Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or settings in this fanfiction. Some of them I have created, while most are either the work of Rick Riordan, or other fans, whose permission I have obtained for use of their characters. Again, all Percy Jackson characters and settings go to R.R.

Author's Note: This chapter is told from the third-person POV of Lucius Darrow. This is the *last* Lucius chapter, and last chapter for the fanfiction.

Chapter X: Come Full Circle

Lucius thought he would grow up to be boring, and so he went to change his life. Never had ever thought of coming to the end like this. The boy who ran away from danger was now a man ready for his end. At 32, Lucius Darrow was content with the course his life had taken. He felt like he was much older than he actually was. As a demigod, he was almost considered a senior citizen at his age. It was even worse with his condition. He knew he was in his twilight years, that any time he could go.

But this did not worry him. He was very well aware that there was nothing he could do to change when he would go, but he was worried about the ones he was leaving behind. His wife was aware of his condition, as was several of his friends. To ease their loss, he had been in the process of having letters, sent when he does finally pass.

He woke up knowing it would be his last day. During the night, he had tossed and tumbled through nightmare after nightmare. In his dreams he saw every fight and struggle he faced in the past, as well as the conflicts he children will one day have to face. Their meanings were unclear, but he knew that they were going to have to be prepared for it. Lucius had spent the past fifteen years, compiling video scroll entry after video scroll entry, all for his daughter, Katrina. She was going so fast, it was almost too much for him. Lucius knew that at 12 years old, his daughter would need guidance, especially when he wasn't going to be there anymore.

Lucius went out to meet his old friend, Rogan, at the forum. He gave instructions to the faun, what to give to who, and such. The faun quickly went off to carry out the preparations.

Next, he stopped by the war room, requesting William Amos, Clancy Ward, and Marcus North to speak with him. His half-brother was still Praetor, despite his age.

"Is that gray hair I see on you, Marcus?" Lucius asked the Praetor.

"Brother," Marcus greeted.

"What did you wish to speak to us about?" William asked.

Lucius took a deep breath, then let it out.

"I wanted to discuss the continuation of the Order," Lucius said. The others looked at each other.

"Howard is already part of the Order," William responded. "What were your concerns?"

"I'm not comfortable having my kids join," Lucius said, standing his ground.

"Lucius, we know that you won't be around forever," Marcus spoke. "But you have to think about what's best for Rome."

"Which is why I don't want them to be part of this," Lucius responded. He knew that eventually his trait would show through them. He didn't want them to go through the same struggles he did from it being exposed, embraced. "If anything let my example be reason enough."

"I didn't force Howard to join, you know," William explained. "I gave him a choice. At least let them have that."

"Marcus and I agreed to have our kids join," Clancy interjected. "We have a duty to uphold. Our descendants also have that same duty to uphold."

If you only knew, Lucius wanted to say.

He couldn't dissuade them from barring his children to join the Order of Romulus when they were old enough, but maybe... he would allow them the choice of whether or not they could join.

"You can ask her to join," Lucius said. "After my passing. No sooner. If she does not want to, then you will never again ask her. The same goes for my son."

"Fair enough," Marcus said.

"Thank you," Lucius said. "That will be all."

He left the three men to their plots and schemes. Lucius would have his daughter have no part in it. There was the chance that she would accept it, but he hoped she wouldn't. He was about to leave the hidden lair of the Order of Romulus, when he saw a young teen sitting. His look was distressed. Lucius felt that someone his age shouldn't have to feel this way. He sat next to the blond boy.

"Evan, what's the matter?" Lucius asked the Centurion of the Fifth Cohort. The boy glanced at the son of Mars before answering him.

"Its the others, they won't listen to me," he said.

"What do you mean?" Lucius asked further.

"I feel like something bad is going to happen," Evan said. Lucius wanted to comfort him, but the boy was right. Something bad was going to happen. What was he supposed to say?

"Sometimes bad things happen, and there won't be anything we can do to stop them," Lucius said. At this point, he was speaking of himself. "But if you can see them coming, then you have to prepare for them. You have to do whatever you can."

"Whatever I have to do?" Evan asked.

"Yes, whatever you have to do, you do it," Lucius said.

"I-I will, I'll do whatever it takes," he replied.

With that, Lucius went back to his family and took them out for an outing. If this was going to be his last day, he was going to be happy. Despite the headaches, he took his family, his wife and two kids, out to the lake.

He took them to a place most people didn't know ho to get to. It was a large collection of boulders that were left from the war with the Giants. These rocks were one of the only few remnants of the age of conflict. This new generation - Katrina and Jacob, didn't know what it meant when the world was near the end.

From their view, Lucius saw his son playing on the water. He was glad he would never have to have the experience of drowning. His lineage from Neptune prevented him from that. He even had fun with the local naiads.

Lucius saw a group of people coming towards them. He went out to greet them. There were four of them. When they got closer, he realized there were two adults and twin girls. The father had dark, black hair, and sea green eyes, like Carolina, while the mother had light blue eyes and long, caramel-brown hair. One of the girls had brown hair and sea green eyes while the other had long, black hair and bright blue eyes. Except for their eye and hair color, they looked exactly the same.

"Lucius, Carolina, is that you?" Darrien asked as they got within talking distance. Lucius and Carolina went over to talk to them. "My gods, its been forever since we've seen you!"

"I know, its been, what... 15 years since the war ended?" Lucius said, shaking hands and hugging the man. Carolina hugged Arabella. "Its been a long time, Darrien. This must be your wife, but who are these two?"

"Yes, this is my wife, Arabella, and my two daughters, Joanna and Gwendolyn," Darrien introduced. Lucius was able to make the distinction, as their hair and eye colors were different.

"Hello," the twin girls said in unison.

Lucius noticed Katrina was a little freaked out by that, causing Darrien and Arabella to laugh. The girls looked about his daughter's age, but perhaps a year younger at most. Jacob had just come out of the lake, without a single drop of water dripping off of him. He stood by his sister.

"Hello there," Carolina said to her nieces, placing her hands on Jacob's shoulders. "Kids, this is your aunt Arabella and Uncle Darrine, and these two are your- "

"Cousins?" Jacob blurted out. The only cousins his children had spent any considerable amount of time with was Trent, Erin and Jacob's son. They usually visited their home in Lebanon, Kansas every summer, so they were planning on taking a vacation pretty soon.

At least that's what they would have done, if Lucius were to live past today.

"Yes, your cousins, Jacob," Lucius said in a firm voice to his son. "Don't be rude."

He wasn't being too mean, but knew he had to be firm early on. It was a trick he learned through parenting his daughter.

"I'm Jacob," his son introduced himself.

"And I'm Katrina," his daughter greeted in the same manner. He noticed she was wearing an awkward smile.

"Nice to meet you," Arabella said smiling.

"So what brings you guys out here?" Carolina asked.

"We wanted to get the girls started in the Legion next year," Darrien answered. "We were actually just visiting before we had them stay at Camp Half-blood for the summer. They'll be old enough and ready to start their service in the Legion. That should keep them busy for the next ten years."

"Oh really?" Lucius said. He knew his daughter had just finished her first year in the Legion, and made it out alive. To celebrate, she was having her take the summer off. It wasn't the Roman tradition, but Lucius had picked up the idea from the Greeks. The Romans were so stressed out being the camp for a whole ten years without a break. Lucius wanted the next generation to be more diplomatic, relaxed enough to not be seeking war like his generation had done. "Katrina is actually taking the summer off after finishing her first year. We were actually going to visit Jacob and your sister in a couple of weeks. Maybe you guys would be available then?"

Of all the deceptions Lucius could make, this one was particularly awful. It left a sour taste in his mouth after he spoke the words. He was never going to visit his best friend's family ever again.

"You guys were going to see Erin?" Darrien asked. He rubbed his chin, as if he were thinking for a moment. "Yeah, I think we would love to go with you guys. I haven't seen her since last year, so we might as well. I believe Trent is the same age as the girls."

"He really takes on like his father," Carolina commented. "Its almost like there's two of them running around. It must drive her insane time to time."

Lucius was beginning to drift away from the conversation then. His perception of reality was beginning to falter. His environment of a peaceful lake was being replaced of the same lake, except it was during the war. Clenching his fist, he fought to stay in control. He couldn't lose it in front of his family like this. He stood there, bearing a great amount of pain within him.

"Is something wrong, Lucius?" a voice asked. He was shot back to reality, with her hand on his back, rubbing the spot.

"Yeah, I remembered I had to do something," Lucius said, glancing to his daughter, Katrina. He felt his expression gave away his cover. He broke his sight and kissed his wife.

"Ew, gross," Jacob said, struggling to get away.

"I love you," Lucius said, staring right into her eyes. He kept staring until he knew that she understand what he was trying to say.

I'm dying.

He kissed her again.

"And I love you guys, more than you could ever know. I'll meet you guys back at the house," he said to them.

"Alright, just... just be careful, okay?" Carolina said. A small tear started to slip down her cheek. Lucius went off, while she wiped her face.

Lucius went off back to the house, by cutting through the boulders and grove. He was staggering at this point with the pain bearing down on him. If felt like there were needles being put into his head. He needed to find a spot to rest. Yes, he needed to rest.

He found a place to sit down and exhaled. He felt like the pain was getting worse, but at least he didn't have to worry about falling over. This was the end, he knew it. He knew it was coming and he welcomed, with arms wide open, under the sunlight.

The hallucinations were getting worse by the minute. He was halfway to Tartarus at this point, just sitting there, his mind rotting to mush. He saw things he never wanted to see again. Most of it was like this. It wasn't until he began to hear the sounds of jet engine roar in his head did he feel some familiarity.

He saw faces.

He saw the faces of the people he knew. Friends, enemies, rivals, and allies. Charlotte was guiding him through this. Jacob, Erin, Darrien, Arabella, Gary, Brian, Octavian, Mark, Jack, Abbey, Nero, Johnathan, Edward, Liam, Kori, Ryan, Leah, Alex, Nick, Clancy, Marcus, Reyna, Percy, Jason, Frank, Chiron, Lupa, Annabeth, Mckenna, Chris, MacKenzie, Carlisle, Templeton, Mars, Hecate, Carolina, his mother, and of course, Charlotte.

He saw the good times and bad with them all. His friendly rivalry with Abbey, his friendship with Jacob, his relationship with Erin, with Ryan, Gary, and the other Greeks. He saw his half-sister Kori, happy and full of life. He saw an Alex who nodded at him. Clancy, who stood against him in the Coliseum. Marcus, who stood by him. He saw when he clashed swords with Mckenna, with Nick. He saw himself sitting with Carolina on a beach. No war, no scars, no loss. Just love. Just life.

Charlotte stood in front of him, her hand extended.

"I know you," he said to his half-sister. "I know you, I know you."

"We are only as great as our hearts allow, Lucius," Charlotte said. She was grown up, not the little girl he thought he knew. "What awaits us?"

Lucius reached out with his frail hand to Charlotte's. He got a hold of it.

Daddy!

He heard an echo, growing more and more distant.

Charlotte noted it, and nodded. Lucius saw it was his daughter at his side. She was in tears, trying to wake him up. Lucius traced the outline of her face with his finger.

Grow strong, Katrina. He tried to say to her.

Grow strong.

Colors faded and the light around him was withdrawing. In the approaching darkness, Lucius was taken away from the this world, from his toils and worries. He had left everything he could do prepare them for this inevitable sorrow. It was up to them now.

It was up to them now, as the circle was completed.

At last, Lucius Darrow found peace.