A/N: thanks to everyone who's read this so far! just as a note, this is pre-written and updates every monday and friday. I also post about updates on my tumblr ( timelesslords) and updates usually go up sooner on AO3 (also timelesslords) just bc the doc manager on here is a pain. the ao3 version also has content versions on each chapter if that's something you're interested in

If they hadn't been riding towards an impossible goal, the journey might've been pleasant.

The early summer sun had taken her heat with her, leaving the air slightly muggy, but pleasantly cool. With each passing hour throwing them into colder and colder weather, Annabeth was glad for her new cloak. It was lightweight enough to breathe, but still warm enough to protect her from the chill of the night.

Venus's blessing proved itself useful in other ways, too. As Annabeth had predicted, they passed two checkpoints in the first few hours. They surely would have been found out if not for the Mist obscuring their faces, and Piper's charmspeak assuring the guards that they were just simple travellers, with no need for identification or payment. They passed through both easily.

Piper had taken to riding up front, to be the first to meet any other guards they met along the way. Jason had joined her, riding his horse alongside hers. They were talking quietly in the moonlight. Jason reached over, brushed his fingers in her newly short hair. He said something Annabeth couldn't discern, and Piper's soft laughter traveled back down the road.

"They seem happy."

Annabeth turned, Perseus had pulled his dark horse beside hers. He had previously been behind her.

"They usually are, if they are together," Annabeth replied. Few people were lucky enough to marry for love, and most men of Jason's rank found comfort in women other than their wives. But Jason was too good a man to, even if he hadn't loved Piper. And he did, sincerely, love Piper. She had held his heart from the first moment they had met, and they had been practically inseparable since.

"You weren't lying about him," Perseus said. His voice was low, probably so Piper and Jason couldn't hear him, though Annabeth doubted that they would notice; they were so wrapped up in their own conversation.

"Do you think me a liar?" Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow. Perseus gave her a pointed look, as best as he could manage through the Mist still covering her face, and Annabeth was suddenly reminded that she had lied to him before. She shifted her eyes away from him, hoping the darkness would hide the redness that was surely creeping up her neck.

"A bad one," Perseus said finally, sounding a little amused.

"Why don't you just expose me then, and be done with it," Annabeth said, her voice barely above a whisper. To her surprise, Perseus frowned.

"Why would I do that?" he asked. He sounded genuinely confused. Annabeth did not bother looking at his face to confirm his tone. She was sure it would match.

"Why wouldn't you? If I'm exposed, you wouldn't be spared, if they realize you knew," Annabeth said. Then adding, after a moment's reflection,

"You don't know why I keep it a secret."

"Exactly. You clearly have your reasons," he said, easily.

Now Annabeth stared at him. She didn't understand why he would put himself on the line like this for her, hardly knowing her. How could he not understand that her reasons for keeping it a secret could only be horrible, when the people she was keeping it from were so good?

He looked back at her, totally earnest.

"You confuse me," Annabeth admitted, turning away again. That elicited a laugh from him.

"What about me confuses you?" he asked.

Everything, Annabeth wanted to say. He was a walking contradiction. And maybe he was asking that question in jest, but she wanted answers, and she had a feeling if she asked he would provide them.

"How can you be the son of Poseidon, but not Neptune?"

A light smile played at his lips.

"I hail from a small island, off the coast of Greece. The Romans did not think us important enough to bother with, and left us alone. We still practice the old ways, worship the old gods."

"But has Poseidon not… morphed, I suppose, into Neptune?" Annabeth asked, struggling to find the right words to express her confusion.

"In a way. It isn't all clear, even to me," Perseus admitted, "As an island, we need the sea. It gives us food, controls our weather, changes our landscape. It gives life in a way it never has for this empire," he gestured broadly to the countryside around them.

"Poseidon is our most important god, the one we sacrifice our best spoils, venerate the most. The collective power of my home's worship drew his Greek form, rather than his Roman."

"So…" Annabeth said, trying to sort the information in her head, arrange it in a way that made sense, "The gods shift based on the priorities of their worshipers. And if a community was isolated and dedicated enough, they could call upon a less dominant aspect?"

Perseus nodded.

"Essentially."

Annabeth let that information settle. Something about it was making her nervous, scratching an itch in her brain.

"Are there more places like your home? That follow the old ways?" Annabeth asked, trying to keep her voice light. She wasn't sure how well it worked, but Perseus did not seem to find her question particularly odd.

"Perhaps," he said, looking thoughtful, "There are still pockets that Rome has not touched, but they grow smaller every year."

"And the old forms of the gods," Annabeth asked. She was sure she was pushing her luck now, but she could not resist asking anyways, "You say some are different, and some are not."

"It depends. Venus and Aphrodite did not shift, because love is constant, unchanging. Bacchus and Dionysus are much the same. Wine has not changed much, either," Perseus said.

"And the gods who have changed?" Annabeth asked, her pulse quickening. Without meaning to, she locked eyes with him.

He opened his mouth to answer, but before the words could leave his lips, a scream tore through the night air. He whipped his head forward, in the direction it had come from.

"What was that?" He called, loud enough that Jason and Piper could hear also. They had noticed, and were peering curiously into the night just as Percy and Annabeth were.

"It–" Jason said, leaning forward slightly on his horse. Then his shoulders tensed, and he whipped the horse's reins, shooting off into the night.

"What in Hades," Perseus muttered, compelling his horse forward at a similar pace. Annabeth and Piper followed, and it soon became clear why Jason had torn off.

There was a checkpoint ahead, but the soldiers guarding it were scattered. One was lying on the ground, clearly injured, the others were trying to fight something. At first Annabeth thought it was just a great wall of darkness, but then the figure shifted, turning its head towards the newcomers. Great, glowing, red eyes stared out into the night.

Annabeth's heart plummeted.

One of the soldiers took the monster's distraction as an opportunity to attack, but his sword sailed harmlessly through the creature's neck, like it was made of shadow. It snarled, knocking the soldier aside with its great head.

"It's a hellhound!" Annabeth yelled, spurring her horse on, despite the fact that it had started to balk. Annabeth couldn't blame it, but she still had to get closer to the fight.

Jason had already abandoned his horse. He ran towards the beast, his golden sword drawn. Piper followed suit, and swearing Annabeth slid off her own mount, drawing her knife as she did.

The hellhound took a swipe at Jason with its enormous paw, but Jason caught its claws on his sword.

"Run!" he yelled to the mortal soldiers. Unfortunately, most of them seemed to be frozen in fear, and in the time Jason had taken to yell at them the hellhound had unlatched itself from Jason's sword.

One of the soldiers stood, the one who had been knocked aside earlier. Now that she was closer, Annabeth could make out his face: it was Fai, the centurion they had met just a day earlier. His right cheek was scraped and bleeding slightly.

"Leave!" Piper yelled at them, and her charmspeak seemed enough to break through their paralyzing fear. Every soldier but Fai turned and ran back up the road. Annabeth was used to Piper's charmspeak, but even she had to fight to keep herself moving forward instead of away.

Somehow Fai had been resistant to Piper's magic, but Annabeth didn't see how that would help any of them now. His sword and bow were made of mortal metal, and useless against the monster.

The hellhound roared furiously, showing off its razor-sharp teeth. Jason had gotten a good strike with his sword, but it was not enough to dissolve the monster, just anger it. Piper tried to sneak up from behind with her knife, but the hellhound was expecting it, and aimed a kick at her. It caught Piper's side just as she was moving away, throwing her off the side of the road, into the grass.

"Piper!" Jason yelled; but his distraction was a mistake. The hellhound caught Jason with its head, tossing him aside just as it had Fai seconds earlier.

Annabeth cursed, picking up speed and closing the distance between herself and the monster. There was no time to check on her friends, she would just have to hope they were not too injured. She caught a flash of bronze out of the corner of her eye, and a second later Perseus flew past her, still on Blackjack's back.

"Distract it!" Annabeth called, "I can take it from behind!"

"That didn't work so well before!" Perseus called back, but he rode up to the Hellhound's front anyways.

Annabeth skirted along its side, trying to find a clear target with her knife. Hellhounds were most vulnerable on their stomachs, and if Perseus kept the head busy enough it might not notice her going underneath.

Annabeth heard Perseus yelling at the beast, taunting it with his sword. She heard another voice in the mix, but could not be sure who exactly it was. Whatever they said, it caused Perseus to laugh, even as he fought the hellhound.

The hellhound pulled back again on its back haunches as if to pounce, and Annabeth saw her opportunity. She dove in the space underneath its belly, slashing upwards with her knife as she did. With a normal animal she might've been met with blood and some more unpleasant insides, but being a monster it simply dissolved into a flash of yellow sulphurous dust.

She sat up, breathing heavily. Perseus was dismounting his horse, making his way towards her. Fai was standing next to Blackjack, a quizzical look on his face. He did not seem to notice Blackjack sniffing his shoulder.

"That was clever." Perseus said, holding out a hand to help her up. She took it, already looking behind her, into the field where Piper had been thrown. But Piper was already standing, wiping a bit of blood from a cut under her eye. Jason appeared next to Fai a second later, still holding his golden sword loosely in his hand.

"So that was the hellhound you spoke of?" Fai asked. Everyone turned to look at him, but he was asking Annabeth.

"Yes," Annabeth said. She tucked her knife back into her belt, looking down so she would not feel everyone's eyes on her.

"You all know each other?" Perseus asked, looking between the rest of the group, like he was trying to find the connection. Piper's face was marred with slight confusion, but she said nothing.

"Only briefly," Annabeth admitted.

"Fai and I have met several times before." Jason said, "We saw each other just yesterday."

Perseus was still next to Annabeth, but he was studying Fai's face carefully.

"You are a half-blood," Perseus said. Fai looked embarrassed, a patchy red blush creeping up his neck.

"You are?" Jason asked, surprised. Fai grimaced.

"A son of Mars," he admitted. His hand settled on a pouch attached to his belt, his fingers playing with the latch nervously.

"Why did you never say anything?" Jason asked. He seemed more excited than betrayed, but there was a lingering confusion in his words. Fai shrugged.

"I wanted to make my own path. I didn't want people to treat me differently because of my father."

Jason nodded like he understood, which, of course, he did.

"I can't say I blame you for that," he said.

"It certainly has gotten us into a lot of trouble lately." Piper sighed, wrapping her cloak more firmly around her shoulders. Annabeth was suddenly reminded that they were fugitives, and more importantly Fai shouldn't have even been able to see their faces. She looked at Piper and Jason again, but the Mist seemed to have faded.

"Venus's blessing is gone," she said. Piper and Jason immediately turned to look at each other, faces falling when they realized they could actually see each other.

"We probably drew too much attention to ourselves," Perseus guessed, studying Annabeth's face carefully, like he was trying to find the last strands of her disguise. Annabeth leveled his gaze, trying to keep the blush from creeping onto her cheeks. Then he looked away, and Annabeth could breathe again.

"The whole province is looking for you," Fai said. He clearly was not following the entire conversation, but based on the way everyone was staring at each other he had probably gathered the bulk of what was happening.

"Whatever they said we did–" Jason started, but Fai was already shaking his head.

"It was obviously false."

"But what excuse did they use? And where are these orders to search for us coming from?" Piper asked. Some magic had slipped into her words, probably without her meaning to. She was prone to falling into charmspeak when she was stressed.

"It was, uh. Something about inciting rebellion?" Fai said, wincing. His hand was playing with the straps on his pouch again. "They said the graecus corrupted you, turned you against the empire."

Fai's eyes flickered surreptitiously towards Perseus as he said this. Either his description had travelled fast, or Fai had good senses.

"What, overnight?" Jason asked, incredulously.

"I'm not that convincing," Perseus muttered, low enough that probably only Annabeth heard. It might've been funny if the conversation was not so serious.

"Well, that was what made it so clear it was a lie," Fai said, shrugging, "As for who is giving the orders, all I know is that it comes from far up the chain of command."

"They must have been planning this for a while, and were forced to execute it early last night. There is no other reason it could be so sloppy and come from so far above," Annabeth said.

The thought scared her, but the more information they got the more she was convinced it was true; Jason had always been unpopular among his colleagues, but things had clearly reached a breaking point. The quest had been the final straw.

If Perseus had not shown up and forced them to act early, would they have succeeded?

Piper clearly seemed to be thinking the same thing, because she slipped her hand into Jason's.

"We have to reach the port," she said.

"There are at least three more checkpoints between here and there." Fai said.

"We have more problems than that. The horses," Jason said grimly, pointing his sword back down the road. The horses were gone, either too scared by the monster, or maybe influenced by Piper's charmspeak. Blackjack was the only one that remained.

Annabeth glanced at Perseus. He had probably only had the focus to control his own horse while fighting the monster.

"We can make do without," Annabeth said. She tried to keep her voice confident, but this was a low blow. It would take twice as long to reach the port without the horses, and they had also carried off most of their supplies.

"We can't continue on the road. Once word gets out about what happened here, they'll double the checks," Perseus said.

"They'll also know that you stayed with us," Jason said, turning to Fai, "I'm sorry to get you caught up in this mess."

Fai just shrugged, though he looked tired.

"If you hadn't shown up here, we might have all been dead anyways."

"Come with us," Perseus said, suddenly. All eyes turned towards him.

"The gods have given us a quest," Perseus said, for Fai's benefit, "And I think it was designed that we would meet you here. You are meant to come with us."

"How can you be so sure?" Fai asked. He seemed to be trying to keep his face neutral, but little lines were forming between his eyes.

"What are the odds of meeting another demigod here, especially a friend? We will need all the help we can get. This was a sign."

Perseus seemed confident about this, so confident that Annabeth wondered if there was something else going on, if he had information the rest of them did not. He had known so quickly that Fai was a half-blood, and though he had told Annabeth earlier that he could spot them easily, this had seemed absurdly quick. He couldn't know Fai, that would be impossible, and Fai had not recognized him anyways. Perhaps Apollo had told him more than he was letting on.

Either way, Fai did not seem so sure.

"I have no weapon. No useful one, anyways," he said, holding up his sword. It had, indeed, been useless against the hellhound. But Perseus seemed to think this unimportant.

"There is more to a quest than fighting monsters."

Annabeth glanced at Jason and Piper, to gauge their reactions. Piper was wearing a forced look of indifference, perhaps out of habit. Jason was frowning, but when he spoke it was not exactly in opposition to the suggestion.

"It will be dangerous. But I can't guarantee your safety here, if they find that you consorted with us now. If they get paranoid enough you may be in danger just from your previous proximity to me."

Fai considered, picking at the straps on his leather pouch. His hand had not left it since they started the conversation in earnest.

Annabeth felt bad for him. His two choices now consisted of joining a dangerous quest he knew nothing about, or potentially getting caught in political crosshairs through no fault of his own.

"This would be desertion," Fai said, "If we return, they would have every right to execute me."

"And if you stay, they may make you out as a traitor, and execute you anyways," Perseus said evenly.

Fai studied his face carefully, like he was searching for something or someone he recognized. Annabeth could not tell if he found what he was looking for or not.

"Is it true what they say? That you are a son of Poseidon?" Fai asked, finally.

Whatever Annabeth had been expecting him to say, it had not been that. Jason looked equally surprised, but Perseus did not seem to find it odd at all.

"It's true," Perseus confirmed. Fai nodded, as if this had made up his mind, though Annabeth could not imagine why it would make a difference.

"I will come with you," Fai decided, "But only if you think there is use for me."

"There will be," Perseus assured him. He sounded so sure, Annabeth nearly became convinced alongside him.

"We have to go. The sun will be up soon," Piper said, pointing to the horizon. Sure enough, pink rays of sun were starting to peer over the edge of the hills. Without Venus's blessing, they would be completely exposed in the sunlight.

"We can take the path by the stream. It's not far from here," Perseus said.

Nobody argued. It was the best option, now that their disguises and horses were gone, even if it was slower. Perseus mounted Blackjack easily, and led them off the road.