Hey guys, I hope you're gonna enjoy this chapter- in which Octavian is human slime and we all know that the Pax, the boat he expects them to use, is not good- but hey, what can ya do.

Replies:
The Official Clarisse: Hah, we gotta love Frank- and his bear hugs are the best- there's actually a scene later in which Percy make it clear that Franks bear hugs are worth dying for! And yeah Percy is five when she meets the Kanes, it's about two years after Ruby died- I couldn't see Julius jumping into a relationship again for a while after it. And yeah, Percy is very loyal to her girls even if she doesn't remember them. She loves them and would die for them. As for our favorite Alabastard you will see.
Guest: She does remember her dream- she doesn't understand half of it but she does remember it. Which makes her a poor confused demigod right now. And I can't say much because of spoilers but you shall see! You shall all see- and with the KC au, Amos in the books definitely seemed aware of the Greeks so I imagine Julius was as well, but I don't think the Greeks seemed aware of the Egyptians at all really- which will come up! And according to the myths they can have two dads apparently lol.
Undeath9087: Kronos and Alabaster did it for their obvious reasons, and honestly queen dirtface knows that it would have been traumatic and she hates Percy for what she did so she's there like 'You want to torture the demigod who killed your brother- do this, that'll really fuck with her' so yeah, they want to fuck with her head and basically mentally torment her.
Guest: (Your second review) Now I'm just laughing imagining the girls beating the shit into one another for the chance to beat the shit into Octavian because they would.
Undeath9087: Second review: Eh, don't you worry you'll get more Alabaster- not much in this one but you shall see. And I'm afraid no to the Alabaster chapter- though it could be funny I must admit. And eventually she will be- remember that Percy will be raised by Julius- she'd see Sadie max 2 times a year for a few years- and Sadie understandably probably wouldn't react too well to what she sees as being replace- which is fun to write.
Guest: I'm afraid that the age is already set- and she's probably gonna be a little OP if I'm honest but I will try to balance it out. Besides, canon Percy is pretty OP if you think about it. Like, the stuff he does that then gets brushed over. He beat a god at 12 for frick sake! And that's not even his most impressive feat.

There was a moment of stunned silence at Bianca's words before Dakota belched, "Sorry, did you say gods and demigods…like fighting side by side? That could never happen!"

"It can and it has." Bianca corrected him, and Percy found herself noticing that Reyna's eyes were very focused on the ambassador for Pluto, "In the first giant war the gods called on Heroes to join them. They were victorious Whether it could happen again, I don't know. But with Alcyoneus ... he was different. He was completely immortal, impossible to kill by god or demigod, as long as he remained in his home territory—the place where he was born. And if he's been reborn in Alaska-"

"Then he can't be defeated there," Hazel finished. "Ever. By any means. Which is why our nineteen-eighties expedition was doomed to fail."

Another round of arguing and shouting broke out.

"The quest is impossible!" shouted a senator.

"We're doomed!" cried a ghost.

"More Kool-Aid!" yelled Dakota.

"Silence!" Reyna called. "Senators, we must act like Romans. Mars has given us this quest, and we have to believe it is possible. These three demigods must travel to Alaska. They must free Thanatos and return before the Feast of Fortuna. If they can retrieve the lost eagle in the process, so much the better. All we can do is advise them and make sure they have a plan."

Reyna looked at Percy without much hope. "You do have a plan?"

Percy resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow- it wasn't supposed to be her quest- it was supposed to be Franks- but Frank did not look eager to step forward with a plan so she took a deep breath. Wonderful. She'd have to step up wouldn't she? And she didn't even have her memories, gods this was insane.

"First I need to understand something." she turned to Bianca- if anyone could answer her questions it was the other girl. "I thought Pluto was the god of the dead. Now I hear about this other guy, Thanatos, and the Doors of Death from that prophecy—the Prophecy of Seven. What does all that mean?"

Bianca nodded- she didn't seem surprised by the question.

"Okay. Pluto is the god of the Underworld, but the actual god of death, the one who's responsible for making sure souls go to the afterlife and stay there—that's Pluto's lieutenant, Thanatos. He's like…well, imagine Life and Death are two different countries. Everybody would like to be in Life, right? So there's a guarded border to keep people from crossing back over without permission. But it's a big border, with lots of holes in the fence. Pluto tries to seal up the breaches, but new ones keep popping up all the time. That's why he depends on Thanatos, who's like the border patrol, the police. He also collects the souls when people die usually."

"Thanatos catches souls," Percy said, "and deports them back to the Underworld."

"Exactly," Bianca said. "But now Thanatos has been captured, chained up."

Frank raised his hand. "Uh…how do you chain Death?"

"It's been done before," Bianca said. "In the old days, a guy named Sisyphus-" her eyes flicked to Percy at that, as if she half expected Percy to recognise the name, but she kept talking, "tricked Death and tied him up. Another time, Hercules wrestled him to the ground."

Percy twitched slightly, feeling a rush of annoyance- and Bianca seemed to notice because she looked like she was struggling to hold back a laugh for a brief
moment as Percy couldn't stop the words from slipping out, "Why is it always that asshole?"

"He is considered one of the greatest heroes in history- though there have been greater." there was a sadness in Bianca's voice when she said that point, her eyes flicking towards Percy again "But I don't think that's important right now."

"Right. Of course.

"And now a giant has captured him," Percy said. "So if we could free Thanatos, then the dead would stay dead?" He glanced at Gwen. "Um…no offense."

"It's more complicated than that," Bianca looked nervous as she said that, eyes flicking between Percy and Hazel.

Octavian rolled his eyes. "Why does that not surprise me?"

"You mean the Doors of Death," Reyna said, ignoring Octavian, tilting her head, her eyes focused on Bianca, she looked almost concerned- a softer concern it seemed to Percy, than concern over what was happening- like she was worried about Bianca looking so nervous. "They are mentioned in the Prophecy of Seven, which sent the first expedition to Alaska—"

Cato the ghost snorted. "We all know how that turned out! We Lares remember!" The other ghosts grumbled in agreement.

Bianca gave the Lares an annoyed look, "I'm the daughter of Pluto. Don't make me silence you." and the threat seemed to work, the Lares went quiet, though they still looked unhappy.

"Thank you." she took a deep breath, "Thanatos is only a part of the solution. The Doors of Death…well, that's a concept even I don't completely understand. There are many ways into the Underworld—the River Styx, the Door of Orpheus—plus smaller escape routes that open up from time to time. With Thanatos imprisoned, all those exits will be easier to use. Sometimes it might work to our advantage and let a friendly soul come back—like Gwen here. More often, it will benefit evil souls and monsters, the sneaky ones who are looking to escape. Now, the Doors of Death—those are the personal doors of Thanatos, his fast lane between Life and Death. Only Thanatos is supposed to know where they are, and the location shifts over the ages. If I understand correctly, the Doors of
Death have been forced open. Gaea's minions have seized control of them—"

"Which means Gaea can choose who can come back from the dead." Percy realised. "Mostly anyway."

"Yep." Bianca winced, "She can pick and choose who to let out. The worst monsters, the most evil souls. If we rescue Thanatos, that means at least he can catch souls again and send them below. Monsters will die when we kill them, like they used to, and we'll get a little breathing room. But unless we're able to retake the Doors of Death, our enemies won't stay down for long. They'll have an easy way back to the world of the living."

"So we can catch them and deport them," Percy summed up, "but they'll just keep coming back across."

"Very simply yes." Bianca nodded, "It's depressing and terrifying but that's just how it is."

Frank scratched his head. "But Thanatos knows where the doors are, right? If we free him, he can retake them."

"Thanatos is powerful but he's not on Gaea's level. None of us are." Bianca shook her head, "It would take a lot more than just him to retake them. That would take a very big quest. An army of the very strongest demigods." her eyes focused on Percy again.

"Foes bear arms to the Doors of Death," Reyna said. "That's the Prophecy of Seven…" She looked at Percy too, and for just a moment she could see how scared she was. She did a good job of hiding it, but Percy wondered if she'd had nightmares about Gaea too—if she'd seen visions of what would happen when the camp was invaded by monsters that couldn't be killed. "If this begins the ancient prophecy, we don't have resources to send an army to these Doors of Death and protect the camp. I can't imagine even sparing seven demigods—"

"First things first." Percy tried to sound confident, though she could feel the level of panic rising in the room. It needed to be got under control quickly. "I don't know who the seven are, or what that old prophecy means, exactly. But first we have to free Thanatos. Mars told us we only needed three people for the quest to Alaska. Let's concentrate on succeeding with that and getting back before the Feast of Fortuna. Then we can worry about the Doors of Death."

"Yeah," Frank said in a small voice. "That's probably enough for one week."

"So you do have a plan?" Octavian asked sceptically.

"Well." Percy gave him a fake grin, "I think the basic plan is pretty obvious don't you. We get to Alaska as fast as possible."

"And we improvise," Hazel said.

"A lot," Frank added.

Reyna studied them. She looked like she was mentally writing her own obituary.

"Very well," she said. "Nothing remains except for us to vote what support we can give the quest—transportation, money, magic, weapons."

"Praetor, if I may," Octavian said.

"Oh, great," Percy muttered. "Here it comes."

"The camp is in grave danger," Octavian said. "Two gods have warned us we will be attacked four days from now. We must not spread our resources too thin,
especially by funding projects that have a slim chance of success."

Octavian looked at the three of them with pity, as if to say, Poor little things. "Mars has clearly chosen the least likely candidates for this quest. Perhaps that is because he considers them the most expendable. Perhaps Mars is playing the long odds. Whatever the case, he wisely didn't order a massive expedition, nor did he ask us to fund their adventure. I say we keep our resources here and defend the camp. This is where the battle will be lost or won. If these three succeed, wonderful! But they should do so by their own ingenuity."

An uneasy murmur passed through the crowd. Frank jumped to his feet. Before he could start a fight, Percy said, "Fine! No problem. But at least give us transportation. Gaea is the earth goddess, right? Going overland, across the earth—I'm guessing we should avoid that. Plus, it'll be too slow."

Octavian laughed. "Would you like us to charter you an airplane?"

The idea made Percy nauseous. "No. Air travel…I have a feeling that would be bad, too. But a boat. Can you at least give us a boat?"

Hazel made a grunting sound. Percy glanced over. She shook her head and mouthed, Fine. I'm fine.

"A boat!" Octavian turned to the senators. "The daughter of Neptune wants a boat. Sea travel has never been the Roman way, but she isn't much of a Roman!"

"Octavian," Reyna said sternly, "a boat is little enough to ask. And providing no other aid seems very—"

"Traditional!" Octavian exclaimed. "It is very traditional. Let us see if these questers have the strength to survive without help, like true Romans!"

More muttering filled the chamber. The senators' eyes moved back and forth between Octavian and Reyna, watching the test of wills.

Reyna straightened in her chair. "Very well," she said tightly. "We'll put it to a vote. Senators, the motion is as follows: The quest shall go to Alaska. The senate shall provide full access to the Roman navy docked at Alameda. No other aid will be forthcoming. The three adventurers will survive or fail on their own merits. All in favor?"

Every senator's hand went up.

"The motion is passed." Reyna turned to Frank. "Centurion, your party is excused. The senate has other matters to discuss. And, Octavian, if I may confer
with you for a moment."

Percy was painfully grateful to get outside, to feel the sunlight on her face- she sucked in a sharp breath, stumbling and shaking slightly as she closed her eyes. "Well. That could have gone worse." she felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders- and gods but she knew that was a familiar feeling even if she had no clue why it was.

She watched as Hazel ducked down and plucked an emerald from the path, slipping it into her pocket. "So we're pretty much toast right?"

Frank nodded miserably. "If either of you wants to back out, I wouldn't blame you."

"Are you kidding?" Hazel said. "And pull sentry duty for the rest of the week?"

Frank managed a smile. He turned to Percy, who gave him a wry smile.

"I know I have amnesia- but I'm pretty sure I've faced down worse odds before. You two are my friends." her voice was firm, "I'm not gonna leave you to do this alone." then she gave a sly smile, "Besides, I wanna check out the Roman navy."

They were only halfway across the forum when some called, "Jackson!" Percy turned and saw Octavian jogging toward them.

"What do you want?" Percy asked.

Octavian smiled. "Already decided I'm your enemy? That's a rash choice, Percy. I'm a loyal Roman."

Frank snarled. "You backstabbing, slimy—" Hazel grabbed Frank to hold him back and Percy stepped in front of her new friend, eyes narrowing.

"I'm sure you are." her voice was thick with sarcasm. "I've met people like you before I'm sure- even if I don't know where."

"Oh, dear," Octavian said, sneering at Frank. "Hardly the right behaviour for a new centurion. As for you Jackson, I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about- you might be pretty but your judgement doesn't seem to be the best, I only followed you because Reyna charged me with a message. She wants you to report to the principia without your—ah—two lackeys, here. Reyna will meet you there after the senate adjourns. She'd like a private word with you before you leave on your quest."

"What about?" Percy said.

"I'm sure I don't know." Octavian smiled wickedly. "The last person she had a private talk with was Jason Grace. And that was the last time I ever saw him. Good luck and good bye, Percy Jackson."