A/N: This chapter contains very dark sections. It explains the actions of certain characters, but it very much is a coercion that does not read cleanly. I just wanted to warn you.

Temple of Artemis, Athens

"My lady, answer my prayer please. I have found a home here, with people who care for me and who I once saw as brother and sister. They have taken me in as I would expect a mother and father would, if I had ever had either worth a damn." Thunder shook the temple, "Oh fuck off." Thalia looked up at the statue of Artemis. "I ask for guidance, my lady. I do not know if my oath holds me to you, but I miss your counsel and wisdom."

Thalia stood and began to leave. She had visited the temple many times since arriving in Athens, she had yet to receive an answer. The daughter of Zeus had not been lying when she said that Percy and Annabeth treated her more as a daughter than their sibling now. They were old enough now and it was more painful than she had ever given to admitting that they would meet the boat man before her. They were in their thirties now, she was still fifteen years and three hundred and sixty-four days old.

"Lieutenant," said a voice as she turned. She stopped and studied the girl before her. She had onyx eyes and hair of deepest black. Thalia had last seen her bleeding out from a wound given to her by her father. She had only wanted to see the stars again, before Artemis put her in them.

"Zoë?"

Under Rome

Two figures stood in a darkened cavern like room. The smaller was a young man. The larger a being of power. They looked down upon a map of the Mare Nostrum. An eagle marker was settled over Gaul, a trident over the south of Greece and the Peloponnese. The young man picked up the eagle marker.

"How did you convince him to willingly accept the eidolon? I know they can possess an unwilling victim, but to have the complete control over him that it has."

"When I showed him what the alternative was, he acquiesced." The large figure waived his hand a revealed a large cage. Inside was a woman, her bones shown through her skin which appeared nearly translucent from the lack of sunlight and food. Her once choppy but beautiful hair was long and stringy now. Her cheeks were gaunt, her eyes lifeless.

"What did you do?" The young man, figurehead of the movement, the man in front of the curtain, was not even sure that the being in the cage was still human.

"A few of my men beat and raped her for a few days, that broke her enough for the eidolon to take control of her. I brought him in, then ordered her to kill herself." The younger man could see the scars covering the body of the nude woman, he suspected she had been beautiful once. "He almost accepted that outcome because of her condition so I had to adjust course. I told her to pleasure the monsters, but she was to fuck me first. He could not accept that, so he welcomed the eidolon in and there have been no issues with control since. I fucked her in front of him anyway. She was not as willing without the eidolon."

"Why do we keep her?"

"To punish him at the end. To show him the destruction he was wrought for something as stupid as love."

"An end to the gods, by the golden child. Why not target the Greek?"

"He is problematic. To begin with a Greek, not a Roman, more wild and unpredictable and exponentially worse because of Poseidon. Greece is broken amphora of a nation, held together by King Perseus." A faint whisper of hatred steeped into the master's voice. "If we own the consul and future emperor, we own Rome. Their lovers were also the key difference, boy. The daughter of Athena would have fought the eidolon, and probably killed herself to prevent Perseus from being taken. She would bear any burden for the man that fell into Tartarus for her. This girl had already lost Jason once and believed this her chance to get him back."

"You think Annabeth would have killed herself?"

"Yes. Probably in front of Perseus to cause his predictable violent reaction. I also want to watch him suffer, he would not possessed by the eidolon."

"How did you convince Chronus to do this?"

"He was always to us and my brother and I promised to keep our other brother would never come to power." The young man looked across the cavernous room to his master's brother's scythe hanging on the wall. The master continued speaking, "Hopefully the daughter of the whore of Olympus lasts long enough to see what he did." The young man looked at the gaunt prisoner. He was not sure she would. In the end, he supposed, as long as Jupiter's son succeeded in killing the King of Greece, the gods would fracture irrevocably.

Athens

Hazel and her two guards were met at the gate to the King's palace by a large older soldier and a young girl. Hazel was not wearing her uniform, but her escorts had. The soldier was evaluating her even as the young girl spoke.

"Those are the uniforms that tried to take me. The ones Thalia and I fucking killed." Her men had tensed at her words.

"I think your mother would disapprove of your swearing," started the man even while he placed a hand on the kopis he wore. "Who comes to Athens to speak with the king?" One of her uniformed guards responded. Hazel was concerned that the girl with sea green eyes who looked to be barely older than ten was already a killer.

"Legatus Zhang of Legio XVI of Rome."

"Wait here," the soldier responded. Hazel noted the archers on the wall turning their attention to her and her escorts. She could not keep track of them any more than she could keep track of how long she was waiting. Her mind was racing. The girl's eyes could only come from one man. An image of an exhausted and dirty boy carrying a woman across the Little Tiber came to mind. Percy. But nothing of the girl reminded her of Annabeth and she was terrified. Did something happen between them? Is Annabeth dead? Fuck. The girl had dark hair and wore it in a Reyna like style. A long heavy braid, but it swung over her right shoulder, not the left.

The girl returned alone. Only now did Hazel notice the pugio in her belt. She reminded the Roman demigoddess of one of the Camp Half-Blood girls. She was too wary and too muscled for her age. Trauma, thought Hazel, I recognize it from the mirror in my childhood.

"Patér says for you to come with me." The guard translated for her. She heard one of the guards mutter that the girl would be a handful once she was older. The other disagreed, she already, he opined.

Hazel would later deny it, but when she saw Percy she thought for a half a moment he was a god again. The first time she had met Percy he was lean, wolfish. This Percy was different. He was not big and bulky, but was so much more muscled than before. He looked like had grown even taller. His tunic hid the definition of his torso, but the largess could not be concealed. Scars covered his arms, just as the Poseidon worthy beard covered his face. The hair that was usually unruly and covering his eyes was swept back and secured with a band. The green eyes were the same, piercing. They could calm or terrify with equal ease.

He spoke in English for her benefit. The young girl had perched herself on the pedestal of his throne. "When they told me it was Legatus Zhang, I expected Frank. But I hoped it was you." A smile stretched across his face as he stood. The same smile graced Hazel's as she rushed forward.

They embraced and Hazel buried her face into his chest. "Gods, it's good to see you, Percy."

"You too," he said before returning to Greek. "Demosthenes, take the guards to dinner. She'll dine with my family."

"Of course, sire." Percy rolled his eyes. He knew Demosthenes only used official titles when others were present. The little girl was on Percy's other side and looking up at the dark skinned daughter of Pluto. She whispered something in Greek towards her father. He smiled.

"She wants to know if you still have the swearing horse. She's just learned what swearing is and life is grand." Percy forced a smile. "Because Annabeth refuses to believe that Thalia is teaching her these words and not me."

"Annabeth and Thalia are here?" Hazel was excited to see her friends again.

"And a few others. They come and go, when I first got here, Greece was not safe for demigods. I've remedied that since."

"How old is your daughter?"

"Zoë is eleven. I never taught her English, not that I was very good at it before, but before now I don't remember the last time I used it." They had entered a large room. Hazel looked at the table laid out for them. Damn, he is a king. Arrangements of fruit, platters of lamb, food she could not even identify, and so much wine. Two of the people around the table she identified immediately, which was good since they nearly tackled her in a hug. Percy's daughter looked at the scene with a strange look on her face and he knelt and began speaking to her in rapid Greek.

"He just told her that you were one of the ones to rescue us from Tartarus, that you fought against Gaea with us," Annabeth said as she continued to hold Hazel in an embrace. Hazel's eyes swept across the room. Four other girls, she supposed though she felt something to be off about them, sat around the table. One was onyx eyed with dark hair, there was a large muscled red head, a girl with starkly white hair, and another girl with a lighter brown head of hair. They all studied her closely.

"From left to right, Naomi, Hunter, Phoebe who hates to admit she likes it here," the large muscled girl scowled at him, "and then Zoë's namesake. They, like Thalia, are Hunters of Artemis. However, if you haven't noticed, the gods aren't responsive right now. And so, until they have the hunt to return to, they live with me. A perk of being king. I can keep them away from anyone who would do them harm."

"Always trying to protect people, Percy."

"If only I was more successful at it." He muttered and then took a large drink of wine. The conversation revolved around stories of their time in this world. At least until Percy ordered Demosthenes to send his daughter to bed. "Alright, Hazel. Why did you come down here? The legions have been in Macedon for a long time. Why come south now?" Hazel physically deflated. She had known it was coming.

"We received a letter from Reyna. She says something is wrong with Jason, he's not acting like himself. He's slaughtering anyone who worships the Greek gods. To use his words, he wants to erase the Greeks." Only Percy's force of will controlled the Hunters after that. He, Annabeth, and Hazel had spoken in private before sending Hazel back to the north and her husband.

Seashore near Piraeus

Percy had left after the conversation with Hazel. Everyone had felt the rage rolling off of him. The five huntresses had put their heads together before three left for Artemis's temple and Zoë and Thalia rejoined Annabeth attempting to comfort Hazel. Hazel new as well as anyone it was not her fault, she was simply bringing the news to Percy. Zoë had volunteered to go find Percy. "Thou both know her, she needs thee. I shall go to Perseus." Annabeth nodded.

She was nearing him now. He was seated in the edge of the water. Ripples were flowing away from him. As she neared him she saw the tears falling from his faith. His lips were moving but no words escaped. He is trying to talk to his father. But he is not being answered.

"You are trying to speak to her father?" she asked in Greek.

"Trying. And dreading what is coming. Godsdamnit, Zoë! I've spent nearly fifteen fucking years building safety for halfbloods. Unifying Greece. For fucking what? Rome to come and destroy it. Led by a man who was my brother?"

"What will you do?" He turned to her and for the first time she truly saw the rage of the sea in his eyes. She had watched him fight, watched him be in love, watched him carry the damn world. But she had never seen his father's power and rage fill him.

"If they come for my people, if they try, and harm my family, I will shake the fucking earth until Rome is nothing but a pile of fucking ruins and kill every single one of those motherfuckers." She wished she did not believe him.

Gaul

Reyna had taken weeks to prepare herself for this. Ever since seeing the second message going to Jason alone. Messages from the Senate were regular, but for Jason to regularly receive one directly to him was something different. There was only one way to get into his tent long enough to try and find that missive. Thirty minutes of fucking, then he'll fall asleep and I find it, she told herself. Even if that means selling my body like a whore who's payment is information. But I have to.

He knew how to please a woman, she would give him that. Even if he was a complete bastard. But just as she had planned, ten minutes after he finished he was asleep. She waited another ten before slowly getting out of bed and making her way toward the consul's desk. It took her seven minutes to find the wax tablet. She read it and nearly threw up, before forcing herself to memorize the words so that she could leave the tablet in its original location. Motherfucker, I'm going to risk it and call him. It may be suicide but he's probably the only one with the ability to stop this. I'm just scared of what he'll do to stop it.

Athens

Percy knew he should not be in the middle of a bath when he accepted an Iris call. When Reyna's eyes caught his nudity she averted her eyes but spoke anyway. "I don't have a lot of time, Percy." He stared at her blankly. Only then did she realize it was in Latin that she had spoken.

"Percy, someone is controlling Jason. The last message he received was this: As long as he is obeying your impulses we do not care what he does. But have him prepared. Soon we will have his invasion of Greece ready. We're keeping the bitch alive to control him. But get the job fucking done."

"Reyna! What the fuck is going on?"

"I can't say for certain, but some sort of motherfucker is controlling Jason and driving his erasure of the Greeks. You have to find who. They're coming. Goodbye, Percy."