, but even he always told them when there were monsters on the rise.

The four rounded the corner quickly, Annabeth biting her lip in concern as she drew her dagger. If Thalia wasn't already dead by the time that they got to the older girl, the daughter of Athena was going to kill her anyways for making them fight in the cold like this, snow kissing the ground as the winter solstice drew near once more. The only one that had still seemed to like the snow after so long being in it was Percy, the other teen manipulating the water that the snow was made of to make miniature snowmen while they were drinking their hot chocolates and tea.

(Now it only seemed to snow harder, the world around them flurrying with the concern and anger of the son of the god of storms

If they had gotten there any later, Thalia would have been dead.

When they turned the corner, the monster - the manticore they would soon realize - had Thalia in his hand by the neck, her shield thrown to the side with needles around it and more than one sticking out of the girl's body. It was a sight that no one wanted to see.

Annabeth threw her dagger quickly, as Percy reached into the Duat and withdrew the weapons from within it and handing them over to each of the siblings, the pair of them wasting no time in joining the fight as the thrown dagger was knocked aside as well.

Percy hesitated for just a moment - as arrows flew through the air and the beast had to let the daughter of Zeus go to avoid them all, Nico traveling to her side and pulling the teen away from the middle of the fight - and grabbed one of his inks as well, opening it and stashing it on the ground. A monster that could fight a child of the big three and win as well as this was one that he wanted to be prepared for if he could.

None of the arrows seemed to have landed when Percy joined the fray, the snow gripping at the beast's legs and holding him still so that he would be an unmovable target for the son of Hades to destroy as he lept down from the shadows and made to dig his sword in the the manticore's back. He didn’t make it though, as he had to change at the last moment to use his sword to deflect against the needle that was coming right him.

Percy had no such issues though, as he ran and made a slash at the monster, moving to slide by the still bound legs so that he could sever the damned scorpion tail. He fails in this endeavor though, as suddenly the manticore bucks forwards with a human sounding scream, as if he was being attacked by an invisible force.

He was.

Annabeth was nowhere to be seen within the alley, but all four of the demigods knew where she was, or had the idea of it at the least.

They were all still for a moment, watching the monster buck this way and that, as he tried to dislodge the demigod that had taken root upon him, but with all of wild movements they couldn't quite tell just where the daughter of Athena had grabbed him.

So, Percy let his senses wander and felt for the blood of the other demigod.

"She's on his back," the son of the sea reported, yet still no one raised their weapons.

Even if they knew now where she clinging to the beast, there was still far too a high a risk of hitting her if any of their attacks missed by even an inch. Something that could very well be fatal.

"Can you stop it's heart?" Nico asked, something in the question or the bluntness of his tone making the daughter of Zeus flinch away from the pair.

Percy shook his head as he watched the monster twist.

"They're moving too much," he knew, "I wouldn’t try it even if she was visible."

"We have to do something!" Bianca yelled, frustration and panic clinging to her and it gripped at them all.

Time always seemed to slow in a fight, Percy knew that Annabeth had likely only been holding onto the monster for twenty seconds or so, likely less, but he knew that she wouldn't last longer.

As if the fates were truly listening for once, the gift that Annabeth had gotten from Athena fell from her head, revealing blonde braids, dark skin, and a bright camp shirt that the girl liked to wear when they went into the city and made the rest of them wear as well, so that they'd be easy to spot if separated in a monster attack.

She was easy to spot now.

Bianca knocked an arrow quickly as Percy ran to the side, gold tinted ink obeying his command as it raised to his finger tips.

The son of the sea had thoughts for a moment that the daughter of Hades had made some sort of impossible shot, an arrow sprouting from the side of the monster's thigh instead of his front, but he knew that couldn't be true when five or so more joined them, each from even more impossible places and all while avoiding Annabeth.

Someone else had joined the fray, multiple someones at that.

Percy heard Thalia grumble something , recognition in the girl's voice, but he paid it no mind as he focused solely on getting closer to the daughter of the wisdom goddess as the manticore began to talk to someone that none of them could see or hear.

Percy thought that he heard the words 'bane of Olympus' but wasn't sure.

It was panic and instinct that had Percy throwing out his hand in a move that could only be called desperate, as if his bones were singing with the knowledge that things were soon to change. The ink brushed at his finger, some of it staining the skin as rest moved to the other demigod, landing on the arm that she had wrapped tightly around the monster's neck. It was meant to give the girl strength, for her to bend it as she saw fit just as he had done back on Circe's island, but he changed the intention of it as Annabeth's and the monster's form began to ripple.

Tracking.

He managed to change the intention of it just before the other demigod and the manticore disappeared from before them completely.

Percy crashed into the snow, shame and hope gripping at his heart in equal measures.

"No!" Bianca yelled, looking at the spot where her friend had just been only a moment before with a haunted sort of gaze. "Why didn't you do anything?" The girl asked angrily as she walked up to the child of the sea, anger in her voice but in her eyes.

Percy knew that she needed someone to blame, and he was the last around their friend, the closest. The only other person that could truly take the blame right then was Thalia, and one glance at her showed that she was already feeling it enough for all of them.

"B," he started, the nickname making her stop, catching her off guard enough to really listen to the words coming out of his mouth. "I control liquids, and rocks, and storms, but I can't teleport or stop others from doing so," he explained calmly, patiently, "you know that."

And she did, maybe that's why it hurt to see him fail like this. It was proof that even beings so close to god hood were not all powerful.

Nico didn't say anything as he walked up to the pair then, he just grabbed both of their hands and squeezed them for a moment before tilting his head to the strangers that had descended upon them during the fight.

Percy didn't relax as he looked around at the group of girls of slightly varying ages, each of them dressed in silvery colors like that of the moon. He let his sens wander instead and found where the feeling of ichor was strongest among them all.

There was a girl with auburn hair the color of flames and ancient eyes that shone the colors of all of the stars at once. The ichor of her blood was hypnotic in a way that not even Ares had been, feeling more like that of Zeus, Hades, or Poseidon, though somehow less so. Ancient but not quite as much.

It made sense as his mind quickly supplied just who was before him, the daughter of a titan and a god, of course she wouldn't feel quite as old as the children of two titans instead of just one.

"Lady Artemis," Percy said, bowing his head with more respect than he had given most of the immortals that he had met over the years, even as the power in his veins sang with the idea of trying to control the divinity before him.

(Sometimes he wondered how much of a problem this would bring when Kronos did rake form once more)

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the other three demigods bowing their heads as well, good.

"Raise your heads now," the goddess commanded, her voice kind in a way that the gods never seemed to be. It set him on edge in ways that didn't seem rational right then.

"Thank you," Bianca said, her eyes a bit star struck now, but then the daughter if Hades winched, reminding Percy that both children of Hades, and the daughter of Zeus had been hit with the poisoned darts.

"Okay, show me the poison," the goddess watched as the son of the sea said, his casual. She wondered just how often the three parched one another up.

The younger of the boys held out his arm then, one of the dart sticking from it even through the jacket that the boy wore. She watched with wide eyes Perseus ripped away the offending object from the monster, casting it towards the earth before holding his hand over the other's arm, liquid soon meeting the air. Poison, the boy was controlling poison, Artemis realized.

The process continued as Perseus did the same again and again to the two demigods around him, using powers that he should not have until all the poison had seemingly been as purged as it could be.

"You too, Thals," the boy called out beckoning the daughter of Zeus over.

"I'm fine, seaweed brain," Thalia said indignantly.

No one believed her.

The hunters watched as the elder boy sighed before reaching out an ink stained hand to the girl that was much too far away for him to reach in such a way. Only instead of making a grab for the daughter of Zeus, the boy twisted his hand, turning it over once, twice, thrice, before pulling it back in a way that could almost be called elegant as poison was drawn into the air.

"Yes, poisoned but fine," Percy agreed in a way that wasn't agreeing at all.

"Impossible," Zoë whispered as she looked upon the sight.

Artemis would have agreed if she didn't feel the pure power flowing from the boy like a raging storm.

The lines between impossibility and reality began to thin with demigods like the one before her, domains that they did not yet hold already reaching out for them, growing impatient. Dionysus should never had been able to conjure wine in the ways that he had as a demigod, or to affect the minds of those around him, neither of those were abilities that their father had any control to, and yet the hero once had and it had followed him into godhood.

As it would follow Perseus.

"Were any of you hit?" Percy asked, looking at the hunters before him, not realizing just how much his display had shocked those before him that knew who he was.

How much it had surprised Thalia as well, not having seen what the boy had done to the other two demigods and not having thought such a thing possible of a child of the sea.

"They are fine," the goddess assured, finding it perplexing that the boy would even think to ask. Most heroes did not.

"That's good," he said, sounding like he meant it, but Artemis could feel the anger simmering just beneath his tone, though she knew it wasn't directed at her or her hunters (though the younger of the boy's most certainly was right then) but more at the demigod daughter of the king of the gods.

The goddess had heard rumors of Perseus having taken two demigods under his charge, his protection, a rather unorthodox thing for a godling to do with another child of the gods, so much so that most of the gods had taken note of it. She figured that the pair around the boy must be the siblings, and that Thalia, the daughter of Zeus had done something to endanger them both. It was not a kind situation for any of them to find themselves in right then.

"Let us set up camp for a moment," the goddess commanded, her maidens moving to do just that as the sun finally set in the distance, part of her consciousness splitting off with the chariot. "There are some things that we should discuss, and wounded to treat. Come with me, would you, girl?" She asked, looking at the older of the two siblings.

Bianca looked to Percy, a question in her stance as she titled between both directions. She desperately wanted to go, but the gods were dangerous, they all knew that. But the son of the sea only nodded, even as his hand reached out to the other boy's, holding him tight as Nico refused to look at his sister at all. They both knew what was to come.

"Come," Percy said as Bianca turned to walk away to the tent that had already been made for the goddess in the alley, the mist thick around them all so that no one would think to look into the space that the demigods and eternal maidens had commandeered for the time, "let's see if they have ambrosia."

Nico only nodded, a stubborn set to his shoulders. Loss and grief were both tugging at his heart, even as sister was soon to be as far from dead as someone that could only fall in battle could be. It hurt when you lost someone so willingly.

The pair settled into one another after Percy had poured nectar onto the injures of the other and retrieved what was left of his bottle of ink, Thalia sitting closer to them than the hunters but still far. Neither of them were very inclined to make conversation with her though, not right then as Percy manipulated the snow once more into little snowmen versions of the characters that he and Nico had been playing on mythomagic nights. It would have been one thing if there had been lives on the line when Thalia had gone after the monster on her own, of they had been separated and there hadn't been time to get them without losing sight of the monster as well. But they had been right there when she had gone off on her own, lying to them about it. Because of that, none of them had thought that it was going to be a strong beast.

That had been their undoing he supposed.

It was less than ten minutes or so later that one of the hunters, a girl with a silver band through her hair, walked out of the tent and looked right at them. Right at Percy.

"Percy Jackson," the eternal girl said, her voice filled with the sort of disgust that he hadn't heard used towards him in nearly seven years, making him flinch at the tone and the son of Hades only glare harder, "Lady Artemis wished to speak with thee."

Nico frowned at that, wanting to pull the other into him, to keep him close and away from the hunters around him. He knew that he could not, and somehow that almost made it all worse.

Percy knocked his shoulder into the other's and stood, knowing better than to ignore a summons from a god, direct or not.

When he walked into the the tent, it was filled with the heads of animals that he had could only identify half of. Some of them looked like the spoils of war that came when one killed a monster, and other looked like mortal animals so old that mankind has forgotten about them.

It was a bit disconcerting to say the least.

At the center of the room was the goddess with a live deer that seemed to glow like moonlight laying its head in her lap, as Bianca sat on a pillow across from the ancient being. The daughter of Hades smiled up at him with more light in her eyes than Percy had never seen before when she noticed that the other had walks in, and the son of Poseidon could guess what was to come.

Artemis motioned for the boy to sit and was pleased when he did so without having to be forced, though there was tension in every move that he made, as if expecting to be betrayed or attacked at any moment. The goddess supposed that this was to be expected after the last encounter that the boy'd had with a godly child of Zeus, no matter how entertaining (and, admittedly, frighting) it had been for the other gods to watch. They were all just lucky that her father had not been watching at the time, too distracted by the impeding war with his brother to notice the things that the boy had done.

The war between the pair would not have been so easily called off had her father seen that display.

(It would be a simplification to say that Artemis was not tense as well being in the presence of a demigod that could bring the male god of war to his knees with a flick of his wrist, and walk away having earned the god's respect instead of his wrath)

"I was hoping that you could speak to me of the fight that occurred with the manticore," she explained, knowing from Bianca that there wasn't likely much that the boy could add, but wanting to hear it nonetheless. "Anything he might have done or said would be of great help."

But Percy could only shake his head.

"The fight didn't last that long," he admitted, "and I got the impression that he had bony been ready for it if we were the targets that he had set after at all. The only peculiar thing that I did notice was the way in which he seemed to have spoken into a device at some point, though I couldn't quite hear what he said, it did seem like he wasn't just talking to himself."

Though the goddess nodded, there was something unsettled in the way that she held herself then. It wasn't very often that monsters used technology, needing mortals for it to mean much. And there weren't very many mythical beings that would stoop to asking a mortal for help in such a way, employment or not. The fact that it was occurring at all was worrying to her.

It meant that things were shifting faster than she had thought.

"Very well," she said at last. She knows that she likely should talk to her demigod sibling about this as well, but she doubted that the girl would tell her anything, not with the anger that Thalia's seemed to hold towards the hunt still after their last encounter with her.

She told the two demigods then of the way In which things, ancient beings so old she herself had forgotten some of them, had begun to stir once more. Bianca looked frightened by the implication but determined, while the boy only looked as if he and been expecting to hear such a thing.

"I think that he told whoever was on the other side of the device something about a bane of Olympus," Percy admits, remembering the moment now, " but I might have heard wrong."

From the way that the two ancient beings in the room paled, he hoped that he was.

"Sadly," the goddess started, "I do not think that you were."

Percy would have cursed then if he didn't think that the goddess before him would do something worse to him than washing his mouth out with soap for doing so.

The two demigods watched as Artemis and her Lieutenant argued for a moment, the goddess wanting to hunt this 'bane' and Zoë, as he learned that her name was, not wanting her to go alone. In the end, the goddess got her way, though Zoë seemed to hate the idea of it. The only balm on her worry seemed to be the deity's promise to bring the monster back by the winter solstice that was in less than a week. It plenty of time for damage, but enough to pass quickly.

"Annabeth," Bianca starts, her voice unsteady as the conversation between the pair seems to come to an end and everyone's attention turns to her, "the girl that was taken, she was thinking of joining the hunt," the daughter of Hades tells them. She knows that it is a manipulative thing to do, but she didn't quite care right then (an attribute that she thought that she must have p Jed up from spending too much time around the teen at her side, for better or worse). "If you find her while looking for this monster could you….?"

Artemis smiles as if this was a given and not something that needed to be asked of her.

"Of course," the goddess answers.

She would always do anything for a maiden, even if they do not join her in the end.

Bianca smiles at that, warmth filling her chest that had nothing to do with the way that the cold didn't quite seem to reach the inside of the tents here.

"My Lady," Percy starts, bringing the gazes of the other three in the room to himself once more, "if you are going to send your hunters to camp, I think that it would be wise that Nico and I escort them there," he says, ignoring the way that righteous anger seemed to fill the hunter's eyes at the implication of needing help from a male, and the way that the goddess raised her brow for much the same reason. "Your hunters really shouldn't be wandering around Brooklyn without their patron goddess."

"We do not need some-" Zoë started, it was cut off when the goddess raised her hand into the air to silence the girl.

Artemis looked at the boy with a sharp gaze, and Percy could tell the exact moment that recognition of what he was alluding to flashed through her eyes. The way that they darted to the symbol that still remained, standing stark on his neck. The symbol of another pantheon. She doesn't mention it, but she does note it within herself.

"I agree," the goddess said at last, wondering what could have caused for two pantheons to mix in such a way, but not wanting to ask when one never could tell just who was listening, "besides, someone should tell Chiron of the missing camper."

Percy nods at that as well. He knew that bit would be better coming from him or Thalia than it would from a Hunter.

"Are you ready, my girl?" Artemis asked, turning to look at Bianca once more.

Percy didn't need more than that to know what was to occur next.

The daughter of Hades turned to look at Percy then, smiling when all he did was nod. The boy felt better about her going to the hunters now that he had met the goddess for himself. He may not like what it was going to do to Nico, but he still felt more at ease seeing the way that Zoë - who felt nearly ancient in her own right - still seemed to love the goddess so. It was the sort of worry and devotion that wasn't built on fear or cruelty.

"Yes, my lady," Bianca answered, her voice sure in a way that it almost never was.

The oath that she repeated then was said with that same voice.

Percy smiled at her kindly as the power around her seemed to take on a slightly different form, as she looked truly at peace for the first time since he had met her at camp.

"Lady Artemis," he started before she could decide that it was time for the now hunter, and Percy to leave her tent, "do you have any food that Bianca and I could use to make an offering to hers and Nico's godly parent?" He asks, ignoring the way in which Zoë seemed to bristle at the idea of a hunter doing anything with a male demigod. "I have been in charge of their welfare since they found out about our world, and I would like to let them know that Bianca's situation has changed, but that I will still be taking care of her while she is close."

Bianca elbows him at that, a slight flush on the cheeks of the daughter of Hades as she is being talked about like some unruly child that is being passed from one day care to another.

"Nico would be mad if I didn’t," Percy said, as if that made all the difference in the world for why he would still protect the other even as he truly no longer had to. They both knew that it did, "and I don't want him mad at me," he continues almost petulantly, "you do that enough for the both of us."

Bianca can tell that this both is and isn't a joke as he says it, the knowledge of the truth behind it making something twist in her gut that felt suspiciously like guilt.

"Take care of him, yeah?" She asked, even as she knew that she didn't have to.

"For eternity," the older demigod answers, and it almost feels like there is magic in his words.

Artemis watches all of this with keen eyes, finding that there is no romantic love lost between the pair, but she knows that Bianca likely won't be as boy hating as her other maidens, at least not when it comes to these two demigods. She would allow it for now, as everyone knew that they likely weren't going to see each other for years after her hunters leave camp. That's just how things are.

Zoë doesn't like it though, wants to see an end put to the ease that the pair had right then, but she does nothing as her lady is allowing it for whatever reason. Allowing it and going as far as to nod towards the apples that the goddess keeps for when the deer come to find her each time that they make camp, a silent instruction to give them what the boy has asked for.

She does.

She's pleasantly surprised when the boy smiles brightly in thanks.

Strange male.

The two ancient beings watch as the boy and the hunter walk towards the flap of the tent, Percy stopping just before leaving it as he remembered something that he ought to have thought of earlier.

"Do you think that anyone here has a drachma here that I could use?" He asks, turning back to look at the elder beings within the room. "My dad," he starts, but stops as confusion ripples over both their faces, "adoptive," he clarifies before anyone can be accused of breaking ancient laws, "will be worried if we don't get home soon. We weren't actually planning on going to camp for another few days."

And Artemis can't help but like that Percy is so concerned about others at the moment - something so rare with men, especially those of their world - that she gives the boy one from her own stash (it helps that both request are also out of concern for one of her new hunters as well). The boy smiles and says an earnest thank you before him and Bianca turn to leave once more.

"Strange," Zoë commented, as she watched the pair leave, "the both of them."

The goddess couldn't help but agree.

"Do you think that he will be disappointed?" Bianca asked as they walked to the fire.

Percy didn't need to ask who she meant, there was only one person out of the two that they were about to contact that she actually cared for.

Out of the corner of his eyes Percy could see Nico raising a tired sort of brow, asking a question that he already knew the answer to. Percy nods anyways and pretends that it doesn't hurt to see the other boy draw in on himself more at the conformation that his sister had truly left him.

"If anything I think it will put Dad at ease to know that you are eternal," the son of the sea answers, all but sure of it.

A Hunter at the side of a goddess was a much safer place to be than a mortal child of a god.

The pair split the apple in half then, each tossing one part into the flames as they prayed to the god of the dead, the flames curling up in the darkest of smoke, but there was something pleased to it.

(Percy supposed that not even Hades liked having his children in his realm when there were alternatives to such a thing, especially not those that he had gone to such lengths to protect)

The Iris Message to his Dad was quick, everything about it said with the speed of secrecy, of a crossing of pantheons that could not be. It hurt Amos to hear that his son couldn't even go to stores without monsters wrecking havoc on him, but they had all known that it was only a matter of time with so many children of the big three in one place.

The group rested for a while in the tents and the camp that had been made, hunters and campers alike licking at their wounds after losing the monster and a potential maiden. It wasn't often that either group failed so thoroughly, and when they did do so, they took it hard.

Early into the night, Artemis left to track the monster that had risen, the goddess leaving behind a note with Zoë to give to the god of the sun when he came for them, the two gods having already made an arrangement before she had left.

It wasn't until the sky was the darkest that it had ever seemed in Brooklyn and the world felt chilled to the bone that something shifted in the air. That something, someone, drew near.

The sky began to lighten.

"Advert your eyes until he parks," Zoë called out into the alley, causing everyone to turn quickly away from the road where the approaching light seemed to be landing. Percy kept his eyes open though, looking at the ground beneath his feet. He didn't dare look back up until the light went dark once more, the night returning.

The three campers turned to look at the once source of light, finding a sports car of some sort parked on the road, all of the snow on the sidewalk melted as if it had never been there at all. The son of the sea wondered for a moment if it was just the car, but then the door opened and the driver stepped out.

Apollo had blonde hair that shone like the sun even in the slowly dying night, a smile seemingly natural on his lips right then as he looked no older than seventeen, maybe eighteen at most. He felt ancient in a way that his twin had not, more removed from the world of man than the goddess likely was as she had her hunt.

Percy knew that the heat on his cheeks wasn't just from the drunk sort of feeling that he always got when close to ichor at its purest, the allure of it stronger the older that the being was.

"Apollo is hot," Thalia said, seemingly more to herself than anyone else.

Percy couldn't help but make a noise of agreement, something that got him a raised brow from the daughter of Zeus and got the sun god a glare from the son of Hades.

Bianca couldn't help but laugh at them both.

In their gawking and small conversation, the four missed the short passing of the note from Zoë to Apollo, but they didn't miss at all the way that the god of the sun had to force away a look of concern at whatever was written on the paper.

"Well," the deity said then, his voice feeling a bit false in it cheer as he spoke, "campers and hunters, not every day that I get to transport both." The four watched as the god walked over to their small group, his blue eyes seemingly appraising each of them.

"Thalia, right?" He asked looking down at the other child of the king of the gods.

Though the words were phrased as a question, Percy knew that the god of truth was absolutely sure of them as he spoke. Thalia blushed harder and greeted the gods in turn, something that the son of the sea didn't think really suited the girl.

Then the gods eyes turned to him.

"Percy Jackson," the deity said.

There was something strange in the god's voice as they looked at one another, as if he were seeing more than what was before him, his eyes flashing gold for just a moment. A quick thing, there and gone that he thought that he might have imagined it if it weren't for the way that power seemed to ebb and flow between them right then.

The god of Prophecy and the child of one.

(Percy didn't notice it then, but Apollo did as the demigod's eyes flashed back that same golden shade that spoke of the power of the gods. It only made the god all the more sure that his oracle's prophecy did not belong to the the eldest of the three demigods before him, a surety stirring in his chest that he had not felt since the days of Greece and Rome.)

"Well," the god started, seemingly snapping out of whatever trance he had fallen into right then, "we should get a move on before it is completely time for sunrise,"Apollo said, earning a frown from the children of the underworld god. Noticing this, the deity took a moment to explain. "This," he said, pointing at the car parked on the street, "is only a fraction of the sun chariot's power that I split off like gods can do with their consciousness, allows for me to drive any way that I want without really affecting the sun. Think of it as where you get your shooting stars from that mortals seem to love to wish on so much. No westbound restrictions, just streaks through the sky. But, for the sun to rise as it should I do need to have the whole thing together, so we need to make this quick so that the weather people don't get their mics in a twist. Miss one sunrise by an hour and the mortals start coming up with insane things like daylight savings time."

The four listened to the god's rant as they followed him to the car, the hunters rolling their eyes as if this was a conversation that they had heard before, at least in part.

Nico raised his hand as they stopped before the car, the movement gaining the god's attention once more and making him stop whatever else he might have added to that.

"How are we all going to fit into that?" The boy asked, looking at the sports car as if he was wondering if it was secretly a clown car, or some strange mix of magic and space.

"Oh, yeah," the god said, acting remarkably like his physical age as he dug into his pocket and pulled out the keys from within it and pressing a button on them. In a wash of light the car shifted to look like a large van.

"Neat," the older of the boys complemented.

It didn't take long for all of the hunters to file into the back, Bianca squeezing her brother's shoulder before joining them back there as well as the three demigods sat with the god near the front. The sun good tried to convince Thalia to try and drive the chariot, but Percy and Nico took one look at the daughter of Zeus that was all but turning green right before their eyes and reminded the god that they were in a hurry right then, and new drivers tend to go really slow.

A lie or not, neither of them knew. Driving wasn't really needed in their house when Nico could teleport and all of the Nomes had ways of doing so around the world as well.

(It was a lie, or at least an uncertainty which was close enough for the god of truth to detect. The fact that the pair would be so daring as to try a thing with him, no matter the levels of ichor running through their veins, made the deity stop and really look at his half sister, at just how terrified she seemed even sitting in the second row of the car let alone anywhere near the driver's seat. He may have been a cruel god in the past but he was trying to be different in this time, even if he hadn't meant to be cruel right then.

"I guess you lot will just have to watch the pro drive then and be happy enough with that," the god decided as he slid into the driver's seat and closed the door.

The relief was almost palpable around the deity.

The drive was quick through the night sky, something that the campers and hunters likely could have managed on their own in a day or so if they had traveled like they might have on a quest, but the god understood his twin's concern in letting them do just that. It was bad enough that a demigod was warning a goddess about another pantheon that they had crossed into the territory of, but the teen was also wearing a symbol of that very pantheon on his neck as well.

Apollo had never met a child of the gods, or a god to be, that was thoroughly mixed with a pantheon that he was not born to as Perseus Jackson seemed to be.

It felt like a sign of things to come.

Of a deity that was more than all of them.

They landed near the camp lake, the sun still having a good thirty minutes or so before it was set to rise with the new day. It was the most peaceful that any of the demigods or hunters had ever seen the place, everyone within it still asleep at the early hour.

The hunters were quick to leave and go to the rarely used cabin eight, Bianca with them as she smiled at Nico and Percy both before turning away. Nico didn't return the gesture, but Percy didn't think that the girl had expected him to do so.

"Take care, sweethearts!" The god called after the reproachful hunters that seemed much more likely to flip him off than doing anything kind for the deity. Then the god turned to look at the son of the sea, his eyes more gold than blue once more, "I'll be seeing you soon, Percy," the deity said the words like a joke made by the fates themselves, though the weight of it was diminished by the wink that the sun gods added, something that made Nico glare at the being as shadows coiled around the younger demigod like a second skin. It was something that had Percy reaching out to the other boy to calm him as the god of prophecy drove off to raise the sun once more.

—-

It was when the camp started to come to life once more that Thalia, Percy and Nico made their way to the Big House and to the centaur within, the bad news sour on their tongues but they speak it nonetheless. They speak it even as the words look as if they are causing the ancient being pain to hear, pain that they knew that he would have had to endure one day regardless.

The life of a demigod was not a long one after all.

"We should go after her at once," the trainer of heroes suggests, his tail swishing behind him with worry at it all, something that Percy didn't think that the daughter of Zeus noticed as she immediately volunteered.

"Absolutely not," the Greek god of wine said then with an authority that the man never really held, being as hands off as he was in the affairs of his camp.

And Percy knows that in another life he might have blown up at such seemingly cavalier words, but in this one he couldn't help but remember the promise made to him by the god of the sun only a hour or so before, that he would be seeing him soon. In his gut right then, Percy knew that the god of prophecy wasn't just being some type of flirt in doing so. It was a promise made by a feeling that the deity himself had held right then even as he likely hadn't known the specifics of it.

It was the sort of promise that made him bide his time.

Thalia can't help but notice the silence of the son of the sea, Nico hearing it as well. It was the sort of lack of response that angered the daughter of the king of the Greek gods, small strikes of lighting gliding over her skin as she gritted her teeth, but brought relief to the son of Hades. Percy's mouth got him into far too much trouble, none of them needed that right then.

"What is your problem?" the girl all but snarls at the two boys as neither seem to inclined to go against the camp director right then, something that surprises both of the immortal beings just as it does her.

Percy has to fight back the urge to roll his eyes. "Searching aimlessly right now would get us no closer to actually finding her," he said, the words only partly a lie as they fell from his lips. Yes, he could find her right then if he were to use the ink staining his skin, but for some reason that he can't name it didn't feel like the right time to say so. "It feels like there is more to this than just Annabeth being taken. The smart thing for the monster to would have been to just kill her," he continued bluntly, the words making more than one person flinch at the casual manner in which he spoke them, "or to have at the least thrown her off of himself before leaving, but the manticore took her. Why would a monster take a demigod that was trying to kill them unless they could prove to be useful for something big enough to risk his own return to Tartarus once more? Besides, useful people usually aren't killed until that usefulness runs out."

(it was very Athena like thinking, but Amos was the leader of a nome you need power, and wisdom for that. It was something that he had made sure to instill in Percy as well. It was the sort of thing that made Nico all the more sure that the other was right. Sometimes, thinking with hearts was what lead to damnation more than anything else.)

Mr. D looks at the son of the sea then with eyes that actually make it feel as if Percy is looking at a god, power hidden in his gaze that the teen could feel, and the god nods, serious in a way he usually isn't.

It felt like approval.

"I agree," the Olympian says as he looks at the older of the two boys before turning his gaze to Chiron once more. "The best move right now would be to prioritize the lives of the demigods that we still have with us as is, and wait for dreams to reveal things that aren't known to the demigods right now, as dreams almost always do in within the barriers of the camp."

Its reasonable, they all know that it is. That's what makes it so awful.

It was logic that they couldn't refute.

"Fine," the ancient man accepts, though he doesn't sound pleased in the least. He clears the expression from his face before turning to address them once more. "You three go and spread word of the Hunters, Campers capture the flag game that will be held tomorrow night," the half-man instructed not unkindly.

Three take the excuse for what it is, and leave to do just that.

"Do you want to be captain?" Percy asks the daughter of Zeus as they step out into the snow, knowing the girl's jealousy in a way that he wished that he didn't have to withstand for the past few months. He knew that there was no way that it wouldn't come into play during the game if left untouched.

"You can do it," she answers, sounding despondent in a way that both of the other children of the big three couldn't help but to feel might be deserved.

"We could co captain," Percy counters, earning himself a raised brow from the boy at his side, "but if we are going to do that then you actually have to co captain, not just say that you are going to do it and then let the Poseidon - Zeus rivalry take over and captain by yourself regardless of the agreement, and take nothing that I say into account."

The words are harsh and blunt in a way that the daughter of Zeus wasn't used to hearing from the other, Percy having been all too willing to ignore her for Nico when it first became apparent last summer that after recovering from being a tree she had become agitated around him.

She didn't want to admit just how likely the scenario that the other had just listed likely was, how chastised she felt by having it spelled out for her in such a manner for all to hear.

She thought that the other likely knew regardless.

"We can co captain," Thalia agrees, knowing that it was for the best.

She had only been at camp for such a short time before going to the boarding school. She didn't know the woods as well as the son of Poseidon did, nor did she know the other campers anywhere near as much as either of the boys before her did. But Percy had an extra summer and then some on her, time spent wandering the woods and spent earning the respect of the other campers instead of being handed it for who her godly parent was.

"I'm not afraid to actually say something, and to dig my heel in on it if you stop listening to valid ideas of mine," the son of the sea warns, something so cold in the other teen's eyes that Thalia couldn't help but wonder if this was how those on the Titanic had felt drowning in the freezing waters.

"Yeah," she agrees with a nod, "same."

She didn't say anything after that, only turning to go and tell the female cabins of the game to come, that was fine though, anything else that they might have had to say would have been much less civil in nature then what had already been spoken.

Percy and Nico turn to go and report to the cabins of the male gods.

"Why does she seem so much more affected by the rivalry than you or me or Bianca are?" the younger of the demigods asks when there is no one quite close enough to hear, the question having been poking at him for months, but never really having a need to ask it until the other boy had brought it up himself just then.

Percy shrugs, though he does have a guess. He usually did.

"The rivalry is stronger between Zeus and Poseidon, with the whole attempted overthrowing stunt," he guessed in a way that wasn't really a guess at all. He knew that the king of the gods would never truly forgive any of the Olympians that had sought to displace him, no matter how much time had passed, that he would always be wary. "So it doesn't really affect her view of you and Bianca as much as it does of me. And the rivalry doesn't really me all that much because of what you and I are," he continued, the menacing clear to the other. "What we're becoming. Rivalries between parental gods burn away just like everything else mortal about them so that new gods have clearer heads, and the only rivalries they keep are their own."

The son of Hades nods at that, knowing that it made sense in a way that so few things with the son of Poseidon ever seemed to, the rules of the world breaking beneath his gaze.

The two walk in a peaceful silence for a moment, breathing in the chilled air as the sun rose higher and higher within the sky above. They had finished telling all of the cabins for the male gods before either of them truly spoke to one another again.

"Are you okay now that Bianca has joined the hunters?" Percy asked as they headed to their cabin, the one that was just now for the two of them. He knew that it was something of a stupid thing to ask, but thought that he should do so all the same.

Nico shrugs, though he doesn't look at the other as he speaks. "I knew that it was coming," he confesses, as if doing so made the whole thing better.

He didn't know if the crushing weight or a shocking bite would have been worse. He never will now.

"That doesn't stop it from hurting when it finally does happen," Percy says, not quite sure which of them he was speaking to then. He had always known that he was a mistake, but the first meeting with Poseidon… yeah, that had hurt in a way that it shouldn't have. "At least it seems like Zoë is nearly as ancient as the gods themselves, so it seems that the hunters lives last longer than that of demigods, immortality or not."

All the immortality in the world wouldn't matter if a hunter was to die in battle.

Nico nods at that, a small smile on his lips. It had been a hard few months with him adjusting to his slowly growing immortality while Bianca remained as mortal as she could be. Time was slowing down for him, and he felt himself becoming colder as his soul burned away, and he wasn't fighting the changes, not even as his powers grew more and more with the day, step by step while hers seemed to remain almost stagnant. She hadn't been very happy when she still couldn't get shadow travel down while he was able to do it now with much smaller draw backs.

He hoped that her immortality would help even the fields now.

(he just wanted to get something out of what was bound to be a shit deal for him as he would be lucky to see her once a year now that she was a hunter, and she had left partly because of him)

Percy can't help but see the way that the other has been changing since they had first met, that light that he had once held so brightly becoming more and more nonexistent by the day. He liked the more serious version of Nico, but he did still want them to act like kids while they were human. To have a chance to be human while their blood was still tinted with red. It was why he liked skating so much, why he and Amos played a card game based on gods that they all knew were real. It why he challenges the boy to a race to their cabin, a sharp sort of smile on each of their lips.

(Percy wins, he's one of the faster runners in camp and has some hight on the other, though Nico tackles him as they get close, and the two laugh as they fall, and all Percy can think is 'there's that light.' He was fine with Nico being shrouded in night, so long as there were still stars in the sky (so long as he was one of those stars))

—-

Bianca found the inhabitants of cabin three the next morning, her eyes puffy and her lips bitten with worry that she hadn't had a need to truly feel since her and Nico had been traveling to camp from the hotel.

It was a look that each of the boys notice at once from the usually put together girl.

"What is it?" Nico asks, his voice filled with concern instead of the undercurrent of bite that he had held for the past six months or so.

He almost wished that he hadn't spoken at all when the other child of the god of the dead tells them about the dream that she'd had the night before. About Annabeth taking the weight of the ceiling from Luke, about it bearing down on her so much that she looked as if she was about to die. About how it seemed as if it was supposed to be a trap for another. About how just after she woke up Zoë did as well from a dream of her own about their Lady.

"They're likely connected then," Percy guesses, knowing that they likely must be. The timing was too good, and so was the fact that if the goddess of the hunt was going to fall prey to any sort of trap, it would be for a maiden.

No one thinks that this connection is a good thing. No, it only complicated matters more.

Nico can't help but tap his fingers against the table as his mind runs through the stories that they had learned once more, the answer just out of reach. They had spent the past months reading more on the monsters that still roamed the earth today, but it was looking more and more now like they were going to have to trace back to the Titan War already.

They had thought that they would have more time.

Such a stupid thought.

"What's on your mind?" the son of the sea asks, knowing that there was something there, something that they all knew but didn't want to name.

"The ceiling that Bianca described…" Nico started slowly, his gaze glancing up to the sky above them now as if it would crush them at any moment, "it kinda sounded like the Greek version of the Egyptian myth of the sky and earth meeting, only concentrated on one spot."

There is silence for a moment then, the answer ringing in all of their minds no matter how much they loathed it.

"Atlas," Percy says at least, knowing that someone had to. "He's forced to hold up the sky, it's his burden."

"And it can only be taken willingly by others," Bianca adds, remembering how she had felt reassured by that at first when hearing the story. She didn't feel so right then.

"Well, fuck," Nico says then, giving voice to what they had all been thinking. "What do we do now?"

It's the son of the sea's turn to be the bearer of bad new once more right then.

"We can't do anything until a quest is called for," he reminds them.

The three hate it, but they know he's right. It didn't stop them from feeling useless right then though. Bianca leaves to go to the hunters and Percy kinda thinks that if there is a quest he might have to do something stupid.

—-

"I'll take offense, you take defense," Thalia offered in a way that didn't much sound like one at all.

Percy wants to fight it, wants to be in the woods with the water where he could be more useful, to have Thalia in a more open area where she could use her lighting and fight with her spear with more efficiency, but them both being captain meant a give and take. She was taking now, he would so so next.

"Fine," he agrees, his voice telling everyone that had spent even a minute around him just how much he disliked the idea, something that the other likely knew when she picked to roles like this, "but if one of my people see a golden opportunity then we're going for it, just as your people should fall back for defense as needed," he countered.

"No one should leave their posts," Thalia argues then, anger in her eyes and in her voice, "that's how things get mixed up. You can't have people switching around as they want."

"You can and we will," Percy counters, his voice as harsh as a drawing tide, "It's basic tactics, you fall back when someone else has a better opportunity of success. It's how it works in team sports and it's how it works in battle, or are you so much like your father that you can't see that?"

Thunder rumbled through the sky, loud and angered at the slight, but Percy paid it no mind. Zeus was no king of his, and his temper tantrums only made the god seem more like a child.

The campers that were staying over the break watched as pair spoke, as they went back and forth like young immortals. As Thalia spoke with anger, while Percy spoke his points like a blizzard, cold and cruel and holding no emotion to it just the will of nature.

Nico stepped up to the other boy's side, a silent offer of support and someone to creature a barrier should things go to Hades. He knew that the daughter of Zeus was much too prone to electrocuting those that angered her, and that Percy was far too capable of different forms of drowning.

He just hoped that he would be fast enough.

"If one of my people are to run and try for it then I will send up a sign," Percy offers, his voice a bit softer than before, as if the decision had already been made. It had. "The worse that happens is one of mine don't make it in time, but can draw the attention of the hunters so that one of yours can."

Thalia listened to this, listened to the words that stubbornly made far too much sense. Something in her bones resented the idea of going along with it, something in her blood screamed against the idea, but she shoved it down.

"What's the signal?" She asked then with less than a glance at the campers around her. She already knew that they all agreed with the son of the sea.

The smile that spreads across Percy's lips then is sharp and almost cruel, the sort of look that one would expect to see on a shark made human. It sent a shiver down more than one spine.

"I'll make a storm that can't be ignored," he declares with the voice of someone that knew that he could do just that.

Nico knew that the other could, had been on the receiving end of such a mass of power before, he knew that it would be terrifying for even their allies to see. The idea made him smile as well.

"That it should even work further in our favor," Nico adds when he sees the daughter of Zeus looking skeptical, "since the hunters won't be expecting weather in camp."

Magical borders were good for many things.

"Can you really do that?" Thalia asks, that skepticism showing itself once more, but worry underlying it.

Her father was the god of the skies, but it sounded as if the other demigod was even more attuned with them than she was.

"I wouldn't have said it if I couldn't," Percy reminds her,offended that she would accuse him of making false promises.

That was something that he would never do when it came to a battle.

Thalia can't help but agree.

The campers split off after that, half of them diving into the thick of the woods as the other half went to Zeus' fist and stood upon it, using the height of the piled rocks to see well into the trees around them.

Then he saw it.

Thalia had found the flag, but there were so many hunters protecting it that if she ever did get through it might not matter. Her and Bianca were fighting right then and neither seemed to be holding back much as the earth shifted beneath the feet of the daughter of Zeus.

But the flag was wide open from where Percy was.

Percy looked to Nico and the other boy nodded, and that was all that was needed before they were jumping off of the pillar of rocks, down to the snow below with near silent steps and dicing into the shadows of the rocks as a storm began to rage overhead. The clouds were too low to the earth for the downpour of water that fell from them to freeze, seeping into everyone's clothes that wasn't a son of the sea as Percy and Nico stepped out of the shadows once more with the flag quickly slipping into Percy's hand.

The hunters and Thalia didn't seem to notice right then, but they both knew that such a thing wouldn't last for long, not when you needed to check back on the thing that you were protecting, so the pair ran. Fast as their legs can take them, even as arrows begin to fly at their feet and armor and the flag has to be traded around as they take turns slashing the arrows out of the air.

They don't stop until they cross the border once more.

Its the first time in fifty-five visits from the hunters that the campers had ever won.

Chiron smiles at them brightly as he announces this, his voice and the horn drawing everyone out of the woods to him, though most of the other players look decidedly less pleased by all of as their shirts were soaked through and sticking to their skin in the middle of winter from the storm that Percy had created.

The son of the sea is quick to reach out to Nico, drawing the water from out of the other's clothes and hair so that the other boy doesn't get sick. The son of Hades nods at him gratefully and Percy smiles softly back before moving onto the next of the players that were closest, which happened to be Thalia.

Percy had hardly grazed the shoulder of the daughter of Zeus before he felt the water in the air shifting around them as lighting arched towards him from the girl, an angry sort of shock that had a bit more kick to it than it usually would.

Percy redirects it without thinking, the electricity growing as it passes through him and scorches the snow at his feet.

There was a moment of silence through out the woods then, nothing but the slight chatter of teeth as everyone else was still all but drowned in water. Shock was running up and down everyone's spines, no one knowing what to do.

No one had thought that a child of the Greek god of the sea could do such a thing.

And yet he had.

It takes Percy drawing his sword, with a tight sort of expression on his face, for them to notice the Oracle walking towards them on unsteady sort of legs, the bones clear for too many to see. Percy heard Chiron mutter something about impossibility, but the son of the sea cared nothing for that, only what the mummy was going to speak next.

The corpse stopped before the group, towards the middle of them all as the green smoke that so few had seen since quests stopped being given as frequently as they are now tumbled from the corpse's mouth like some sort of poison.

Percy didn't remember moving, but he knew that somewhere in the speech from the decaying Oracle on the accomplishments of Apollo, the teen had positioned himself in front of Nico, knowing that now would be the worse time for the other boy to give into the urge that he always had when a unique skeleton was before him, especially one claimed by the magic of another deity.

The Oracle turned towards Zoë as she spoke, a look of determination washing over the hunter's face at the permission to seek her lady, as the green mist took the shape of the goddess of the hunt kneeling on the ground under the same mass that Bianca had spoken of Annabeth being trapped beneath.

Lady Artemis had fallen for the bait and has willingly taken the sky.

Five shall go west to the goddess in chains

One shall be lost in the land without rain.

The bane of Olympus shows the trail

Campers and Hunters combined prevail.

The Titan's Curse must one withstand

And one shall perish by a parent's hand

They all listened to the prophecy with an air of silence, their chests tightening as the Oracle spoke more and more of those lost, of a bane of Olympus, of a curse meant for a titian to withstand, of one that will perish at a parent's hand. It was a prophecy of old, one steeped in blood and horror.

It was the sort of prophecy that they hadn't yet had to withstand in the current generation of heroes.

(Percy that every prophecy to follow this one for a while would be just like it, just as cursed and whispering of death. That was just how war was)

The Oracle sat then on a rock and looked as if she had never moved at all.

—-

Nico and Percy walked the corpse back to the Big House, the weight shared between the two of them until they were within the farm house itself and Nico was able to reanimate the bones without being seen while Percy jogged ahead and opened doors for the three of them as was needed.

When they got to the rec room after leaving the attic, the beginnings of a council was being held between the heads of each cabin and Zoë and Bianca of the hunters, Chiron and Dionysus presiding over them all with the weight of immortality resting on their shoulders in a way that it didn't on the maidens'.

An argument was already brewing.

Percy sat down at the table with Nico at his side in a way that no one questioned anymore. Everyone knew that they were package sort of deal. Bianca took the seat on Nico's other side, with Zoë beside her as well, it was a connection between the hunters and the campers that meant more than Percy thought that the others at the table seemed to realize at the moment as Thalia and Zoë argued back and forth on the prospect of campers being allowed on the quest, even as the prophecy had specifically said that they would be needed as well.

(Percy wasn't all that surprised when Mr. D tried to advocate for only hunters going in search of the goddess, not with the supposed death toll that it has all but promised to take. They had lost too many campers as it was and the war was not even on their doorstep quite yet)

"Three and two," the son of the sea said with the clear exasperation of someone that thought that this should have been obvious to some extent. Everyone in the room stopped their arguing to look at him then, the weight of their gazes making him feel like a general at war, "It's about as fair of a compromise as we are going to get, and minimizes the impending death toll as much as possible between only one group like how a four and one would maximize it.

"Though I do think that all cards should be laid out on the table before any choosing of the last four commences," the son of the sea god finished out, that last sentence drawing raised brows from nearly everyone around him, and an expectant sort of look from the god of wine.

It was as if the deity had been waiting for him to play some sort of card that no one else would have.

"I'll… accept the three and two compromise of thee," the lieutenant of the goddess of the moon said, her voice reluctant even as she knew that it was fair in a way. Even as she was thinking of what combination would be best to both save her Lady and to make sure that the smallest number of her hunters came to harm. It wasn't the sort of choice that anyone should have to make, yet here she was. "What information do you deem important enough to need to be disclosed, boy?"

The smile that she receives is one that reminds her of the sea just before a current catches you and tries to pull you under.

"Bianca had a dream last night," the teen admits, drawing eyes to the daughter of Hades for a moment before they went back to the son of Poseidon, "one about Annabeth," he saw the way that Zoë's brows scrunched in confusion, as everyone else looked stilted with pain, "the girl that was taken by the manticore," he clarified for the ancient hunter, who nodded, "according to the contents of the dream and the vision that we were just shown by the Oracle, they are likely being held together, Annabeth having been bait for the goddess."

Zoë all but growled at the idea of a maiden having been taken to trick her patron deity, while everyone else just looked angered by the idea of the daughter of Athena, someone that they had all known for years, being used in such a way. Still, the information was enough for the lieutenant to know that the daughter of the underworld deity would be by her side in this endeavor.

"Before Annabeth was taken," Percy continues, knowing that he had more to say and needed to do so fast before anyone else around him got the idea to start picking the others for the quest, "I managed to splash ink on her skin," he admitted, holding up his hand to show the way that ink stained his own fingertips black, even as it seemed to shimmer in the light for a reason that none other than the three from Brooklyn House could answer right then.

"What does ink have to do with anything?" Connor Stoll asked, the son of Hermes not knowing why such a thing would be important enough to bring up right then.

"Because the ink was mixed with ichor."

Its such a simple sort of sentence, but the reaction that rips through the room is anything but as everyone looked at the boy with wide eyes, the elder hunter whispering under her breath as she thought of the possibilities of such a thing.

"Pure godly power," the maiden said, sounding almost awed by the idea.

The immortals in the room looked the teen with wide eyes of their own, one wondering just where he had gotten the blood of gods from and the other wondering just how gold his blood had been since the start of his time at camp.

"This will lead us to the girl, and thus to Lady Artemis then?" Zoë asked, looking at the shimmering ink and knowing that the boy would not have brought it up had that not somehow been the intention of it all.

"Yes and no," Percy said, his stained his shaking from side to side. A flash of annoyance and anger spread over the face of the elder hunter and the daughter of Zeus, who was watching him with the sort of gaze that looked as if she was thinking about killing him right then and there, Percy spoke quickly then. "It will bring those that follow it to Annabeth, but it will only lead me and whoever is with me at the time, so it's not like I can just give the questers the ink manifestation and send you lot off with it," he explained, receiving more raised brows and sour looks in turn. "Its a fail safe put in place to make sure that when those following the ink stop for the night that the manifestation doesn't just continue on without them as they sleep."

Its simple and smart in nature, the sort of thing that most beings of godly power do not think of when creating magical objects like this. It makes the god of wine wonder just how much experience the boy had with doing this.

"How reliable is it?" the ancient hunter asked next, even as she was already thinking that this was likely better than nearly anything else that they might have outside of nature magic, but even that was limited as most of the satyrs were out already in the mortal world looking for demigods to bring to camp with the sort of fever that only an incoming war can truly ever bring out.

And right then Percy looks to the boy at his side as if he held all of the answers in the world. Right then he just might have.

Everyone watches as the younger of the pair pulls back the sleeve of his jacket, revealing the too pale skin beneath and the ink that danced upon it in the shape of feathers that raced up his arm like wings.

"It lead me and Bianca all the way from Las Vegas to Long Island and protected us the entire way here until Percy was in sight," the child of the god the dead says, something fond in his voice that most of the people within the room never did get to hear from the son of the underworld.

Bianca nodes, something that is an act of vouching in of itself.

"It was only a splash of ink that I got on Annabeth," Percy continues, knowing that since Nico mentioned the protection he would need to add a bit more, he didn't notice the looks of awe that he was getting from those around the room, "so it won't be able to act like a guardian, but more like an Adrian's string."

"Showing the right way and nothing more," the god in the room guessed, his voice strange at the mention of his immortal wife. Percy nods. "Does that make you Theseus then, just following lead that has been created?" he sounds bitter as he asks this, something that the son of the sea couldn't quite blame the other for if the stories were true that he thought must be.

"I'm pretty sure it makes me Adrian in this case," Percy admits, truly thinking on the point for a moment, "but I honestly think that I was a bit more like you the first time around with this," he adds, running his hand over the ink on his skin even as it was hidden by cloth, everyone watched the movement and knew now just what it meant, "finding Nico and Bianca and bringing them to the world of the gods."

Mr. D's form goes tight at those words, the information filtering into his bones as he knows that the other was likely more right than he ever thought that he might be. Dionysus remembered the display from the summer before, remembered eyes that flashed gold in a way that had nothing to do with the summer light, the way that he was sure that the boy was likely going to self ascend. The certainty that he had only moments before that ichor within the ink that they were speaking of was that of the boy's himself. It made him wonder if this made the younger of the di Angelos the modern version of the god's wife. The deity hoped not, he didn't want to have to deal with both of the demigods for an eternity.

(something told him that he just might have to.

That he just might not get a choice if fate was playing its hand once more)

"Fine," Zoë agrees, the sound of the word making it seem like she was chewing glass rather than speaking a word that half of the english speaking population likely says at least once a day, "the boy can come," she agrees, knowing that she doesn't have much choice when the demigod was a direct lead to her lady. "Bianca will come as well," she adds, knowing that if a hunter was dreaming of those involved in this then she would be a fool to take anyone else.

"Please let me come as well," Nico says, jumping in before any of the last two spots can be picked, even as Zoë looks at him like he is the scum on the bottom of her shoe for doing so. "Bianca is my sister, and Percy is supposed to protect the both of us because of the promise that he made to our godly father," he says, reminding the older hunter of the strange situation that the three had somehow stumbled their way into.

"Do you have anything to offer?" Zoë asks, knowing that someone of such powers as the boy that she had already agreed to bring along wouldn't likely be completely weak, just not as trained.

The weak didn't live long in a world like theirs, promises of protection or not.

The son of Hades and the son of the sea look at one another then, a silent sort of conversation passing between them that none of the others could truly hope to understand in the way that the two of them did then. Everyone watches as the older of the pair nods, a silent sort of permission for secrets that were only known between those of Brooklyn House and the two campers that had joined them on the quest the summer before. Two campers that were not at camp at right then.

It only took a moment for all of the shadows in the room to seemingly draw themselves towards the son of the underworld, to encase the boy in an embrace that seemed cold and threatening to most, but the two boys knew was as kind as a caress. Those in the room had hardly taken in the scene before before the boy at the center of it all appeared on the other side od the room with little more than a chill in the air to show that he had been anywhere else before.

Zoë, Chiron, and Dionysus stop as recognition of just what this ability was and whose children hold it, as Nico moves back to Percy's side. It was a look of recognition that the son of the sea recognized with a cold sort of gaze that spoke of death to come if the three so much as shifted wrong, as he moved to cover Nico from the ancient beings before them, hands spread before him in the way that they often were before he used his powers in ways that a demigod shouldn't be able to, jutting his chin for Bianca to back away from Zoë and come to his side as well.

She does.

Those simple sort of actions are all that the three immortals need to know that the son of Poseidon knows just who the siblings are the children of, and that he is truly willing to protect the pair even from an Olympian.

The campers watched with the wide eyes of those that had no idea what was occurring, but knew that if something were to go wrong then lives would be lost within the camp from the battle of the four beings that were facing one another right then.

(many of them also noticed how Percy had angled his body in a way that shielded the others at the table as best as he could right then, a silent protection of the demigods that were only there for the council. It was the sort pf action that made them believe in the boy more than they already had, believe in his power and his heart.

It was the sort of action that turned the teen's blood a little more gold with each person at the table that thought such a thing, like prayers being whispered on his skin)

"Teleportation would be a useful skill during a quest, don't you think?" Percy asks, almost placating in a way as he was trying to calm down all of those before him, but not forceful. If the leader of the quest truly didn't want the son of Hades with them, then he would not push it, all that he was doing now was protecting the pair. "Bianca can't do it yet."

And Zoë knows that he's right, that between the powers of an overpowered child of Poseidon and two children of hades, the risks of the quest would be raised but so would the power at the end when it came to the fight that she thought that they might be heading to if that line in the prophecy is right.

Oh, if her lady could see her now.

She nods, a bit slow and bit unsure, but that is all that the boy needs to slowly lower his hands, his gaze still wary of the god before him. But Dionysus made no move to say a thing, and neither did Chiron.

Everyone noticed the way in which the son of the underworld leaned into the child of the sea as if to reassure each other that the other was unharmed.

Men may still be despicable, but Zoë wasn't that worried about these two right then. Besides, Zoë knew that it would be helpful to have two heroes set on protecting her Hunter after her death, wherever that was on this quest.

(Because she knew that her string had already been cut, since the moment that the Oracle of Delphi spoke those damning words)

"I would like to join as well," Thalia spoke up quickly, knowing that there was only one spot left.

"Alright," Zoë agrees easily enough, knowing that she was placing the balance of the quest members into the camp's side. She didn't mind it as much as she might have in another life, not when it raised the chances of Bianca not being one of the demigods to be claimed by the prophecy's claws, and raised the chances in the camper's favor of just that.

It was cruel, she knew that, but this was war.

They decide then to leave in the morning.

—-

When Percy wakes the morning of the quest, it's to a pounding on the door, loud and insistent and refusing to be ignored. Nico wakes with him at the noise, each of the boys slipping out of their beds with weapons in their hands, the son of Hades cloaking himself in shadows as Percy pulled open the cabin door. The effort was completely dropped as soon as the pair saw just how was waiting for them on the other side.

Hey, put those away, the Pegasus, Blackjack, all but commanded as he saw the weapons, his feather ruffling at the sight, do you know what they do with stabbed horses?

"It depends on the country and the nature of the stab wound," Percy answered honestly. He had taken a bit of time over the years to learn things about the animals that he could speak to because of the godly blood in his veins.

Well I don't want to find out the practice for demigods," the Pegasus said in turn.

"I'm going back to bed," Nico decided, quickly having lost interest in whatever this was as soon as he saw that animals were involved. They never had liked him and he didn't have much love lost for them either anymore. "You can fight with the horse."

"I wouldn't get too comfortable," Percy warned, "I think Zoë wants to make an early start."

The only response he got was a thumbs up, but he knew that the other demigod likely wouldn't have gone back to sleep even if they were starting at noon. It was a rare thing for the other, it was more likely that he just wanted to escape the cold.

Percy didn't really feel like being in it much either.

The explanation for the visit that the Pegasus gave was a quick one, but not unusual to hear. It was far too often that a sea creature got stuck on something that another one couldn't get them out of, especially the farther away from camp that they got. Usually the naiads in the water would handle the creatures there if they could, but the spirits of the lake didn't like the venture too far from camp and it's boarders. Percy took over there, something that Mr. D either didn't notice or the god ignored because of the context of it all.

Percy honestly thought that it might be the latter.

He tells the son Hades where he will be before leaving, a precaution for it this takes longer than he thinks it will. It usually only took a few moments, but it was hard to keep track of time when beneath the water. The other boy only grumbles in response, pulling the sheets up closer to his chest, but he knows that the other demigod was listening. Percy envied him a bit right then, though he figured it likely wouldn't be long before the spirits of the dead started to take notice of him and asks favors of their own.

The ride to where the sea creature was trapped was nice in a way, silent save for the sound wings moving through the air. Percy too a moment to breath in the scent of the sea while the world was still dark, while it was still calm. He knew that they were going to be hard pressed to have any moments like this for the next few days before the solstice and wanted to enjoy it while it was his to have.

Here, Blackjack decided at last, circling above a spot in the waters of the beach around camp, his voice sure even as it was only in the demigod's mind.

Percy didn't need more than that to let himself fall from the winged horse, down into the waters below like a night kissed Icarus. It was a stunt that he thought that he might do just a bit too often, but he loved the feeling of falling just before crashing into the waves, the freedom of it all.

He let's himself sink into the water, deeper and deeper until he shouldn't have been able to see at all regardless of the light above, only his place as a child of the Greek god of the sea making it so that he could. The world beneath the waves was one that the other demigods at camp would never truly get to see, and one that the immortal children of Poseidon would never appreciate the way that someone deprived of it all could.

When he finds the creatures at the bottom the sea, the hippocampi were in something of a frenzy, swimming around the startled creature as they were unable to do a thing to help the sea creature that had become tangled within some sort of net from the mortal world above. The creatures had tried chewing on the rope, but their teeth were not meant for such a thing. It was only after the creatures had pleaded with him that he was able to get them to move out of the way so that he could see the trapped creature. The sight before him made him stop.

The creature was small, a baby in its own right, but it had the front body of a young cow and the back half of a serpent, its tail swishing anxiously through the water and stirring up the sand. Something at the image of it all sparked a memory from a story that Nico had been talking about when getting into Mythomagic the year before, the other boy having gone through a phase of learning some of stories about the gods that he had cards and figures for so that he could see what worked best in a situation to do the most damage realistically. He had stopped somewhere along the Gigantomachy, but Percy thought that this creature might have been from a time before then.

A stirring of monsters so old that their names had been forgotten.

Percy thought for a moment about killing the creature, worried of what would occur if it was allowed to grow if it really was something so ancient, but he looked into its eyes - sad and pleading - and knew that he would never be able to go through with it, especially not when the hippocampi had asked for his help in freeing it, something that they wouldn't do if it were dangerous.

Still, he drew his sword, intending to cur through the material, but the creature started to struggle the moment that it saw the gleam of the blade. It had the sort of fear in its movements in its struggle that screamed of a fear of something that it had known before. Such a reaction all but confirmed that this was a monster reborn, still he put away his sword. It took a moment, but the creature stopped thrashing once it was gone.

Percy sighed as well as one could under water and set to untying the netting by hand. At least it let him pet it at the end, like an oversized cat. He hoped, as he swam up to the surface once more, that the creature would be safe, but didn't bother to pray for such a thing. It wasn't like the gods answered these days anyways.

When he rises out of the water the four other members of the quest are waiting for him on the beach, each looking varied levels of annoyed as the winter chill rips at their clothes. He couldn't fault them for that.

"Sorry for the wait," the son of the sea said before anyone else could speak, accepting the coat and packed bag that Nico held out to him with a gentle sort of smile of gratitude, "the hippocampi found a sea creature that had gotten stuck in a net and it got scared of my sword, so I had to manually untie it bit by bit," the teen explained, though he wasn't really all that annoyed by it now that he was more awake.

It was nice to be able to do something kind every now and then, something that didn't stain his hands further with blood or lay curses upon his soul from those that he had slain.

Nico and Bianca both nod at the explanation that he had given as if it was normal (it is while they are at camp) and Zoë can't help but to consider him as if he had just done something unknown. It was a look that Percy was much too used to receiving from immortals that had already formed an opinion of just who he was because who the past children of the gods had been.

It was a look that he always got a small sense of satisfaction at receiving, knowing that so long as those that thought the worse of him were looking at him like that then he was doing something right.

The group made their way to the van after that, receiving no send off of any kind as they piled into the vehicle, Zoë at the wheel as Thalia took the passenger's seat and the di Angelos sat on either side of Percy as he took the middle of the back seat, the ink rising from his hand like something out of one of the other boy's Venom comics. Everyone in the van watched as the ink shifted and turned, as if assessing his needs right then, before settling into the form of an arrow pointed west.

"Neat trick," Thalia admitted as she watched at the ink didn't change even as Percy twisted his hand from side to side, the arrow intent on which way they had to go. Zoë watched as well, her eyes filled with a small bit wonder at the sight. It had been a long time since she had seen magic preformed in such a way, one that was to help and not immediately cause harm. It was a nice change right then. "Why didn't you mention it earlier?" the daughter of Zeus asks then, as if just thinking of it.

The son of the sea sighs. "Like you said, its a neat trick," the teen started twisting his fingers through the end of the ink to watch and see if it would ripple. It did not. "But, its a hard one to utilize properly when the subject is moving by means of teleportation. Imagine heading west like we are about to and then suddenly they move all the way to Georgia. It would still track," he explains, "but there wasn't that much power in the splash of ink that I had managed to get on Annabeth because she was already starting to disappear. I didn't want to burn up the power too fast by having it going from right then. And besides, we needed a quest to go and search for her, and we didn't get that till now."

Thalia thinks that's cold, but she also knows that it's practical, cunning even at the end of the day. It was the sort of logic that a god would use.

The others agreed, even as she didn't speak this aloud, Zoë taking the time to start the drive now that she knew that the corse was clear and would adjust as needed.

"Does the ink only do tracking magic?" the daughter of Zeus asked next, never having really seen something like it before, glancing at the rest of the ink on Percy's skin out of the corner of her eye.

It wasn't subtle, but it also wasn't meant to be.

"Its one of the easier applications for the ink," the son of the sea god admits, "especially if the tracking is done by another and it leads back to me," he added, his finger skimming over the ink on his arms that matched Nico's own, "since the ink holds my blood within it, but it can be used for other purposes when needed."

"Like the symbol on your neck?" Zoë asks in a way that felt more like a demand for an answer.

The siblings cringe as they know what is to come.

"My adoptive father has a matching one," Percy answers, his voice growing flatter by the word, "if either of us were to die, then the symbol would disappear from the body of the other."

The answer is grim and honest enough that no one even asks about the star.

—-

It's when they start driving towards the Washington monument that things start to awry like quests always seemed to do when Percy was involved with them. Everyone caught the moment that both of the children of Hades shuddered like beings possessed. Thalia thought that it meant that something had was occurring, that the pair were being set off in some negative sort of light like she sometimes was when her father was angered and lighting raged through the sky, but Percy had seen that look before on a boat full of the dead.

He recognized the hunger of it.

"How many?" The boy asked, looking out the window as if expecting an attack at any moment to strike them.

"I don't know," Bianca admits, though her voice sounds a bit far away, seemingly still lured in by the power of it all.

"What's going on?" Zoë asked, her knuckles growing white on the wheel.

Good things never followed where the children of the god of the dead were concerned.

"Death magic," Nico answers, looking at the eldest of them all with a gaze that hungered to be near it, to claim the power of his father's realm.

It was the sort of look that started wars.

None of them know if it would be wise to go near it or not, the cravings of the siblings aside, but they all knew that it wasn't likely to be a coincidence that this was occurring while on their quest while they were still near. Loath as Zoë and Thalia both were to admit it, they all knew that if it did have to do with them then they needed to stop it while it was still fresh if they could. While they still had their strength about them, before the quest had truly begun to take its full toll that it could.

That they knew that it would.

(Two were supposed to die on this quest after all)

It with a grim set to her mouth that Zoë turns the wheel, Nico guiding her as he followed the feeling of it, taking them to the Air and Space Museum of all places. They parked quickly, walking up to the side of the museum and peering in through one of the large windows, though they couldn't see much with the displays in the way. They could see however, the rafters the were high enough above that no one would think to look into them.

The group grabbed onto one another as Nico brought them up into the shadows of the rafters, the darkness clinging to them and holding on as it hid them from whatever was below.

Its the inhuman sound of chattering that makes the five snap their heads down to the scene on the ground from where they had each been making sure that they were steady before doing so. When they do they see the skeletons, twelve of them seemingly sniffing clothes that they passed between them.

"Hunters' clothes," Percy whispered, voicing what they were all thinking.

None of them had any idea how the creatures had gotten their hands on such a thing, but now wasn't the time to question it.

(The word spy rang through the head of the son of the sea nonetheless, there weren't many other things that it could be)

Zoë, Percy and Thalia watched as each of the siblings raised their hands, as if trying to affect the dead beneath them, but for some reason they couldn't, at least not from so far away. Right then, none of them wanted to get close enough to the things to see if it would work better up close, not in such a close when they were so drastically outnumbered.

They grabbed onto one another once more, planning on getting in the car and driving as far as they could before the skeletons realized just how near they were.

They weren't even able to turn from the area before trouble found them once more.

"Oh fuck this," Percy said as he looked at the monster before him, a beast with fur that gleamed like gold and claws that shined like silver.

"The Nemean Lion," Thalia said, fear and awe in her voice as she did so. It was so rare that monsters held a beauty to them as the one before them did.

Too bad that didn't make it any less likely to want to kill them.

Percy, Nico and Bianca looked at one another then, knowing that the beast was indestructible from its outside. His inside was a different story.

Bianca nodded without needing to be told what would occur, and drew her bow as the son of the sea and the son of the underworld grabbed each other's hands as they had the summer before.

"Now is not the time to be holding hands," Zoë hissed, but the pair paid her no mind as the simply raised the hands that were not holding one another.

"Ready your bow," the daughter of Hades commanded, hers already nocked and trained on the approaching monster before them.

The monster that suddenly stopped being able to move at all.

Power surged between the two boys, feeding into one another and ripping apart the beast before them as Percy controlled the blood within the lion, holding him still, as Nico felt for the bones within and forced the monster's jaw to open wilder and wider still. It was actions that once would have broken them both, but now seemed to come as easy as breathing.

(Percy would never admit aloud that sometimes he wanted to take a knife to the other boy's skin just to see what color he might bleed that day. To see him shine gold)

The arrows were already flying before Zoë or Thalia knew why the monster had stopped.

Soon there was nothing left but the lion's pelt, still glowing like gold in the sun.

"You could have helped," Nico griped as the five of them looked at the object, though only two held shock within them right then.

The elder hunter and the daughter of Zeus looked at the three with wide eyes. The tracking magic was one thing, but this was another entirely. This was the sort of power that the gods killed demigods for possessing. The sort of power that no demigod should hold.

(And of the boys did, and Bianca acted as if it were normal)

"Take it," the daughter of Hades said, shoving the son of the sea towards the pelt.

"I don't want it," the boy protested before turning to the younger demigod boy. "Nico, you can have it."

But the son of the king of the dead only shakes his head, something soft in his eyes at the other boy's antics. "Not really my style," he reminded the other, "besides, you are the more likely of all of us to do something stupid that would make you need it."

The smile on the younger camper's lips as he spoke was both teasing and sharp at once and Percy knew that he couldn't fight that.

(He wants to more than anything though)

—-

The five make it back to the car quickly after that, knowing that it wouldn't be long before the skeletons started their hunt and that they were already woefully behind in what little advantage that they might have had after the fight with the mythical lion.

The ink settles once more, as Percy guides Zoë with it at she drives even faster and more reckless than she had been before. Honestly, Percy thought that if she ever wanted to take a year break from the life of an eternal maiden of her goddess, and if the goddess of the hunt was willing to bend the mist just right for her hunter, then the race tracks were calling Zoë's name over the intercom.

He knew better than to tell the other this idea though, instead just reaching into the Duat once more and pulling from within it the bottle of ink that he had used to create the arrow, pouring more of it onto the magical compass that he had created with his will for it to aid in the purpose that already existed.

The son of the sea wasn't sure how long it wound take for the ink to get used up, for the godly power within it to drain in the way that all things must eventually - which was part of the reason that he had given Nico so much of it when they had first met, and had replenished the design over the past year and a half nearly each time that he had made more ink) but he didn't want to find out in the middle of all of this.

He wished though that this was his biggest worry as only moments after he had added the ink to the arrow shaped manifestation, a helicopter appeared coming straight for them.

"Shit," he curses, a loud sort of sound that makes everyone turn to see the helicopter that was following them in a way that normal wouldn't, low and moving seconds only after they do in precisely the same ways.

"They have to be following the van," Nico says, speaking the thoughts that they were all having aloud.

None of them knew if the mythical world or the doing of the mortal world right then, but they did know that they hadn't exactly been subtle in their leaving of the museum, if the skeleton owners were still around then they would have been seen by them.

"We're going to have to ditch it," Percy's says in a manner that can only be described as mournfully, hating the idea of getting rid of a means of transportation so soon into the quest. Things never went well after transportation was lost.

"There's a subway somewhere around here i think," Bianca remembers aloud as she looks at the streets that they were hurriedly all but flying past, glancing at the others in the back seat and getting nods in return. They had ridden on it while running some errands for Amos over the past few months. "We might be able to lose them that way."

"Worth a shot," Zoë concedes, and the three in the back take turns directing her as best as they can off of memory alone.

They don't even bother with a parking garage or anything of the like, just ditching the car as they parked it on one of the timed spots on the street, knowing that it would get a ticket for being there, and that it would hopefully get back to camp somehow once police got it in their heads that it had been abandoned.

The five don't stop to pay for a ticket as they moved through the subway, Thalia bending the mist around them to conceal them as best as she can as they rush for the subway and get on the nearest one heading west (Percy didn't like the fact that this was another quest dragging him all of the way to the other side of the country, going west. It seemed like the world of the Greeks and the world of the Romans were likely due soon for a collision, rather with swords raised to one another or to a common enemy, he didn't know. He didn't want to have to find out either. There was a reason that the Greek and Roman pantheons were so isolated when the others would at least acknowledge the existence of other gods). None of them relaxed in the slightest in their seats until the subway car started to move, Nico and Percy pressing into each other's shoulders as it rocked back and forth along the tracks.

Percy spent the time keeping an eye on the ink that floated above his hand, making sure that they weren't veering too horribly off course, while the others took in what little peace they could find with no monsters around them and nothing that could be done to help or hinder the quest.

The peace did not last long.

They could hear the rumbling of the helicopter in the world above even through the sounds of the subway moving through the underground.

"We need to change lines at the next station," Nico said, glancing up at the ceiling of the subway car as if he was worried that it would soon give out and the car would be filled with those that were chasing them.

The rest of them didn't need much more than that to nod.

They rode the subway until it reached the end of the westbound line, still as on track with the arrow as they could possible be. It had been a while since they had heard the sound of the helicopter above, but that didn't stop each one of them from glancing up at the sky at least once as they climbed the stairs back into the world above, their hands twitching over their weapons as power gleamed in their veins, begging to be used.

It didn't take the group long to realize though, that even though they had crossed a good distance in time spent moving from subway to subway, they had all but landed themselves in the middle of nowhere, only industrial area around them greeting them as they met the world once more. There was nothing but warehouses, rail lines, and snow to greet them. It was the sort of places that companies might use to film or teenagers to get high, but any sort of true help would be near impossible to find.

"Come," Zoë said as she took it all in, the hunter knowing the situation that they had now found themselves to be in, but knowing that staying still would only be all the more damning, especially with the cold creeping into their veins the longer that they stayed still.

None of them said anything as they walked, the silence singing of time that they didn't enough of to waste in the way that it felt like they were. They didn't stop moving though until they came across a man that looked to be homeless, but Percy recognized the feel of the ichor in his blood in a way that no glamour of shift of shape could hide. Maybe that's why he gives in so easily when the man points them to a train that was going west, one in the middle of a place where the trains didn't look like they had moved in years, one by the name of Sun West Line.

After all, the sun god would likely be a lot more help in a quest for his sister than Ares had ever been when Percy had been after the bolt.

The two boys get into one of the cars that Percy had never bothered to learn the name of, wires sparking in the dim light of the train as he hot wired it while Nico waited for him in the back, the air conditioner quickly switching to a comfortable heat as soon as he got it to work. The other boy laughed at the first gust of warm as it hit his face and the son of the sea felt a rush of heat on his for an entirely different reason.

The pair laid down then, as their eyes began to droop, Percy stretching out on the back seat as best as he cold as Nico laid on top of him, their bodies a mess of tangled limbs as they tried to get comfortable in the back of the vehicle so that they could sleep while there was time and shelter to do so.

Though the lack of space wasn't the only thing warring with their intention for rest.

"Two people are likely going to die on this quest," Nico says softly into the air, like if he said it any louder then he would be tempting fate to take them right then.

It was a truth that they had all been avoiding before ever stepping out of the woods at capture the flag, one that none of them had really wanted to think about besides the acknowledgement that they had to give it during the quest council meeting.

"There could be another interpretation for one of those," the son of the sea says then, his voice just as much of a whisper as they spoke closely to one another, "being lost wasn't the same as perishing at a parent's hand, and the lost could always be found."

Nico hoped then that Percy was right.

"If you are the one to die," the son of the underworld starts, pushing up a little to look the other boy in the face as he spoke, sea green eyes meeting those dark like the earth just after the snow had finally melted to welcome spring, "then I am going to steal your soul away from the afterlife, only I won't be such a fool like Orpheus and look back," he said with a seriousness to his voice that made the older wonder if this was something that he had thought of before.

It should have been terrifying to hear, but Percy only smiles that sort of twisted smile that he often got when he used his powers in ways that he never should be able to.

It was the sort of smile that Nico loved.

"I'll be waiting for you then," Percy said, speaking the words like a promise, like a vow.

(though he doesn't think that they will have to use it then, not in this life at the least. Maybe in another where the Underworld had tried to claim him when it should not, trapped in a cage of stone as he was supposed to be made to wait for a war to pass)

They give into sleep not long after that, the world passing by around them as their eyes closed, numb to it all. Percy hadn't been expecting any sort of dream when he had closed his eyes, not when he had been having less and less of them as the years had passed and the concept of demigod became more and more stripped from him even as he wasn't immortal yet. He hadn't been expecting to dream, and he had even less been expecting to see the god of prophecies sitting beside him in the driver's seat of the car as he sat in the passenger's seat, the being looking like a statue from ancient Greece come to life.

"Hello, Perseus," the deity said, his eyes shining bright with gold in a way that Percy was sure that if this had been real it might have burned the last of his mortality away, too much divinity leaking through, though there was no anger behind it.

"Phoebus Apollo," the demigod says back, something that felt a bit like prophecy singing in the air around them as he did.

"You are a strange one, aren't you?" the god asked as he took in the greeting, before a smile slipped across his lips, one much more genuine than the ones that he had shown the hunters on the ride to camp. "Ah, it doesn't matter, I don't have much time anyways. The monster that my sister was hunting after, one of the beings old enough that time has begun to forget it, I don't know it is, but I can lead you to who does."

Percy looks up at the other with a determined sort of glint in his eyes, a golden shine reflecting in them that had nothing to do with the glow of Apollo's own, and listened to the information about the old man of the sea. About a being older than even Poseidon. A man that could tell him the answer that he needed to hear.

The god of poetry watches the teen as he speaks, and knows that his fate was to be an interesting one as he fades from the dream, pulling his consciousness away. His fate was the sort that had so many prophecies tied to it that he shined like ichor already. He couldn't wait to see what would happen next, to see if there would finally be something new.

As the deity faded from the dream it began to change, to shift into something almost as old as the god that had left. The tale of Heracles stealing a golden apple played out before him, a beautiful girl helping the ancient son of Zeus as he ventured to take from the home of the Hesperides, the girl gifting him a sword made from her own divinity and woven with the sea.

It was Zoë and she had just gifted Heracles Anaklusmos.

And then he wakes.

When they stop its easy to see that they had just gone from one dead end to another, the five of them stranded in fuck nowhere New Mexico as the sun shined down upon them.

It looked like the sort of town where hopes went to die, the five of them would know right then.

(no one says anything about the dry sort of earth beneath their feet, about how as they moved farther west it would only get worse. They didn't need to, not right then)

The five mythical beings wandered down to the grocery store of the town, the first one that they found - and the only one that Nico thought might even exist in a place like this - and went inside to stock up on food and bottled drinks before asking the cashier at check out about any sort of transportation out of the town. They hadn't gone into it optimistic, but somehow everyone seemed to shrink into themselves more as their suspicions were confirmed that essentiality the only way to get out of the town was how you had come into it.

They wanted that to be fine, but it just wasn't right then.

Not when they were steadily running out of time.

The five of them were outside on the porch of the store, eating some of the packaged snacks that they had bought while there was still trashcans around to throw the trash away in, when they all felt it, the gentle breeze of something that felt of power much older than a simple wind.

It felt like all of the wild things.

(only Percy seemed to notice though that it felt almost fuzzy at the edges of the magic of it, like a call that was being shared between more than two people. He wondered who else was feeling this right now and where)

The feeling of it all was forgotten for a moment though as a chattering filtered through the air.

"The skeletons," Bianca said, her spear and shield raised as they looked for the threat, something that everyone else followed quickly in doing with their own weapons.

It wasn't long before the beings that wanted to make them prey were upon them once more.

The five of them moved quickly then as the skeletons closed in from all sides around them, the eldest three taking the time to distract the beings and create openings as the siblings filtered in and out of the chaos of it all, slashing through the bones that they could not control right then with a punishing sort of efficiency, the beings crumbling to dust as their swords and knives ripped through flesh that wasn't there at all.

Percy can't help but think that as the last of the skeletons fall like dust to the ground, that the number of skeletons feels off.

It was a worry that he didn't get time to voice or to consider as a wild sort of sound filled the air, like that of a boar's but it was too loud. They quickly found out that this was because the creature was much too big.

A gift from the wild, something whispered to him then as an arrow bounced off as if it had never hit at all.

Nico seems to process the size of the creature and its possible use just a bit faster than the rest of them, the boy thrusting out his hands as black stone raised from the ground like topless cage around the creature, Percy running forwards at the same time with a song falling from his lips like that of a siren as the son of the sea also slowed the creatures heart down until it passed out right there. Thalia and Zoë were quick to catch on, rigging up a fruit on a stick for them to have the magical boar chase, as Bianca shifted the rock beneath the boar's feet so that he was facing the direction that the arrow wanted them to go. The five of them managed to get on it just as the creature began to wake, Nico quickly lowing the dark stones once more as the boar made to take off.

It was going to be a long day.

—-

They hung onto the boar for hours, until well past the time that their bodies had begun to protest such an action. It wasn't until the monster stopped to eat and the sun had begun to set that they slid off of his back, none of them wanting to risk being around the gift from the wild any longer than they already had been.

They'd made it to Arizona at the least, the five of them could see that much from the postal sign a little ways off.

Percy looked down at the arrow that rested above his hand, and started to walk, making the tiny adjustments that were needed in their direction until he couldn't anymore, until it was too dark too see the black ink in the approaching night.

"We should make camp now," he called out over his shoulder, the other four walking just a bit behind him with stiff movements that he had forced himself not to feel.

Zoë nods in agreement and that's that.

Especially as none of them wanted to try and cross the junkyard before them that spanned so far on either side that it would take hours more to go around instead of going through. None of them wanted to cross through such a thing in the dead of night, not without being able to see what was within it, and especially not with the twisted sort of feeling that the place gave off. Like a curse.

It was a problem best left for tomorrow they all agreed as the two hunters made camp and the group looked up at the stars above as if willing for them to change into something more.

—-

The five wake in the morning with the sun shinning down upon them and the junkyard from the night before glaring down like a sore upon the earth. It was the sort of spot that screamed to be turned away from.

So of course they walked towards it.

Slipping through the chains of the gate, Percy's breath caught at the sheer amount of things that were pilled up within the junkyard, at the intricacies of them and the way that the gleamed in the light in ways the normal trash thrown away by mortals wouldn't. No this was-

"Its a junkyard of the gods," Zoë reports as she looks at machines made of a gleaming sort of metal that only existed within the world of the gods, celestial bronze and imperial gold.

She watched as the son of the sea nodded with wary, but expectant eyes, and knew that the boy agreed.

"So what does this mean for us?" Thalia asked as she looked down at one of the broken inventions, as Bianca pointed out a hunter's bow, and Nico stayed close to Percy and the elder hunter, the younger boy's hand twitching over the hilt of his sword as if expecting something around them to jump out and decide to attack them all.

Zoë hated that the boys seemed to be the only ones with sense right then.

"Most likely?" Zoë asked, the tilt of her voice making it clear that it was more of a guess than anything. "That we shouldn't take anything from within the bounds of the junkyard. The rules of places like these are always a little different, but no god likes to have their things taken by mortals, even if the deities were the ones to throw them away," the ancient hunter reports, factual and succinct. "Further though, most of the stuff within here has been cast away because it was defective or cursed, and the gods thought it better to be kept in places like this where few will ever come across it, so even if this is one of the few places where objects can be removed, the price of owning would be too high a charge."

"Don't places like these usually have guards of some sort in place?" Nico asked, thinking of the stories that Percy had told him and Bianca of the quest that had led him to the son of Hades, of a shield with traps triggered the moment that it was moved.

He could see such a thing happening here.

Zoë nods, though there's a calculative sort of glint to her eyes as she looks around them at the clear lack of path through the junkyard.

"Usually," the elder of the two hunters agrees, "but I believe that all will be fine if just do not steal any of the items within."

The other four nodded at that and then set off, making their way through the mess around them. Every now and then something would catch one of their eyes, not even Zoë was immune to that, and they would pick it up for a moment before putting the object back where they had found it. It was a true shame that some of the things had been thrown away, but they all knew better than to test their luck with the gods right then, not when there were so many children of the Big Three all gathered in one place, even if only two of them were known by most.

… most of them knew better than to test the gods.

The five of them had barley made it out of the junkyard when a metal sort of groan broke through the air. It was the sort of sound that could only be followed by death.

The five turned quickly around as giant made of bronze rose up from within the heaps of objects, the being tall in a way that Percy had never even seen the gods to be when they took their bigger forms, taller than some of the builds back in Brooklyn or New York. He knew that they were pretty fucking screwed the second that the giant, that Talos, as Zoë called him, took a step and was already upon them.

There would be no outrunning something like this.

"Who took something?" the son of the sea asked, looking around at those before him.

He got his answer the moment that Bianca bit her lip. Last year they had managed to convince Amos to teach them how to play poker, the three of them had played into the fact that they had already all been in a casino before so it wasn't like there was a zero chance that they might not end up in another. The magician had caved eventually, even if only letting them gamble with baked goods that they each had to make before. Nico had won that day as his sister had come in last place each game that they played, always for the same reason.

The daughter of Hades had bit her lip each and every time that she was bluffing or was about to.

"Bianca," the son of the sea said then, the sound of her name sounding like an open wound as he spoke it.

The girl didn't even try to hide it, not as Nico or Percy or Zoë looked upon the girl with broken gazes as Thalia looked upon her with anger.

"It was supposed to be an apology gift," she explained, holding out the little mythomagic figurine in her palm to her sibling, to her sibling that was still hurt that she had chosen to leave him.

To a sibling that refused to take it.

No one blamed him for that.

The five of them had to run quickly to avoid the foot that was threatening to slam down upon them, the group all ending up within ear shot of one another as they dodged the metal monster that had been made by the god of forges.

"Put it back!" Nico yelled over the noise that the small Talos was making. "Put it back and maybe it will stop!"

There was something desperate in his voice that made Percy hurt to hear.

"I don't think that it will," Percy answered as he looked at the world around them, at the land without rain, "it won't stop until either one of use dies or we stop him."

"And how in Hades do you suggest we stop that?" Thalia yelled as Zoë shot an arrow at the metal giant. It didn't even reach the middle of his chest.

It was when the small Talos shifted towards where they were now that Percy saw it, the maintenance shaft on the bottom of the machine's foot. It was then that an insane sort of idea came to him like a curse.

Nico and Bianca spotted at the same time the way in which their friend's features shifted to something that they had seen too many times before he did something insurmountably stupid, but always something that worked.

Only the daughter of Hades gets to ask him about it though as the metal giant makes another step closer to them all, and they all have to run, Bianca and Percy going to the same spot.

"Let me do whatever plan you've come up with," the girl all but demands as they duck away from the monster. Percy starts to protest, but Bianca cuts him off. "It's my fault that we're in this right now, let me give my penance for it."

Percy wanted to scream as he glanced at Nico over the girl's shoulder, as he saw the fear in the other's eyes. As he wondered how much the boy was going to hate him when this went wrong. But he would rather have Nico hate him because Percy had died than because Bianca had done so.

He shakes his head.

"Please?" Bianca says, a plead in her voice as she shoves the figurine into the other's hand, the metal warm to the touch. "We both know that you'll have a better chance at keeping Nico safe through all of this than I will be able to. Besides, I was always just the tag along in the deal that you made in an effort to save him."

Percy hates himself then. Hates himself because he knows that she's right.

Hates himself because he makes a choice in the land without rain.

He tells her about the hatch, about the controls that he suspects are likely in the metal monster's head, but he also stops her from running right before she made to do so.

"Is this a battle?" he asks then, remembering the wording that the hunters had always used and knowing that magic was peculiar in the ways in which it acted. She goes to answer, but Percy can tell from the fear in her eyes that it will be the wrong one. "A hunter can only in battle," he reminds her, stern and demanding to be heard. "Is this a battle?" he asks once more.

"No," the daughter of Hades answers, strong and sure, her voice sound as if there was magic ringing through the air with it.

"Okay," the son of the sea says, and lets her run as Talos lifts his foot next.

Percy moves quickly then, tearing across the desert as he made his way to the other child of Hades, to the one that was yelling as the sound of a metal clad step could be heard. Percy grabbed the other boy by the hand and dragged him away before he can think to go after his sister, before the younger boy can force his legs to move to do such a thing. He drags them until they are on the other side of electrical polls, the metal monster stepping right into them before falling apart.

The scream that follows then isn't from the hunter within the monster, it isn't from the creak of metal, or a physical ailment, but from the son of Hades as he lets out a sound so raw that Zoë and Bianca don't need to ask to know what had occurred. Its a sound that doesn't stop, that goes unsoothed as the son of the sea god holds onto the other boy, keeping him from running towards the still sparking metal as it continued to fall to the ground from such a great height. Percy held the other as tears streamed down the younger's face, as fist crashed into his chest with the intention to hurt that Nico had never held towards him before. The younger boy doesn't stop until the older demigod grabs him on either side of his face, thumbs rubbing gently over the sharp bones of the other's jaw.

"Can you feel her soul?" the son of the sea asks, his eyes flashed with gold as he spoke, as he all but demanded an answer to be given. "Can you feel if she died with your powers and not your eyes?"

The question sounds cruel to the two girls watching, and maybe it was, but Nico stills then as he closes his eyes and truly pushes the fog of panic away to focus.

Percy catches the other as he crumbles to the ground and, as he shakes his head no.

Zoë and Thalia think then that it's because Bianca was dead, but Percy follows him down and knows that it was from relief.

A laugh sounds through the land without rain, a bitter bitter but so filled with a crazed sort of happiness that the bitterness didn't matter at all.

"Hell of a time for her to finally learn to shadow travel," Nico says then, a smile spread wide on his lips. It didn't look quite right, but neither of them cared about that right then.

"Where is she if she isn't dead then?" Thalia asks more to herself than anyone else as she looks out at the rubble around them.

"With our father in the Underworld," Nico answers, though he doesn't look at the other, just pressing his head into Percy's shoulder and letting him take the weight right then. He'd be steady in a few moments, steady enough to plan how to curse a god that thought that thievery was worthy of death.

"She's likely drained since she's never actually traveled like that before," Percy adds after a moment, "so quest wise she's 'lost' to us, even as she hasn't died."

Zoë can't help but sigh in relief.

The now group of four walked for a minute, looking around them to see if there was anything useful on the other side of the junkyard that they had almost just been killed by when crossing. It only took them a moment to find the truck, and another for Percy to hot wire it so that the other had a moment to catch their breath.

The four piled into the vehicle similarly to how they had in the van, only this time Thalia drove as Zoë took the passenger's seat, the widows rolled down as Percy and Nico sat in the bed of the truck, leaning into one another as if to reassure each other that they were both still there. The windows on the truck were rolled down, and the son of the sea was able to yell loud enough for the girls to hear to course corrections as they came.

The group drove for a while, until the gas within their stolen truck from the middle of nowhere ran out and they found themselves having to pile out of the vehicle, abandoning this one as well. They all thought that it had been nice while it had lasted though.

They ended up stranded by the edge of a river canyon, and decided to walk upstream as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. There wasn't really much else that they could do other than walk it right then. Nico didn't want Percy to have to do what he had done with him, Bianca, and Annabeth last summer when going to The Princess Andromeda, as he knew just how much concentration it must take even for someone like them, and the closer that they got to their destination the more strength that they would need once they got there.

Maybe that was why Nico insisted that the four of them took the canoes when they spotted them. He had seen Percy command Black Beard's ship while almost asleep, two canoes was nothing at the end of it all.

The son of the sea frowns when the naiads that offered to help them try and splash the hunter with water in the other canoe, the boy redirecting it before it could hit with a simple wave of his hand at the hunter hissed like some sort of cat. The teen gave a stern sort of look to the water spirits as they giggled an sunk back beneath the stream.

They got out when the stream became blocked by the dam ahead, a dam that it only took the three campers a moment to recognize.

"Hoover Dam," Thalia said, something a bit like wonder and a bit like grief in her voice as she said it. It didn't take a genius to know why.

"Seven hundred feet tall and built in the nineteen thirties," the son of the sea said, parroting back a conversation from long ago.

"Five million cubic acres of water," Nico added, doing much the same.

"Largest construction project in the United States," Thalia finished it out.

Zoë looked at the three of us as if we had grown another head each. Percy supposed in a way that they had.

"How did you know all of that?" the hunter asked as she looked between the three.

"Annabeth," the daughter of Zeus answered in a mournful tone that was tinted by guilt, "she loves architecture, would talk about it all the time."

"Even those of us that didn't listen half the time still absorbed half of it," the son of Hades added, still looking up at the structure. It was hard to believe that it had only been started eight months before he had been born and finished when he was about five. Technically he was older than the finished project of it.

When Thalia suggests that they go and see the dam, there is a part of him that just wants to say that they don't have the time, but he knew that it would be faster to past through it and that there was likely food inside that they could eat after a long while of not having done so, so he doesn't complain as they walk up the structure to the top of it.

It's not until they see a glimpse of the angle statues that Thalia looks at all like she is regretting the decision of coming up there. The daughter of Zeus explains that the statues had been dedicated to her father by Athena, that she had come here to see them once before on her way to camp. None of them needed more than the bitterness in her voice to know that if the statues were capable of anything, that they had not done it then. Still, Percy thinks that Thalia wasn't far off in coming here hoping for a sign from her father, even from so far away he could feel the power of gods within them, a glance at Nico said that he was thinking much the same.

The toes thing was still weird though.

When Percy hears the sound of a young cow, he doesn't need anyone else to have pointed it out to know that it's there, to have an idea of the creature that he would see once he turned his head towards the water near his side.

He tells the others to go on without him for a moment, saying that he wants a moment more to take in the feeling of being near water after so long surrounded only be desert. It's not a lie, he realizes as the words fall from his lips, not with the relief at simply being so close to something as simple as a dam. It's not a lie in the way that he is so much more tied to his godly parent's domains than anyone else that he had ever met before no matter which pantheon they were from.

It's not a lie, but it is an excuse.

(He didn't know what someone as old as Zoë would do when she came across one of the monsters that seems to have risen once more because of the stirring. He didn't know what someone as brash and filled with a rivalry that wasn't her own as Thalia might do to a creature simply because Percy had placed it under his care. He did know that a son of any of the underworld gods would likely scare the creature off before he could even get close to her.

And he did know that all three of these things were not risks that he was willing to take right then.)

So, he goes to strange creature alone after almost too long spent convincing the others to continue on to the food court without him.

It doesn't take him long to understand that the creature is trying to get him to follow it (a fact that makes something stir uncomfortably in a memory that he could not quite reach right then. That he maybe didn't want to reach) but he knows that he can't,not when this could get him far more separated from the rest of the quest members than he already is at the moment.

He ends up becoming all the more separated anyways as he hears a familiar chattering of a skeleton at his back, as he runs in the direction of where he thought that the food court was, intending to bring the creature of death to the son of Hades.

He was wrong.

Instead, he finds himself speaking with a woman whose grey eyes he knows from only a glance, having read about them in the Iliad and the Odyssey and seen them in all of the children of the wisdom goddess at camp. She tells him of a way to leave the dam for those that were clever enough to find it. He knows that he is as he thinks of angels and gifts from gods.

(He always thought of angels)

Instead, he finds himself being sheltered by a mortal girl with hair like the flames that came off of the sun, that could see through the mist in the way that he thought that his mother must have been able to do.

(he doesn't get to answer her questions that day, but something in the gold of his blood told him that he would answer them someday soon)

The skeleton turns dust as the son of the sea and the son of the Underworld find each other once more, something exasperated and fond in dark eyes as Percy tells the other boy that he got a bit lost.

The burrito that was pushed into his hand as they made their way to the statues was warm, settling something in him as he took the first bite of real food in days.

—-

Percy didn't have to search for the old man of the sea, not as they got anywhere near to where the water was. Not as he felt a power much older than anything that he had ever felt before. The other three wanted to make him change… something, Percy didn't know. He didn't know because he felt almost drunk on power older than the god of the seas, the skies, or the Underworld.

The blood of a primordial.

The son of the walked until he saw the old man of the sea with his eyes, his wrist flicking out before him before he could think better of it as he let himself give into the crazed sort of need that always rises up when he was before a deity or one of the rivers of the Underworld. As he let himself all but choke the other in their own ichor in his haste to try and pull it from the primordial's veins.

He didn't realize that the old man of the sea had been yelling his surrender until there was already the shimmer of an ancient sort of gold in the air.

The others come close as they hear the man asking them what it was that they wanted to know.

(only the son of Hades doesn't look upon the son of Poseidon in fear right then, after all he truly did love when the other got like this)

"Where is the monster that Artemis is hunting?" Percy asks after a long moment, letting the deity before him go with a reluctance that was only combated by all of the worst smells of the ocean that the primordial seemed to exude.

He almost didn't think that the being was going to answer, not with just how utterly shaken he seemed to be right then as Nereus looked upon the son of the sea god.

Normally Nereus would have laughed and made some sort of remark as the being of their question appeared in the water right beside them, but all that the primordial wanted right then was to be as far away from Poseidon's spawn as he could forever be. He had never before met a demigod with power quite like this.

It was nothing more than an intervention of fate that the whelp had not already become more.

"The Bane of Olympus is right there," the old man of the sea answered as he pointed to the sea creature that had appeared in the water, though he wondered just how right that might be this time around.

The four looked quickly at the sea creature, a being that was half cow and half serpent. Percy honesty wanted to protest it, but he knew his own luck and he knew that this very well tracked.

Nico was the one to call the creature what it was, the Ophiotaurus, as the demigod remembered a bit of the story from past research that he had ignored at the moment because it had little to do with what he had needed right then.

Zoë was the one to explain the way in which the creature had been killed in the first war with the Titans, how the burning of its entrails would bring power to whoever did such a thing.

And Percy was the one to all but yell for the son of Hades to send the creature away to camp the moment that he saw the hungry sort of gleam in the eyes of the daughter of Zeus.

(he wasn't going to let the creature die, not someone so innocent when he could stop it right then)

They all watched as the serpent began drowning in shadows just before disappearing with a wash of cold as Nico waved his hand.

It shouldn't haven been possible without Nico touching the creature, without him going with the other, but Nico's powers were always growing now just as Percy's were, so it only took a little more than a thought.

"Power at the sake of innocents is not power at all," the son of the sea god starts, looking at the daughter of Zeus as her lips twisted in something much too close to anger as the creature disappeared, "it's cruelty and bullies throwing their weight around. And if you were really going to kill the Ophiotaurus for power, then maybe you should have stayed a tree."

The words don't even come close to being some of the cruelest things that the teen had said before, but right then they were harsh enough to make Thalia flood with a deep sort of shame that she couldn't shake. The sort of shame that made her wonder why she had ever wanted to do such a thing at all.

Thalia never got the chance to respond though, not as a new spoke to them all. A voice that Percy had heard only for a few moments days before.

Percy didn't care then when the manticore chose to reveal himself, anger in the monster's veins as the sea creature that he had sought to have the daughter of Zeus sacrifice for the titan lord of time disappeared from his grasps.

Percy didn't care, and it seemed that the others didn't either as the son of the sea reached out a hand to the monster, feeling for the poison that he knew was there and could now use without risk of hurting a demigod that was too close to the creature, pushing it through the ancient being's body so that he screamed in agony as Nico felt for the bones, holding the manticore completely still.

Clear minds were a true blessing to have, so was the anger that came with seeing the being that had taken someone dear to them and theirs.

A flick of Percy's wrist had the manticore drowning in a bubble of the water that was so close to them all, and a flick of Nico's had the monster encased in stone from the shoulders down. Drowning in an agony of his own poisons and unable to even run from the torture.

It was horrifying.

It was deserved.

"Who wants to do the honors?" the son of the sea asks, his gaze cold as he looked upon the being that couldn't even wither in his pain with all of the emotions of an avenging god.

No one said a thing to answer, the daughter of Zeus only raised her hand and let the lighting in her veins come to life as it met the water, striking through it until the manticore turned to dust.

(It was the first time since the war with the giants that the three gods had ever worked together in such a way, even if just through their children)

Zoë stood still with wide eyes as she watched all of this and was reminded why children of the big three have always been so dangerous. It wasn't just their power, though there was far too much of that, but they more than any other demigod carried within them the cruelty of the gods. Thalia was the lighting that started fires. Just as Percy was the waves and storms and rumbles of the earth, as it shook that killed without emotion or remorse. And Nico was the judgment that came when death eventually claimed all, in one manner or another.

It was a terrifying thing to see as the boys acted with power that they should never be able to wield in the form of a demigod, and Thalia acted with her father's rage.

Still, she couldn't bring herself to hold onto such terror for long. Not when the son of the sea had just had the Ophiotaurus sent off for the creature's safety, and had spoken of the monster's death as if it were something that he would never seek, when the son of Hades had helped without question or any true command, just a nod of his head. When the daughter of Zeus had snapped out of it in the end.

They weren't the worst to have inherited these powers.

(they weren't the worse to die to save)

"It's time to go then," the hunter said as she watched as the water and the stone returned to where it had come from, the only evidence that they had been there at all being the marring of the ground where black now coursed through it and the smell of lightning in the air. "Time to go home."

The last part wasn't meant to be said out loud, but she had whispered it nonetheless in a way that they were all close enough to hear.

"Atlas," Percy said in a manner that wasn't a guess at all, just a surety. Zoë's head snapped up and looked at the other, "that's your father, right?"

It was only a question by formality.

"It is," the hunter confirms, her voice both far away and more present that it had ever been before.

Nico looks to the other boy and finds a pleasant sort of feeling running up his spine to find sea green eyes already meeting his own.

"We were right then," the younger says, something like a smirk clawing its way onto his lips even as he tried to fight it away.

Neither of them had wanted to be right.

Percy nods all the same.

Thalia doesn't bother to keep the anger and annoyance from her voice when she speaks at the revelation that the three had been hiding more things from her right then:

"How long have all of you thought that it was him?" the daughter of Zeus asked then, her hands sparking with lightning in the dim light of the area that they were in. It felt like a warning that none of them thought the head.

"Since before leaving from camp," Percy admits, knowing that he could take the brunt of the anger of the daughter of Zeus much easier than either of the other two, the storms running through his veins being built for such a thing.

Zoë nods as if to say the same.

"We had hoped that we were wrong," Nico admits, the boy having moved slightly closer to the son of the sea as lighting filled the eyes of the daughter of the king of the gods, not wanting to know what Percy would do to her if she came even close to hitting him with any of that power right then.

(maybe wanting to know a little too much)

"It had become all the more and more confirmed as the quest brought us closer and closer still to San Francisco," Zoë continues, looking off to the side as if seeing something that only she could. "To Mount Tam and the garden of my sisters."

And Thalia really wants to be more mad than she is right then, but she can see the terror that Zoë was trying and failing to hide alongside all of the resignation in the ancient being's eyes. She knows now isn't the time.

It was the time for something else though.

Percy walked to the edge of the water that he had yet to touch and pulled off the coat of the Nemean Lion that he had been wearing since they had managed to slay the beast, holding it above the water as he sent a silent prayer to his father, as he asked the deity that had never given him a thing do something for him just this once. To protect the sea creature that Percy'd had sent to camp.

The four watched as the coat shimmered to nothing into gentle waves of the water before them, and hoped that it meant that the sacrifice was enough for such a thing.

"Great," the son of Hades started, knowing better than to ask right then when the other boy had such a pained and hopeful sort of look in his eyes, "now we just need a picture of Mount Tam and we're set."

"How's that?" the hunter asked, looking at the child of the underworld with a raised brow. She had seen the children of Hades do many things in her long years, but she had never known any that had been able to shadow travel so many people at once so young as he was suggesting and be fine enough to fight as they will need to after.

Then again, she had already seen the two children of the big three before her do far too many impossible things as it was for this to be as improbable as it should.

The boy smirked as a light came to his eyes that spoke of freshly dug earth that coffins were placed within. "I can't very well take us somewhere that I haven't seen before, now can I?"

Impossible things it was.

—-

It wasn't hard to get to a library not far from where they had been and to search up the name of the mountain that the bearer of the titan's curse was supposed to hold. Took even less time for the four to go to the alley beside the building and the shadows consume them and pull them to a spot only a few meters from the garden, the air smelling of eucalyptus.

The questers entered that garden of twilight just as day began to turn to night.

They all could have done without the eerie sort of singing that greeted them, coming from the four other daughters of the titan Atlas.

The Hesperides.

Zoë's sisters.

(it felt like a title that neither side wanted the other to hold.

It felt like something that both side must right then with what was to come)

The campers stayed out of it as the five sisters spoke, not rising to the questions and taunts and warnings of the four immortal beings as they tried to convince them all to leave. They knew that they couldn't leave then, not when the arrow above Percy's hand was moving, pulsing, so desperately towards the area past the mountain knowing that it's target was impossibly close and wanting to meet it.

The three campers moved as Zoë told them to, going as far around Landon as they could while the hunter spoke to the dragon as if she were talking to a pet that she had not seen in a long time because of something mundane and mortal like college, and not a dragon that she had not seen because she had been forced from her home for helping a hero that would have let her name disappear from time if it weren't for the goddess that had taken the hunter in as one of her own when she had no love for man and no where else to go.

The dragon wasn't confused by the hunter's presence for long though, lashing out at the maiden and sinking it's claws into her flesh. Percy and Nico both could feel the damage in different ways when she managed to catch up to them on the other side of the garden, and though the son of the sea manged to stop the hunter from plowing forwards for a moment so that he could pull the poison from her blood, Zoë, Percy, and Nico could already tell that too much damage had been done already to the hunter to survive the fight that they were about to meet without all the luck in the world.

Luck that they all knew that she did not have.

The four hurried then, to the place where the sky just barley didn't meet the earth. They hurried into a place that looked like ruins, solid and true in ways that they all knew that it should not be. They were the ruins of Mount Othrys, the mountain fortress of the titans in the last war, and at the heart of them where a throne might have stood was a goddess made of moonlight, chained and bound to rock as she held up the sky.

Zoë ran to her goddess before any of them could stop her, Artemis herself included, kneeling at the Olympian's side as she tugged at the chains with desperate moves as tears fell from her eyes.

It was a heartbreaking sort of scene.

It was a scene that didn't get to last long as another voice joined them in the room.

"Ah, how touching," a new voice that Percy had never heard before, but made Zoë go still in a way that Nico thought that only death might, spoke.

There was a man that wasn't one at all, but instead was a being filled with ichor older than that of any god that the son of the sea had ever met, but younger than that of the old man of the sea. Younger though, the ichor held far more power than the primordial ever had.

Atlas.

The titan meant to bear the curse of the weight of the sky.

At his sides were a multitude of faces, some of them dracaenae and carrying on their shoulders a golden sarcophagus that the teen had only seen once before on a ship that he knew must be down in the waters behind the mountain for it to be here now, and the other two were as familiar as his own:

Luke Castellan and Annabeth Chase.

Both of them looked sickly there as they stood, the daughter of the goddess of wisdom and war bound at her wrists and gagged as a sword was held to her throat by the son of the messenger god. They both looked as if they were barley holding themselves up, as if the past few days had taken years from their lives.

Percy knew that it had, each of the blondes before him having held the sky as the did. It wasn't something meant for a mortal demigod to do, not even one with the strength of the grey eyed girl or the bearer blessings of the titan lord of time as the scared boy was.

He looks at them both still - as the ink that had been floating above his hands and the ink on Annabeth's own hand falls to the ground, its task complete - a silent sort of question in his gaze. They both nod their heads just as little as they could for it to still be seen.

They were both as fine as they could ever hope to be.

The events that followed after that were quick in nature, nearly impossibly so for all that occurred. Quick in the way that it devolved into a fight. In the way that Percy and Nico set out side by side with their swords raised against the titan general. Quick in the decision that the son of the sea made to run to the goddess that was bound in chains meant for gods and slashed his sword through them, as the son of Hades summoned a small army of skeletons from the earth to keep the titan occupied for as long as he could.

Quick in the way that Percy knew that in this fight the power of a god meant more than a demigod that wasn't quite one yet, but that out of anyone else around him he would be the best suited to holding the titan's burden. Nico and Zoë would be the next two most suited to such a thing right then other than Atlas himself, but Percy knew that she would not last as she was, and the son of the sea god would never allow for the son of Hades to take such a burden when there was anyone else to do it. Never.

Quick in the way that he took the sky from the Greek goddess of the moon.

Quick in the way that Percy watched through a red and gold tinted sort of gaze as the fight became all the more vicious and quick as there was not a mortal child of the gods holding the sky.

Quick in the way that Zoë took a blow meant for a goddess and did not stand back up.

In the way that Percy rolled out from beneath the sky as Atlas was kicked to meet it.

In the way that Luke fell as he was kicked from the mountain by the daughter of Zeus.

(Percy knows that he's alive even as he sees the mangled sort of body below, that Kronos would have long been preparing Luke's body for the war to come if he was the chosen leader of the side of the titan. A fact that was only reinforced by the ink at his throat hadn't faded even with the way that the older boy seemed to lie still. And Percy knew that it would fade from both of them if he or Luke were to die, no longer being able to survive it's purpose.

It was a hollow sort of reassurance in the face of everything)

It was when the fighting was finally still that Percy felt arms wrap themselves around him, drawing him in as the son of Hades called the son of the sea every sort of obscenity in the book for the stunt that he had just pulled, the one that had stolen the breath right from the younger boy's lungs in terror for the second time in as many days on this damned quest as if he had been the one to stare in the face of what should have been a unkind death and laughed.

"It was better me than you," Percy said as he held the other just as tight.

Nico wants to slap those words out of the other's mouth, but says something else instead.

"Promise me that you'll never do something like that again," the younger demands, pulling away to look into sea green eyes as he said it, and wishing that he hadn't as Percy only shakes his head.

"I can't," the older boy says with far too much pain in his voice for the other to remain angered with him right then.

It only took a few moments for the demigods, hunter, and goddess to take to the skies in the chariot of the moon, for all of them to gather around the hunter as she laid on the bottom of it with eyes filled with tears and hands that reached for her goddess alone.

Nico held the other one still, wanting to comfort the other in her death in a way that only a child of Hades truly could.

The hunter's string had been cut from the moment that the quest had been given to Zoë, and Zoë had known it too, had accepted it with the same warmth that she had the blessing of the goddess of the moon.

Zoë Nightshade died with stars in her eyes. Her body was remade into stars of her own in a way fitting of a hero that should have always been written in the myths of time.

(Percy knew then that if Hermes were to ask him once more what his favorite constellation was that his answer just might have changed)

When they land once more, Percy can see Artemis' form flickering in the night with the pain of her loss. It was almost a relief when she left to go to the council meeting, flashing away in a wash of gold.

Percy doesn't really want for them to have to go either, doesn't see the point in doing so when the gods of Olympus were far more likely to listen to another deity than they ever were to their children, but he knew that they must. Still, he tells Nico to go to Amos before the son of the sea even moves to call for the Pegasus. He knows that they can't risk having the other boy in the same room as Zeus or Poseidon. Not today.

Nico hates it but agrees, his form melting away into shadows as dark as the depths of the night.

—-

Percy nods to Hades when he sees the king of the dead sitting among the Olympians during the winter solstice, a silent greeting and a silent assurance that his son was safe.

The deity nods back, looking lighter for a moment than Percy had ever seen him before.

There is a vote held among the gods then, as Percy and Thalia stand before them while the Ophiotaurus swims comfortably in a sphere of water that had been created for him. The gods wanted the two of them dead for the power that they held and prophecy that forever drew closer.

A vow placates the gods of Thalia, her age stopping as she took on a silvery light (a much kinder alternative than what the son of the sea had thought might happen to the other demigod), but not even the promise from god of storms was enough to sway the gods of the skies.

"It is not enough, brother," the king of the gods said, his voice filled with anger, "if the boy does betray us then such a promise from you would mean nothing as it would be far too late."

Privately, Percy just thought that Zeus was a control freak that didn't understand that it was fine for some things to be out of his hands, and that this was also likely why the prophecy has taken so long to come to pass, but he knew better than to say such a thing right then.

So he says something else instead.

"What if i were to swear on the River Styx?" He asks, drawing the eyes of everyone within the room to himself as the throne room went silent. He knew that he should feel shaken from having the focus of so much power on his skin, but right then it didn't feel like much, not when he could bring them all to their knees in only a moment. "If I were to swear to fight on the side of the gods for the coming war? Would that be enough?"

And that idea is enough to make even stop, the stubborn fool that he was, because that is no small thing for a mortal to do, demigod or not. It was more binding of a matter than a god could ever truly be upheld to, not with the consequences being so limited, but if a mortal were to break such a vow then it was fatal.

"Alright," the king of the skies agrees, the storm in his eyes beginning to pass as something settled within him right then. Either way the boy would be dealt with come the end of the war.

Percy nods then, not a flicker of doubt in his mind as he stands taller to do just that, not even as the other demigods around him look upon him with wide eyes, knowing that two years was a long time to keep such a promise. Knowing that even a small loss of faith could be damning. Percy knew all of this as well, but this was a vow that he had been appreciate by long before it was ever spoken into the world.

"I swear on the River Styx to fight on the side of the gods in the war against Kronos, and for the demigods of the world, no matter who they might be," the son of the sea promises, his voice loud and clear as thunder rumbles through the sky as the oath is bound.

(Zeus is too pleased to notice the wording. Hades is not. Though, the king of the dead does not speak of it)

The next time that Percy speaks out of turn is only a few moments later, as the demigod pleads for the gods to let the creature that he had first saved a few days ago in the ocean at Camp Half-Blood live. Its a plea that he makes to his father, the second one in so many days but the first thing that he had ever asked for before the deity himself.

"You can't kill Bessie," he protests, the power in his bones shaking at the idea alone, threatening to break loose and drown the gods that thought that such a thing should be done in their own ichor. He thought that some of that intent must have slipped through because he saw Ares flinch. "I didn't keep Thalia from slaying an innocent creature of the sea just for all of you to turn around and do it for her."

The words are harsh and likely should have had him punished in some way, but the son of the sea didn't right then. He had fought too hard to keep the Ophiotaurus alive just for it to be slain now for no reason at all other than fear that immortal beings should not hold right then.

There is silence once more in the hall, none of the gods - other than that of the god of war - being used to being spoken to in such a way, by a demigod no less, but then Apollo laughs with all of the brightness of the sun that he drew each day.

"Come on, Dad," the deity starts, feeling inclined to humor the child of the sea that had willingly gone on a quest to bring his sister home, going as far as to hold the sky - a titian's burden - while he was doing so, "there has to be some compromise that you and Uncle P can make."

And there was, one that brought in the help of the god of forges as well, spreading the responsibility of the sea creature even further than it already was.

There was a party held after that, a turn of events that not even the god of prophecy seemed to have expected as he ended up talking with Percy at the beginning of it all, wanting to take him out for a ride on the sun chariot, shooting arrows down at the earth below. Percy honestly might have said yes if he hadn't known that Nico would kill them both for it, god or not.

(Besides, he had a feeling that the deity was only interested because of the great prophecy that the son of the sea still had to fulfill. Still, his eyes seemed so unitedly ancient as he spoke)

The conversation with Hermes is different, a pleading sort of look in the god's eyes as he spoke, as if he had known for far too long that everything to do with his son was far from within his control and he just wanted to know that everything would turn out fine at the end of it all.

"All demigods," Percy repeated his words from earlier, the phrase seeming to catch the deity from his spiral, "no matter who they might be."

And Hermes nodded as if the demigod had just handed over the power of life itself before he walked away. Percy supposed that it wasn't the worse comparison that could be made, not with the meaning of the symbol on his neck.

The last god to speak to him was one that he had honestly wondered if the deity would do so at all with how removed from one another they had always been.

"That was a bold thing to do," the god of the seas said, something akin to concern coloring his voice, "to swear like that."

"Well my Dad says that I do a lot of other swearing," Percy said with a laugh in his voice as he thought of that conversation, Amos having said that one would almost believe that swearing like a sailor was another talent he had gotten from the strombringer with how naturally it comes, "so I guess it was time to do one of the more allowed versions of such a thing."

Something in his words makes the god stop.

"Your Dad?" Poseidon questions, knowing that the boy wasn't referring to him in such a way. Knowing that he likely never would with the way that this was going.

Percy's eyes go a little hard at the reminder for just who he was speaking to.

"The man that raised me since I was seven," the demigod explained with a bit of steel in his voice, "when I chose to stay away from home so that Mom would be safe from all of the monsters."

The throne room started to shake as the teen spoke, anger rising in his gut, but no one other than the god of earthquakes noticed.

"Percy-" the Olympian started, but was cut off as the boy seemed to notice something out of the corner of his eyes.

"I need to speak with Uncle Hades," the demigod announced, all but cutting the conversation off at the knees there, "goodbye, Poseidon."

Poseidon only watches as his son hurries away to the god of the dead, a smile on the boy's lips as he greeted the deity with more kindness in his eyes than anyone other than maybe Persephone. The god looked kindly back, saying something after a greeting that seemed to take out tension from the teen's shoulders that the god of the seas hadn't even known was there.

He watched as his son seemed to pull, from seemingly no where at all, what seemed to look to be mortal photographs, handing them over to the deity with a smile as he seemed to explain the circumstances of some of the events within them with a bright smile of his face that only grew more so.

It painful sort of sight from the god of the seas, enough so that he turned quickly away.

The last person to seek Percy out was the daughter of Athena, Annabeth smiling at him tiredly with a new streak of grey in her hair that the black haired teen knew that he had in his own.

There was worry in her eyes though.

"Where's Bianca?" She asked, knowing that the daughter of Hades would have been one of the first to volunteer for such a quest with it leading them all straight to the grey eyed girl.

"Recovering in the Underworld," Percy said quietly, a proud sort of smile on his lips, "she finally learned to shadow travel, and it's knocked her out for the week apparently. Uncle Hades says that she'll be awake in a few days though. Being where she is helps."

The sigh that Annabeth gives to that is one of pure relief.

"That's good," she decides. "Did she join the hunters then?"

Percy nods. "They showed up at the end of the fight in the alley," he explained, ignoring the way that the other flinched at the reminder, knowing that Annabeth would hate it more if he brought attention to it, "she joined nearly right then. What about you? You going all silver on us like pinecone over there?" He asked jutting a thumb to where Thalia was walking to meet the goddess of the hunt once more, the pair likely leaving for the next great adventure.

Annabeth shakes her head, but it's a slow sort of thing, reluctant almost.

"Nah," she answers, "I think that I want to see how this all turns out up close. To be there as it unfolds in a way that the hunters won't be. Maybe after the war though, it's not like there will be much more of a world left standing if I leave the four of you as immortals on your own," the last words are in a forced light sort of tone. And Percy can't help but find that plan of hers fitting in a way, as the daughter of Athena has been in thick of all of it from the start. It was only fair that she got to see it to it's end as well, especially when she had her own stakes in it. "He's alive, isn't he?"she asks at last, hope in her voice that the daughter of Athena couldn't hide with all the wisdom in the world.

"I know that he is," Percy answers, quite and sure.

Annabeth looks at the star at the base of the boy's throat and nods.

Percy doesn't really dance during the party, his bones ached in a way that they never had before from holding the sky, and all he really wanted right then was to go back to Nico and maybe sleep until he turned sixteen. So, he was pleased when the party finally, came to an end only a few hours after that.

—-

When he gets back to Brooklyn House, Nico and Amos are waiting for him in the living room, concern written over both of their faces. Neither of them had thought that a second meeting with the king of the Greek gods would mean anything good for the son of the sea god.

Percy didn't want them to know just how right they were.

The teen was hardly more than a step or two into the room before his Dad had him in his arms, holding him as if he would turn to smoke if the man were to let go, after all the stupid things that he had done the past few days (years, his mind added unwillingly) , it felt good to be held.

He gave the pair a simplified version of what had occurred, and while both Nico and Amos knew that his story was riddled with half truths, neither of them pointed it out right then, they had the rest of the year to pull it from him before the pair went back to camp for the summer.

It was after Percy and Nico had gone up to the older boy’s room that the younger asked anything at all.

"Dancing, huh?" Nico asked, his head tilted teasingly to the side.

Percy couldn't help but laugh. "It's not like I really did any of it," the teen said.

Honestly, Percy figured that if he had been the type to go to mortal schools growing up, he likely would have never gone to the dances, and if he had he likely would have stuck to the edges of the room just as he had today.

But when Nico met his gaze with something a little wild in it as he stood and okayed music from the phone that the three of them had shared on missions, holding out his hand to older demigod, Percy knew that he would have danced at all of them until the end of the night if the other was at his side.

Neither of them were really listening to the music as if played, simply twisting and turning to it as the moved in the other's embrace while mist and shadows moved with them in the air.

It was perfect

—-

It was months before the world of the Greek gods found the inhabitants of Brooklyn House once more, before a nock came to the door long after the sun had gone down. It wasn't a completely unusual thing to hear within the home, not with the Nomes being shelters for the magicians of the world when they were close by.

The person that Percy found on the other side of the door was a surprise though.

"Percy," a sickly looking man with golden hair and startling blue eyes, said as soon as he saw the person that had opened the door.

The son of sea's breath almost caught at the sight of Luke before him, a man that looked as if he was knocking on death's door and being told to wait. Maybe he was.

There was ink floating before the son of Hermes, the same ink that the younger demigod had stained the other's skin with years before in the home of the man that he had killed. Each of the children of the gods watched as the ink floated forwards once more, as absorbed itself into the younger's skin and completed the star that sat there for all to see.

Luke isn't relived by the sight, not the in slightest, though he knew that Percy had warned him that it was a one time deal.

(he had hoped that the other was wrong)

"Luke," Percy says then, returning the greeting as something seems to settle in his bones now that the image was complete. "Why are you here?"

The younger of the two demigods watched as the son of Hermes took in a grounding sort of breath that seemed to hurt his ribs more than anything, before setting his shoulders once more as if he was about to make a horrible mistake. Percy, knew that he could have the other choking on their own blood in only a moment if that mistake was to try and hurt him. Have him turned to stone as well in only two seconds at that.

"Kr- he," the man started as if each word hurt him more than the last, "is planning on using my body as a temporary vessel to rise from Tartarus once more," Luke informed, the fear clear and earnest in his voice in a way that no other sound had been before. In a way that showed just how much of his past words had been lies.

And Percy can't help but sigh, he had hoped to sleep that night and now Amos and Nico both were going to kill him when he woke them up and had to explain most of this from the start to at least one of them.

"Well," he starts once more, "it's a good thing then that you came to the pantheon that specializes in godly possession.

"Welcome to the Twenty-first Nome of the Egyptian Pantheon."

Chapter Text

It was quite as Percy and Nico sat on the floor of the older boy's room, the son of the sea laying on his stomach as he drew in one of his newer sketch books, images of the monsters that they had killed spanning the pages in mortal ink as the son of the Greek god of the dead played with shadows at the other's side. Percy scowls when he tries to bring the pen back down to the paper, but finds it disappearing into a wash of darkness that had not been there before, the object poking him in the head as the younger boy laughed at the sight. Percy laughed as well as he twisted and sat up quickly on the ground, tackling the other boy all the way to the ground as ink shone on both of their arms, bright a beautiful in the summer sun.

Nico stops laughing though as he spots the now complete star on Percy's skin.

Percy stops as well when he hears the other going silent, following the other's gaze to where he was looking, before leaning away from the younger demigod, both of them pulling themselves to a sitting position on the ground as they looked anywhere but one another.

"You don't like that it's there," the son of the sea says into the silence of the room, the words anything but a guess.

The symbol, made of ink and godly blood, hadn't been an issue for the younger demigod, not really so, until the other wearer of the mark had shown up at their door a few months before and completed it. Percy didn't know if this action had made it seem more real to the other, or something else of the like, but Nico had taken to going silent when he saw it these days.

"Should I?" the son of the Underworld asks in turn, his head turned towards the shadows of the room as if he was thinking of running into them, fingers trailing over the patterns that decorated his own skin in the way that they always seemed to do so when the other needed to reassure himself of something or other.

"We both know that it doesn't mean anything," Percy reminded the other, looking at him then as if such a thing could force the other teen to meet his gaze.

When he does, Percy almost wishes that the other hadn't.

Nico's eyes were filled with a sort of anger and pain that only the promise of something that one wanted, but was being held just out of reach could be. It was the sort of gaze that asked for truth and accepted nothing less.

(death always demanded truth, there was no place for lies among the spirits of the underworld as they resided within it)

"You're trying to save him," Nico reminds the other, his voice firm as he says it, "that means something."

Percy couldn't really deny that, not right then.

"Not the same thing that it means with you,"he says all the same, because he knew that it was the truth.

(With us, his words whispered into a listening wind)

"Why not?" the younger teen asks, his voice demanding as his gaze burned like Greek fire, eternal and bright and holding in them the promise of pain should the other lie.

Percy thinks about what he could say, about how he didn't really care about Luke living to end of all of this, not deep down. Not when it mattered. That this was for the sake of the demigods that were bound to join the other side of the war. That it was easier to have Luke as the face of the enemy than the random demigod that would just take over for him of the other were to leave. That a part of him wanted to save the other for the selfish piece of him that knew that if Luke had not been born first, he would be standing the spot of the son of Hermes, and the other would be where he was now. That if it had come to that, he would have wanted someone to save him then as well.

But he knew that those were excuses in the face of what the other was asking him.

"Because you're mine and I'm yours," Percy says at last, the words feeling like one of the truest things that the teen had ever spoken at the end of the day.

Gods are possessive by nature and the two off them were no different.

The son of the sea wondered what the other would say to that, the bluntness of something that had gone unsaid until then, he thought that it might have been good from the heat on the other's face, but he never does get to hear it as a knock comes to the door.

Amos opened it only a moment or so later.

"That freshman orientation starts in just a few minutes," the magician reminds the two teens of his home, ignoring the tense sort of atmosphere that he had walked into with a practiced sort of ease after these past few years. It was not even close to as bad as it had been when the di Angelo siblings had been fighting.

The demigods both nod at that, pulling themselves up from the ground and stretching out any of the kinks in their bodies from being on the floor for so long. The pair had ended up staying at Brooklyn House longer this summer than they ever had before, even as the summer was well underway, just for this orientation of a school that was close to both Brooklyn House and Camp. It was a place that had a history of people, boys usually, going missing during the year, a sort of history that the mortals seemed to excuse and ignore for reasons that the three had only been able to blame on the interference of the mist if they were to take a guess at it.

"Is it Greek then?" Percy asks, quickly looking around the room to make sure that there was nothing else that they were going to need for this or anything that might occur after when Nico shadow traveled them to camp.

The three of them had been trying to figure out for a while now just what sort of monster it might be that was plaguing the school, something that had been hard to do while it wasn't actually in session given the break and that they had only found the last few days of the spring semester. The freshman orientation had seemed like their best bet for getting into school when they weren't supposed to be there, as the whole place would be filled with a wash of unfamiliar faces, and to find the monsters that were sure to hunt then after so long of being away from the easier prey.

"It's definitely not Egyptian at the least," the magician says, having been able to figure out at least that much of the mystery monster. They had creatures that were similar to this, almost every mythos and religion did in one way or another, but not all of the markers were there. After all, their gods, for the most part, were not walking the earth right now.

(though they might be soon with what Julius has been looking into since Ruby's death)

"I still think that its strange that mortals are the only ones being attacked," Nico comments, the thought not being a new one. There were monsters in all of the mythos that might hunt a mortal or two, especially if they come right up to their doorstep, but it was strange that all of the boys that had gone missing seemed to be just mortals, not an ADHD or dyslexic among them.

Percy shrugs but silently agrees with the other teen. It was part of the reason that they were so intent on staying at Brooklyn House so long this summer to go. A lot of monsters they could ignore during the summer - demigods taking them out on their way to camp or satyrs doing so as they searched for new recruits - but this had a specific window to it, so they figured that an extra week or so in the city wouldn't kill them.

"Nothing that can really be done about that other than what you already are," Amos reminded the boys, patting the younger demigod on the shoulder for a moment before turning to his son once more.

The magician held out a bracelet with a charm on it to the other, getting raised brows from both of the children in the room. Percy took it anyways, looking at the symbol with wide eyes as he realized what it was, the feeling of the sea coming off of the charm like a breath of air.

"Your Uncle Julius found it while travailing with Carter," the magician informs the son of the sea as the boy slipped it onto his wrist, "it just arrived this morning, said it was an early birthday gift. Go ahead and pull the charm off."

The other two in the room watched as the child of Poseidon did just that, the charm coming off easily from the bracelet even as he didn't unhook it or anything of the like. In the teen's hand, a trident made of of the same sort of ocean forged celestial bronze as his sword grew to its full length. It was beautiful, small blue gems and pearls in the details of it as waves seemed to ripple at the bottom of the weapon. It felt right in his hand in a way that the sword did only at the most basic of times, the teen having been training with bo staffs and spears since he was young just in case they found something like this that made storms feels as if they were filling his lungs, the sea in his blood, and body made of the earth.

It was perfect.

The way that the son of the sea seemed to all but glow as he twisted the weapon in his grasps told the other two in the room just as much.

"What, I don't get a new weapon too?" Nico complained in a way that no one believed, in a way that was a distraction technique so that the other boy wouldn't have to try and voice what he was feeling right then.

"Hey, I'm pretty sure Uncle Jay is the one that found your sword too, Underworld boy," Percy reminded the other, his tone brighter than Amos had heard it since his son had gone to camp and made the man's breath catch. Percy didn't notice that though as he touched the weapon back to the bracelet on his wrist, the trident changing back into a charm. "Besides, you love that thing too much to ever even think of trying something else."

The son of the god of the dead shrugs with a smile on his lips, knowing as well as the other two did that it was true as he held a hand out to the other. Percy took it, both of the teens looking to the magician that they were leaving behind with little waves of goodbye as the shadows consumed them.

—-

When they get to the school, Percy all but laughs at the name of it: Goode. The son of the sea didn't have a lot of memories of school, too young back then to really remember such things after so long, but all of the ones he did have were anything but good in nature.

The two demigods had appeared across the street from the school, in the shadows of one of the nearby buildings, the sun pouring down from above as cars drove by the school at an almost near constant sort of rate. Standing there, Percy wondered from a moment if in another life he might have been in one of them, his mother at his side a she smiled that small, tired sort of smile that she had barley been able to manage to make true on the best of days.

He didn't know if he wanted to know if some other version of his life ever could have held something like this, not when he felt so removed from it now.

The distant sort of feeling didn't last long though.

Nico nodded at the other teen before drawing himself up to his full height, hoping that he would be just able to pass as a young looking sort of freshman as the pair walked towards the school. The son of the sea had joked back at home that Nico would be able to pull it off easy if he acted like he truly was supposed to eighty or older. Percy rolled his eyes at the display, the younger demigod elbowing him in the side after seeing just that. The laugh on Nico's lips died though as they drew close to the school and the son of the god of the dead felt the other go still at his side, the older teen looking ahead of them as if he were seeing a ghost.

"Perce?" The younger demigod asks, his voice uncertain as he had never seen the other freeze before. Never like this. He had seen the other talk down witches and take the weight of the sky, but he had never seen him freeze.

(It was terrifying)

Percy can tell that the other is trying to speak with him, can hear the rumble of a voice in his ears, but it sounds far away right then as he looks at the two figures standing upon the steps of the school. As it feels like all he can see is them.

There was a face there, one that he knew from only a few months before at the Hoover Dam and didn't mind seeing once more, not when he likely needed to speak with her all the same. It was the other that was making it feel right then as if he couldn't breathe, like the air had been stolen from his lungs and given to another. Given to any other.

It was the face of a man that he hadn't seen since he was eleven and watching from the street down below as his mother laughed along with him in an apartment filled with far more warmth than theirs had ever been able to hold with a monster within it, a little baby girl seemingly babbling in her seat like she had never known what it meant to cry.

He couldn't breathe, not even as Nico continued to call his name.

Both of the people of the steps seemed to notice his gaze, to feel the weight of it as they turned to find the source. Percy watched as recognition flashed across the other teen's face, a smile that promised of interrogation flashing across her features as she raised her arm in a wave.

"Percy!" Rachel called out, her voice clear through the air as both Nico and the man at the girl's side turned to look at the son of the sea, recognition in each of their gazes for inferential reasons entirely.

Paul can't stop himself from freezing as he hears that name, one that he had only heard before in the mythology that his wife had once named her son after, Sally having hoped against everything that her child would get a happy ending. He'd seen the photos of the young boy before, the few that they were. A little boy with hair as dark as the bottom of the sea and green eyes that shined just like it. He knew that the boy would be starting high school this year, Sally had been sad that morning when he was leaving for the orientation because of it. He knew that it was something of an impossibility for the boy before him to be Perseus Jackson, the child had run away at the age of seven while Sally had been at work and her then husband - the piece of shit that he was - had been home. Children that young didn't survive in a place like New York on their own, especially not with how cold the winters became.

But the boy, Percy, was looking at him as if he knew him.

As if he was seeing a ghost.

(One that he had never expected to have to confront)

The teen looked away first as he and the boy at his side walked up the steps, looking to Miss. Dare. Paul doesn't get the chance to talk to either of them after that, not as the girl pulls them away before his mouth remembers how to form words. The smaller of the two boys though, he looks back at the teacher as the girl pulls them both away, confusion and something that looked remarkably like a threat in dark eyes.

Paul had no idea what he was going to tell his wife.

(If he should at all)

The three were walking down the hall, Rachel glancing over her shoulders as if to make sure that they were a good distance away, as the son of the underworld looked at Percy with a gaze that spoke of a promise that they were going to speak of whatever just happened with the random high school teacher later. It was a gaze that the son of the sea pointedly looked away from.

"So, why are you two here?" The mortal girl asked, curiosity and a bit of worry in her tone as she looked between the other two teens. Nothing good seemed to come from the presence of the older one, she doubted that the younger was all that different. Especially not with both of them together at once.

Nico looks at the girl once more,knowing that there was only one person that she could be from what Percy had told him during the events of the last quest that they had snuck on together.

A mortal girl that could see through the mist.

It was an interesting sort of thing to see, especially as even in death mortals usually could not do such a thing.

Percy looks between the other two teens and the empty hallways that they had walked into that he knew wouldn't remain so for long with the sounds of cars still pulling up into the parking lot so close by and not quite slowing down. He knew that if they were going to talk about anything right then, something that they truly should do for Rachel's sake at the least, then they needed somewhere else than this so that none of them got dragged into a psych ward and the cops started asking questions when they couldn't find paper work on one of them and the other turned out to be a runaway.

The son of the sea made a decision then and grabbed both of then other two by the wrists and dragged them into a classroom that had its door open. Not great, but better than nothing.

Both go willingly at the least.

"We're here to kill a monster that's been picking off the student body for a while now," Percy answers, his voice low but no less blunt right then.

Nico sighs as the mortal girl looks between the two of them with a look on her face that he couldn't quite read. Percy was hardly ever wrong about things like this, but the son of the god of the dead wouldn't put it past the other to have gotten it wrong this once possibly. Or for Percy to have gotten it perfectly right but for Rachel to be denying it so that her life might stay a bit more normal than it had been before they walked into it.

In the end, it was neither of those things.

"Oh thank god," the girl says, relief clear in her voice as she speaks, as a weight seems to all but life from her shoulders, one that she had been forced to carry for far too long now.

Ever since Rachel could remember she had been able to see things that others couldn't. At first it had been fine, her parents had thought that she just had an active imagination. It took her longer than she liked to admit that she was seeing things that no one else was, at least not in the way that she was. She thought that she was insane.

Then there had been a boy that had swung a sword at her, one that was being chased by a skeleton and knew it. One that could see it too.

She had never been more glad to almost be run through.

"Gods," the younger of the pair corrected, something that could almost be called a reflex if he didn't look like a little shit right when doing it.

"Gods, sure," she amended right then, completely uncaring, "doesn't matter as long as I'm not insane."

Percy sighed then, his expression shifting into something a bit softer cause he had felt like this too when he had first met his Dad and Julius. The relief of it all, it was a drunk sort of feeling to have at first.

(As if you were waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under you)

The two demigods look between one another right then, knowing that they likely didn't have more time to spare than they had already used. A silent sort of conversation passes between them both, Nico shrugging at the end of it, so Percy focuses and raises his hand. The movement draws Rachel's gaze back to focus once more, her eyes going wise as she watches as the older of the pair before her seems to dip his hand into a place that doesn't exist at all, pulling it back out with a card held between his fingers.

A card that he holds out to her.

There wasn't much on it when the red haired girl grabbed it, just two numbers written in a strange sort of ink that seemed to shine a bit gold in the light of the room, the same sort of gold as the ink on the skin of each of the other teens before her. It wasn't much, hardly anything at all, which is what causes her brows to pull together at the sight of it.

"The first number is for a phone that Nico and I share," the son of the sea explained, pointing to the one at the top before moving to the one at the bottom, "and the other is the number for my dad. You can text us if you ever have a questions about this, as we don't have time to answer them right now, but call the second one if you ever find yourself in trouble with the mythical world."

Rachel raises a brow at him at that. "Why couldn't i just call one of the two of you for that?" She asks, genuine confusion there. She didn't understand why she couldn't do such a thing with just there number when she at least had met the pair of them.

"We can't always have the phone on around us," Nico answers, drawing the green eyes to him. "It's likes sending out a beacon to all the monsters around of where we are."

She nods at that, but Percy adds to it as well.

"My dad also has contacts all around the US and the rest of the world that will be able to get to you more reliably for about the same reason," he explains, knowing it to be true. Just because Nico could travel all the way to China and be up for a fight the way that he was right now with his own soul slowly breaking, that didn't mean that they would be able to get too far after depending on the fight at hand.

Besides, it was rare that monsters of any sort bothered with mortals these days, even those that could see through the mist, that was more in the gods' territory.

"Will you help us with this today?" The child of the Underworld asks, knowing that they were running out of time before the orientation actually started, which was their best time to see any monsters that might be lingering among the student body as they sometimes did. "You'd be able to see the monster that we're after than even us with the mist not working on you at all."

Rachel doesn't hesitate before nodding, not when she was going to see the monsters either way.

(She liked to think that she would have tried to help even if she wasn't forced to have such a prefect sight for a world that wasn't even really hers)

The older of the two demigods smiles, something small and genuine.

Something there and gone.

The three walk to the gym then, seeming to all of those that see them like three friends from middle school that had found their way to one another once more. It was something that none of the three of them would ever truly have.

It wasn't long after they had sat down at the end of the bleachers that Rachel's eyes had gone wide, Percy following as she whispered of cheerleaders that were something far worse.

Empousa, Percy supposed it made sense

The two monsters seemed to notice the weight of the three's gazes upon them, turning to meet them with too wide smiles as it was called for them to break out into groups to tour the school. The demigods and the monsters knew then that wherever one of them went, the others were sure to follow.

That was just fine with all of them.

"Pretend like nothing is happening," Percy whispered as they all stood to divide for tours, earring a harsh sort of glare for it from the mortal girl. "The mist sometimes has almost cruel ways of covering up the mythical things that happen, and it would be best if you weren't drawn into that."

"It makes even worse excuses than superheroes in comics before they have to dip from civilian friends to go fight the bad guy," Nico said when he saw the girl gearing up to fight them on this, causing all three of them to cringe at the idea of it.

There has been more than one police chase over the years that the demigods had found themselves in during the school year.

In the end though, Rachel nods and goes with one of the groups of soon to be freshmen, though its clear that she likes nothing about it.

It was better than the chance of her winding up dead.

It was at the back entrance of the school that the four mythical beings met one another, powers swirling through the air as the almost vampires tried to down the boys in their magic, and as the two fought it off after so many years around magics of their own.

It wasn't long before they were fighting, before Nico was going for the younger one as Percy pulled the water from the air and doused the fire of the older one. Before the younger was no more than dust in the wind as the two demigods came together once more to kill the older, her magics not working well on them, or even at all on the son of the Underworld as she was slain with a cry on her lips. It had been a while since she had been sent to the land of monsters it seemed.

The shared phone dings as the dust settles around them, something that draws the gazes of both teens to it as Percy pulls it out of his back pocket. There was a message from an unknown number on it, something had never happened before, but it was easy to guess just who i was as the person on the other end of the line was asking what 'those things' were.

It was good to know that she was actually going to reach out, something seemed to almost whisper at Percy that she would be needed later on in all of this.

Percy texts back the name of the monster before stashing the phone in the Duat, where if it sent any sort of signals there, it would do so into the void.

"Do you truly think that it's smart to bring her more into this world than she already is?" Nico asked then as he looked at the spots where monsters had once stood, taken out by two beings that were soon to be gods.

The two of them had been born into this world, they didn't get the choice, but Rachel - clear sight to not - was still mortal at the end of it all.

She got the choice that none of them ever would.

The older of the pair shrugs then, even as his thoughts were much the same at the end of it all. "It's either we bring her more thoroughly into this world, or we disappear from her and eventually she'll think that she made us up to excuse her own supposed insanity," he starts, his voice a bit flat as he does so, far more used to this sort of give and take than he cared to admit. After all, it was how he had come to Brooklyn House in the first place when he was only supposed to be taking a walk that day. "At least this way she will always have some way to get answers to her questions. We might even be able to convince Amos to give her some basic training for the monsters out there that both are and aren't from the world of myths."

Nico can't argue with that, not any of it, not that he would truly want to. He holds out his hand once more and the shadows consume them as they go to camp.

—-

When they get to camp, they appear in Cabin Three, the place smelling slightly more of the sea than it had before they had left for the rest of the winter and spring.

"Huh," Nico said, looking at something over Percy's shoulder, causing the other teen to turn and follow the noise of flowing water to that of a fountain in the back of their room.

"Do you think that Artemis told Poseidon that I had to borrow food and a Drachma to make calls at the campsite?" the son of the sea asked, walking closer to the large, but truly beautiful, fountain, running a hand over the small pile of golden coins that had been placed in a bowl by it.

"Maybe," the son of the god of the dead admits, fighting down a slight wash of jealousy that he hadn't expected to feel that day.

He hadn't cared when Amos had given Percy the trident, not really, because it truly was an early birthday gift. Julius sent holiday gifts at strange times through out the year since he's never actually able to be there the day of, not wanting to bring Carter into the world of the Egyptian gods until he had to. Amos almost always looks at what was sent and decides if waiting for a holiday would be best or if it might be needed earlier when it came to the gifts, something that Julius fully agreed with from what Percy had told him over the years. All of them knew the advantage of having something useful on a quest.

But, it felt different seeing the older teen get a gift from his godly parent for no reason at all.

He supposed that some of his strange wash of emotions must have shown when Percy turned to look at him then because there was something a bit soft in the teen's usually cold gaze as he looked at the other. "Your dad would give you something if he could without being blunt with Zeus about who you are."

"I know," the younger demigod answered, because he did. Whether Zeus knew that he was the son of Hades or just some other Underworld bastard that shared some of the characteristics of the powers of them, they didn't know. But if he did know, he was ignoring it right then, the war too close to be making enemies of the gods of the world of the dead as well.

"Come," Percy said then, pulling their bags for the Duat and dropping them onto the beds on the way to the cabin door, "let's go see camp, yeah?"

And Nico can only sigh at that.

When the pair stepped out of the cabin, they didn't notice the strange looks of the other campers, more than one person trying to figure out then when the pair had shown up and how long they had been there. No, Percy was looking only at Nico as the other boy's gaze turned sharply towards the arena, something in it then that the older demigod had only seen a handful of times before, though now was much less severe in nature to those.

"What is it?" the son of the sea asks then, knowing that sometimes the other had at least some sort of idea of what was before them.

Nico's brows furrow as he thinks, as he knows that the sentence that he is about to speak isn't quite right but that they were a bit too far away to truly tell right then. "I think there's creatures of the Underworld in there," he answers all the same, knowing that it was only half right in nature but not why it was.

Percy had the charm for his trident in his hand and brought to its fully size before the other was finished speaking, hoping that it wouldn't be needed right then. Though, he did want to give it a bit of a try that day.

Nico doesn't say anything about it, only drawing his own blade from its sheath.

When they get to the arena, before them is the biggest hellhound that either of the demigods had ever seen, making both of them stop for a moment as they watched as the creature tore into one of the practice dummies used for sword practice. It's the sort of sight that has the two of them tilting their heads to the side as the large creature acts like a puppy and bounds around with the dummy. It was absurd in a way that only something like this could be.

The lack of movement didn't persist though, not as they saw an unfamiliar man moving into view with a sword in his hand. The stranger was pinned to the wall by their blades with his own half way across the arena before he could truly process what was occurring, the two demigods moving with the speed that Achilles had been rumored to hold.

The speed of gods.

The hellhound makes a sad sort of sound in the back of it's throat when it hears the grunt of the stranger, but the creature doesn't move to attack.

"Who are you," Percy asked then, digging the blades on the trident into the throat of the stranger, something in his bones feeling unsettled right then because there was something about the man before him that didn't feel right, that felt off in a way that he wasn't used to humans feeling at all. Something that he never has to look for with someone that supposed to be human.

He knew that Nico seemed to be feeling similarly confused.

"My name is Quintus," the man answered carefully, mindful of the blade at his throat.

"Who the hell names their kid five?" the son of the sea asked, the translation for the name coming easy to the boy that had been learning Latin and Greek since he was small, his brain already wired for both.

The man, Quintus, looks as if he wants to laugh at that, but doesn't get the chance to do so as Nico speaks instead.

"You're not supposed to be here," the son of Hades says then, his gaze holding that otherworldliness to it that made Percy's breath catch just a bit.

The swordsman looks at the smaller of the two boys for a moment, thinking that the younger teen meant that he wasn't supposed to be at the camp right then, a decent sort of instinct given the state of the Greek camp and the war that was slowly on the rise. New faces were dangerous ones.

"I'm the new sword instructor," he starts to explain, his voice steady as he does so. He trails off though when the boy shakes his head with something like frustration.

"Alive," the teen interrupts. "You're not supposed to be alive."

The man's eyes go a bit cold at that, almost threateningly so, something that Percy notes as he digs the points of the trident deeper into the flesh of the near stranger as he speaks. "Who are you?" he asks once more, voice cold as the air seems to begin to stir, the water in it restless as the first breaths of a storm begins to gather around them.

Neither of the demigods get their answer though, Chiron walking into the arena just as the man before the opens his mouth to speak something or another.

"Please lower your weapons, boys," the centaur asks, his voice holding that hint of firmness to it that he usually never bothered to try with either of them.

The two comply all the same, though Nico's hands shake a bit at his side as he does, as if the son of Hades was longing to claim the stranger's soul right then and there.

(Looking back on it later, it would have been better if he had)

"Hope you don't mind if I borrow these two, Quintus," the centaur said, looking between the three and feeling the tension in the air but ignoring it with grace that his Olympian siblings could benefit from learning.

The two demigods looked at the half man with confusion at them being taken away from something so clearly wrong in nature.

"Not at all, Master Chiron," Quintus agrees, sounding as if he was wishing that they were already out of his sight right then, as the two teens put away their weapons once more that day.

(he was, he had not come this close to death in a very long time. And he was sure that it was death that he was facing between the pair of them, especially with the way that the child of the Underworld had looked upon him)

The three walk off quickly after that, leaving the swordsman to his hellhound.

"He seems kinda…" the son of the sea starts as soon as they were far enough away.

"Mysterious," the centaur offers, though that isn't exactly the word that either of the demigods would use when speaking of the man.

"An ancient soul walking," Nico supplies instead, unsurprised when Chiron looks to him with wide eyes that spoke of a conformation of something that he hadn't wanted to believe.

"What do you mean?" the ancient creature asked, his voice carefully neutral just then.

Nico's is not.

"That guy definitely should have died back in the time of Ancient Greece," the son of the Underworld answers just then, blunt and unforgiving in nature.

Both of the demigods can't help but roll their eyes when Chiron only nods as if he had been expecting this outcome, one way or another.

"Who is he really?" Percy asks then, figuring that if the other had already been suspicious of the stranger then he might at the least have an inkling as to who he could be.

If he does, he doesn't share it.

They watch as the archer shakes his head before speaking once more. "I don't know," he admits, even if it sounds like a half truth, " though the two of you should be wary of him but don't kill him as you were so clearly about to try and do. If he is willing to teach, then the demigods of our camp can take advantage of having someone to learn from as the war draws closer still."

Percy and Nico glance at one another then, dislike clear in each of their eyes as they do so, but the two of them both nod in agreement to the ancient man.

"So," the son of Hades starts after the tension had begun to pass, the three of them still walking right then, "did you actually need us for something, or did you just say that so that I didn't reap that guy's soul?"

"I was more after Percy," Chiron admits, though he sounds tired as he does so, "but yes, did figure if I left you alone with our new swords teacher we would no longer have one, so package deal you two are." And truly that last part should have been known from the start, that was how they had been since the children of Hades had first walked through the barrier around camp. "However the matter at hand is not a kind one."

"What is it?" the son of the sea asks then, tension running through his body as he thought of there being some sort of fight that they might have missed, or one soon on the way.

(though there was always one on the way with the life that they lived)

"We are going to Grover's hearing," Chiron announced, his voice sounding sad and a bit defeated as he does.

"Why is he on trial?" Percy asked, knowing that the satyr wouldn't have done something to have needed one. He may not see Grover often, but he knew the other well enough to know that much.

The centaurs sighs then, something tired in his voice as he does so.

"He came back to camp not long after the two of you went home for the rest of the year last winter," Chiron starts, not even bothering to be annoyed with the pair for just leaving without a word. Not when they had only been planning to come for the solstice for Bianca's sake in the first place, so that she could join the Hunt. "He came back saying that he had heard the voice of Pan."

Both of them notice the way in which Percy seemed to flinch at that, a memory of a gift from the wild rearing itself in the older demigod's mind even as it had felt back then that the power of the wild had been in two places.

"He probably did," the son of the sea admits when he sees Chiron isn't going to look away.

Nico shivers as he remembers that particular mode of transport that they had gotten from the god.

The centaur doesn't speak for a long moment right then, his mind thinking. But in the end it doesn't matter.

"Be that as it may," Chiron starts once more, "the Council does not believe it to be so."

"So, trial?" Nico asked, not seeing the logic in that. No one needed a trail for this, even if the satyr from the Sea of Monsters was wrong.

"So a trail," Chiron agrees.

"What's the worse that they could do to him?" Percy asks then, not tempting fate in the way that most would, but curious of what rulings this council truly could make and the harm of them.

"That's what we're about to see," the centaur answers all the same as they walked into a clearing that neither of the demigods had ever been in before.

The place was beautiful, a touch of nature that very few humans had ever stepped in before. There were wildflowers blanketing the ground as old trees stood tall, casting a shade upon them all that the sun filtered through in the wind like some sort of dance upon the forest floor. Birds chirped in the trees as at the edges of the clearing small animals rested. It was a breath of the wild. It would have been perfect if not for the old satyrs that sat upon what looked to be thrones, their bellies fat and their faces cruel.

And Grover stood before them like a man condemned as off to the side Annabeth and Clarisse stood with a wood nymph, a dryad, that seemed to be crying the tears that Grover himself could not.

The daughters of the war gods nodded as the two of them arrived, though they didn't say anything right then, each trying to comfort the dryad as best as they knew how. Percy thought that was likely for the best.

It was clear as the hearing went on that the council had walked into this with their minds already made up on the matter at hand, everything about the whole affair being conducted in a way that didn't even hide its attempts to be mocking in nature.

It was the sort of preceding that set Percy's teeth on edge and made him wonder if satyrs dusted just like monsters did.

Something in his expression must have given that away because Nico grabbed his wrist hand held it, right over the charm of the trident.

Jerk.

In the end, Grover was given one more week to find a god that no one had been able to find in the past two thousand years.

(the hold of the son of Hades' hand on the other's wrist loosened at that, whether in shock or something close to permission, Percy didn't know)

When Grover came to speak to the six of them, Clarisse spoke of another option that the satyr could take. Even the insinuation of it seemed to be enough to terrify the other boy. Somehow, Percy thought that this was going to end up being what Grover was going to have to do.

The hardest things always seemed to be the answer in the mythological world.

—-

Percy and Nico were by the lake when Annabeth found them later that day, the wind kissing at all of their skin as if even it was angered by what had just occurred earlier. Maybe it was.

"What's the other way?" Percy asks as the daughter of Athena stops beside them, the blonde girl leaning down to grab a stone from the ground and to throw it across the lake with the accuracy of someone that had grown up around one.

Someone that had lived in camp for longer than they can truly remember being somewhere else.

"Something that Clarisse found by accident last winter," the girl answers, her voice a bit far away as if the very idea of such a thing was terrifying in a way. "I helped her a little bit with it in the spring, but…" her voice trails off there and for the first time Percy thinks that the daughter of the wisdom goddess might have failed at something. "It's dangerous," she lands on in the end, "especially for Grover."

The two boys looked at one another, each knowing that there weren't many places that could be dangerous fro a satyr, especially not ones that they hadn't already been to. It really just narrowed it down to one type of area in the end:

underground.

Percy didn't like the idea of that at all.

—-

They found themselves back in the arena later that day, weapons in their hands as they twisted and turned with one another, battling as if it were a dance instead. It was a bit different than how they usually fought with one another, the length of the trident making it so, but it was no less exciting in the way that they fought one another. They fought then with a strength to their blows that no one else in camp would really be able to withstand, even as Percy moved a bit slower with the added weight of the trident that was different from the bo staff and spears that he was more used to.

Such an advantage didn't last long though, not as he spun and pinned the other to the ground, the dark sword soaring through the air to the other side of the arena. Nico smiled up at him from the ground though as if the boy was proud of his own defeat because Percy had won.

(only that once though)

The smiles fell from both of their lips as they heard footsteps approaching once more, the earth beneath them bringing Nico's sword back to his hand as the son of the sea twisted the trident so that the other boy could use it to pull himself up.

"Going to try and kill me again, boys?" Quintus asked as he looked between the strange pair, noticing how their hands were steady as they held their weapons within them, steady in the way that those who were used to diving into battle with no tells often were.

"Not today," Nico says, his voice a bit too light for those, like Percy, that knew him to believe him right then even as the son of the sea god knew that the other boy was speaking the truth.

They'd kill him once he outlived his use and played whatever trick it was that they were sure that the ancient being was hiding.

"Maybe tomorrow," Percy offers up, his voice holding that same lightness to it.

(but crystal clear water could still drown as easy as muddied ones)

The swords master laughs then, the sound carrying through the arena as if he didn't believe that the two teens were serious. They let him keep that laugh, for the moment at least.

"What's in the crates?" the son of Hades asks instead of saying any of the more violent thoughts within his mind as he looked at the being that he knew should have died long ago but was somehow living still, not trusting whatever it was that he had inside of such large boxes.

Especially not when they moved and growled every now and then when they thought no one was around to hear.

Triple G Ranch.

Percy didn't like the sound of that, not when all of the monsters that he had met that had business - for some damned reason - all used some sort of play on their own names and this seemed like another one of those at the end of the day.

The eldest of the three only smiles in a way that might have been disarming if they didn't already think him bad, and answered that it was a surprise for the next night.

The son of the sea god watched as he twisted his neck to look at the boxes though as he answered, some sort of burn or birthmark coming into view on his neck as he did so, clothes no longer covering it as well as it had been. It looked a bit like a bird.

The horn blows for dinner though before he can think to ask about it.

—-

Next morning Percy and Nico look at one another as those around them talk of the monster that had tried to get into camp the night before, being driven away by the Apollo cabin, but still lingering near about as if trying to sniff out a weakness in the boarder. They all knew that it was. Monsters chasing demigods to camp wasn't unheard of, that was how they had gotten their pinecone face after all. Still, everyone in camp knew that it was more than that. That Luke was looking for a way to break in.

That he was sending monsters to do it.

Percy and Nico both knew that the effort was half hearted on the older demigod's part right now, as much as it could be with Kronos breathing down his neck and whispering within his mind like a ghost of the damned, but that didn't make the idea sit any better among the pair.

Especially not when they both knew that when the son of Hermes did attack camp, it likely wouldn't be him at all.

"Are you regretting letting him go back?" The son of Hades asked as he looked at the other, no judgment in his voice or anything of the like as he spoke, only a question.

It still felt damning all the same.

"There wasn't much let about it," Percy reminds the other, both of them knowing that it was true. "It had to be done, knowing what's to come."

There was guilt in those words as the other spoke, a sound that the younger demigod didn't want to hear right then.

"We did what we could for him," Nico reminds the other in turn, knowing that they had gone farther for the traitor than they ever truly should have. That they crossed a line that shouldn't have been crossed, but was all the same. "We just have to weather the storm for the next year, just like we have been all this time."

Percy nods but doesn't say anything more than that as Grover sits down with them, the satyr unsettled in a way that they hadn't seen him since the sea of monsters when he was about to be married to a cyclops. Every now and then Percy finds himself wondering for a moment if it would have been binding if they had gone through with it.

It was only a moment before Chiron stood beside their table as well, passing just for a moment as he laid a reassuring hand upon the satyr's shoulder before leaving once more without a word. The action, though likely intending to be reassuring in nature, only seemed to make Grover more nervous.

The two demigods looked at one another then, something silent passing between them before Percy turned back towards the mythical creature. He had known him the longest after all.

"What's going on, man?" The son of the sea asked, going for causal even as he didn't need any empathy link or anything so mythical to feel the tension coiled within the other.

"He wants you to convince me," Grover answers, speaking right then as if he was talking of a sure death sentence and nothing more.

"About what?"Nico asked next, knowing that if anyone could convince someone to do something totally insane, it was Percy, so that wasn't really the issue at hand.

"The Labyrinth," a new voice answers as Annabeth takes a seat at the satyr's side, earring looks form more than one table.

Percy doesn't ask about the choice in seating right then though, not when things had just gotten interesting once more. The smile that the son of the sea gives right then is feral and cold and everything that was needed for the sort of ruthlessness of storms and the creatures that lived within the sea.

"Oh, that's perfect," the son of the sea says with just a bit too much excitement in his voice right then to make anyone other than the child of the Underworld comfortable. "Especially with the whole time difference thing that it has going on."

"What do you mean?" Annabeth asked then, knowing that the other was right, this was Grover's best bet at the end of the day because one could cross large distances in a short amount of time, but she had no idea what he meant when he spoke of a time difference other than knowing that they weren't quite on the same page with it.

"We all know of the stories of the fair folk," the son of the sea started, thinking of the one that he had met all those years before, the one that would have killed him had it gotten the chance, little bastard, "but even though they are real, not all of the people that think that they were lost to the fey really were," the teen continued, uncaring of the looks from those on the other side of the table, "some just wandered into a labyrinth entrance over the years and managed to find their way back out by a shot of luck. The poor bastards would think that they were only down there a few hours or days or months, and would come out years in the future, or sometimes even in the past. The usual fairy lore," Percy finished with something of a dismissive wave of his hand, as if everything that he had just spoken was completely sane.

To him it was.

To Nico as well.

Grover and both look to the son of Hades as if to check that the son of the sea wasn't insane, but the other teen only nods. after all, he had learned about this in the first few weeks of living at Brooklyn House, Amos wanting them prepared for the creatures that didn't care about which pantheon you were from, only the hunt.

He hadn't had to use any of it till now. Percy had been brought in on it.

"It's the same with alien abductions," the son of Hades supplies, popping a grape into his mouth just to feel the crunch of the skin breaking beneath his teeth. "Mortal minds cling to the last thing that they knew was true before somehow finding them selves in the Labyrinth through one entrance or another, their minds breaking a little with the things that they had seen while within the maze, and the mist reconstructs it into something manageable. Thus in the modern age we get alien abductions."

Neither the satyr nor the daughter of Athena quite knew what to say to that. To any of it really.

The conversation that followed after that felt both random and not so at all as the four spoke of a boy that had been found in the maze, his mind broken as Clarisse tried to hold what was left of it together, what was left of Chris together, as long as she could till Mr. D came back from rallying the minor gods. It was a conversation of pros and cons as they all knew that this was Grover's best bet even if Pan wasn't within the maze itself. It was fear tinted with the underlying hints of finality that not even running away as the satyr did at the end could hide.

The Labyrinth was dangerous, it was still the only real choice that Grover had.

—-

It was that night after dinner that the current residents of Camp Half - Blood learned of what was within the crates that had been kept in the arena till then, monsters. Of what kind, only their new swords teacher truly knew, but they had been let loose within the woods of camp, silk packages tied to them that the demigods were to retrieve, searching to find the golden laurel that had been hidden within one of them.

It wasn't long until they were all split into teams of two and sent into the woods in the combat gear, Nico and Percy's side as they walked through the darkening stretch of land, each of them able to see just fine as they did, a sword made purely of black metal in one demigod's hand as the other held a trident made from the sea, twisting it at his side like one of the spears that he had trained with since he was young.

It was a surprise to neither of the children of the big three when all of the monsters found them first, too much power between them, and too little intelligence between the mythical for the creatures to go anywhere else right then.

Neither of the, wanted to run, it was never in the plan as they backed up near a rock, hoping to shrink down the distance between themselves and the monsters, hoping to lure the creatures into a false sense of security before catching them in stone and earth and stealing away the packages tied to them all, a full sweep. They were even going to let the monsters, the giant scorpions that Quintus had brought to camp, live so that they could be used again in future exercises like this and no one had to waste the money to but more of them if it was only the two of them that faced any of them.

All of that went to shit though when Percy's foot failed to meet the earth on his last step back, Nico's doing just the same as the pair fell down through a small slip in the earth just before the rock that they had been luring the monsters to.

It was damp down into the place where they had fallen, the world beneath them feeling of stone rather than of the softness of earth. The air around them was cooled with each breath instead of holding the heat of summer to it, as if it was from a place that wasn't touched by the same world that they had just come from as they stood up on the brick flooring. High above them the pair could see the darkening sky and the scorpions as they tried to attack through the slender crack that the two demigods had fallen through, but weren't able to reach them by any means. The son of Hades and the son of Poseidon stayed still all the same, waiting to truly move from where they stood until the monster had gotten bored of them and left. They knew the between the pair of them, they could still kill all of them easy, but there was always the risk of something going wrong if they did with the powers that they held and the ceiling coming down upon them.

It would not be a fun way to hold off a prophecy in the least.

"I could raise the earth below us and we could try and crawl out," the son of Hades suggested, looking at the distance that they had fallen and knowing that there weren't likely many other easy ways to get out.

Percy shook his head right then though, feeling as if they were missing something that they were going to need.

"We should look around for a moment first," the son of the sea suggested, letting the faint glow of the trident illuminate the air around them, "try and figure out what this place is and why its beneath camp."

Try and see if its a danger to them all, went unsaid but not unheard by either of them.

Nico nods, even as he knows that the other likely isn't looking right then. Still, the younger demigod reaches out to the other in the dark, grabbing onto the other's hand so that they would not loose one anther down where they were. Percy said nothing of it, but he held the other back just as tightly. Just as sure.

It was only a few minutes before the son of Hades saw something on the wall, a small symbol that he might have overlooked altogether had they not been searching for something identifying just like this.

A Greek delta.

It was right then that he realized just where they were.

"The Labyrinth," the son of the god of the dead breathes, realization dawning upon him as he looked at the small symbol that was protruding from the wall.

Percy stepped up to the boy's side, raising his hand slowly to the small Greek symbol that they both were sure had been put there to represent the inventor that had once created the maze that they were standing within, grazing his fingers along the ridges of it. A touch was all that was needed for the symbol to become a wash of blue light, the small hole above their heads opening wider as a ladder formed before them and voices filtered down to where they were, a symphony of voices calling out to them both under the cover of the night sky.

A night sky that should not have been there for as long as it felt as if they had truly been within the corridor.

They knew right then as they climbed back up into the world above that it was definitely the Labyrinth that the two of them had found.

They both knew that the chances were high that they weren't the only ones to have found it as well.

Clarisse is the one to find them first when they pull themselves out of the rocks and begin to walk towards the sound of voices, almost running into the daughter of Ares in the dark of the woods that night as they did so. The son of the sea could easily see the worry in the girl's eyes, the pinch there that shouldn't have been there. The bleeding lips that were from biting from the nervousness of a lost camper and not a fight. It was almost endearing to see just how worried she was for them if they didn't both realize right then just how much that worry was actually needed given where they had just fallen into with only their weapons and their armor on their persons and nothing in the Duat that would have helped past that.

"Where were you two?" the daughter of Ares all but demands, her voice drawing everyone else to her as she does so. "We've been looking for the both of you for an hour."

They should have been surprised by that, especially since it only felt like a few minutes at the most for the both of them, but Percy only nods having expected as much when he saw the stars above.

He points at the hole that they stood beside, and sees the moment that it registers in the mind of the older demigod just what they had found.

"An entrance," Clarisse said, her voice sounding haunted right then as if she expected either of them to fall to madness before her at any moment. He supposed that she did.

It wouldn't have been the first time at the least.

Percy looks to Annabeth then, the daughter of Athena's eyes wide as she realized what was before them as well right then.

"Time manipulation," he says, his voice level, "it only felt like we were down there for a minute at the most."

Clarisse doesn't look happy about that, and they all know why.

"Sorry," the son of the sea says to her, knowing that it wouldn't mean much right then, likely never. Not where this was concerned.

The four demigods look to Chiron then, watching as it all settles in the ancient man's mind what had just occurred, what it means for the battle to come since there was an entrance of the Labyrinth right at the heart of the camp woods. An entrance to the maze that the titan army has been scouring for a while now, likely looking for a way to navigate it since Luke likely already knew about it from his days at camp.

It was probably the worst thing that they could have found within the camp that day.

It wasn't long before Chiron was deciding right then that they would hold a council meeting of all of the camp cabin leaders the next day to handle this, the centaur deciding that it was too late in the day to do it right then as he sent them all off to bed for the night. Somehow, the son of the sea found himself thinking that there would be more than one demigod awake well into the night that day haunted by thoughts of things to come, and things that already had.

There was nothing worse than fears built on truth.

The daughter of Ares walks back with the two children of the big three as they went to their cabins, lost her thoughts even as she seemed to be walking with them as if to make sure that they were real.

Percy thought that she looked too tried for her years.

He thought that they all did.

She leaves them when they get to their cabin, taking a long look at them as if to make sure that they didn't go insane in the last few minutes before nodding once more and leaving without saying anything else. They let her do as she likes right then, knowing that she had enough reason to worry with the things that she had seen in the entrance in the mortal world.

"Do you think she's okay?" the son of Hades asked after they had closed the cabin door, each of them pulling off their armor for the night, but keeping their weapons close.

It felt like a hollow sort of question to Nico even as he spoke it, but he did so all the same, not used to seeing the daughter of the war god look so haunted.

"She won't be anything close to it until Chris is healed," Percy admits, knowing that it was likely true. That she wouldn't be able to let go of any of it until the reminder of it was gone.

Nico couldn't argue with that. Didn't want to either.

They went to sleep not long after that.

It wasn't a restful one.

—-

Percy wasn't surprised when he closed his eyes that night and found himself plagued by dreams of things that he had never lived before. It was a too common sort of thing for demigods, especially when they found themselves in places that were surrounded by the magic of their world. He wasn't even all the surprised by the people within the dreams of the past, of a brilliant inventor and a boy that looked up at the man as if he was his whole world.

Of the pair being locked away within the very maze that the inventor had made for a monster that had once brought terror upon the kingdom of Crete.

He knew this story after all, it was one of his favorites for what came later, for the way that Icarus flew too close to the sun and was killed by the sea below, but died with a heart lighter than it had been since the door slammed closed as it did in the dream as the son of the sea woke that night.

It was a story that reminded him of himself, searching for freedom only to have a prophecy and eternity placed on his shoulders by the sea in his veins.

—-

They held a war council the next day in the sword arena, the sun shining down high from above them as the camp councilors for each cabin stood in a loose circle, the doors closed behind them as they spoke in soft voices that the younger ones would not be able to hear if trying to listen from outside.

It was good that they weren't, as Chiron had just confirmed for everyone there that they expected Luke to try and use the Labyrinth entrance to invade camp once they found a way to navigate it safely for their forces. That wasn't the sort of thing that the younger campers needed to hear right then, not from eavesdropping at the least.

Percy and Nico glanced at one another when Quintus spoke, the man talking of the inventor as if he was a distant sort of figure, even as they both knew that the man was from the same time as the other Greek. It made the pair of them wonder if the man before them, a swords man, hadn't known the inventor well.

If he hadn't known him as well as he knew himself.

Still, like too many times before, the pair kept this thought to themselves right then. There were too many stories from ancient times to be sure that Quintus was truly the inventor in some way, especially when he didn't look the same as the man that the son of the sea had seen in his dreams the night before. Close, sure, but not quite.

When Percy asked about blowing up the entrance to the Labyrinth he knew that it was a long shot in the making, though there were other ideas that the thought might have worked even if that singular one did not. What he wasn't expecting to hear was that Clarisse had taken an bulldozer to the entrance that she had found in Phoenix, destroying a building in the process, and that the entrance had just move a few feet in the other direction. This spoke of a level of self preservation and magic that most of the other structures that had come from the ancient lands and eventually made there way to the states did not have. Somehow, the son of the sea god didn't think that Olympus would move from the Empire State Building for anything other than the rehoming of the pantheon once more, not like how the entrances of the maze seemed to be able to do.

It meant that just filling in the hole with cement was out of the question as well.

It was Lee Fletcher, the current head of the Apollo cabin that suggested that they set up defenses around the entrance to the ancient maze, something that Chiron agreed that they should do.

They all knew that it wouldn't be enough, not even with the full combined forces of Ares and Hermes cabins working together on tricks and traps would it ever be enough for what was sure to come once an army started pouring out of the entrance.

The worst part of it all, something that Percy wondered if too many of those around him even realized right then, was that when the invasion did occur, while the campers would be spilling their blood to fight with all of their might, this would be nothing to the invaders. A trail run at most, fun at the worst, when the true fight was to come a year from now.

He thought it best not to say any of that though. Not right then.

Maybe not ever.

It was decided without any sort of fighting that Annabeth would lead the quest, the daughter of Athena having been wanting to do just that since almost the day that she had come to camp. What did lead a fight though, and to the daughter of Ares storming out of the arena, was when Annabeth had offered the other girl a place on the quest, and Clarisse had refused. The refusal was something that the daughter of Athena seemed to understand. The Stoll brother did not, poking fun at the usually fearless seeming girl. But Clarisse wasn't unafraid of the maze, not by a long shot, and she fled the arena making it known that anyone who hadn't been inside the maze couldn't understand the terror of it.

Nico imagined that it didn't fill Annabeth with much confidence right then as they walked with her to the Big House, he and Percy, to have seen that right before the grey eyed girl was supposed to see the Oracle.

No one could really blame her for that.

"I want you both with me in this," the blonde haired girl said, a braid falling from her shoulder to her back as she walked, Percy could see the grey in it that matched the grey streak in his own, a side effect of holding up the sky.

Both boys knew that she meant in the quest. There couldn't have been anything else.

"What about Grover?" The son of Hades asked, knowing that quest were usually only ever n three, the number sacred among the ancient Greeks and thus carrying over into the demigods of present day. It was unprecedented to have more than that.

Annabeth looked as if she knew it too, but both children of the big three could see something stubborn in the set of the shoulder of the daughter of the war goddess.

"I want all three of you," she answers, something insistent in her voice right then. "I feel like I need all three of you."

The boys glance at one another as they walk, a conversation passing without any words ever being spoke.

"Alright," the son of the sea agrees, as if he was ever going to do anything else, "you have us."

Annabeth smiles at them at that, something grateful in her steeled gaze as they stopped outside of the Big House. Both of the children of the eldest gods knew that this was as far as they went, that she had to do this next part alone or it wouldn't work at all. The daughter of Athena knew it too, the girl setting her shoulders back like a solider before turning around and walking inside of the farm house, heading for the attic.

Heading to see the Oracle.

Percy didn't envy her for that. He could do without seeing the cursed corpse right then, especially after it forced him and Nico to move her back up there even as she opened up the ladder, climbed down, and walked herself to capture the flag the winter before.

(he wasn't bitter at all)

The son of Hades looked out at camp right then, at the younger demigods running about with strained smiles on their lips, but smiles all the same. Listened to the laughter as it filtered through the air, only slightly touched by the battles to come. This was supposed to be somewhere that was safe for those that stayed within it, and yet Nico could almost feel the death in the air, feel it coming on the wind.

For this first time it wasn't a pleasant sort of feeling. Not right then.

It wasn't long before the pair heard the sobbing, a gut wrenching sort of noise that sounded as if it was coming from beneath them, from the basement if the son of the sea had to guess.

The two made their way for stairs that they hadn't known were there before today, seeing the two figures at the bottom of them, hearing as Clarisse begged for the other demigod, Chris, to drink a bit more. Percy knew that he wouldn't just as Nico knew that the boy was slowly dying because of it.

Neither of them really had to think at all before going down there.

Not when they knew that at least one of them could help.

The daughter of Ares looked at them both with rage in her eyes when she heard the footsteps coming closer, something that they each took with grace as the former member of the Hermes cabin ranted about another son of Poseidon, thousands of skulls, and a girl named Mary. The rage shifted to just the smallest bit of hope as she seemed to realize just who was before her, two teens that did impossible things.

"Can you heal him?" Clarisee asked, feeling as if she knew the answer already, but doing so all the same.

Percy thought that he might be able to do so, the gold in his veins could do a lot when bent to his will as he usually did so, but this is different. He had never used his powers before to heal something like this. Somehow, like domains that he couldn't yet grasps, it felt out of his reach.

"No," the boy decides as he kneels down on the ground, looking at the huddled figure upon it, "this is a matter of the mind and I don't think I can touch that without risking more harm." The son of the sea doesn't need to look at the daughter of Ares to see the disappointment there, but Nico sees it all the same. He doesn't mention it though, knowing the older boy well enough to know that the teen wouldn't have come in here if there was nothing that he could do at all. For all the violence in the soul of the son of the sea, that wasn't him. "However, I can force him to intake the nectar since you're having trouble getting him to eat and drink."

The three ignored the way that the former traitor continued to babble as they looked at one another, the two children of the big three waiting to see what the daughter of the war god would say. Would do.

There wasn't exactly much choice in it at the end of the day.

Clarisse hands over the bottle that she had been trying to get the other demigod to drink from earlier with little hesitancy, the metal warm against Percy's hands as he holds it in his own and makes himself more comfortable on the floor. Even Chris stops to watch as the liquid of the gods is slowly willed into the air by the son of the sea, floating through the water with more languidity and care than any of them had ever seen the teen use his powers with before. Usually every movement was quick and meant to bring harm.

At first the daughter of Ares thinks that the boy is having trouble controlling such a thing as nectar - it would have been a feat that he had done this much had it been any other child of Poseidon than Percy - the boy's brows scrunched together in what looked to be concentration, the liquid unmoving in the air. And then he spoke, and the idea falls to the wayside:

"How much is okay again for normal demigod?"

The question was spoken with the confusion that one could only hold after too many years spent being more god than man.

The son of the god of the dead sighs then, the sound fond even to his own ears as Nico crouched down beside the other of the ground, laying a hand on the other boy's shoulder for balance, and pointed out how much should be safe for the broken demigod.

Percy nods then and lets the rest return to the canister before focusing on what was left before him, spreading it out into something a bit thin in nature as he willed it to seep into the other demigod's skin with a care that he usually never takes with anyone at all. Down the nectar went, coating the body from the inside, healing what could be as he forced some of it to settle in the stomach of the other, knowing there wouldn't be much within it.

They all sigh when the teen quiets down into something more comfortable.

"Why did it take so long?" Clarisse asks, her voice filled with curiosity as she grabbed the hand of the traitor and held it in her own, no anger to be found. She had seen the other do another version of this trick once before, when Luke had summoned the hellhounds into camp. That had been over a lot quicker than this.

"I haven't used my powers like this without the intention of torturing or killing another for a few years now," Percy explains as he stands, the son of Hades doing the same. It was a sad sort of sentence to hear coming from the mouth of a fourteen year old, but Clarisse figured that no one in the room had any sort of space to judge. "Nico and I agreed to go with Annabeth on the quest," the daughter of Ares nods at that, having expected such a thing, "but I'll stop by to do this again before we leave."

The two children of the eldest gods leave then, figuring that Annabeth should be done with her visit soon, if she wasn't already so.

When they find Annabeth waiting for them on the porch of the Big House, the daughter of Athena almost looks as shaken and paled as the boy in the basement did. The teen running her hands up and down her arms in a self soothing sort of manner. It didn't take her long to notice the two of them, walking over to meet the other demigods for the walk back to camp. They placed her in the middle of the three of them, like guards to whatever it was that she had heard that had made her look such a way, even if it was only in thought.

They didn't say anything as they walked, didn't stop or make a noise until they stood before the closed doors to the arena once more.

"Take a deep breath before we go in," Nico instructed lowly, two pairs of eyes looking at him then as he did. The son of Hades only looked at the daughter of Athena right then, a first for everything. "No one want a quest leader that looks like a walking corpse."

Annabeth laughed, the sound bringing some life back to her form as she did and lightening up the air.

"That's rich," she remarks, but there's too much humor in her voice for it to be cruel, "coming from you."

They all knew that was the point.

When Annabeth spoke of the prophecy, repeating it to the other counselors at Chiron's insistence, it was clear to all of them that knew her at all that she hadn't forgotten the last line of the prophecy, and that she had tried to leave the last two of them out on purpose, both to spare herself and to spare whoever it was that would likely come to death. It truly was the only thing that rhymed with breath and fit in something like this. But Chiron let her have her secrets, so Percy did too right then.

What the centaur did try to fight her on though, was the number of members on the quest, as the daughter of Athena proclaimed that she wanted the four of them to go. It wasn't the proper amount for a quest, was his argument, one that she could not refute, but at the same time her gut was telling her that it was meant for the four of them to go.

(her gut was telling her, that there were always going to be four of them going into the maze how they were right then, but in another life those around them might have worn different names and faces then they did now)

Chiron let her have them all in the end, one never truly did when a fight against a child of Athena, not like this.

When Quintus pulls Percy aside before the boy can leave the arena as well with everyone else, its to press a whistle into his hand, one that stung of ice and was made of such from the Underworld itself. It was a whistle to call a hellhound, should the assistance be needed, one to call Mrs. O'Leary to be specific. The son of the sea pocketed the object, thanking the other for it even as he wondered if he would ever use it all, knowing who it came from and just how much it might be a trap with that alone from the lost soul.

Still, as he finally walked away, Percy wasn't thinking of the strange gift, but of the way that the man felt wrong in nature, as if he was missing something. And of the way that his face looked just a bit familiar, even as the son of the sea god could not place it right then.

"What was that about?" Nico asked when the other boy came to his side, something confused and pondering in the pinch of his brows and the way that the other bit his lip without seeming to notice it, though never did so enough to break skin.

It doesn't take long for the son of the sea to hold out the frozen object and tell the other of the short conversation with the ancient man.

Neither of them say anything when Percy hides the whistle away into the Duat. Nico knew of the stroy that had occurred just after the older teen had found him, shoes given as gift that were intent to drag the owner into the pit. He knew that there were very few people that the other would accept a gift from and use it these days, a soul that should have passed on a forever ago was not one of those, not after the last time that he had trusted a gift before a quest.

It wasn't long before they were both looking at the Big House once more.

"Do you have any idea what in the maze might have caused a demigod's mind to break in such a way?" the elder of the pair asked, knowing that they were both thinking of the boy that was being kept in the basement right then. The boy whose mind had been broken by the place that they were to enter into the next morning.

It was a cruel sort of thought.

Nico thinks of what to say for a moment, thinks of what he had felt before the other demigod had filled the room with the power of the sea and little else. "It felt like there was something from the Underworld about him," he answers slowly, thinking through his words as he speaks. Chris wasn't wasn't a child of the Underworld. Not in any sense, but he had been touched by it enough to leave a mark. "There might be a ghost haunting the maze," he decides, "it's not uncommon for ghosts to want others to die how they did, or something of the like."

Percy nods in agreement. He doesn't ask if Nico could fix it, could fix Chris, knowing that if he could that the other would have already done so when they were down there earlier.

"Why don't we go for a swim?" Percy asks instead of anything else, smelling the hints of the sea and the lake in the air in a way that no one else in the camp could ever truly do so. "Do something fun before willingly going into hell?"

The son of Hades laughs a bit at that, figuring that of course the half fish boy would want to spend their last few hours above ground in the water. His thoughts didn't sound bitter though, they never truly could when the other teen was involved.

It's to the ocean that they go, knowing that most of the other campers that would be in the water would do so at the lake with the canoes. The son of the sea seems to almost shine as they step into it. He always did around water, but it was something else right then in the ocean that his godly parent controlled, the gold of his blood almost seeming to shine through in an unearthly sort of way. It was beautiful.

It wasn't long before they had waded deeper into the waves, before Percy was dipping beneath them and dragging the other down with him, an air bubble around the younger teen's head even as the son of the dead scowled at being pulled. The son of the sea only laughed at that though, sounding remarkably like one of the water sprits of the lake as he did so.

They stayed relatively shallow, especially for as far down as Percy could go, neither one of them wanting to test the lengths that a body not meant for the sea could withstand the pressure of it in real time. They had search engines for that. Nico laughed as he found a sand dollar, giving it the other as joke and telling him not to spend it all in one place, but the other boy only rolled his eyes and gave the son of the Underworld a shell, and suddenly each of their necklaces had another attachment to it with the beads and sharks teeth.

—-

As sleep took him that night, Percy found himself back on a ship that he had only seen two times before in person, in a room that was filled with light from the moonlight sea and a wash of gold from the sarcophagus on the other side of the room. The son of the sea god watched as the son of the god of thieves, dressed in a chiton and a white himation, kneels down before the golden piece in a way that seemed to scream against the nature of the man that Percy had always known Luke to be since the beginning. He watched as the older demigod knelt his head and spoke of a successful bid to have the quest that they were about to go on made.

As Kronos declared that he would be the one to lead their armies through the maze himself.

Percy surprised to hear this, not with what Luke had come to tell him at Brooklyn House only a few months before. Not with the lengths that he knew that the other demigod taken to look as healthy as he did right then after the fall from Mount Tam.

Not with the preparations that they themselves had taken with him.

He knew the price of the health that the other now held, knew what they were all demanding of him from now until the end of his time, knew that some of it - most of it - was too much to ask.

But they had asked it anyways and it was too late to turn around now.

(it had been too late long before Percy had stepped into camp for the first time)

When he woke the next morning, it was with the knowledge that only one more soul was needed to join Kronos before the titan would be able to take a physical form.

It was a hell of a way to start a day.

—-

The residents of Cabin Three wake early that day, the both of them, the demigods heading down to the basement of the Big House once more before they were set to descend into the Labyrinth, on purpose this time at that.

Clarisse was already there when they walked down the old steps, the daughter of Ares looking as if she had come to the basement as soon as it was acceptable for her to leave her cabin that morning. None of them said anything of it though, the daughter of the war god simply handed over the full thermos, the son of the sea wiling the amount of nectar into the body of the other demigod that the son of the underworld directed.

It was simple, the three of them working in tandem in such a way.

"I'll come back as fast as we can manage," Percy assured, knowing that such a thing might not mean much right then, not when the Labyrinth was the sort of place that most never returned from in the least, even the most prepared of the lot.

He said it all the same, the human part of his mind begging him to do so. To provide some manner of comfort to the demigods before him.

He wondered, as Clarisse wished him luck, if the girl could sense the conflict in his mockery of a human soul as she wished them luck. If she knew that he was more god than he had ever been man right then.

Maybe she did. Maybe she didn't care.

Annabeth and Grover were waiting for the two of them at Zeus' Fist when they walked to the top of the hill, Chiron, Quintus, Juniper, and some of the children of the wisdom goddess there as well to see them off before they entered the ancient maze, Mrs. O'Leary bounding happily between them all.

It seemed that the hellhound was the only happy one among them.

The other two quester nodded at them as Percy and Nico stopped before them, all of them having been on a quest together in some form or another before. Standing there, right then, it felt a bit like sliding on an old glove. One that fit about as right as it always had.

(Hardly at all)

It was only minutes after that, that the four of them descended into the Labyrinth, the darkness swallowing them whole in a way that not even the shine of their flashlights or weapons could truly combat as the entrance closed once more behind them.

Percy knew from the first startled sort of breath in the cold corridor that Annabeth had it worst among the four of them, mortal eyes and mortal ears that the rest of them lacked in some capacity or another. Even as the whole maze smelled of monsters to Grover, the satyr could still hear far more than any of the rest of them in the usual sort of sense. Nico, as child of the underworld far more consumed by the shadows than any others could truly be, could feel through them and what lurked close within in a way that was a lot like how Percy could feel through the sea, though far more limited right then as the maze was not under his father's command. And Percy, a child of the father of monsters as he was, felt far too at home in the lair of another one.

"Can you feel your way around here, Nico?" Annabeth asked, turning to the other teen's direction as they stood in the corridor, not moving just yet. Not until they had a plan. Omen always needed a plan, even if they went to Hades in the end. "Since we're underground?"

The rustle of clothes is all that the daughter of the wisdom goddess needs to know that the younger demigod was shaking his head no in the wash of darkness, even evoke he answered.

"No," the son of the underworld said, something regretful in his tone as he did, "that's not quite how my powers work, unfortunately."

It would have been one thing if they were within the Underworld, or one of the death touched places of the mortal world, but the Labyrinth - underground as it is - isn't under the control of the gods of the afterlife. It was something with a mind of its own, with a master of its own that wasn't Hades.

Besides, even if the maze was beneath the command of the ruler of the Underworld, Nico's powers had always been more based in the dead and the shadows that surrounded them than the earth. That was something a bit more attuned to the Roman aspects of his father, from what they could tell.

Annabeth sighs as if she was expecting this, but had wanted to ask all the same.

"Let's walk then," the daughter of Athena decided, going to the left wall of what seemed to be a sewer tunnel this time around, and running her hand along it as she started forwards, the others doing the same behind her. "If we keep a hand on the wall at all times, we should should be able to find our back out again by following it back."

There was a part of Percy that wanted to say that this was wrong for a number of reasons, tunnels - no matter the type - having the tendency of branching off being the main one, but the maze acted first as the wall of the Labyrinth disappeared from beneath each of their palms between one step and the next.

He wished that he could say that it went easier after that, but such a thing would be a lie even to himself, as when Annabeth tried to have them turn around they found themselves looking at a different tunnel altogether.

Right then, the son of the sea couldn't help but wish that Mr. D had actually been at camp before they had left, so that they could have asked about how the supposed string truly worked outside of the myths, but he was away recruiting right now, and may not have even told them all the same if he had been at camp, the interference laws being what they are.

Its not long before they're walking into a room that felt more ancient than any other place but that of Olympus itself that Percy had come across within the United States. It was the sort of feeling that made the demigods with broken souls shudder at the feeling of it all - the overwhelming and enticing way in which it made both of them think of the ancient lands that they had only ever gotten to graze when traveling from one Nome to another, and even then it had never been something as close to their own history as that of what was before them - as the four walked into the room and looked upon the mosaics on the wall. Mosaics from that of Ancient Rome.

The son of the sea decided then that he wanted to go there one day, to see all of the lands from the places that he had only ever heard about in stories before, as he looked upon the scenes of the gods in how they had been seen so long ago.

(he wondered if one day he would be the same, a forgotten painting of tile on a wall)

"We should follow the older architecture of the Labyrinth," Annabeth announced as they looked around the room, each of them silently taking in the beauty of it. A world that made them feel impossible small and grand all at once. "The workshop should be in the oldest part of the maze, the heart of it."

Percy doesn't say it, not right then at least, but he couldn't help but have doubts about this being the way to do it, about the Labyrinth following such a piece of logic. Everything about the ancient maze seemed to be about doing and being the opposite of what one would expect, of what one had within their mind.

A part of him thinks that if it ever was in the older parts of the Labyrinth, then it might have moved the second that the daughter of Athena declared her plans to go there.

It seemed like the sort of cruelty that the gods of old were built upon.

"Lead the way," the son of Hades said next, but there was something in the other boy's voice that seemed to whisper of the same sort of doubts that the son of the sea held within his own.

Neither of them wanted to be right though, not in a place like this.

It felt like they might be though, as less than thirty seconds later, the ground beneath their feet shifted from that of old stone to modern cement, the walls around them seemingly growing brass pipes upon them. Grover could feel the frustration wafting from Annabeth as soon as it did just that, the other two demigods didn't need to be satyrs to know this change as well.

It was only a few minutes more before the ceiling above them changed from stone to that of wooden planks, shadows passing over their heads as voices filtered down from where it seemed that people were walking above them. It wasn't a leap to think that they were likely passing through someone's basement right then, it made Percy wonder what would happen if someone were to look down through the cracks in the flooring right then, if they would be seen or if the mist would hide them from the eyes of the world above so long as they were within the maze.

It wasn't a question that he was going to get an answer for.

(that was likely for the best)

It was after that they found the first skeleton of the maze.

Nico felt the feeling of bones before they saw them, he could feel them like Percy could feel the water that had once run through the fountain in the mosaic room, leaving behind traces of the sea.

It was a milk man, one with a crate of the old glass bottles at his side as he laid against the wall, his body likely too weak to carry on after he had run out of the milk. He looked, and felt to the son of Hades, as if he had been down there since the fifties. It was a sad sort of sight to see, one that made them all stop as the remains came into view.

The son of the underworld didn't have to say anything for Percy to walk up to his side, the older demigod taking the other teen's hand as they walked towards what was left of a body, power shining like gold through the marks on their skin as the son of the sea lent his own strength to the other. All it took was a flick of the younger's wrist for the bones to turn to dust that sunk into an opening in the ground, buried as best as they could while within the maze, so that the soul might fully be at rest.

It was beautiful, to them at least.

"What are they doing?" Grover whispered when the pair had walked forwards on their own, the satyr feeling a lot like he had the last time that he had set out on a quest with the daughter of Athena and the son of Poseidon from the start, watching then and now as Percy did impossible things.

At least this time Annabeth knew why the other demigod could do such things, even if Grover had not been around at the time to learn when she had, back when Nico had broken his soul at sea.

"They're sharing their power," Annabeth answered as the room became encased in a familiar sort of was of gold from the feathers on each of the other teen's backs.

It had seemed impossible the first time that she had seen the two of them do this, but now it was an almost comforting sight. She wondered what it said about her that displays of power that used to frighten her have become so common place that she didn't have it in her to fear them anymore, not from the pair that would one day be gods at the least.

(and she knew that she would see them become just that, see what they became too after their blood fully turned gold. The hunt was calling to her after all)

The pair watched as the bones turned to dust under the care of the son of Hades, the younger demigod turning then and nodding to the daughter of Athena and the satyr at her side. There was something in his gaze then that was familiar, something ancient and powerful about him as Nico met her gaze that reminds Annabeth a lot of the way that Percy had once looked before he had brought a god to his knees without the use of the sea.

This wasn't near the same amount of power as that had been, but it also didn't seem like he meant it to be either. He was holding back, they both wore, sharing the power that they held so that it went quicker then it would have before. So that they could provide comfort to one another in the act of honoring another.

Annabeth nodded back to them both before they started walking once more in the direction that they had been going. They didn't walk that way for long though.

"Monsters," Grover said, a surety in the sound of his voice that hadn't been there the other times that they had ventured too close to the underground with the satyr in the past, but it was now. "Lots of them."

Annabeth nodded at the words, leading them in the opposite direction of where it was that her friend said that the mythical beings were, taking them four of them deeper and deeper into the maze, wanting desperately to take them to the heart of it. To the center where the workshop was sure to lay.

It was the mosaic room that they found themselves in once again instead, this time with someone waiting for them within it.

—-

The god before them was one with two faces, a being that Percy and Nico had both read about in the Roman myths that they had studied, but one that shouldn't be before them now within the world of the Greeks.

Janus, the god of doorways.

The god of choices.

"Well, Percy," the left part of the face said, his voice impatient as he spoke, "make a choice!"

A choice, he thought right then as he looked upon the strange god, a choice for a question that had not yet been asked.

(he knew it all the same)

There was only one thing that it could be.

There was power in the veins of the son of the sea, far more than any other demigod at camp. Far more than many of the demigods of old had ever held before ascending to the stars. The choice was obvious there, one that he had been thinking about since he was twelve and talking to a god on a beach. Since he was thirteen and looking down at the son of the Underworld as he did the same thing that Percy had done years before.

To continue to hide, or to reveal to all that he held the power of someone that should already be a young god.

It wasn't really much of a choice at all, not with the things that were coming.

There never really were choices when there were lives on the line, lives that he had sworn to try and protect through out this war and after it.

The son of the sea wasn't really listening as the Roman god spoke to him, each face fighting with the other, each of them trying to convince him to go one way or another. He had no reason to listen, not to them. Not right then. Not even as the others on the quest spoke in his steed, the three of them becoming more and more confused with each word that the deity of the Roman Pantheon spoke.

Not that he ever truly did listen to the deities that he was supposed to.

Still, he does pay attention though when another god joins the room.

A goddess.

One known for hating heroes.

Hera, the Queen of the Olympian gods.

It wasn't until the Queen had banished the god of choices that any of them turned their attention fully to the goddess before them.

"You must be hungry," Hera said, her voice kind and her smile disarming, but Percy knew the stories, knew that she was neither of these things. That the queen of the gods was as bitter and cruel as the rest of the ancient beings. As every god that has never known what it means to live with a mortal heart in their chest. "Sit with me, won't you, heroes?"

The four watched as the goddess waved her hand, a table appearing where one had not been before, food and drinks placed upon it. The whole thing felt a bit of magic and the mist and it made the son of the sea god wonder how much of it was real at all. Still, he sat.

The others did as well.

They all knew better than to deny a demand of the Olympian queen, even one meant to feel like a request.

The food tasted real as he and Nico ate it while Hera fretted over the satyr and the daughter of Athena as if she was their mother, something that neither children of the big three'd had in a long time. They didn't need it right then either.

"What was a Roman god doing interfering with children of the Greek pantheon?" Percy asks once he felt as if enough time had passed and it was respectable to do such.

It would have been one thing if it had been a Greek god as Hera was doing right now, but a Roman deity was supposed to be out of the question with the strict divide between the Greek and the Roman pantheon that has held since the American Civil War. For gods to be traipsing around to whichever side that they wanted… it speak of good things.

Annabeth and Grover looked at the boy that was more god than man, thinking of the words that he had just spoken. It wasn't the first time that the other had spoken of the Roman Pantheon in their presence as if it was a real thing. The last time had been with Medusa, when the gorgon had apparently spoken too much of the Roman interpretation of the myth that had created her.

That, in nature, had been excusable. Human's perceptions of mythological beings had the power to shape how they looked and acted now, as it was the only thing keeping them from fading with time. Helios had faded with the Romans, and now Apollo had the responsibility of driving the sun chariot each morning when that had not been his duty before.

But this was different, because Percy was right. Janus was strictly a Roman god and he was not only real, but had just spoken to three Greek demigods and Satyr.

It made Annabeth wonder what else was real that had no business in being so.

(it made her wonder about the Ankh on the neck of the son of Poseidon)

Hera doesn't really have an answer for the question that the demigod had asked, not when she had been just as confused and panicked as the two boys themselves had been upon seeing him. It was one thing for the demigods and magicians to cross paths and join forces when they had not been looking - it was not a great sort of thing, but they let it be because as it seemed all the magician was doing was raising the boy. And if a mortal was raising him, then Perseus Jackson would be more likely to want Olympus to be preserved - but for another god to interfere… that was something dangerous.

"Providing choices, I would assume," the deity answered, knowing that saying anything else would be seen as weak.

It still was.

Percy and Nico look at each other at those words, at the meaning that they knew was hiding behind them. They both knew then that the Roman side of the war was likely starting to find itself in the tandem with the Greek side of it now that Mount Tam was whole once more.

It was as terrifying a thought as it was relieving. At least if it was a two front war like this, then when the battle eventually found itself at Olympus's doorstep, they weren't holding the full brunt of the enemies weight.

"It could be worse," Nico said, him speaking at all causing the queen to sniff indignantly.

(Hera knew who the boy before her right now was, even if her husband may not just yet. She knew that he didn't fit, just like his father.

She still feeds him though, the son of Hades. She can't not do so when the bastard of the sea was placing food on the younger hero's plate with pointed looks for the younger teen to eat it.

(She would never admit that it was sweet to see, even as jealousy churns in the pit of her gut at the fact that her husband would never treat her as kindly as these two bastards were treating one another))

"It always could be," Percy agreed, even as the other three in the room didn't quite know what the pair were speaking of.

They didn't need to.

"I thought you have no love for heroes," Annabeth said, trying to get this conversation on track of some useful information since it seems that the answers for the Roman god would not be coming.

The queen smiles once more, a sort of saccharine sweet look as she looks upon the daughter of the wisdom goddess.

"Because of my little spat with Heracles?" She asked, as if the whole thing had just been a big misunderstanding and not the truth of what had occurred. "That was nothing, dear."

"Didn't you force him to kill his entire family?" Percy asked, uncaring of the danger that was clearly shining through in the deities eyes when she looked upon him once more. He'd grown up with worse in those early years. "And then force him to repent for the actions you forced upon him?"

"You would know all about killing family members, wouldn't you Perseus?" Hera asked, her tone scathing as everyone in the room looked at him with varying levels of wide eyes.

Percy didn't flinch though, not from any of it.

"If you're talking about my mortal step father, then yeah, I murdered the guy," he answered bluntly, making both Annabeth and Grover flinch as something sad passed over Nico's features right then. "I'd do it again too."

There was something like hurt in the boy's voice that made the goddess stop for a moment, only one but that was an eternity to mortals. She wondered then just how bad a mortal man could have hurt a demigod child in their youth for this to be the reaction two years later.

(She'd only seen such anger before in a few of the gods when true atrocities had occurred. He reminded her a bit of Ares right then, the one from the myths and not the man that he's grown to become in modern times)

"I came here to offer you lot a wish," she said instead of anything else that she might have, "do you want it or not?"

"We do," Grover confirmed in a hurried sort of voice before anyone else around him could do or say something stupid.

"A wish?" Annabeth asked, her voice holding a sort of skeptical note to it as she did.

It wasn't usually in a god's nature to do such a thing, especially not for free.

Still, the goddess nodded all the same, her smile holding that false warmth and calm to it once more.

"Every now and then my husband, Zeus, allows me to interfere on your little demigod quests. To grant a wish," the goddess of marriage explained, and Nico couldn't help but think that the gift was only given because of that marriage of theirs. Because the god so often cheated on his queen. It wouldn't be the first time in history someone has given gifts to make up for misdoings. "Now," she continued, "before you make it, a word of advice: I would visit my son Hephaestus before attempting to find the old inventor. If there is anyone that knows where to find Daedalus' workshop, it would be him."

Annabeth shook her head though, confusion marring at her features as she tried to think of what the goddess was saying. There was one major flaw in the queen's thinking right then that would keep them from just asking for a chance to talk to the god of fire.

"But we don't know how to get to him, to either of them," she complained before anyone could think of something else to say. "We need a way to navigate the maze, that's our wish."

It seemed like such a reasonable thing too, but Percy knew from the small spark of glee in the goddess' eyes that whatever the deity was about to say was going to be anything but reasonable.

Damn immortals.

"You are asking for something that you already have," Hera said, her voice holding notes of cruelty to it beneath the false disappointment that Percy knew that the goddess would never truly be able to hide. "Oh well."

"What do you mean?" Grover asked, his voice panicked as he did so.

It was the sort of panic that they were all feeling right then.

"You already have the means," Hera informed the four of them, Percy and Nico glancing at one another as the goddess spoke as if to check that neither of them had smuggled some sort of artifact from the Twenty - First Nome that would be helpful in this. Neither of them had. "Perseus knows the answer."

Four sets of eyes turned to the demigod son of the sea as the goddess spoke, but they all knew from the genuine look of confusion on the teen's face that he truly had no idea what the goddess was speaking of.

"I think you need to review your definition of the word 'know'," the teen suggested, uncaring of if the queen of the gods decided to smite him for it. He was already god enough that if she did it might just finally burn away the last of his mortal form and they could all call it a day.

The smile that the goddess gives then is cruelty and nothing more.

"Having something and having the wits to use it are two very different things," is all that the goddess said before turning to look at Annabeth once more. "I'm sure your mother would agree."

Percy thought back to the grey eyes goddess of wisdom that he had met last winter and knew that, in this case at the least, she wouldn't have agreed. Not right then. By Hera's logic, it would have been enough that they had just known that the angle statues were a gift to Zeus and that would have been enough, but they never would have thought to try them at all if Athena had not given them the hint to do so, even as they already had the answer in their grasps.

Now was the same. The answer was apparently right there, but this time there was a goddess refusing to give the needed hint for it.

If the son of the sea didn't pity almost all of the people that have ever had to sleep with the king of the Olympian gods, he would have hoped right then that Zeus cheated on Hera again. Cruelty for cruelty. Nothing else seemed to get under her skin.

It wasn't long before thunder was seemingly sounding from the world above, strong enough to shake the world around them. They all knew who it was long before the goddess left and took the food with her.

The four of them were left alone in the maze once more.

"I truly don't know what she was talking about," the son of the sea said before anyone could say anything, before doubts could creep in. There were some things that he didn't lie about, and right now this - a place that was dangerous and unknown even to the gods - was one of them.

"All right," the daughter of the wisdom goddess said, frustration clear in her voice as she did. None of them blamed her for it though. Not when they were all feeling just the same. "Let's keep moving then, yeah?"

He nodded at that, wanting nothing more right then than to not have to be in this room any longer.

No one would ever blame him for that, not when they were all feeling the same sort of way.

"Which way?" Grover asked, looking at the tunnels around them and finding that he didn't particularly want to go down any of them at all.

"Left," the son of the Underworld said before anyone else could, Grover nodding along with him as the demigod spoke.

"Why?" Annabeth asked, unsure of what could have changed in the past few seconds for the satyr to go from uncertainty to panic.

"Because something big is coming from the right," the eldest of them all answered.

It was a good enough reason from both of the children of the Olympian gods.

They ran down the left tunnel, the dark consuming them once more.

It was only a few moments before the four came across the next obstacle, a dead end where tunnels should have been. That didn't matter though, not right then when the son of Hades just flicked his wrist and brought the wall down for them, sinking it into the ground, before they even got close to it. He closed the hole once more, reinforcing it as they all heard the booming steps of something chasing them in the dark.

It might have been fine if it was just this, just another part of the endless maze. But it wasn't, not really.

They had just locked themselves within a cell. One within the mortal world.

It didn't take them much effort to get out of it, not when one of the four of them could teleport as easy as the rest of them could breathe. It only took a moment and a wash of cold for them to end up on the other side of the bars, walking with silent steps to whatever laid beyond them all.

None of them were expecting to see a hundred handed one, all of them having thought that they had all faded long before. They were even more surprised to see the being jailer.

Kampê was in the mortal world - Alcatraz, if Annabeth was right - and not Tartarus.

It was a terrifying sort of thought.

A terrible reality.

They waited, the four of them, for the jailer to leave. For the sounds of languages that predated anything that they had ever learned to cease.

They went to the hundred handed one when Kampê was gone.

Crying was the sound that covered that of the echo of their own steps, loud and wailing and filled with a sort of pain that only so many years of torment could bring.

The being in the cell, the hundred handed one, didn't even notice the demigods and satyr at first, not until Percy spoke.

"Damn, I thought he'd be taller," the son of the sea said, his tone blunt and words floating through the air.

It was enough for the sobbing to suddenly stop as child of the earth looked up at them.

What followed next wasn't heroic or selfless. It wasn't the actions of those filled with hero worship for the trapped being or anything as kind as that. It wasn't an attempt to soothe a loved one, or to even hurry everything along.

It was a trick. Pure and simple at the end of the day.

An action taken from the knowledge that the demigods couldn't leave a weapon such as the hundred handed one, cowardly and broken as he had become, remain in the hands of the enemy.

It was cold, calculated, and cruel as they tricked the being into escaping with them.

To follow them in the Labyrinth.

It felt like karma when Kampê started to follow them, snarling and growling in that ancient language that only the hundred handed one could understand as they ran through the prison. As they escaped through the doors to the outside but the jailer just broke down the wall as if it had offended her.

Her downfall was the poison that was likely one of her biggest strengths.

Percy stopped as the ancient being ran forwards, his trident coming to his hands as a storm immediately began to form for him above the jailer's head, lighting striking down upon her as if it was always his to control while the others ran back to the cell block. Nico looked as if he wanted to stay, but Percy only shook his head as the storm grew stronger once more. As Kampê laughed, as she snarled.

As she chocked as the poison turned on herself and filled her lungs. As it began to freeze and her movements slowed as the storm continued to rage, as the waters around the island reached up to meet her and drag her beneath them, the storm joining as well as she sunk lower and lower still into the sea.

Percy knew that she wouldn't die from that, but it was the time that he needed to make it to the others. For them all to make it into the maze once more.

For them to run while within it.

(in the back of his mind, Percy wondered just how far gone he was that such an action felt like nothing. That there was nothing left of his soul to break. That all that was left was the human body that contained it all, and the prophecy keeping it human)

They didn't stop moving until they reach a room filled with waterfalls, a room with a pit in it that the water spilled down into.

Three of them in there had only been this close to such a pit once before. They didn't need to be told where it lead when Grover had almost been dragged down there himself.

Still, the hundred handed one said it all the same.

"This pit goes straight to Tartarus," the being said, the name sending a shiver through the room as he spoke it. "I should just jump in and spare us all the time."

Grover said something to that, or maybe it was Annabeth. Neither Percy nor Nico truly knew, not as they were each looking at the pit with the thought that it felt as if fare was calling to them both. Not when they were each glancing at one another and knowing that the other had felt the same.

They both choose to ignore that though, it felt safer that way.

(there was a reason that not even the gods braved the space beneath the underworld)

No one was surprised when Briares, the hundred handed one, ran off on his own.

No one really tried to stop him either. Not really.

They walked for a little while after that, the four of them. Not long in nature, not enough to cross paths with Briares, but just enough to get away form the pit and make camp in a place that felt even remotely safer than the room with the waterfalls. It was a tall ask in a place like the Labyrinth.

Annabeth took first watch that night, her mind running too much to sleep just yet as the weight of the quest pressed down upon her. As doubt crept in like a poison, one that Percy couldn't just will away with a flick of his wrist. She thought that all her years of studying the maze from books would help, would give some sort of advantage, but that has occurred since they had come to the damned place was crossing the entire country in too little time. She felt like a failure as she watched as Percy and Nico curled into one another near the other wall and Grover sat down at her side.

"You're doing fine," the satyr assured without having to be told what the daughter of Athena was thinking. He had known her for longer than nearly anyone else after all.

(He wasn't sure if he was lying, it felt like they were both after impossible things right then)

Annabeth doesn't say anything to that, but she smiles in the dim firelight.

It was a while before either of them spoke once more.

"They seem…" Grover started once more, looking upon the two children of the big three as if he was trying to find the right words. The one that he settles on doesn't seem quite right, but better than anything else. "Powerful," he says at last.

It was the truth at least.

The daughter of Athena looks at them too, Annabeth thinking of what the choices that the Roman god before was likely trying to force Percy into, even as the deity hadn't spoken them plainly. She knows which side Percy will pick.

"They're ascending, the both of them," Annabeth explains, smile into the faint light at the shock that she can all but feel radiating from the other. Percy has been for a long time," she continues, blunt and needing to tell someone else that didn't already know, "it's just the prophecy keeping him human these days. Nico broke his soul on the way to get you last summer, and seems to be ascending slowly as well for some reason."

(privately she can't help but think that it's likely a second prophecy, one to do with the giants and that followed the titans the first time around, but she didn't want to voice that even if she thought that Percy was thinking it as well. There were some things better left unsaid.)

"Do you think that he'll stay sided with Olympus, when the time comes?" the satyr asked, knowing that nothing short of death of the son of the sea god would make it so that the son of Hades would be the one to hod the prophecy, not with how much Percy seemed to care for the younger teen. He would never put that burden on the other.

And besides, everything seemed to be coming together too fast for them to last almost a year and half more past what would have been Percy's sixteenth birthday.

"He swore on the Styx last solstice to fight on the side of the gods in war," Annabeth informs the other, leaving out the Luke of it all. Leaving out whatever it was that was going on between the two of them these days with each of the playing their parts in all of it. "He pledged himself to demigods as a whole for what comes after the war. The wording was pretty specific."

Grover can't help but agree with that, the satyr thinking of the strangeness of it that the gods had likely ignored in their relief to have such a powerful demigod sworn to their cause.

They watch the pair for a moment more in silence right then, unsure of what the future would bring, and a bit uncaring right then in the throngs of the maze.

"Go to sleep, Grover," Annabeth said in a way that was no less than a command.

Grover does.

—-

When Percy fell asleep that night he wasn't surprised to find himself back in the heart of the Labyrinth, to find himself watching as Icarus and Daedalus moved quickly about the room, a sense of urgency among them as they applied the wax for the wings to one another's backs. As the inventor spoke of warnings and cautions that the son of the sea knew that the boy wasn't going to listen to, not after so long spent locked away.

Not with the way that his story ends.

The guards came just as the old man had started to pour the wax upon Icarus' wings, banging on the blocked door, earlier than they ever should have been. Percy knew then, as he watched the inventor hurry even more than before that the wings were doomed to fail from the start, that it wouldn't have mattered if the other boy had headed every warning because they were never given the time to set.

The fates had cut the other boy's string from the moment that he was locked away with his father.

(it was the sort of sentence that the son of the sea could understand)

Percy's eyes glinted with glee as he watched as Icarus sprayed wax upon the king when the guards finally made it through the door, giving the pair the time that they needed to run. He thought that the ancient boy deserved to do such a thing after so long spent trapped in a cage for something that he hadn't even done.

The teen's breath caught as he watched as the pair took to the sky, the metal of the wings glinting beautifully in the light of the ancient day. He watched as the other boy smiled, bright and pure as he laughed then, feeling the bonds of freedom course through his blood for the first time in years. It was a beautiful sort of sight, the sort that would have made any deity stop and watch as the teen flew through the sky as if he was always meant to be there, gliding and soaring up and down like he'd always had wings.

Then the wax began to melt and laughter turned to screams, as the feather fell from the ancient boy's body as he flew too close to the sun above.

Then he fell to the sea below with horror in his eyes, and a cry on his lips as the waters surrounded him as if they were calling him home.

Something in Percy twisted at the sight, and he knew then that if he had been the one to fall, he would have done so with a smile and laughter on his lips, free till the end.

—-

None of them were exactly sure how it was they came to be standing within a farm, a ranch, the next day on their next accidental step out of the maze. But they all knew from the first glance that the place that there were in wasn't one for mortal, for the beings with no godly blood in their veins, and no clear sight to their vision.

The cattle were red, sacred to the sun god.

That was enough for them to know that they had stumbled upon another reserved part of the mythological world.

They didn't think that they would need to leave, to go back into the maze once more so soon, until they heard the howling of a dog, one that sounded like two. It had only one body though as it ran up to the four of them, its teeth on display. Still, it wasn't the dog that made them know that they should have left when they had the chance, but the man that came with it. The immortal.

And the man that this immortal, Eurytion, worked for.

As the once demigod led them through the ranch, taking them to the house, they were all able to see the state of it all. The overfilled pins filled with sacred animals, the ones filled with filth, other with excess food. Some with almost no food at all. None of them had ever been to the Zoo before, or anything place like this, but they all knew that the conditions that the mythical beings lived in were wrong.

It almost felt worse than the ride that Ares had given them two years ago that took them to the Lotus Casino. Though that particular destination was an accident.

They were surprised when they met the owner of the ranch - Geryon, a monster with three chest and only one head. A being that was once slayed by Heracles as his tenth labor - and he told them that someone had paid for their passage through his ranch unharmed.

Surprised still to learn that the benefactor had only paid for three of them, all but the son of Hades.

Percy had a thought right then about who it could have been that would have meddled to assure their safety, but only of those that they liked in nature. It wasn't a shock when the queen of the Greek Olympian gods came to mind, the deity liking her family to be perfect and nothing less.

A son of Hades didn't fit the image.

(the son of the sea wondered though if this was more a punishment given because of him, than because of who Nico's godly parent was. He thought that the goddess of marriage might just be petty enough to do just that.

She had done far worse before after all)

Things only became truly tricky when the owner of the ranch, the fowl thing that it is, relived that he was planning on taking Nico and giving him to the Titans for the reward that they were offering for half - bloods.

Percy knew that he would never let such a thing occur, not while he had the means to stop it.

Grover, Annabeth, and Nico knew it as well.

Geryon was soon to learn.

Salt water came to life around the son of the sea, rising up like wells from the ground with every handful of petrified shells that was thrown upon the earth once more. Percy only added to the power of it, willing it to become larger and larger still until all was clean once more. As easy as breathing.

No one was there to say anything when the demigod took a moment to stuff some of the shells into his pocket, wondering if he wouldn't need them in the days to come.

Whether he would or not, Percy didn't yet know, but as he held a bow and knocked its arrow and prayed to the god of music and truth of revenge, the sun shined just a bit kinder upon his skin as he let the arrow loose.

Three hearts, one after the other.

Then nothing but dust.

Percy didn't burn his thanks, he didn't think that the god would appreciate it much.

"I dreamt of Icarus last night," the son of the sea as the four of them settled down for the night in the living room of the ranch house, Nico humming in acknowledgement as they leaned into one another, the other two already asleep. "Of his fall. It felt like too good a timing, you know?"

Nico did, of course he did. Demigods rarely dreamt of things that weren't.

"I think a ghost has been trying to contact me while we've been in the maze," the younger of the two teens admits, something of a shiver running down his back at the thought of it. At the memory of the near constant vile presence. "I've been shutting them out, without even seeing them I can already tell that they're malevolent in some manner," nearly all ghosts were when they reached out to the living, wanting to use them to breath once more. To have flesh, "but its concerning all the same."

"That's wise," Percy admits in the dim light of the television as it lit up the room, his voice tired. He hadn't expected anything less from the son of the Underworld. "Do you think that its the same ghost that drove Chris mad?"

Nico nods then, a small subtle sort of thing. Percy feels it all the same.

"Most likely," the son of Hades admits, liking the idea about as much as the other boy did. "It feel strong, and one has to be a strong ghost to affect the world of the living. This one is enough for that, especially when within the maze."

"It almost sounds like a domain," Percy whispers into the night around them.

"It feels exactly like one," is the answer that neither of them wanted to hear, but Nico gave all the same.

It was the truth after all.

"It's likely either Daedalus or Minos then," the older demigod guessed, "they're the only two that really have any true claim to the Labyrinth in such a strong manner."

"Then lets hope that its Minos," the younger answers, "since its Daedalus we are going to for help."

Percy couldn't argue with that, and as both of their eyes began to close for the night, he found that he didn't want to.

—-

That night as Percy slept, he dreamt of the past once more. Of a boy that looked like the inventor, one that called him Uncle. The boy was brilliant in his own right, a prodigy and the sort of mind that would have flourished in the modern age with all of the tools already at hand. He would have been something great.

He didn't live past that day, not really.

Percy watched as the pair spoke of seemingly impossible things, of building a body to live forever within. Watched as the broken inventor sent the boy, Perdix, to chase one of the mechanical bugs that he had made. Watched as the child - no older than Nico had been when Percy had first met him, and Percy had been when he first broke his soul - laughed and ran after the creation, a childlike smile on his lips that faded fast as he ran too far.

As he fell.

As he called out and Daedalus only watched.

As he seemed to feel nothing at all of it.

He didn't react at all until a bird, a partridge, flew up into the sky as a mark that looked just like it burned itself into the inventor's skin with Athena's wrath for the man's murder of one of the mortals that she had favored.

It felt too kind a thing to do, too light of a punishment even as it was an agony. The son of the sea knew right then that he would have done much worse.

The thought of that scared him as he woke.

—-

When they were given the mechanical spider by the son of Ares in the morning, Annabeth shifted as soon as she saw it, the instincts of a daughter of Athena running deep within her bones as they urged her to get far away. Percy's only immediate reaction was to look at the thing and wonder why it was so small if it was meant to be followed. If it was meant to be followed while within the Labyrinth at that.

It was a idiotic sort of choice.

Then again, Nico couldn't help but think seeking out the god of forges at all was an idiotic sort of thing to do. This deity, after all, was the same one that had created the being that had almost killed his sister, one of the few people in this world that the son of Hades cared for.

He didn't like to imagine what he might have become had she died that day. Human probably wasn't high on the list.

No matter Nico's reluctance, the maze welcomed them back all the same.

The four ran quickly through the maze after that, the sounds of their footsteps and delicate metal hitting against the ground their only companions to the quick instructions when one of them spotted danger on the rise.

It wasn't until they saw their next monster that things became problematic once more.

"A sphinx?" Grover asked when they turned the corner and saw the being before them, a creature with the body of a lion, wings of an eagle and the head of a woman.

It was the sort of creature that they didn't have the time to deal with, not when the spider was moving through the room without them.

"We should kill it," Percy said, a hand reaching down to the bracelet on his wrist. "We don't have the time to go through the riddles."

"A battle might take too long though," Nico argued, all of them listening to the mechanical sounds of the spider as it got farther away.

"So could answering the riddles once the sphinx sees us," Grover reminded the other, knowing that there was a chance that they would be screwed either way.

Annabeth knew that they didn't have time for any of this, not even the argument of right then.

"I know the answers," the daughter of Athena said, looking at the monster and hoping that the riddles hadn't changed since the fall of Rome. The three turned to look at her then, waiting for her say. "It's always the same ones," she explained, "or it should be at the least."

She hoped that it was, so many of the things - as the son of Poseidon has pointed out over the years - are the same no matter how much time has passed. But, Annabeth knew that the other would be just as quick to remind them all of the stark differences as well.

Annabeth hoped that she was right, they didn't have time for her to be wrong as she took her place before the monster of old.

It was after the first of twenty questions that the son of Hades decided that they truly didn't have the time for either of these, and he didn't have the patience for it either.

There was a flick of the demigod's wrist before the monster was encased in stone, crushed beneath it as he balled his fist.

"That works too," the daughter of Athena decided, not as miffed by this ending as she thought that she might have been if the damn monster hadn't been asking her trivia questions.

It was Grover that made it so that they were able to follow the mechanical spider, the hearing of a satyr better than all of the demigods put together. It brought them to a door that looked like one that one would find on a submarine, the hatch of it facing out towards them instead of a doorknob, as the small spider banged its metal head against the metal.

It was Annabeth that pushed the door open, the leader of the quest walking in first alongside the mechanical arachnid.

The inside of the workshop didn't hold the same beauty that Percy had seen in his travels. Sure, there was steal the gleam of finished blades and the warmth of a fire that burned for metal to melt within its embrace, but it was more cluttered than anything that the demigod had seen before. There were mechanical monsters in the making, parts of them at least, among a chariot made somehow entirely of flames. There were wires sticking out of most unfinished things, small projects littered about in every spare place of table space. It was the sort of mess that reminded the son of the sea of just how bad his ADHD likely would have been had he gone to a mortal school for longer, because here was the proof positive that it came from the gods.

When the god of fire climbed out from beneath one of the cars in the shop, the four of them were able to see his towering figure, from the mangled leg to the face that had gotten him thrown off of Olympus by his mother after he was born. He wasn't pretty figure, but they didn't need him to be so, not for this.

Like most things with gods, they weren't willing to do anything for the heroes that they demanded work from for free. There was always a price, a favor to preform. It was a cruel sort of existence to live, but they had all expected it more or less when walking into the forge

"Let me make sure I have this right," the son of the sea started, as soon as the deity was done naming his price, "you want us to break into your forge in Mt. Saint Helens to see what the intruders are because they sense your presence when you go down there yourself?" the demigod asked, wanting the clarification for it.

"Correct," Hephaestus answered, something in his voice speaking of a confusion as to why this was up for debate.

It was Annabeth that stepped in there.

"It's not that we won't do it," the daughter of Athena added quickly, looking between the god and the teen that basically was one, "Percy isn't exactly weak in his presence either. Neither is Nico at that. Are you sure that we won't be found out the same way that you were?"

That seemed to stop the deity for a moment, Hephaestus turning to look at the children of the gods before him and noticing for the first time just how familiar they both felt, how much more like their parents they felt than any of the demigod children that he had met before. It was easy to forget that such power was not supposed to be held by demigods when one spent most of their times surrounded by immortals and machines and nothing more.

The Greek god of fire thought what might occur if these two were to get close. He knew that the younger would likely still go unnoticed, the breaking of his soul still too little with how the boy has been using his powers. No big moves needed when the smaller, simpler, ones would do for the things that they had come across thus far.

But the child of Athena was right in thinking that the son of Poseidon wouldn't be like that.

Right now, Perseus Jackson felt like that of a minor god. But even as he felt like a minor god, the deity knew that he would soon grow to be much stronger than that once his mortal body burned away and his dust of a soul was able to transform and expand to how it should have long been.

He would feel like an Olympian before long, just like Dionysus.

(Hephaestus knew that was a lie, the boy would be far stronger than just that)

But for now…

"I believe that the two of you are just… contained enough that you should only register as a minor god, which will still be small enough to go unnoticed by the invaders as I believe that they only care about Olympians like myself," the god of fire decided, thinking that he might just be right.

The four nodded, taking the guess as what it was. Besides, even if the invaders did run, there might be clues within the forge to tell them of what had been there before.

It was a nice sort of thought.

With that and the metal spider reprogrammed, the four were off once more to the next dangerous thing. As they left, the son of the sea couldn't help but think of the deity that they had just met, the god of forges that preferred machines to the living. A god that was removed from it all and didn't seem to understand much outside of the metal that he worked, didn't seem to notice it either.

A god that only knew loneliness because those that were supposed to have loved him threw him away, so now he knew that he could only rely on himself.

Percy thought that he understood that, more so in the past then he did now. Even with his father and uncle, that was still how he thought that he was going to go through life within the world od myths at the least. He hadn't seen a point in being anything less then what he was already destined to become: a god ascended from a broken soul, just as cold and cruel as the rest.

Then Nico had come along.

The son of Hades didn't fix anything in him, he didn't make Percy softer or piece back together the remnants of his being. He didn't make the son of the sea less violent in nature, make him any less of a monster parading around in mortal skin and playing at being human. If anything, when they trained - fighting each other with the viciousness of young gods - and when they were in battle - the son of the Underworld looking at the other teen as if Percy had hung the stars as he did a million horrifying things - the younger demigod enabled the son of the sea to act ever more the child of the father of monsters.

But Nico reminded him that he once had been just like all of the demigods around him, just mortal, just as breakable.

Percy was still a killer, and if needed to he would be so again. He was still someone that used another unflinchingly, so long as it was not someone that was his.

He was still a god in everything but form, callus and cruel, but he was a bit less cold with the other at his side.

The god of forges was surrounded by flames, but he held none of that warmth within him.

A kind god, he reminds himself, that is what he wants to be. One that remembers what it means to be mortal, to be powerless.

To be human

—-

Things were as fine as anything in the maze could ever hope to be until the Labyrinth branched off into a world that still felt of the wild. Until Grover looked at the tree roots and the veins as they were the answer to every question of life.

Percy knew that they were the for the satyr at the least.

They all knew what the answer was, that they had come down into this maze with two goals in mind. To find the heart of it before the Titan's army did, and to find the great god Pan.

They all knew that there might come a time while they were within the Labyrinth that one of these things interfered with the other.

And here it was.

"I'll go with Grover," Nico decided as he looked upon the divide, knowing that if they were going to split up, then this would be the best way to do so. He wanted to stay with Percy, he always did, but the son of the Underworld knew that he would be the best bet at protecting the satyr when the world around them was underground. "It's the best way."

They all knew that he was right.

Annabeth hugged Grover then, something quick as lighting, there and gone as the spider that they were supposed to be following made its way over the roots. The other two demigods were a bit slower in their goodbyes, the son of Hades reaching out for the son of the sea, their arms flashing gold in the darkness of the maze as they touched, pulsing like a heartbeat that entirely their own.

It was with the surety that only eternity could bring that Nico pushed himself up onto his toes just a bit and grazed his lips against the other's cheek, something there and gone even as a golden sort of flush rose to the older teen's cheeks and lingered.

Percy smiles brightly, almost blindingly so as they part, something without the worry that most would be plagued by right then. There was nothing here in this maze that could kill either of them, not as they are now.

There was no more time for goodbyes other than that, as they spider was getting away from them, but as the group split Annabeth took a moment to raise a brow at the other. Something that made Percy look away with golden flushed skin and a scowl.

The maze was a nightmare that they walked into willingly, but moments like these made it easier in a way that not much else could.

—-

Percy never thought that he would find himself standing in a classroom once more, hearing a lesson being taught to him by what most around him would consider to be a proper teacher. He had given that life up and the future that it brought with it a long time ago, back when he had chosen to remain in the world of the gods - whichever they might be that day - year around rather than trying to go back to his mother. Rather than trying to fit himself into a role that he didn't know if he had any right to claim after so long had passed.

And yet, right then as he hid within the cart, he was being made an unintentional witness to a lesson on sea demon puberty by one of the telkhines.

He really could have done without ever stepping into another school again, though he figured that this trip was about to end as well as the one that he and Nico had taken to that high school not too long before. In dust.

As the lesson continued, something that he did his best to tune out right then, the son of the sea thought of what he wanted to do. Percy knew that he could kill all of the monsters before him right then and there, easily at that, but even with how fast he acted there was every chance that one of them would take the moments that it took for him to get to them to raise some sort of alarm before he could kill them. Such a thing would have been fine if he was on his own, but would be folly right then when he didn't know where within the forge the daughter of Athena was, the blonde and grey haired girl invisible under the cap that she had been given by her mother.

If the other were to as so much make a bit of unexplained noise while they were under attack, she would be surrounded in seconds as everything around them all went to Hades.

In the end, the decision of what to do was taken from his hands as the tarp above him that had been hiding him from the baby monster was pulled away. As he lept to his feet with his trident growing in his hands - a sight that made more than one of the sea demons howl in anger and fear - a storm already beginning to rage around him, the lighting striking at the monsters of old and killing those that it touched.

"New lesson," the son of the sea announced, looking upon the crowd before him as he took in their brief spout of shock and knew that now was the time to use it, "little sea demons turn to piles of dust when slain. This is completely normal change and should be happening more often."

It was quick after that, the way that he threw a small handful of the shells that he had taken earlier, water filling the room as he commanded it to grow. The way that the monsters seemed to laugh at this choice.

The way that they all stopped when lightning began to course through their veins, carried by the waves.

Percy ran from that room, his steps near silent as he made his way through the forge as everything slowly went to shit behind him, even as by some miracle the sea demons had all been too shocked to sound the alarm. He knew that the cover wouldn't last for long when someone went to the room and saw it empty of everything but slowly evaporating sea water and the salt that it left behind.

Annabeth pulled him down to her side when they found one another, each of them silent as they watched as a weapon made of celestial bronze and mortal steel was reaching the end of its creation. They both knew that it couldn't be allowed to do that. That more than killing the monsters, or telling Hephaestus of them, if they did anything today, they needed to slow the creation of Kronos' scythe the fuck down if possible.

Percy had a horrible sort of idea as to how.

It was really there only shot.

Annabeth only nodded when he announced as much, the other demigod having expected this. The son of the sea was always on the brink of insanity when it came to the things that he did, but most of the plans that he made this way were better than some of the careful planning that she adored, pained as she was to say it.

"Look after Nico if I don't make it out of this?" Percy asked in a way that wasn't much of a question at all, his true words ringing beneath the nicer ones:

If I don't make it out of this human enough to be allowed to do so myself.

"Because he'll be the prophecy child then?" Annabeth asked, even as something told her for certain that wouldn't be it.

Percy shakes his head with a sad sort of smile on his lips, even as he knows that's true enough at the end of the day.

"Because I'm in love with him," the son of the sea admits aloud for the first time, something soft and utterly human playing across his features then, likely for the last time no matter how this ended, "and I would trust no one else to look after him if I can't then a daughter of Athena."

The daughter of the wisdom goddess smiles then, something a bit strained right then. Not because she doesn't think that he'll live - Annabeth was sure that he would - but because right then he truly did look like a hero of old. Like a young god of all of the stories of all of the mythos combined, and she had a feeling that after this he won't be able to hide it as much anymore. To pretend to be less than he was.

(she doesn't think that he really wanted to do so anyways, not with what was coming, but it was different when it wasn't a choice. Not a real one in the least)

When Annabeth leaves, her steps quick against the earth as she dived back into the maze once more, the earth begins to shake all around her, heat scraping at her back as she moved with a swiftness of someone trying to outrun sunlight. Like she was escaping the vengeance of an angry god.

(she knew right then that she might as well have been)

—-

It was always the magic that he felt first.

The next time that the son of the sea woke it was to the feeling of magic around him, something old and untouched by the present in the way that Circe's island hadn't been able to manage when he had stepped foot on it a year before. When he opened his eyes it was to stars, hundreds of them, the sort of stars that he had never gotten to see even in parts of the world untouched by the world of mortals that he had ventured to.

It was beautiful, more so than any sight that he had seen before.

He could feel the sea, all around him on this island of old. Feel the way that it came to him and answered his call without him having to think of what he wanted it to do at all as the water helped him to stand, as it chilled at his touch into that of a walking stick made of ice. It was a nice sort of feeling against mortal flesh that had threatened to burn away under heat of the explosion that he had created.

He felt the goddess of the island long before she walked to his side.

Calypso looked at the hero that the gods had placed upon her island with the heart of someone that already knew the pain of what was to come, someone that could already feel it in her bones from the moment that she laid her eyes upon the child of the sea. How could she not?

Even in burnt clothes the other was beautiful. Hair as dark as the space between the stars with a streak of grey that ran through the front of it. A lethal sort of form that Odysseus had never quite managed to hold, the man sickly from his journey by the time that he had come to her. His skin was the sort of bronze that one could only find when loved by the sun. But it was his eyes that made her breath catch when he turned to look at her as well.

Even in the dark she could see the water that had painted them, something that spoke of the sea and storms and something a bit tinted by a poisonous swirl of color. They were beautiful, more so by the ring of gold that caressed them now, ichor kissing at colors already impossible for a mortal to hold.

He looked like a hero of old, one that screamed of a godly power that she hasn't felt in her island since ancient times, not even in the times that the deities themselves have visited her.

She knew then that she would want to keep him at her side for all of eternity.

She knew then that she would never be able to do just that.

Still, the nymph knew that they both had parts to play.

"Come, young hero," the goddess said, her voice as soft as the sands beneath their feet as she turned towards her home, "let's get you changed into something less burnt."

When the hero smiled at her, it was with a knowing sort of look within his eyes, one that spoke of the being knowing exactly who was before him, but it was still kind. A kind sort of look that she had never seen a hero hold before, certainly not one that knew the stories of who she was.

A hero of old with a heart that is kind.

She knew that loving him would be far too easy.

The only clothes that she had right then was a chiton much like her own, something that other visitors in the past had not wanted to wear as times had passed on in the world beyond her shores. Usually, she would spend the time that the hero spent passed out on her beach to create something close to the mortal clothes that they came in, shirts and pants as they called it. She didn't have to do that this time, not as the child of the sea stepped out of her home once more with the clothing worn as if he had placed it upon himself before. He looked at home in it as the night breeze of the sea kissed at his skin. The only things of the mortal world that he seemed to hold then was the bracelet on his wrist, and a clear and blue object that looked a bit like a modern piece of reed used for writing. He fashioned the second one to his belt and nodded as if everything was fine.

She left him to sleep for the night when the hero said that he wanted to walk with the water for a while, knowing that he couldn't leave from her island unless she let him and that nothing could hurt him while he was upon it.

It was only when the goddess faded from sight back into the cave that Percy let himself relax for the first time on the island. Beautiful as it was, the ruler of the island was what made it dangerous, more so than most places that the demigod had been before.

At least the Underworld, while alive, one could leave. The sea of monsters and Olympus as well.

He couldn't leave here without being let go, and Calypso would never had let him die.

The son of the sea god reached for the ink that he always kept close, and let the cloth slip from his shoulders, laying his body bare to the star lit shy as gold tinted ink rose into the air and laid itself upon his scarred flesh. A Norse Algiz laid itself upon his heart, right where the mix of his soul laid, protection and defense. A scarab beetle laid itself at the base of his back, right where the knot of the cloth sat, a symbol to ward off malevolent forces.

He knew the dangers of the daughter of the titan lord Atlas, knew the stories of her, both Greek and Roman alike.

Percy would be kind to her while he was here, but wouldn't be blind.

The goddess of the island found the teen sitting among the waves when she rose with the sun the next morning.

The pair spent the day together after that, walking through the island. The hero walked at the nymph's side as she gardened, pulling water from the air and letting it flow into the parts of the garden that needed it most. it was nice.

Percy wasn't sure how much time had passed before Hermes came for him, time was different in magical places such as this, but he wasn't surprised when the messenger god appeared at his side. This had occurred once before after all, in the Odyssey, he supposed that he was almost done with it at this point.

The deity is tense at his side as they stand there looking upon the waves, everything in his body language screaming of an anger that the god of thieves had never held with the son of the sea before even as Hermes only spoke of a mortal that could once see through the mist, upholding Hephaestus' end of the deal for the god of flames.

"You're angry with me," the son of the sea says, the gold in his eyes piercing as he looked upon the god at his side.

"I'm not," the trickster god said with the voice of someone trying to defend themselves, but Percy only smiles as he knows that its a lie.

Neither say anything as the mortal slowly reached for the god, his body taking on a faint sort of golden glow to it like the moment before a god is about to change into their true form. Hermes knew that it wouldn't burn him away in the manner that it might a mortal, but he wasn't expecting what occurred when the younger touched his forehead. Just a little tap.

It was enough.

Then the visions took over.

Hermes watched as Luke showed up at the door of the foreign gods, Percy opening the door and bringing the older demigod inside to a building that was beautiful in a way that was different from the Greeks or the Romans. Different from a camp or military ground. The younger demigod led the other to a living room with blankets bunched up on the seats and comics on the coffee table, and Hermes could just barley see what looked to be like a table top game permanently taking residence in the corner of the room. It looked like a home.

It was strange for the god to see, always was when he went to a lover's house, stranger still in that of another pantheon, because he knew that his world would never have that.

It wasn't long before one unsettling sort of feeling was replaced with another though.

He watches his son telling the younger demigod of the fact that the titan lord of time wanted to use the older's body as his own. That Luke has been preparing it for years now just for that. That the last step in it all was for his son to bathe in the River Styx.

He watched as his son told the other demigod that he was scared, terrified of what was to come. That he didn't want to do this, not like this, not anymore. As Luke told Percy that he didn't think that he was going to survive the possession or running from it, not on his own.

He watched as Percy coldly listened to it all.

"You're already deep enough into this that even if you were to refuse the possession, not even the House of Life would be able to hide you from the titan lord for long," Hermes heard Percy say, factual and precise. As if he wasn't talking about a life on the line, one that had been as tied up in this from birth as the son of Poseidon. "He would just find another body to possess," the teen said in a way that should have been a guess, but they all knew was truth, "and then use that mortal body to hunt you down before the true start of the war to come."

"So its hopeless then?" Luke asked, his voice holding that familiar bitterness to it as the man laughed. It was the sort of sound that Hermes hated to hear.

"I didn't say that," the younger demigod answered all the same. "History repeats itself," Percy continued, speaking as if the pair'd had this conversation before. Hermes thought that they might have (the rubble of a mortal monster laying at their feet). "Over and over and over again in our world. We hardly have any new tales in this world of ours. But, what history didn't have last time around was demigods playing the roles that we are now. Didn't have us playing savior and host. So, if history is already a bit bent, then it won't notice a few more changes to it."

"What do you mean?" Luke asked, leaning forwards where they sat on the couch as another demigod, the one that was always at Percy's side, walked into the room.

The son of the sea god smiles then like a shark before looking to the other dark haired boy, the look softening just a bit as he did. "It's time to visit that guy that we tracked down."

The son of the Underworld smiles then in the same way that Percy did, and Hermes can't help but think that he was looking at two beings that the mortals would have called devils.

The god of thieves doubted that this was the first time that anyone had thought this while looking at one of the pair. He knew that it wouldn't be the last.

The son of the sea pulls his hand away then, looking at the god as the golden shine faded from the air. From the air around them, but it shined even more clearly in the demigod's eyes.

"I just need you to trust me a little longer," the demigod said as he looked upon the other.

Hermes nods and leaves in a wash of gold.

Percy doesn't burn away as he watches.

—-

The raft came in the morning, with the rising of the sun.

Calypso knows better than to ask the hero of old to stay, the demigod that bled gold even as he had a mortal heart, as she stood on the shore and they watched the wood float in the water. She knew that there was no point in asking to keep him at her side, not when the gods had already interfered to keep it from being so. Just like before.

Just like always.

There was no point in asking someone to stay whose heart was not hers.

Still, there was a part of her that wanted to know.

"What's her name?" the goddess asked, curiosity taking over her being. She never did get learn about the outside world anymore than what the heroes that came to her shores told her of, and so much time seemed to pass between each of them that it almost seemed idiotic to try, so she allowed herself names and little more.

For a moment she thinks that the hero won't answer her, but then something soft passes over his features, something that she had never seen on the demigod before, and the son of the sea smiles as if the world was finally right once more.

No, Calypso knew that he could have never been hers.

"Nico," the son of the sea answers, as hand rising to the objects of the sea that had been placed beside the painted beads, ink gleaming in the rising sun, "his name is Nico di Angelo."

The goddess nods then with a laugh on her lips, something sweet and musical in the warm air. Just for a moment Percy let himself wonder if this is what Zoë might have sounded like if he had ever heard her sound so carefree. He looks up at the starless sky and thinks that it might.

"Its fitting, I suppose," the nymph said as she looked upon the son of the sea, the hero that had landed upon her shore, "with the way that the strange marking upon your back look like wings."

The demigod smiles as he aggress, and just for a moment something peaceful passes between them, a quiet sort of companionship that might have been some form of love in another life. That might have been love by a different form than he would have ever been capable of holding for her in this one.

"I do love you," he said all the same as he looked upon the deity, seeing the surprise flash within the eyes of the goddess. It wasn't a lie, he knew that he did, even if only a little. He loved the version of her before him, the version made softer by the passage of time and the modern views of the myths. He could never have loved the her of old. "Just not in the way that you want me to."

Calypso nods then as if she had been expecting those words. As if she had heard them before from other heroes that could not bring themselves to stay.

He figured that she had.

Neither said anything as the goddess knelt down to the earth below, as she picked one of the flowers that they stood around - moonlace, silver and beautiful even as the morning slowly grew - and stood once more, handing it to the hero.

"Plant it for me, won't you?" Calypso asked as she watched as the demigod held the plant for a moment before hiding it away somewhere that she couldn't see. "In that world of yours beyond this one?"

"I will," Percy agreed, his voice as soft as hers as he spoke.

Neither of them said anything as the demigod stepped close to the goddess, closer than he had ever let her get to him before as he had resided on her island, and kissed the top of her head in the way that the son of the sea thought that he might have done to his little sister if he had ever gotten the chance to meet her.

The goddess smiled softly then as if she was thinking something of the same.

Neither say anything more as the son of the sea stepped upon the raft, eyes gleaming with gold as his visage painted that of a hero of old, and he let the wind carry him home.

—-

When Percy steps foot within Camp Half - Blood once more for the first time in such a long time that the didn't quite know, the teen was not expecting to find it empty of a single soul. There should have been archers shooting and climbers dodging fire on the wall and laughter floating through the air as world was still clinging to the happiness that they had before war came for them all.

The world that the found right then was none of that.

The son of the sea let his sense wander right then, something that he tried not to do given the sure amount of information that it brought, nearly too much so for a mind that was still functionally mortal. Let himself seek out the blood that coursed through bodies, the beating of hearts. The shifting of bodies through the water within the air.

It was in the amphitheater that he found them all.

It was in the amphitheater that he found something that he hadn't thought would be his for a very long time.

A funeral.

His funeral.

Though, it didn't seem that it was going underway very far right then, not as the daughter of Athena stood proud before Chiron, anger flashing in her grey eyes as they quarreled.

"He's not dead," the girl insisted, looking upon the other with defiance as she refused to let the pyre - a beautiful sort of shroud upon it, one of green silk and a trident embroidered into it. A part of him wondered if he would be able to keep it - burn. "Not from something as small as this."

More than one person shifted at the demigod's assessment of what he had done, at her calling the action small. It would have been rude if he was truly dead, but Percy understood what she meant.

For someone like him - something like him - a volcano was much too simple a thing to kill him.

It's with a sad sort of voice that Chiron responds all the same. "Its been two weeks, my -"

He never does get to finish his sentence though. Not right then.

"Damn, its been two weeks?" Percy asked as he finally steeped into the building, all eyes snapping to him and where he stood.

Shock rippled through the crowd of demigods, wide eyes taking in the appearance of the son of the sea as he returned home. As they took in the clothes that he wore, a chiton once more, as more than one them mistook the teen for a god of old rather than the demigod that they had trained beside for years now.

The only one not surprised at all was the daughter of the wisdom goddess.

"Told you I was right," Annabeth said as she looked to the archer, uncaring in the way in which it came across as boasting right then. She was a child of Athena and they always liked to be right.

The amphitheater sprung to life once more as the demigods within it all seemed to brighten once more, glad to have been wrong. Percy wasn't upset when most left without a word, Beckendorf grinning at him as they passed one another and Clarisse punching his arm just light enough that it wouldn't bruise as the son of the sea made his way to Chiron and Annabeth.

"Where were you?" the other demigod asked before he had even stopped before them.

"Just checking off another destination on the Odyssey checklist," the near deity answered bluntly, as he reached them, "just need some cannibal giants and to storm a palace of suitors and I'm about done."

The daughter of Athena just sighs at that, too used to the other's antics at this point to care all that much so long as he was still at their side. So long as he wasn't lost to the maze or to godhood just yet.

(though, she agreed with the other campers in thinking that he looked like one right then than he usually did)

It was only a few moments before Chiron was swinging them onto his back to take them to the Big House, the centaur knowing that they likely had things to speak of that the rest of the camp did not need to hear right then.

Percy wasn't surprised that when they stopped within the building that the other demigod grabbed his face, pulling it down close so that she could look upon the changes that his time away had brought to it. So that she could see the gold that now circled his eyes, divinity that didn't go away.

Annabeth nods right then as if she had been expecting something just like this.

"How was Calypso?" she asked instead of mentioning the latest sparks of god hood within the other, within a demigod that she had always known to be more.

The daughter of Athena wasn't stupid. She knew that Percy causing the volcano to erupt, while impressive and devastating for a normal son of the sea god, was just a drop in the ocean for how the other was now. She didn't need to ask why the change had occurred. She knew that it was very likely that the other was at the point now that every display of true power was just going to be something that brought him one step closer to escaping a mortal body that should have burned away long ago. A body that still couldn't burn now in the way that it wished to.

But it could change, divinity leaking through in a way that couldn't be hidden or denied.

So it was.

"She's mellowed out since Ody, so there's that at the least," is all that the son of Poseidon says on the topic of the nymph, not wanting to speak of her much other than that.

He could care for the version of her that he had met while still fearing the one that he knew had once existed beneath it all. Fearing the things that he knew could have happened on an island under her control. One where he only had the power in his veins, the water around him, and the protection sunken into his skin and no way of leaving if something were to have happened. After all, even gods could be hurt by another one, and he was still forced to play too much by mortal rules.

"Though," he continued, "Hermes - carrying the message for Hephaestus - did tell me how to navigate the maze."

Both Annabeth and Chiron got the feeling that the son of the sea didn't want to talk about the island, something that they would let him have right then.

"How?" the centaur asked, wondering just what it could have been other than the string itself.

"A clear sighted mortal."

The words make both of the other two in the room stop as Percy says them, the absurdity of it washing over them.

"Are you sure?" Annabeth asked, her voice all but drowning in disbelief as she did so.

Percy could tell her a lot of impossible things these days and she would accept them as the truth. Gods from other pantheons coming out to play? Sure, why not. She even met one.

The perception of stories changing how the monsters that they interacted with acted, making some Greek ones act more on Roman based history? Cool.

Self ascension and children of Hades born before the oath? Great.

But a mortal being needed for a demigod quest? Her quest? It seemed a bit much.

Still, Percy nods all the same.

"Princess Ariadne was a clear sighted mortal before Mr. D made her immortal," the son of the sea explains, thinking a bit of the myth that he was repeating in his own way. "Its how she led Theseus through the maze. The string was essentially a back up for if something had happened to her and they had gotten separated, or she had died, or something of the like. It was her sight the led them through the maze of both Minos and Daedalus."

Annabeth hates the thought of it, hates it more than she truly thought was wise, her pride gripping at her heart right then and making it angered. Something that she knew was unwise. One doesn't turn down help in a quest just because of their pride, that was part of what made such a flaw fatal.

So, the daughter of Athena swallows done her dislike and nods.

"Do you know a clear sighted mortal?" She asked instead of saying any of the angered things that a selfish part of her wanted to. She figured that if any of them were going to know someone such as this, it would be the other demigod that knew far too much already.

The sharp sort of grin that she got in return was answer enough.

Chiron watched with a raised brow as the son of Poseidon seemed to pull a mortal telephone out from nowhere at all, the centaur knowing that it couldn't have been on his person before but not getting the time to ask as the teen held it up for them both to see the light up screen and the number upon it.

"I have her number right here," Percy said, knowing that calling it was going to be something of a punishment in of itself for the worry that he had caused them.

There was over a month's worth of missed texts waiting for him to look upon from the increasingly angry red head that had sent them. Though, from a glance it seemed that at some point she had gone to his dad with her questions instead, and was just leaving vague threats for his safety at this point… it was nice.

Percy doesn't miss the way that the centaur mumbles something along the lines of the archer strapping him down to a chair one day to learn of all of the things that the son of the sea was hiding. It was something so absurd that it made the teen smile sharp enough to almost cut.

"Good luck with that," the son of the Greek god of the sea says all the same, his eyes flashing in that dangerous sort way that they too often did. Exactly like that of a god's in a way that the teen hadn't quite managed before.

Chiron knew that he wasn't wrong in thinking that trying at all would be a very bad idea for the immortal.

Immortality did not stop one from breaking after all.

The conversation after that is quick as Chiron informs the returned teen that their latest swords master had left in the middle of the night, the out of place man leaving Mrs. O'Leary behind at that. Percy knew that he wasn't alone in thinking that the second part was strange, concerning to an extent as well, that Quintus would abandon the hellhound that he loved more than anything else. One doesn't treat a creature of the Underworld so kindly if there was no love there. Monsters weren't treated like that when used for war.

It was unsettling that he would leave her behind.

Percy can't help but wonder if the ancient soul was planning on going somewhere where either the mythical creature might be killed in some way or another, or might be taken and used like a soldier of war. Like canon fodder for the battles to come. The son of the sea knew that either ideas were much too likely to be true.

So was the idea that the ancient spirit wasn't planning on living to the end of this and needed her looked after when he couldn't.

Lots of options, each as likely as the last.

Annabeth joins him when he walks down to the basement of the Big House, the son of the sea frowning as he looked upon Chris. As he saw the deterioration of what progress they had made before he left. It filled him with a rage that felt bigger than his mortal heart that such a thing had happened to a demigod at all.

Clarisse was there when they walked down the steps, she always was in the basement these days it seemed, passing over the bottle of nectar and one of normal water without a word.

No one said anything when Percy's eyes glowed with that strange swirl of colors as he willed both into the other boy, coating the organs with nectar that needed it most. The only words that are spoken are Annabeth telling of how much of the drink of the gods was likely safe for the demigod, Percy promising once more to come as much as was needed while he was still within camp, and the crazed mutterings of the once traitor as he asked for a girl that was long dead.

The pair leave quickly after that, making their way to cabin three so that they could call Rachel without having to worry about the listening ears of nosy demigods or spies.

"Have you heard from Nico or Grover?" Percy asked as they walked, knowing what the answer likely was even as he did so.

He wasn't wrong.

"No," the daughter of Athena answers all the same.

Neither of them say anything when they both glance at the pattern of feathers decorating the arms of the son of the sea. It was enough for them to know that at least Nico was alive for now.

Neither say anything when Percy pulls out the silver spring of moonlace from seemingly nowhere at all, planting it in the window of his cabin with the skilled touch of someone near permanently on lone to the Demeter cabin when he found himself at camp. He knew that it wouldn't bloom until that night, but he thought that it was enough for now.

Rachel answers on the second ring when he finally does call, the first spitfire of words out of her mouth a string of concerned anger for him being awol for the past month. The explanation of why was doesn't help much to sooth her.

"The Labyrinth?" the mortal asked on the other side of the phone, disbelief and worry warring for attention. "Like the maze with the Minotaur that they used to sacrifice the people of Crete to? That one?"

"Pretty sure that the Minotaur isn't actually in it anymore, but yeah, that one," the son of the sea answers, watching as Annabeth shook her head at his lack of tact. He thought that he could be excused given that he didn't know anyone outside of his dad and uncle before coming to camp. He figured he was doing great.

"Sounds dangerous," Rachel said, but there's a note to her voice there that sounded exactly like someone that was already imagining what was to come.

He figured that anyone apart of this world, even by sight alone, had to be a little crazed.

"It is," the son of the sea answers honestly, not wanting to lie about something like this. Not when there were lives on the line like there were right then. "Come with us?" he asks with a laugh that was filled with that same crazed tone as hers. "Only a mortal that can see through the mist can be a true guide down there."

She laughs then on the other side of the line like he's insane, which he can't help but think is fair, but agrees as if this world was one that she was always meant to be in.

They both knew right then that the mythological world had something of a choke hold on her, enough so that this was no different.

The pair set up for Percy and Annabeth to come and get Rachel the next day, the mortal on the other side of the phone managing to get him to promise to answer all of her questions after they survived the maze as something of compensation for it. He wasn't surprised when Rachel added that Amos had told her that Percy would find a weapon suited for her, one made of celestial bronze, so that if she was going to be involved in this world she would be safer within it. It was something that he had already been thinking of doing.

"She seems interesting," the daughter of Athena remarked after the other teen had hung up the phone, having heard most of it even if the call wasn't on speaker.

There was a smile on her lips as she spoke, one that lacked the bitterness from before. Annabeth knew that it wasn't the other girl's fault that the world had decided to screw her over. Maybe in another life she would have held onto that resentful pride, but the child of the wisdom goddess didn't think that she would be able to do that once she had met the other in person.

It wouldn't be wise.

"You just like her because she isn't afraid to yell at me," Percy grumbles, though they were close enough that the other demigod heard all the same, laughing as she did.

Annabeth always liked moments like these that reminded her that, for now at the least, the other was still one of them, still mortal. It brought hope to her of what the other would become once he became more godly still. It brought hope that he would keep something of a mortal touch.

That he would care in a way that the other gods never have.

(that he might just protect them)

"Maybe," she agrees, her voice lighter than its been in years even as the world was burning down around them.

"Definitely."

The two of them go to the weapons shed after that, picking through the weapons that had been abandoned for one reason or another over time. Some of them really should be handed over to the Hephaestus cabin and melted down once more, but in the end they were able to find a simple slingshot with empty vials in a bag beside it. Vials that they filled with Greek Fire.

It wasn't the safest thing in the world to do, not with how temperamental the substance was. How dangerous. But, it was the best thing to do when they didn't have time to train Rachel in any of the other weapons around them.

Annabeth watched with interest as the other demigod pulled out his ink once more, gold and black liquid laying itself upon the bag in what looked to be a combination of hieroglyphics and runes. She still remembered the first day that the other had come to camp, the way that one or two of the Hermes cabin at the time had wound up injured after touching something of Percy's. She figured that this was likely how.

"Now the containers won't break while inside of the bag," Percy said, slipping two of the empty ones in right then and giving the bag a violent shake before throwing it to the ground and stepping upon it. He nodded after picking it up once more and opening it to see that he was right.

This wasn't the time to risk being wrong.

"Runes too?" the girl asked instead of commenting on the violent, but effective, measures that the other had taken to testing his work. She had already seen the Egyptian markings upon the other, hard not to when it was laid upon the other teen's neck for all to see, but Norse runes was another thing altogether.

The son of the sea shrugs at that. "I've never really been all that tied down to one set pantheon," he answers, knowing that it was vague at best, damning at the worst, "but I'd probably be happy in any of them."

Annabeth doesn't question it anymore right then, the idea of the other gods outside of Greek and influence from the Roman perception being real, because that is honesty the least weird thing about the other demigod and they've already met a Roman god, so why not. She does shake her head though at the idea of leaving the Greek pantheon for another, even for a while, she didn't think she could do it.

"Get some sleep," she instructs, knowing that she was about to head back to her own cabin to do just that, "we have a quest to finish off tomorrow."

Percy does as he's told, going to his cabin once more and laying down upon the bed.

He doesn't sleep.

(he wondered if he needed it anymore)

—-

They met Rachel in Times Square the next day, finding the mortal girl painted over completely in gold. She looked a bit like a modern version of the Athena Parthenos right then, as the light caused the metallic to shimmer under the sunlight, Rachel unmoving even in the summer heat. Plated in gold and knowing far too much.

It wasn't long though before she was at their side once more, the three of them walking to basement of a hotel that only Rachel had been in before.

To an entrance to the Labyrinth.

"Take this," Percy instructed, pulling the sling shot and its bag of contained flames seemingly out from nowhere at all.

Rachel raised a brow at it, but took it all the same as Annabeth touched the faintly blue glowing symbol of the ancient inventor.

As the maze opened up before them once more.

The son of the sea didn't think that he was imagining the way that they all took in a deep breath in the mortal world once more before stepping through the doorway. Before Rachel led them through it at the instance of the daughter of Athena. In another life that might have been something of a cruel thing to do, a way to try and make Rachel want to go home, but in this one it was Annabeth knowing that this needed to be done.

It was her laying their fates in the clear sighted mortal's hands.

All three of them hoped that this wouldn't be damning in the end.

"What do you see?" Percy asked as the door closed behind them like the sound of a casket on a winter's day.

He didn't get his answer until they had started walking.

"It's like following a red light," Rachel answers, her sights set on something that none of the rest of them could see. "Faint, sure. But its there."

And for all of the impossibility and improbability of this, the demigods both nod at that. The string that the then princess of Crete had been said to use had been depicted as red in the more modern versions of the myth and the art born from it that been created over the years, leading the ancient son of Poseidon through the maze much like a red string of fate.

They don't say much as they walk then, voices carrying in a manner that was eerie when they did speak. It wasn't until they reached a crossroads once more that voices joined the noise around them.

There were three paths that they could take then: One that looked like it might lead them to Grover and Nico once more (something that Percy desperately wanted to do, but knew that they couldn't. Not yet) one that looked as ancient as the mosaic from their first purposeful journey down, and a last one that looked far too modern.

"The newest section seems the least likely," Annabeth says as they stare at the three options once more.

It was the same logic that they had been following all this time, and maybe that was why Percy wasn't surprised when Rachel shook her head and pointed to the newest of the three.

After all, the maze was hardly ever logical.

Annabeth looked at the other with the pinched eyes of someone that thought that the other was just a bit stupid right then.

"From what we've seen so far," Percy starts, drawing the two gazes to himself once more before frustration could build into something worse, "the Labyrinth is a bit of a trickster spirit, doing the opposite of what it should. Keep your hand on the wall and the wall disappears. Venture into a world from myth, but you need a mortal to guide you through it. It seems impossible that the workshop would be down that way-"

"Which is why you want to listen to Rachel and have me pick it," Annabeth guessed in a way that wasn't one.

Percy nods. "Which is why I want you to pick it," he agrees.

Annabeth really wants to fight it right then, fight this situation that went against everything that she thought that she knew of the world that they had walked willingly into, but in the end she nods as well. In the end she looks to the other girl and makes a motion for her to lead the way.

Rachel does.

They start down the middle path, each step sounding like a gunshot against the quiet around them.

It wasn't a silence that lasted long.

A loud, slow sort of noise sounded through the underground tunnel, creaking and angry as it did and far too close for comfort of any sort.

They ran when they heard the footsteps, a mortal, even a heavily armed one, too new to risk in a fight right then when they didn't know how many there were.

It was futile in the end.

Monsters had blades to their throats as they led them to the arena, blades that might slip if the monsters were startled in the process of him killing them, so they went along with the beings' demands.

They watched in silence as one monster killed another for the entertainment of a son of Poseidon older than Percy right then. A child of the sea that had bones as decorations to old god and earth in his veins.

Percy knew that he couldn't complain much about the last part, after all he had ichor and poison in his.

Blue eyes meet that of the temperaments of the sea and poison and the blood of gods as the son of Hermes nodded, the slightest thing that he could, to the younger son of the sea god. It was the sort of thing that said both everything and nothing at once.

But, when he was told to fight, he did so willingly.

More than one being within the crowd was weary when the weapon that the teen chose was a trident that he pulled from his wrist, one that glinted beautifully in the torch light. One that felt of power and of the sea and storms and a shakes earth.

It felt like destruction.

Like the meaning of the demigod's name.

It was one of the snake women that Percy fought first, not that it was much of one at all as the teen used the top of his trident and tangled it in the net that the monster used, stealing it away. Not as he looked upon the other child of the sea and flicked his wrist, the heart of the monster exploding within her chest as dust soon coated Percy's skin.

The arena was silent for a long moment after that, silent as all of the monsters took in the action of something that the son of the sea god should not be able to do.

Antaeus sent a demigod in next, once he had recovered from his surprise (being the first to do so, always a bit too dumb for those around him) his voice slightly shaken as he did.

That fight was quick as well, ending with a blade at Ethan's throat and a cold look in Percy's eyes as he looked upon the demigod that had come to the arena to kill so that he could join the Titan's side.

It was a fool that he was looking upon.

Still, he refused to kill him all the same. Percy had made a promise to protect demigods, and the other was one.

When he fights the other son of Poseidon, its easy in a manner that it shouldn't be as he battled the other. As he disarmed him while Percy's back was to Annabeth and Rachel, and his side was to Luke.

As he pulled the head of Medusa from the Duat where it had sat for the past two or so years, and turned his opponent to stone that not even the earth could fix.

Turned everyone behind his brother to stone as well before returning the head to where he had gotten it.

It wasn't an epic sort of battle, no poems would be written about any of it, but it was fast and they didn't have the time to spare.

Luke yelled then, his heart not in it as Percy called upon the hellhound that Quintus had left behind. As Percy, Annabeth, Rachel and Ethan ran until their legs couldn't carry them anymore.

—-

No one says anything when the son of Nemesis leaves, when he runs off down another section of the maze on his own. They all knew that the other demigod would either attempt to join the titans once more or die in the process of doing so. The Labyrinth was not kind to those that walked within its walls, there was every chance that the demigod might never make it to the titans at all, but the son of the sea knew that Luke wouldn't refuse Ethan if the other were to make it there.

Not with how close they are to bringing Kronos back.

(Somehow, he thinks that it might be a kinder fate if the Labyrinth were to take the other)

Percy doesn't say anything for a long moment as he moves and sits down at Rachel's side, as he looks upon the drawings that the mortal girl was doing in the dirt before them. They were beautiful, detailed in a way that most modern artist couldn't be when they would never be able to see the things that all of them could.

He doesn't say anything until Rachel shifts closer at his side.

"I started sketching when I was young," Percy says, knowing that both of the girls were listening even if it was only meant for the one of them. That was fine, it wasn't really a secret. "My mom wouldn't admit that the things that I could see were real, even though I was pretty sure that she could see them too, so I started sketching them since I couldn't talk about them without being called crazy."

"It makes it more bearable when there is a way that others can see it too," Rachel says, her voice quieter than he had ever heard it before after what had just occurred.

Percy nods in agreement.

They both look at the drawing in the dirt then as if it held all the answers that they might need.

"I would say that I'm sorry for dragging you into this, but…" the demigod starts, his voice trailing off at the end.

"I know," the mortal answers, her voice quiet but sure because she truly did, "there isn't really another choice here."

And Percy nods because there isn't.

"Try and get some sleep," the demigod said, pushing himself to his feet as he turns to look at the daughter of Athena. "You too," he told her, "I don't really think that I need sleep anymore, at least not for a while, so I'll stay up."

She looked as if she wanted to fight it, but in the end she laid down all the same.

Everything was calm for a while after that, in the darkness of the ancient maze, until suddenly the ground started to shake in a manner that wasn't from his own doing.

Percy was quick to move after that, going between Annabeth and Rachel both as she shook them awake, hating the way that panic hardly even came to their eyes from it.

"Can you stop it?" Annabeth asked quickly, her blade in her hands as her pack was slung over her back, Rachel much the same as she held her sling shot in one hand and had the other in the pouch at her hip.

Both tense up further when he shakes his head.

"This isn't a normal earthquake," he reports, knowing that it was truth as he did so, that right then the world around them had more control than he did, "but the maze itself acting up."

None of them said anything after that. They couldn't. Not when their feet were too busy carrying them through the maze, Rachel at the head as Percy took up the rear.

It wasn't long before the clear sighted mortal brought them to the doors of the workshop.

The world that we stepped into when going through the door of the workshop was one that still existed within their own, within the Labyrinth. The maze. But, it was so beautiful that it might as well not have.

The sun was warm on their tunnel chilled skin, coming in through the open windows in the walls. Every inch of the workshop was filled to the brim with an invention or another, or some sort of sketch for things not yet made. It was just like his dreams, but warmer in a way. Even if only a bit as he eyes the years wort of wings on the wall.

Less a prison of force and more of one of his own choosing.

(Percy knew that such a thing only made it minorly better at the end of the day. It was still a prison all the same.)

The Rocky Mountains could be seen in the distance of the view from the window, beautiful and proud as they withstood the test of time.

They weren't the only one within the space to do so.

"Daedalus," the son of the sea called up to the man - no, not a man. The thing that he had noticed from the start that was missing was the normal paths of blood and a heart. There's still liquids within the machine, but it doesn't run the same - that he saw standing on the spiral staircase above the three of them, knowing that the missing swords master could be no one else if he was here as well.

That he had no business to be here if he wasn't him, not with a soul so old.

The smile that he got in return was something a bit sharp and more than a bit sad, the edge of a blade and its flat. That was all that it took for Percy to know that he was right.

"Clever boy," the inventor complimented as he walked to join them on the ground floor, Annabeth and Rachel staring in confusion between the pair of them as the daughter of Athena tried to come up with possibilities for how this could be. "Though I knew I couldn't hide it forever between a child of the sea and a son of the Underworld both having met me," he admits. "Too many roots in manners of the afterlife and prophecy between the two of you… though it only seems to be the one right now. My condolences."

"Keep them," the son of the father of monsters all but growls, his teeth gleaming a bit too sharply as his eyes glowed with just a bit too much gold in the afternoon light. "Nico is fine."

The inventor laughs then, as if he sincerely doubts that. "I'm sure you would know."

Its Annabeth that speaks next, the daughter of Athena having watched the whole exchange and knowing that it was better to go with the punches right then than to verify what it was that the… supposed inventor was saying.

"Why were you at our camp?" She asks, a hand tightening its grip on the blade within it. There weren't that many good reasons for someone, even one as old as Daedalus, to lie about who they are and then to leave suddenly without a word.

And yet he had.

And that, that made Annabeth want to leave him to the mercy of the judges picked by Zeus.

(he was supposed to be dead before the fall of Rome after all, it wouldn't really be a crime to place him fully within death's cold embrace)

"To see if it was worth saving," Daedalus answers, something a bit sad still lingering in his voice as he does so. Something that made the three teens tense at the sound of it. "Luke gave me one version of the story, but I do like to make my own conclusions when I can."

Something cold gripped at Percy's heart when he heard the undertone of those words. The message beneath them.

The forgone conclusion.

The apology.

"You decided against camp," the son of the sea says then, his eyes glowing a bit brighter as he stepped closer to the inventor, as the wind picked up around them as if a storm was brewing within the room right there with them. It was. "You looked a camp full of children and sentenced them to death."

Right then, as the inventor looked upon the son of the sea god, an Olympian known for his protectiveness and his vengeance and his rage, he felt as if he was standing before a god instead of the child of one as the earth started to shake around them, objects falling from the walls.

Earthshaker.

Stormbringer.

And a child fiercely protective of those that he had decided to protect.

And he had declared camp as his.

He wondered if this was how Odysseus had felt for all those years. Thought that it might be worse right then because the god was right before him, lightning kissing at his skin as the liquids in his mechanical body started to flow wrong.

Annabeth watched with the dead sort of gaze of someone that had seen this already, a demigod that was more divine than any mortal had a right to be controlling things that he shouldn't be able to. She knew that she should be scared, she had been once after all, with Ares. In another life she might have been scared all the same had it been someone else on the other end of Percy's wrath. But she wasn't scared, not right then. Because even if the son of the sea was controlling things that shouldn't be controlled, bringing an ancient soul to his knees, he was doing it for the demigods.

For them.

Rachel watched with wide eyes that saw too much. Green eyes that saw the growing golden glow around the demigod before her.

Around the being that was god in everything but form and the duties that came with it.

(she watched as he claimed a domain in his mortal shell, saw the shift of it in the world around them)

Daedalus had never been so happy to see his old captor float through his door.

What happened next Percy wouldn't be able to piece together fully for a little while, not as something seemed to be settling in his chest even as rage flooded his vision as he looked upon the true owner of the maze, the one that had driven Chris insane and had made Clarisse - one of the strongest people that he knows - despair because of it. As he looked upon a spirit that had driven countless demigods, countless heroes, to their deaths within the Labyrinth.

He thought of Nico, of the son of Hades that crossed lines that he shouldn't. Thought of him and wished that he was here as he moved before the other two heroes - and daughter of Athena and someone that would one day be more than a clear sighted mortal - in the room and held his sword to ghost as his eyes glowed like ichor and the sea and poison all at once.

It felt like praying.

He thought that it just might have been as the shadows around them grew until the room was covered with them, as skeletons knocked down the door while a chill filled the room. As spirits that never left the maze grabbed onto the one that called himself the king of ghosts.

As Nico appeared before him like an eldritch sort of beast, never knowing where the shadows ended as the demigod began, and claimed the title for his own as he made a spirit fade in the way that most thought only gods could.

Ichor and poison and the sea clashed within Percy as he looked upon the demigod made of shadows and felt nothing but home as he pulled the other into his arms until they both looked human once more.

(they all missed the way that the inventor ran in the confusion)

"Nico?" Rachel asked, not having recognized the other teen until the shadows had receded, but looking now she knew that it was him.

"Rachel?" the son of Hades asked in turn, not expecting to find the mortal anywhere near this.

The girl opened her mouth to explain, but the daughter of Athena spoke first.

"We need to get back to camp," Annabeth says, urgency in her voice as she thought of the attack that was sure to be underway. "Now."

"We can't leave Grover alone in the maze," Percy reminds her, knowing that it would be a death sentence for the satyr.

"So we grab him and split," Nico decides, holding his hands our for the other three to take. They all do so without question.

The shadows consumed them once more, drawing them back into the thick of the maze as Nico thought of where he had left the satyr.

They didn't make it there, not with the Labyrinth acting as it does. And none of them wanted to try shadow traveling again while within the maze. And not with a mortal at that.

It didn't matter though, not with Rachel at their side, a faint red line leading their way through the dark.

"I'm not sure that this will work," Rachel admits as they jog, as they follow the line that existed all the same, "your friend isn't a location like the workshop was."

"The Minotaur wasn't a place either," Percy reminds her, and the mortal nods, something settling in her chest.

As long as the son of the sea was at her side, she would be safe within the maze.

(the words were a truth that she didn't quite know the origin of)

The two children of the big three spoke quietly to one another as they jogged, Percy telling the other of the things that had occurred while they were separated. He was surprised when Nico stuck on the Calypso part, worry in his eyes as he looked at the son of the sea. Percy wasn't the only one that knew all of the different interpretations of that myth. He wasn't surprised either when Nico's gaze shifted to anger when Percy got to how Rachel came to be with them, the younger demigod wanting to fight the queen of the gods a bit right then because she could have just bluntly told them weeks ago what it was that they needed to know, instead of having to hear it from Hephaestus through Hermes.

Percy couldn't blame him for that. He wanted to fight her a bit too. So did Annabeth.

Nico tells them that it felt like a day at most for him and Grover, time apparently passing much slower where they were in the maze than where the rest of them had been. The daughter of Athena thought that was lucky since it meant that Grover couldn't be far from where Nico had left him.

Percy didn't understand at first why they stopped at the crossroads before them, not until he started to sway at the feeling coming from the direction that Rachel had called evil.

He knew exactly what was waiting for them on the other side of that passage.

Who would soon be waiting for them.

He knew what needed to be done all the same.

"I need to go," the son of the sea says, taking a step towards the tunnel, but someone grabs his wrist when he tries.

"Don't," Rachel said, something a bit desperate in her voice. "I'm not joking about it feeling evil."

Whatever was down that way felt wrong to her, purely so.

It felt as if they were asking for death.

"I know," the demigod answers, his voice a bit quiet, like the silence before a blade is dropped by the executioner, "but I have to do this."

He was the one that continued to guide them both down this path, he should be there when Luke becomes what he does.

He owed that to the other at the least.

"Stay with Rachel," Percy says next, looking to Annabeth as he does, "but both of you have your weapons ready. Just in case."

They nod, and no one says anything more as the children of the big three walk down the tunnel, the shadows clinging to the both as if they were made of them. Maybe one of them was.

The saw the blade that was meant to sever souls with just a cut as they walked to the fortress.

They saw Ethan as well.

Neither of them were surprised when they found the sarcophagus from years ago sitting at an alter in the fully rebuilt Mount Tam.

Nico stayed back as the son of the sea walked forwards and pushed the lid off of the golden creation, revealing the body of the favorite son of Hermes within, a hole where the older demigod's heart should have been making the image all the more jarring. This was something that Nico knew that the other had to do alone.

Percy hates all the same that the sight before him was nothing more than what he had expected to see.

The son of the sea is quick to move back to the other's side, to the comfort of the shadows as foot steps rush towards the opened sarcophagus, drawn in by the noise of it being opened.

They watched together as the son of Nemesis pledged himself to a cause that wasn't wrong, not for the demigods that were apart of it, but was being lead at the side of monster worse than the one sitting upon the throne.

Wars were always hardest when neither side was strictly right or wrong at the core of what it should be, but instead at the heart of what it will be if one was to win over the other.

Neither of them try and stop Ethan from swearing his loyalty. If its not him then it would be someone else. There were no shortage of demigods willing to join the other side for the false promises that they believed to be truth.

Neither of them move as Kronos rises, staying within their shadows.

He looks at them all the same.

"This body was prepared well," the titan lord of time says as he pulls himself to his feet on the stone floor, the words sounding almost like a compliment as he looked upon them both, gold eyes meeting ones rimmed with the same color of ichor. "Don't you think so?"

Nico dropped the shadows when the sea demons and enemy demigod followed their lord's gaze. There was no point in wasting the effort to hide within them when they had already been made.

The smile that appears on the titan lord's face holds none of the warmth that Percy used to see on the older demigod's lips as they had spared. Instead it was twisted and wrong.

He wished that made it easier as he thought of the things to come.

It didn't.

"You know," Kronos starts once more, his voice different from what Luke's had been even as it was the same vocal chords being used, "he had faith in you even as he laid down into the sarcophagus. I wonder now if he would see how misplaced it was."

"We'll just have to see when all is said and done," Percy answers, his voice sure as the ground beneath him begins to shake, as the world rages with him for what the fates had decided it was fair to put them through. "But I don't think that it was misplaced at all."

When the titan lord laughs then at that it makes all of their ears ring as if a gun had just been fired right next to them, the sea demons cringing away as Ethan fought to not cover his years.

The son of the sea took in the sound unflinchingly.

Percy knows better than to attack right then. Knows better than to try when Kronos' skin was unbreakable in all except for one spot that he didn't know. That he refused to let Luke tell him as something within him had screamed against doing so.

That was why he was surprised when an attack came all the same.

"Hey dick face!" Rachel yelled out like some sort of maniac as she aimed her loaded slingshot at the titan and fired without hesitation.

Greek fire ignited on the face of the titan lord of time, the green shining bright in the blacked stoned room as it hit the indestructible body harmlessly, but ignited the clothes that the vessel wore.

Percy thought as he ran with Nico at his side that in another life he might have ended up a little in love with the mortal girl.

The earth shook as they ran, angry and devastating as they were able to hear crashes in the distance, as the walls began to shake around them as the earth began to tear itself apart.

They aren't there to see it, but the room begins to crumble back into how it had been the last time that any of them had seen it, only becoming worse as the monster are sent after them, their movement making the damage worse all the monsters crashed into everything at the world continued to shake as if it was hoping for an eruption once more.

Nico doesn't have to glance behind him as he runs to feel for Luke's bones, to make the titan still once more.

The break that comes with controlling a living titan is as worth it as it was when Luke was just a demigod.

A wall of black stone as thick as Polyphemus' bolder rises up from the ground as monsters stand upon it, crushing them into golden dust as it reaches the ceiling and blocks the path once more.

They all knew that this wouldn't the titan army off for forever but it was better than nothing.

They don't stop running until Rachel can't anymore.

Percy stays still as Annabeth storms up to him, her visage a look of anger so vivid that he knew that if they had been in ancient Greece it would have been crafted onto a shield for a warrior to wear into battle.

The punch is solid as it lands, as he lets her strike him. As he lets it hurt. Lets her grab him by the collar, and hold him there with her fist raised in tears in her eyes as if she wants to strike again.

As he lets her scream into the maze around them.

"You were supposed to keep him safe!" the daughter of Athena yells, there being no question as to who she was speaking of right then. "To help him survive this!"

"I am," Percy answers, his voice level in the world around them as he speaks. As her fist slowly lowers. As Nico and Rachel look like they want to step in and tear them apart. "It's not as simple as you want it all to be," he continues, knowing it to be the truth. "Prophecies are tricky, and sometimes you have to maliciously comply with them to reach the good end. That is what Luke and I are doing right now."

"There is no Luke," she says, anger mixing with confusion and hope that she wouldn't dare to let herself believe right then. There had been no indication that there was anyone other than Kronos when they had seen him. Not even a flicker of the eyes or change of voice when Rachel had hit him. "He's gone."

"He's not," Percy assures, Annabeth dropping his shirt and taking a step back in hope and shock. "Not even a primordial could posses a mortal body and force out the should that was supposed to be there while the body is still intact, and he is no primordial. That's just how possession works," the teen explains, knowing far too much on a practice that has been outlawed for a while now. "Its supposed to be two entities working together in tandem, or one letting the other take control. Luke gave his body willingly for this, but Kronos is forcing the control, so its not going to be a perfect possession either."

(not that it ever could have been with the plans that they made before this)

Annabeth feels her mind working overdrive as she calms, as realization drowns her.

"The two of you planned this together," she realizes, taking another step back from the other.

"We did," Percy agrees. "Malicious compliance," he reminds the other once more.

She nods at the other and then plops to the ground with her head in her hands. After a moment Rachel sits down with her.

They all catch their breath for a moment, Nico and Percy leaning into one another as if to remind each other that the other was real, that they were there.

It didn't last long, but they never expected it to.

"We need to keep moving," Nico says a few minutes later, when all their breaths were steady once more. "We need to find Grover and warn camp. Preferably in that order."

No one argues with that, all of them pushing themselves to their feet once more.

"That was wicked aim," the son of the sea compliments as he watches the mortal pull herself and then Annabeth up.

Rachel laughs then in agreement as Nico smiles, and just for a moment everything is good before they move deeper into the maze once more.

Until Percy sees the cap that Grover always wears in the mortal world laying on the ground.

—-

When they find Grover, its with a yell on the satyr's lips as a name echos down the cavern of the tunnel that they were in.

It was a name that they knew well.

"NICO!!"

It was only then that they realized just how it had probably looked on Grover's end when the son of Hades had just been pulled away without a word.

None of them were ready for the relief in the satyr's eyes when he saw the four of them, or the way that he stormed at them on goat legs and tried to hug all four of them at once.

Nico had not been able to escape.

"Don't you ever do that again," the satyr bleated, angry and concerned all at once. "I know that it was only for a few minutes, but I was worried sick."

It was only then that they remembered the last child of the big three that Grover had been set with guiding - even if this situation hadn't exactly been that - and what had become of her for much too long.

"I won't," Nico assured, not knowing if it was a lie or a truth right then. Not knowing at all how it was the he had found himself at Percy's side in the workshop of the inventor, other than it had felt as if he had been sent something almost like a prayer.

Something that he knew that it couldn't have been.

Not while he was still so mortal down to his bones. He wasn't as far along as Percy. Not yet, so it couldn't have been that. It couldn't…

(It wasn't, but it was close)

None of them tell the satyr that it had been much longer than just a handful of minutes for them since Nico came to their side.

"How did you all find each other?" Grover asked next, taking a step back as Percy handed over the hat that the other had lost.

"I called for him," the son of the sea admits, almost wincing as everyone but the son of Hades looks at him as if he was insane for saying such a thing. A look that increased the more that he spoke. "I was thinking of him and really wanted him there to help with a ghost, and then he was."

"It was like a mental sort of pull," Nico admits with a calm sort of shrug, as if he hadn't just been having some sort of mental freak out over this very thing.

Annabeth and Grover don't say anything right then, but as they look at each other they both know that the other is thinking the same:

It sounded a lot like one god calling to another. Like them answering a prayer.

It was something that they didn't dare say into the darkness around them.

Grover changes the topic when he speaks next, the transition of it sloppy and quick, but needed with how little time they had right then.

"I can feel something powerful on the other side of the doorway," the satyr admits, looking upon it with something that could only be called a naked sort of longing.

It was a sort of thing that didn't even feel as if it needed to be said right then, not as even Rachel could feel the power of it down to her soul as they stood there. As they soon waded through the water with Percy at the center of them, their hands linked together as they moved through the underground cave system, the son of the god of the seas keeping them dry.

He figured that he could do it without holding them like this if he wanted to do so, without the source of contact, but this was far less taxing than that would be.

He didn't want to admit that it wouldn't have been taxing either way, that he just wanted the assurance that they were all there once more with the things that he knew was soon to come when they made it to camp. When it would no longer be assured that anyone within it would be whole. Somehow such a thing felt like an open would at even the thought.

(he didn't know it then, none of them did, but the streak of white in his hair was becoming even more stark at just the thought. At the very real realty of the casualties to come)

It wasn't long before they were on dry land once more.

"Wow," Rachel whispered as they walked into the cavern, a word that they all almost echoed.

If Daedalus' workshop had been one of the most beautiful creations of man, then this was the crowning jewel of a world without human touch.

The walls were made of crystals as they looked upon them, the colors glittering beautifully in the light around them, hues of red, green and blue that shined in the bioluminescence of the plants that adorned the earth beneath their feet and grew in the cracks of the walls. The moss was soft beneath their feet as they walked further in, plush as flowers and berries and vines feel from the ceilings above, kissing at their skin. The ceiling glittered like the skies of old, hundreds of thousands of stars made from light and stone. Animals curled around the warmth of the room, ones that the son of the sea knew to be extinct long before his time.

It was a sort of beautiful that was lost to the world above.

That would soon be lost here as well.

Percy didn't have to be told who the god on the bed was, not as Grover fell to his knees before him and cried out the name of the deity that looked so much like him.

Percy never thought that he would watch a god die, but he did that day not long after eyes met over Grover's shoulder. When just for a moment the god of the wild flashed a brilliant gold and green that looked like what the teen thought that his true form might have once been.

It was the last time that the god would ever look such a way.

Percy's eyes flashed back in turn, the ring of gold growing just a bit more

The four heroes watched like silent mourners at the vigil as their friend pleaded for the god to come back. To return.

They watched as he knew that he had to let him go.

"Perseus Jackson," the god started, a deity of old speaking to one that felt older still, "when your time soon comes, you will be the best of us all," Pan declared, something soft in his voice as he did so, something old. Like the moss that his animals laid upon. They both knew that he wasn't just talking about the Greek pantheon right then. "So long as you keep your heart at your side."

No one missed the way that the deity turned to look upon Nico before he was done speaking to the son of the sea. Percy knew that the other god was right.

The son of Hades met the deity's gaze with trepidation, knowing that a child of the god of the dead would not likely be loved by the god of the wild. In another life that might have been true, but not in this one.

"Life and death are a cycle, Nico di Angelo," Pan reminded the other. "Transformation and change from one thing to another. Sometimes we have to burn a bit of the earth to keep the forest whole. Sometimes we need the nutrients of the dead things of the world for new plants to grow. Remember that, young ruler of shadows."

The things that the god says to the others in the room are just as soft, a balm on the day that they'd had, a day that hadn't yet come to an end. And when he breathed his last breath, as Grover let him go, he faded to mist with a smile as warm as a summer's day.

None of them fought it as the mist went to them, as parts of it filled their lungs, all of them.

It felt a bit like being a returned something that they hadn't known was missing before.

"We have to go now," Grover said as the room became dim, as everything around them withered and died, his voice sad but strong. "We have to tell the world that the great god Pan is dead."

Percy smiled softly at the words, his voice sure as he spoke.

"Not dead," the son of the sea amended, "returned to the earth that he loved, and all of the beings upon it."

It was a kinder sort of ending than most deaths were.

The satyr nodded, knowing that it was the truth. After all, he had taken in more of the blessing, of the spirit, than any of them had.

—-

They found themselves in Brooklyn when they left the maze for the final time, the streets familiar like a balm on the souls of the demigods of the Twenty-first Nome.

It was like coming home, even if they weren't there just yet.

When Percy speaks once more its in Latin, the words falling from his lips like water as he did so, even as in the past his mind had always tried to form Ancient Greek instead, fighting him with each syllable that he had spoken:

"Do you think we should get Amos," he started, Rachel and Annabeth starting at the unfamiliar language as the son of the sea spoke slowly for the benefit of the child of the Underworld, "ask him to fight with us in the battle to come?"

Right then the son of Hades looks like he wants to say yes, but Nico knew the other well enough to know that he wasn't supposed to do just that. Right then, even when all he usually did was enable the other in his bad ideas, he was supposed to reel the other teen in.

"We don't have the time," he reminds Percy, knowing that the words were truth. If they didn't get to camp soon then the battle would already be underway.

He doesn't mention that he wasn't sure that the magician would help, even for Percy's sake.

Still, the son of the sea nods all the same, knowing that the other was right, and calls for the Pegasus of camp.

"Thank you," Percy says, looking to Rachel, the mortal that he had dragged into this the winter before. "The three of us can catch up during the school year."

Rachel smiles then as she looks between the two children of the big three. "Are the two of you going to Goode?"

"No," Nico answers with an air of stark relief, "but we do live here in Brooklyn."

"And I'm sure Dad is going to want you trained now more than ever," Percy adds, knowing that it was likely true, "after we've already dragged you into two quests now."

The son of the sea knew that it wasn't a coincidence that he had met the clear sighted mortal last winter, not when he met her again before going to camp and needed her now. It was the fates, the three of them weaving their tales. He didn't think that Rachel Elizabeth Dare was done with their world just yet.

Rachel nods then as if she was thinking much the same.

The winged horses come only moments later, and the mortal watches with wide eyes as the three demigods and the satyr mount the beautiful creatures and fly off into the sky, their battles not yet done.

Somehow, she knew that they would all live to see another day.

—-

Chiron wanted to keep Percy at his side when the fighting started. Wanted the son of Poseidon to be the second wave for the battle. To be the reinforcements for what was to come.

It was something that the son of the sea couldn't do for the ancient trainer of heroes. Something that would cost more lives than it would ever save right then.

Because Percy knew that it would cost lives when he was what was.

When he would be wasted if he wasn't put in the fight from the start.

The son of the sea is the one to lead the demigods into battle that day, his trident at his side and twirling around him as he went ahead. As he was the first to fight the monsters that came through the entrance of the Labyrinth, taking them down as he fought like god, a storm whirling around him as he strikes down monsters after monster with the swiftness of the sea in his veins and the anger of a deity whose domain was being threatened.

The demigods watched as the beings old fell, as golden dust caked itself to the skin of the child of the sea. They watched the slaughter and picked off the ones that managed to get around the deity in mortal flesh, archers striking the monsters down as the heroes fought those that the archers could not hit. They knew right then that this was what it would be to fight alongside a god, as the ground rumbled beneath their feet like a distant earthquake that did not touch them but knocked even the monsters out of Percy's sight to their backs, prone.

Nico was quick to join the fight as well, skeletons rising up from the already disturbed ground, spirits of those that had long haunted the maze returning to him once more as the army of his making, one shrouded in shadows danced among the beast threatening to destroy the camp. As monsters were brought low by their shadows, sent to the Underworld, dropped just above the pit, though never right in.

(that was not something that he had a right to, not him)

No one said anything of the demigods that came out of the maze as well, they just fought them as if they were monsters all the same.

Nico controlled the bones within their bodies as if they were just another set of skeletons under his will.

The lake rose to meet the sky as fires took to the trees, dousing the flames before they could hardly even spread at all, the water acting almost on its own as Percy fought on.

(After all, right then, the spirits of the woods were heroes as well)

Things only turned for the worse when Kampê rose from the maze.

When Percy found his attention diverted by a being that could easily step upon and break allies and foes alike.

What he did next was not something that he had known that he could do before, had never thought of it. But, there had been a storm around him for some time by then, gathering and striking at those close. It gathered around him then, as he thought only of fighting the jailer before him on her own level.

And suddenly he was, the storm gathering closer still as it brought him to the skies, water and lighting coursing around him as his trident was held high. As the skies darkened as their blades clashed, as rain began to fall around them, drawn right into the hurricane and never touching the heroes below.

As lightning crashed down upon the once jailer when the sea began to consume her, to drown her while poison and ichor held her still and fled her.

As Percy laughed while the earth beneath the two of them shook and shook until the cracks opened wide and consumed her and brought her home as if she was Icarus falling to the sea, the River Styx rushing up to meet her and burn her still, till there was nothing left for even the primordial of her home to piece back together once more.

The earth healed once more as the air filled with a scream from the wild.

Percy looked down upon the earth then and watched as the enemies that were left fled for the Labyrinth once more.

He knew that they wouldn't last long within it.

When the son of the sea stepped foot upon the ground once more, it was to the son of the Underworld looking upon him with wonder and awe. It was to the rest of the heroes around them looking at them both with a small bit of fear as the realized the power that both of them held.

Percy didn't blame then for the fear. After all, he had just killed a monster that had taken Zeus to defeat the last time that she had been on the mortal plane.

A plane that she would never step foot upon again.

No one said anything right then, not getting the chance to do so as a body pushed through the crowd.

The heroes watched as the son of Hades released Daedalus from the body that he had created, sending the ancient soul to the Underworld where he should have been long ago.

The earth shook with a vengeance as the mechanical body hit it for the last time, the Labyrinth collapsing beneath them.

(they all knew that there was no way that the demigods and monsters that had just fled within it could have gotten out in time)

"Do you think that it will remain gone?" Nico asked as the world ceased to ache.

"I doubt it," Percy answers honestly, hating the way that such a thing brought a dulled sense of fear to some those around them. To the survivors of the first battle of the war. It was still the truth all the same. "Nothing in this world of ours ever does."

—-

They treated the wounded the first, after the dust settled and the world stopped shaking from the collapse of the ancient maze. It was morbid, but they all knew that the dead would remain so, but the living might join them if some weren't treated soon, so tarps were laid over the corpses of once allies and enemies alike as the wounded were taken to the infirmary.

Percy pulled water from the air as he moved to patients that had serious, but not threatening, injures, letting the children of the sun god tend to those that needed more work than that of some broken limbs. He wasn't sure how he knew that he could do it, but as he set the water upon their skin, it began to heal like it would have if it were him.

No one commented on how he shouldn't be able to do such a thing, not after all the other things that they had just seen him do, they simply smiled and said a soft sort of thank you as he moved among some of the worst of the wounded that were still hurting even with the ambrosia and nectar. As he healed them, as he pulled poison from their veins.

Godly food could only do so much.

Nico helped as well, the child of the god of the dead molding bones back together as the son of the sea healed them at his side. The younger teen pulling the death away from flesh that wanted to rot, as Percy pulled out the poison from all that had been hit by it from whatever source, so that the food of the gods wasn't fighting a two front war right then between poison and open wounds.

His form still glowed gold as he did this, divinity slipping through a vessel that should have long ascended if it weren't for the story that the fates wanted told.

No one said a word about that either.

(Percy said nothing in turn as the whispered thanks sounded a lot like prayers on his skin)

—-

They burned the bodies of the fallen that night, a much smaller number of them than they thought that there was going to be but every shroud burned felt like an stab that would never be able to fully heal over.

Something within the son of the sea made the teen go to the bodies before they were burned, his form glowing with a halo of gold in the setting sun as he stepped up to the pyres of the fallen. To the bodies that had yet to be burned. The demigods around him watched as the son of Poseidon pressed his fingers to the foreheads of each of the heroes that had died in the battle, watched as the bodies took on that same golden glow as well.

A blessing.

Percy looked to the son of Hades when he was done, the other demigod nodding to the unspoken question as he did so, a silent sort of assurance that they would be at peace.

That they wouldn't be stuck waiting for the boat to arrive. That they wouldn't face judgment.

A blessing from a god was its own sort of currency.

(even if Percy was going to one day be something greater)

—-

Percy and Nico found themselves walking through the woods the next day before going to the campfire for the night, the sounds of battle still ringing in their ears as they walked among the branches. They knew that fighting would always be carried in their bones.

Each of them let their powers do as they wished, settling the earth once more after the invasion that had occurred, making sure that nothing was too caved in from the Labyrinth collapsing around the world. They didn't think that there would be that much, but in woods inhabited by dryads they figured that it would be good the make sure that none of the trees were in danger on the uneven soil.

It was in those woods that the god of wine found them, the deity's form flickering into something ancient as he looked upon them. His form slimier, eyes a dizzying sort of purple and hair shaded by the color with a golden grown of leaves threaded within it.

He looked like he did in the mosaic.

"Walk with me?" the god asks in a way that truly was one, Dionysus knowing that the pair were working right then as if they were gods already.

Neither say anything as they fall in on either side of the god of madness and wine, but the silence isn't heavy as it lasts.

"Thank you for the blessing that you placed upon Castor," Dionysus said into the fading light, but Percy knew that the words were for him.

He thought that this might have been the first time that a god had ever thanked him before with no other motive in mind.

"It felt natural to do so," the son of the sea replies all the same, knowing that it was the truth.

Dionysus thought that he might have laughed at that if it had been any other day. "I figured that it might have."

"He's in Elysium," the son of Hades adds with a certainty as they walk, closer and closer still to camp, causing the god to look to him, "with Lee."

Dionysus nods then, something sad but proud passing over his features before his attention seems to wander, just for a moment. Percy knows somehow that the deity was telling Apollo that the sun god's child was at peace. There was a warmth in the teen's chest right then as he realized that, one born from the same place that had caused him to place a blessing when he wasn't yet a god.

They stop at the edge of the treeline not long after that, the god of wine showing them the newly claimed son of Hermes and the daughter of Ares as they sat by one another at the campfire, Chris whole once more.

That warmth in his chest grows just a bit more.

"I knew that you would heal him," Percy says, finding the words to be true as he does so.

"I suppose that you would," the god answered in the same sort of voice that he had used only a few minutes before when speaking of the blessing. "Go, join the campfire. Live as mortals while you still can."

They do.

—-

Percy smiled as he reached down for the other boy, Nico's hands clasping in his own as he dragged the other teen up onto the large hellhound that they were taking home, having more than enough space for the creature to live among them and more than enough missions to keep her active.

The sun kissed at their skin as the three headed for the trees, the shadows surrounded them all as they found their way to the street of Brooklyn that the two demigods had lived on for years now, the Twenty - first Nome standing tall and indifferent to the problems of other pantheons.

Sometimes Percy hated just how removed from all of the problems of the Greek mythos the world of the Egyptian pantheon was, how he could watch people that he had spent years around die in battle and yet this world, the mortal world, and every other pantheon was left almost untouched.

He knew that the Egyptian pantheon wouldn't remain untouched forever though, not with the deal that had been made the summer before.

Amos was exasperated when he saw the hellhound that the pair dared to call a dog, more so than he had already been by a certain mortal girl that had taken to calling him about her questions since Percy and Nico were apparently physically unable to remember that their phone existed when it was in the Duat and not right in front of them.

Teenagers.

(he ignored the gold that now permanently clung to his son's eyes, divinity shinning through even when the boy was acting perfectly mortal in nature. He knew that they would have to speak of it soon, but for now they could pretend that the power that the teens held in his veins didn't feel crushing to the magician)

The summer air was nice a few days later as the three inhabitants of Brooklyn House found themselves on its roof, joined by the animals of the home and Rachel as the three teens ran around the space with water guns in their hands and shot at one another while Mrs. O'Leary tried to eat the cake herself and Percy had to swear not to use his powers to win. The magician's gaze softened at the sight as he watched the chaotic children, pleased that they could have this before the war of their pantheon started in earnest.

Percy smiled and ran after the other demigod, shooting him in the small of his back with water and pretended that he might still be human past the next birthday of the son of the sea god. The thought of not being so didn't fill him with as much dread as he thought that it might have, not when he knew that the other was following him there as well.

"Happy birthday," Nico whispered later that night, long after Rachel had taken up one of the spare rooms for the night and the other members of Brooklyn House had retreated inside, his head resting against the other boy's shoulder as they laid on their back and looked up at the star light sky as if it had been painted just for them.

Percy smiled at the words, something warm grabbing at his heart right then even as they had been spoken man times before during the day. He reached down between them and threaded their fingers together then, the heat of it grounding as the painted feathers on each of their arms laid flush together.

Percy didn't know what it meant to be human, not really, not anymore after so long spent being more, but he thought that it might be something like this.