AN: Thanks a lot for all the positive feedback I got. Really happy to hear that so many people seem to like my story so far.

The formatting seems to slightly get messed up between saving the Doc and converting it into a chapter. Sorry, I didn't realize it sooner. I tried putting in a line breaker in between different parts in this chapter. Hope it's easier to read now.

Next update planned for next weekend. No promises though.

Chapter 13: A Victory for both sides

POV: Percy

We waited in front of the exit pool of the 'Thrill Ride of Love'. We could hear the motorcycle coming closer, the crashing sound of it blowing straight through an obstacle until it finally appeared coming to a stop right in front of us.

Ares had a fiery expression on his face. The kind that tells you he would kill you if you say something wrong. So naturally, I decided to make him as angry as I could.

"I really don't understand what the problem was supposed to be," I said, throwing the shield to him. "That wasn't that difficult. Are you that scared of Cupid statues you couldn't fetch it yourself?"

Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I could feel a hot wind arising. "You should better be careful before I decide to turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley," he growled.

Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.

"But I guess you have done your part, so I will honor our agreement," he said, picking up a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it at me with more force than necessary.

Inside was the same stuff as last time, fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.

"What's that supposed to be?" I asked. "That wasn't part of our agreement. We don't even need anything that's in there."

Ares's eyes started to burn brighter. "Weren't you just now boasting how good a job you did? A god is giving you something extra. You better be thankful and take it."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I am o so thankful," I said wryly, "for being forced to take it. Now, how about we get to what you really promised us?"

"You sure you can handle the news?" he sneered at me. "Your mothers not dead."

I gave him a deadpan look. "Duh."

"We already know that," Annabeth put in. "That's not what we want to know."

He laughed. "That's your problem then." He kick-started his motorcycle. "As for the second part of the agreement. When you return to the diner, you will fin-"

"That wasn't the agreement," Annabeth interrupted him.

Ares looked confused at her. "What?"

"The deal was, that we have an open favor, and we can ask something we want to know," she lectured him.

I smirked. "These were the conditions I gave, and you agreed upon. So, you rather break an oath on the Styx, or adhere to the conditions?"

Realization appeared on his face. "You tricked me!" he shouted.

"It was rather easy, too." Surprisingly, it was Annabeth who told him this.

His sunglasses were starting to melt from the heat of his eyes.

For a moment he looked like he was going to kill us, but seemed to decide otherwise. He was able to ground out, "What do you want."

Annabeth and I had talked it over, there were a few things we could ask now, but we had decided it would be a good thing to have an open favor from the War god in case Kronos tried something unexpected.

"We will hold onto the favor for now," I told him.

Ares growled but kept quiet. He most likely thought along the lines of him not having to do anything if we died before we could ask of something.

"But there is one piece of information we want now," Annabeth added. "During the time the 'Heart of the West' was in the Hittite Empire, you fought over where to move it between Greece and Troy," Annabeth said. "But the entire war and its end were planned by Zeus. He allowed you to interfere and prevent a clear Greek victory. Instead, you split into Greek and Roman sides, moving to both. What was it that Zeus planned, that made the council agree to him?"

This was the point we had been waiting for. To finally prove our theory. "Pretend all our suspicions are true," Annabeth had said to me. "First you stir up his emotions, then I will ask the question in such a way, we get as much information as possible. Watch closely how he reacts; he will assume we already know and reveal more information to us than he is aware of."

I could see a variety of emotions cross his face when Annabeth said this; shock, anger, fear.

In the end, he laughed, but I heard a little edge to his laughter … an uneasiness. "Made them look stupid, didn't I. How they killed off their own side in anger afterward. Would have been even better, if your annoying mother hadn't protected some of them."

He thought for a moment then sneered at us. "There was not much to it, really. We would just split our power. Spread it to a further area. We would watch over both sides, improve their powers. After 1000 years we would let them fight it out. The winner would be the one more worthy and we would stay with them for all time. Creating a bigger domain of power we would be able to control in the process. Our power was over the whole of Europe, the Mediterranean, Ethiopia, Persia, the area of the Black Sea."

He stopped. This seemed all he was going to tell us. Nothing about Zeus behind the scene deals. The question hadn't included that information, only what Zeus had told the council. But there was no need for us to ask. It was obvious what Zeus's true goal was in the end. To form a completely new civilization in his ideal and then after a thousand-year time, win against the other side. After that, the mortals would respect him more than anyone else, and his feared rivals be permanently weakened.

But it hadn't happened like this. Something went wrong. And now came the part in which Annabeth would pull out as much information about it as possible.

"After a thousand years, the Romans won against the Greeks," Annabeth said. "And yet, here we are, Greek demigods and you are not Mars, but Ares. How come?"

Ares didn't answer, but when Annabeth had called him Mars, only for a moment, there had been a flicker, and Ares grabbed his head as if he had a headache.

There was a flicker of triumph in Annabeth's eyes and she went on, "Because it wasn't what happened. You made a mistake. Instead of splitting your power, you split yourself in two. You wanted to be in two different places, but split yourself into two personalities, two aspects, different from each other instead."

I kept my eyes locked on Ares while Annabeth talked. What she said seemed to cause him pain.

"And when the time came, your Greek personalities refused to accept defeat, to bow before the victor."

Ares let go of his head. "I WILL NEVER BOW MY HEAD!" he screamed, but I had the feeling as if he wasn't speaking to us, but rather someone else inside his own mind.

"You just proved my point," Annabeth said. "The attempt to piece yourself together failed because you fought against yourselves. In the end, you gave up on it and instead split apart again. Just like the 'Roman Empire' did. Graeco-Roman, East and West. Two different hearts, moving separately from each other within Europe."

The way she said it sounded like she was telling known facts, and not uttering a suspicion she had pieced together from all the information we had learned recently, and what she knew about history and mythology. But I could see from Ares's reaction that everything she said was true.

"The 'Western Roman Empire' collapsed, and the Roman heart moved on. The 'Frankish Empire', having Rome as its ideal, rose in power until it splintered. One part became later France, but the other would be known as the 'Holy Roman Empire', and later after the First World War, what is now often called the 'Third Reich'. It was the third 'Roman Empire'. "

Ares looked as if he wanted to say something, but still seemed in too much pain, and so, Annabeth mercilessly went on. "The 'Eastern Roman Empire', now better known as the 'Byzantine Empire', became Greek again and survived for some time longer, but in the end, they collapsed as well, and the Greek heart moved on. The 'Grand Duchy of Moscow', claiming to be their successor, grew in power and later became the 'Russian Empire'."

While I had to admit, that I had no deep information about some of these nations she named, they were famous enough that I had at least heard of them. Annabeth seemed to give a history lesson, but I could guess she was after the question of how they ended up here, seemingly in the same place and body again.

"All of these nations have in common that they saw themselves as the successors of the 'Roman Empire', either from the western-Roman or eastern-Greek side. Both sides claimed to be the true successor, and thus the rightful rulers in its entirety," she said.

Annabeth had really gotten into it. The way she always got when she found out something new. Ares in turn was getting angrier and angrier, slowly getting in control of himself again. He didn't seem to share Annabeth's enthusiasm about history.

"You never really moved on from Greek and Rome, stayed the same till today. That's why you still consider yourself Greek even now. The East and West always clashed, but never more so, than during the two World Wars. They were worse than everything before them, you almost destroyed the entirety of the civilizations you have bound yourself to, didn't you?" She asked, but didn't seem to expect an answer from him, but went on instead. "So, you decided you have to try again. You moved out of your old zone of influence to America. It is a single country, but big enough to have enough room to separate your children. It would give you the opportunity to try to mend the world and yourself back together."

"ENOUGH!" Ares finally lost it completely. "Enough. You are as annoying as your mother. Why even ask if you already know the answer, you annoying little brat."

He was seething. The way Clarisse normally looked after the Stolls had played a big prank on her cabin.

"And there is no point in being so stuck up. To begin with, your mother was the worst of us all. Always whining, going on and on about how weak her other half was, how she would never accept this." He was breathing heavily. " That at least would be acceptable, but her other side was even worse. That one didn't even try fighting. Instead immediately surrendered herself to your mother after we finished the transfer."

I shot a quick look at Annabeth, but she was focused on what Ares said.

His eyes were full of hate when he locked his sight onto me. "And then your father. When we finally broke free after Rome again, he and old Corpse Breath refused to physically split with their other aspect again. 'There is no point in this,' they said. 'Our domains are difficult enough to control without having to fight ourselves.' Instead, he followed Hades' example, left Olympus, and withdrew into his own domain too."

The air around him was practically burning, so much heat was generated by him.

Ares sneered. "They only came when it was really necessary. Always doing their own thing. Spain, Britain, your father only cared about naval might. Our chosen nations never were good enough for him. Favored those that explored his Seas instead. And Hades, who even knows wherever he went. Those two traitors were all too happy with moving here. Taking this opportunity," He spat, getting louder with every sentence until he was screaming at us. "I am different. I. Will. Bow. To. None."

With this it was final. We now knew what happened. After three thousand years, the gods were finally beginning to fix their mistakes. But it was not enough. The enemies of Olympus were reviving. Monsters, Titans, were becoming dangerous again, and not all gods had been able to piece themselves back together yet. That's why some acted so emotional, they were failing to complete themselves again. That was what Echidna had meant when she called me a true child of the Sea God. My father and Hades seemed to have realized this first, even sooner than Athena it would seem. I wondered which of the other immortals had understood this as well.

But more importantly for ourselves, this meant that there had to be a Roman camp somewhere. The Greeks were always in the East, and since we were on the East Coast, did that mean the Roman camp was somewhere on the West Coast? But where? We weren't supposed to know about them, so a place we were not supposed to go…

What had Annabeth said? You cannot live in San Francisco? She had said it was because of Mount Othrys, but was that really true? We were close to Mount Olympus, so maybe the Romans were close to Mount Othrys instead? Was that what they had been doing during the war? Trying to conquer the Titans' headquarters? But that would mean that the war had been even worse than we had realized.

PJ & AC

I shared a look with Annabeth. We had time to talk about this later. We had already the lightning bolt, or at least the sheath it would return to. Now it was finally time to claim the second item Kronos had tried to steal. Ares experienced some type of discomfort earlier, and he was completely agitated by now. It would be easy to goad him into fighting with us this time.

I lifted the backpack Ares had given us and threw it as far as I could.

It worked as intended and grabbed Ares's attention. "What do you think you're doing!" he growled.

I said nothing, waiting until the bag appeared slung over my shoulder again.

"Quite a useful ability for a simple backpack to have, isn't it? It seems to work almost the same way as my blade. I wonder what's really supposed to be in there. Maybe some kind of weapon like, let's say a … lightning bolt perhaps?" I wondered, then snipped with my fingers. "Oh my, what a coincidence. There was one stolen recently. And it just so happens that you were one of the people sent after the thief."

We had unbalanced Ares completely by now. He was easily readable but tried to cover his true mood with a smirk. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

I uncapped Riptide, pointing it at his chest.

"I'm not surprised. Only an enemy of Olympus or an idiot like you would think a three-way war between my father and uncles would be a good idea. Did you even realize that somebody else played you?" I shook my head. "What am I even asking for, of course, you didn't. More importantly, now, it wasn't the only thing you took from the thief. The Helm of Darkness, you better give it up to us … or else."

Ares's face was purple with rage. He was influenced by Kronos, but there were only so many insults he was able to ignore. And I had reached the threshold a long time ago. "Watch it, kid. I could turn you into—"

"Did my words hurt your feelings?" I interrupted. "Or maybe you are too scared of a little demigod? I thought you were supposed to be the God of War, and not a little girl. No, I take that back, Allapsar has shown to be by far braver than you are. "

He was dispersing enough heat that the ground around him started melting now. "Oh, man," he laughed hotly. "You are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."

"Blah blah blah," I said. "Let's have a duel until first blood. But we make it double-or-nothing. If you win, you get back the Lightning Bolt, you no longer owe us a favor and you can do what you want with both of us. If I win, we get both the Lightning Bolt and Helm of Darkness, you owe us two favors, and you leave and promise to not interfere with us anymore. Let's swear it on the Styx again, wouldn't want you to chicken out in the end."

Ares showed me a cruel smile, as if he was thinking about how he could hurt me the most, but swore on the Styx with me.

He drew his hunting knife from his tight. "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?"

I showed him my sword.

"That's cool, dead boy," he said. "Classic it is."

The hunting knife changed into a huge, two-handed sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.

"Percy," Annabeth whispered, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Be careful. Don't underestimate him."

I gave her a smile. "I know," I answered. "Do I get a real kiss too?"

She returned the smile. "If we survive this, maybe," she said while moving to the side.

"You all done saying good-bye?" Ares came toward me, his black leather duster trailing behind him, his sword glinting like fire in the sunset. "I've been fighting for eternity, kid. My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have you got?"

Was it just me or did he say the exact same thing the last time? He really should work on his taunts, but looking at him, he most likely could not think of anything better. He was hardly able to even keep his rage down, much less form a rational thought. I figured he would either try toying with me or finish me off in one hit, so I better be prepared for both. I let myself slowly fall back in direction of the pool.

"Already running away?" Ares taunted. "Your mouth bigger than your sword?"

I ignored him. If I was lucky, it would help in lowering his guard.

I had already reached the edge of the pool, and Ares was almost in reach now. He would attack the moment I would make the last step, so I had to do something else. He wouldn't expect me to go forward instead of retreating. I doubted he would leave himself open enough for me to hit him, but I would be able to deflect his sword and get him between me and the pool. Then I could harass him with water from both sides, distracting him and giving me a chance to strike.

That was the plan, but it didn't work out like this. Strangely, my plans never seemed to do, but this time was different than normal.

Both of us moved at the same moment. I jumped forward while he attacked. My blade swung to deflect the sword strike he undoubtedly would use, but there was no sword.

I slashed with Riptide unhindered.

Ares roared, I felt searing hot air hit me and I was blown away by the shockwave, plowing into, and killing the photo-board of Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale.

I shook off my dizziness and climbed out of the debris. Riptide was still in my hand, but there was golden Ichor dripping from the blade. What in Hera's name had happened?

"Well, I have to say that was kind of anticlimactic," Annabeth said, appearing right next to me, sounding amused, the edges of her lips slightly turned upward.

I looked over where Ares was. The water in the pool was gone. He alone stood stock-still the same place he had been before. His sword was gone, instead, he was holding a spear.

I understood what happened. He had attempted to trick me with his sword and use the larger range of the spear to finish me off in one stroke. Cold sweat dripped over my back. If I had retreated further, if I had done anything but a head-on attack, I would most likely be dead.

Golden Ichor flowed from a large gash in Ares's side. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was the same as last time; pain, shock, and complete disbelief that he'd been wounded.

He started coming toward us, muttering ancient Greek curses.

I raised my blade again. I hoped any moment now Kronos would interfere.

But instead of it getting darker, there was a sudden flash of light in the sky, attracting our attention.

PJ & AC

Towering over us was a woman in a glittering sleeveless dress, a golden spear aimed downward. She had piled-up braids of dark hair circled with a gilded laurel wreath. Her expression was wide-eyed and a little crazy, like a child overdosed on too much sugar and caffeine on a day in an amusement park. The most eye-catching things on her were her wings though. Wings, like those you would expect an Angel to have. But unlike an Angel's, hers were polished gold, and blindingly bright. Maybe they were to simulate the halo this angel was clearly missing.

She tucked her wings in, dropping downward, landing on the ground with a crash, a small crater forming around the point of impact.

Ares growled loudly upon seeing her. His anger only growing. "Nike! This was your doing, wasn't it? You better leave now or you will feel the wrath of the God of War."

I gulped. Great, I thought, a goddess I never wanted to meet. But what was she doing here?

Ares's anger didn't seem to face her the least. It looked more like she was yearning for a fight with him. "I did no such thing," she said. "And I will not let you taint this victory, Ares. Stand down now, grant these demigods their spoils of war and begone. If you dare to break the oath to my mother, I will not be the only one you will face."

Ares looked stunned but in the end, he lowered his sword.

After a moment of silence, he finally said, "You always favor Athena over me."

He didn't sound like a god. No, he sounded like a sulking kindergartner that someone had taken his favorite toy away.

When Nike answered, I almost laughed out loud. "Of course, I always favor the winner after all."

Are looked even worse now. As if he was uncertain if he should start the next World War for this insult, or rather run to daddy to complain about how unfair life was.

He stood there frozen for a moment until he jerked his head to me. "You have made an enemy, godling," he told me. "You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware."

His body began to glow, and we turned away.

When I looked again, he was gone, as was the motorcycle. Instead, the familiar form of the Helm of Darkness laid on the ground. But I could only stare at the place he had disappeared from. Did he just curse me after he promised on the Styx, he would no longer interfere with us? Really?

How do curses even work? Was that even allowed to curse somebody for the only reason being that you lost to them?

I stopped wondering when I remembered we weren't alone.

Nike was looking at us, but her wide-eyed stare unnerved me.

"I have watched you for some time," she told us.

Yeah, that didn't sound creepy at all.

"Victory over victory," she said. "You fight worthy of your parents, and yet you show no arrogance in victory, but reverence to me. After this great victory, I feel you deserve a gi-"

Whatever she wanted to say, she didn't get to finish, because, for some reason, Kronos chose this moment to interfere.

The last bit of light faded. Sound and color drained away. Kronos' cold and heavy presence passed over the water park, making time slow and the temperature to freezing. I had to fight off the feeling of hopelessness that suddenly washed over me.

I was confused, looking around. What was he trying to achieve?

"Argghh!" Nike clutched the side of her head.

The goddess shuddered. It looked as if there were two separate images of her overlapping. The picture reminded me of Janus, a single body, but two different people in it. The images flickered as if fighting over dominance until they completely split into two different people facing each other.

On the left was the first version: glittery sleeveless dress, dark hair circled with laurels, golden wings folded behind her. On the right was a different version, dressed for war in a Roman breastplate and greaves. Short auburn hair peeked out from the rim of a tall helmet. Her wings were feathery white, her dress purple, and the shaft of her spear was fixed with a plate-sized Roman insignia – a golden SPQR in a laurel wreath.

"I am Nike!" cried the one on the left.

"I am Victoria!" cried the one on the right.

Earlier she had already looked as if she wasn't quite sane, but now the two of them looked utterly mad. They were facing off, their spears pointed at each other's hearts.

"I am the decider of victory!" Nike screamed. "Once I stood at the corner of Zeus's temple, venerated by all! I oversaw the games of Olympia. Offerings from every city-state were piled at my feet!"

"Games are irrelevant!" yelled Victoria. "I am the goddess of success in battle! Roman generals worshipped me! Augustus himself erected my altar in the Senate House!"

"Ahhhh!" both screamed in agony. "We must decide! We must have victory!"

I understood what had happened of course. These were the two sides of her alright, Roman and Greek. But was the split really that bad? The two looked ready to gut each other. No. Earlier Nike had looked strained but had been in complete control. This was Kronos' doing. Was that what he had done the last time as well? To pit the gods' two sides against each other?

"My lady," Annabeth said, stepping forward, "you are confused. You are two aspects of the same. If your Greek and Roman sides fight, there will be no winner."

"No winner?" Nike looked shocked. "There is always a winner! One winner. Everyone else is a loser! Otherwise, victory is meaningless. I suppose you want me to give certificates to all the contestants? Little plastic trophies to every single athlete or soldier for participation? Should we all line up and shake hands and tell each other, Good game? No! Victory must be real. It must be earned. That means it must be rare and difficult, against steep odds, and defeat must be the other possibility."

What she said did not make sense to me. There is always a winner? All my experience told me otherwise. We had prevented Kronos' plans when we got the golden fleece, after the Battle of the Labyrinth, but neither of them had been a real win for us either. No, there wouldn't always be a winner. And I was sure, that if the two of them fought now, the only winner would be Kronos.

"But the real enemy is Kronos," I said. "This fight isn't between the Greeks and Romans."

They didn't listen.

Victoria roared, "The Greeks must perish!"

"Victory or death!" Nike wailed. "One side must prevail!"

Why was I trying to reason with crazy people again?

"Look, Miss Victory …" I tried for a smile. "We don't want to interrupt your crazy time. Maybe you can just finish this conversation with yourself and we'll come back later, with, um, some bigger weapons and possibly some sedatives."

The goddesses brandished their spears. "We will determine the matter once and for all! Today, we will decide the victor!"

I realized it probably would have been better if I hadn't said anything.

Nike and Victoria charged each other, their spears clashing. Annabeth and I were forced back to get out of the line of fire.

"We can't let them fight," Annabeth exclaimed next to me. "To lose the blessing of Victory would be terrible!"

"That wouldn't mean we certainly lose against the Titans, does it?" I asked Annabeth nervously.

"No," she answered shaking her head. "She doesn't choose the victor, but what she can do is influence it. Without her support, it would make it so much harder."

"So, what can we do to stop her? We can't reason with her, she isn't sane now, is she?"

"No, she should certainly know better than this," Annabeth said, and I could practically see the gears in her mind working. "We have to make her see she is in the wrong. Follow my lead and do the opposite from myself."

I felt like rolling my eyes. Now it was Annabeth who didn't make any sense anymore. Was everyone today acting insane?

Suddenly Annabeth called loudly next to me, "What do you mean Victoria is stronger than Nike? Nike will obviously win!"

Ohhh, so that's what she meant.

"Are you kidding?" I exclaimed. "Victoria has the word already in her name!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me. "The same goes for Nike! Only in Greek instead of Latin. The word is named after them, you Seaweed Brain!"

"Well, clearly Victoria is better!" I shot back. "Just look at them! Nike is just waving about with her arms. She clearly doesn't have any idea how to even use her spear!"

Our shouting had worked in attracting their attention again.

"What did you say!" Nike shrieked.

At the same moment, Victoria shouted, "Yes! I clearly am the better one!"

Annabeth pulled her dagger on me. "Lady Nike, please accept my help in showing them you are the only victor."

I pointed my sword at Annabeth. "Lady Victoria, I wish to support you in teaching them a lesson."

"Yes, of course!" Nike cried. "Two and two. The last side standing wins. The others will die gloriously."

Did I mention already that she was utterly mad?

"You should not even exist, girl" Victoria called. "But you shall die to prove Roman victory!"

That one wasn't any better, I wasn't even Roman, so how would this show Roman victory?

I met Annabeth's eyes, and with it, our weapons. Luckily, Nike and Victoria had resumed their battle as well, because had they not been busy, they would clearly have realized that what we were doing was nothing more than rehearsed strike sequences used for training.

Annabeth was slowly leading our fight closer to the two goddesses. She gave me a signal with her head. I just hoped she knew what she was doing.

The moment we reached them, we switched targets. I slashed at Victoria and Annabeth at Nike, both of our weapons drawing golden ichor. A couple of clangs announced their two spears hitting the ground.

"We win," I announced.

"Trickery!" they cried, their voices overlapping.

I just hoped that was a sign what we were doing was the right thing.

"You broke the rules, you are disqualified!" they shouted.

I shook my head. "There are no rules in war."

Their spears jumped back into their hands. They were acting almost completely in synch now.

I grimaced. I realized what had to happen, I just hoped we wouldn't end up dead because of it.

Both of them struck at us, and I rolled to dodge the first attack. Annabeth came to a stop beside me. We worked together defending against the two goddesses but were slowly pushed back. They were better fighters than Ares, I realized. But then again, we weren't trying to win now, were we?

I deflected a spear, getting impaled into the shoulder instead of my heart. A groan escaped my mouth and I let Riptide drop. A cry next to me informed me that Annabeth faired a similar fate as I did.

Two voices sounded like one, "Victory is mine!"

Nike and Victoria halted in their movements, staring at each other in surprise.

"Do you understand now?" Annabeth's voice was filled with suppressed pain, only able to push out short sentences. "Victory is neither Greek … nor is it Roman … And you are Victory ... You are one and the same … It is impossible … to lose in a fight against yourself … Because you will always be victorious."

For a moment nothing happened, then the goddesses in front of us started glowing, forcing us to close our eyes.

We weren't the only ones affected by it. The suppressing darkness of Kronos lifted.

The light faded and with it my pain. When I reopened my eyes, the spear in my shoulder was gone, as was the wound.

In front of us stood a single person.

The goddess was wearing a white and purple sleeveless dress. She had a spear with a golden tip but was no longer in armor dressed for war. Her dark hair had auburn streaks and was circled with golden laurels. Her wings a mix of white and golden feathers. No longer blinding, but glittering in the last light of the day. Her eyes were still full of energy, but they no longer had this crazed look in them.

This was neither Nike nor Victoria, but the true Goddess of Victory.

"Sometimes the way to win is not to fight, but to give in." the woman said, slowly stepping closer to us. "You have chosen a path, that ended in a victory for both of our sides."

She no longer had this bright attention-seeking aura around her. No, her aura was more reserved, but it was much more intense than before. I couldn't help but bow my head in front of her, and I had the feeling the same went for Annabeth.

"You have helped me remember something I had forgotten for the longest time. Outside of contests, there is no such thing as a clear distinction between victory and defeat." Her voice was close now, but I thought I could hear a smile in it. "Victory is in the eyes of the beholder, and even the smallest things, may be a great victory. Your help in restoring my mind was anything but small."

She was now directly in front of us.

"And for this greatest of favor you have done for me, and all the gods, I have to thank you," I could feel something touch my head. "Using pure strength, you may prove yourself victorious in a fight. This is something that everybody is able to do. In exchange, not many can make the choice to lose a fight to win the war. It is something only those who lead the battle in wisdom may do. It is only those, that will feel true victory."

A feeling of euphoria spread through me. I didn't know how, but I could tell, that the goddess had put the golden laurels of victory on our heads.

"You have proven you can do both."

I raised my head at her words, gazing into her intense eyes.

She opened her wings, rising into the sky without even flapping them.

"May victory favor your side in every battle, if your fights proved you victorious." She spoke. "But may victory never forsake you even in your fight's defeat, as long as you remember where true victory lies. Every time you lead in battle, you will feel my blessing. May the gods be with you Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase."

The laurels on my head turned warm. It felt as if it was melting into my head, the warmth spreading through my body.

The Goddess of Victory disappeared. As did the laurels.

But the warm feeling of victory in my heart remained.

AN: Hope you liked the chapter.

I had already hinted at it in previous chapters, but after this chapter, it should be clear. In canon, the gods went to Rome after Greece, and the split happened because of their demigod children's conflict. In my story, they went to Rome and Greece simultaneously, splitting themselves because of it. Since in my story, the reason for the split is a different one, and the gods were the ones responsible for it, they are the ones that have to fix it themselves. So it won't be as in canon where returning the Athena Parthenos heals everyone, but every god or goddess has to heal themselves instead. Either both aspects come to peace with each other, uniting their powers into one again as shown with Nike and Victoria, or one aspect surrenders and lets itself and its power be absorbed by the other half.

Right now at the time the story plays, 6 out of 14 (counting Hestia and Hades) Olympians were able to heal themselves. I'm interested if anyone can find out which ones already have.

As for the Athena Parthenos and the Mark of Athena, all I will say is that it will still play a role and has its own storyline.

Next time: We stage an uprising in the prison of eternal fun...