Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. I don't own any works credited to his name. I'm not Cassandra Clare, either, and I don't own any works credited to her name, either. I'm simply just me, and I only own works credited to my own name. Check out my profile if you'd like to see those! (Writing Desk's Raven, previously JustAnotherChapter, Fangirl Queendom, and some other name I don't remember.)

~Time Skip: 6 Months~

I was not expecting to be summoned randomly by my mother. I was even more surprised to find the full council in the throne room when I arrived. To my relief, though, there was almost every other minor god and goddess assembled, all the once mortals or demigods raised to the status of minor god by one god or another in the past two centuries. There were, of course, mortals or demigods made minor god by those who weren't Olympians, but also weren't born with mortality, but they were much fewer than us, because it usually ended up that the minor god would ask an Olympian to make someone a god, or wouldn't bother.

After making us all stand by our patron god, alert and unmoving for a long while, Zeus finally spoke. "You may all be wondering why you've been summoned here." He started.

None of us spoke. You didn't speak when it wasn't necessary, around Zeus. I'd seen him fry a minor god before, and though he'd healed, it was not a pretty sight.

"Olympus is becoming a bit crowded, and expansions are a long time in the making. Athena's already gone over all the plans and such." He waved a hand toward my mother, who just shot him an irritated look. "As such, we're cutting back on population size. Any of you who want to become mortal once again, you may. You'll be just as you are now, just as you were when you entered godhood, if you were healthy, good as new if you were unhealthy. You'll have the status of demigod, with all the attached strengths and powers of a child of your patron. You'll receive a blessing that will erase your scent, so as not to allow monsters to find you, and you'll receive enough money to kickstart a life wherever you choose. If you wish to take this opportunity, please step forward."

I remained by my mother's side, her main assistant, with a some siblings, and former philosophers, activists, chemists, and even a few NASA scientists, among others. But many stepped forward. Life up here wasn't as glamorous as it seemed when it was offered, and I knew that many of them who stepped forwards had only accepted to save their lives.

Once everyone had been sorted through and sent elsewhere to be sent on their way back to mortality, there were still too many of us left to count.

"Now, as for the rest of you, the option remains a choice from now until the end of your very essence, I swear it on the Styx. The moment you decide it, you shall return to mortality just as those who have already accepted the offer have." Zeus announced. The rest of the council swore the same. "But, should you not fulfill your duties or disobey your orders from your patrons, whatever your specific jobs may be, you'll be relieved of your duties and returned your mortality, the same as all the others who chose it, of course."

A nervous muttering could be heard throughout the room. Many got by doing the bare minimum they had to.

"That is all. Meeting dismissed." Zeus announced. He stood, and flashed away. His own followers, as some like to call us, flashed away. Everyone else began doing the same as their patrons dismissed them.

My mother dismissed everyone but me. When we were the only two left in the chamber, she spoke. "How have things been going, Mikayla?" She asked.

"The Olive Project is going nicely, the grove is growing at a good rate. The trees will soon be producing olives enough to provide food and oil for that entire town." I started. She'd had me construct a project to help out a small town in Greece get back on their feet after a storm had taken out half the town's food source and power.

"That's not what I meant, Mikayla." She admonished. "How are things going for you?"

"For me?" I asked. She nodded. "Well, good, I guess. Why do you ask?" She never asked me how I was doing.

"I don't want you hanging out with that Tartarus boy anymore." She stated simply.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't want you around him. He's dangerous, and a bad influence, and I don't want my daughter around someone like him." She told me.

"But mother, he's literally my best friend!" I protested.

"That is an order, Mikayla." She said.

"Mother, he's my roommate, for crying out loud!" I argued. "And I won't just kick him out! Nor will I leave my home of the past years I've been up here!"

"I won't ask you to, you're much too polite and sentimental to do either. But I don't want you interacting with him extendedly. A hello in passing is fine, but other than that, you will not seek him out or spend time with him. You have three strikes, Mikayla, or you'll be returned your mortality." She ordered, fixing me with a steely gaze. I didn't bother waiting to be dismissed before I flashed away.

I think Sage was confused when I didn't go to his room in the middle of the night. It had become so commonplace that he was concerned for me when I didn't go to him. So he instead came to my room.

I was sitting with my knees pulled up to my chest when the door opened. Sage saw me sitting like that and came over and sat beside me. He slipped an arm around me and began to rub my back soothingly. "Hey, is everything alright? You didn't come to my room." He asked. I briefly thought back to my mother's orders, but technically, I didn't seek him out. He sought me out.

I didn't answer his question. I just set my forehead against my knees. A couple tears traced their way down my face. "Talk to me, Mick. What was it this time?" He asked.

"These- these ugly demonic creatures. They were tearing my family apart." I whispered.

"It's not real, babydoll. Nightmares are just that, nightmares." He told me softly, rubbing my back.

"It seemed real." I whispered. "It felt real, sounded real."

"You're okay now, Mick." He reassured me. "Babydoll, you're safe." He slipped off his t-shirt and helped me slip it on. I usually only wore undergarments to bed anyways, so it wasn't like I had a shirt already on. When I went to his room at night, I'd just throw on my silk robe as I left my own room.

"Lay down, Mick. Get some sleep. Gods only know how long you've been awake." He said, and laid back against the pillows. I laid down beside him, my head on his chest, laying on my stomach. He put one arm around me, and the other rubbed circles on my back. I fell asleep listening to his heartbeat and his voice whispering soothingly.

Sage woke up before me. Even after being a god for years, he still woke up when he always had, living on the farm. When I woke up, he was just quietly watching me.

"Hey, Mick. How'd you sleep?" He asked.

"Better." I responded with a yawn. "Thank you."

"If you had a nightmare, why didn't you come to me?" He asked, voice laced with concern. I looked away. "Mick. Talk to me, please."

"She's going to be mad at me." I whispered.

"Who's going to be mad?" Sage asked.

"Athena. She made it very clear she doesn't want me around you anymore. I'm not allowed to seek you out and spend time with you, only allowed a hello in passing. She didn't make me kick you out, I would've flat out refused, I'm way too nice to do that, and she knows I'm much too sentimental to move out, myself." I explained.

"So break a few rules, rebel a little. It can't hurt anything." Sage suggested.

"I can't. That would've been strike one. She said I only get three. Zeus made a new decree about how if we don't follow the orders of our patrons, we'll be returned our mortality and kicked out of Olympus." I said.

"I heard about that. Many chose to leave, and many are going to get sent back because they don't ever follow the rules, anyways." Sage said. He didn't say anything else, seemingly at a loss for words.

"Just... Stay with me for a little while. Make strike one last as long as possible. I don't want to have to let you go, not just yet." I pleaded.

"Of course. I wouldn't do anything else. You're not getting rid of me that easily." He told me.

"Thank you." I whispered, curling into his side. He wrapped an arm around me.

"It's my pleasure." He responded.

I got a stern lecture from Athena about how I knew exactly what she meant when she gave me orders to not hang around with Sage, and I got notified that that was my first strike. Two more and I'd be again mortal.

I didn't bother to argue. My mother could be quite stubborn when she wanted to be, and I knew she wouldn't be changing her mind anytime soon.

The next three months were terrible. Without Sage to help me after my nightmares, and to assure me they weren't real, they got worse. I got little sleep, and I tore at my own skin when I did sleep. A wave of my hand would fix the bodily damage, but it didn't change the fact that it happened in the first place.

Sage saw me getting worse, but didn't attempt to spend too long with me. He knew how much my job meant to me. Yeah, I was usually referred to as Athena's assistant, but my job mainly centered on helping people and creating things that would fix large issues and help many.

So he didn't try to help me. But I constantly wished I could just go to him again, and not have to worry about the nightmares. Didn't Athena see what the nightmares were doing to me, and how much Sage helped?

I'm not too entirely sure how the second strike happened. It just kinda did.

All I know is that I was in the living room, reading a book. Sage came in and sat on the couch, too, turning on the the tv. This wouldn't count as a strike, we weren't hanging out or anything, we just happened to be in the same room.

He was watching the Hallmark channel, I remember, and I remember that at one commercial, he turned to face me, and took my book and set it on an end table.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, all too aware that it could turn into a strike at any moment.

"I hate this not being able to spend time with you. I miss my best friend. And... To be completely honest with you, I hate not being around you because..." He trailed off. But he leaned forward and kissed me, pressing his lips to mine lightly, for a very long moment, before leaning back again.

"What was that?" I asked. "Sage, my orders..."

"I couldn't let go of you. Not without doing that at least once." He whispered. He held one of my hands in his. "I'm sorry. I promise I'll make sure you don't get a third strike." He dropped my hand and left the room without so much a glance back at me.

Of course, Athena didn't actually know what had happened, just that I'd spent enough time with him to be violating her orders. Part of the whole magic that would return my mortality if I didn't follow her orders. I got another stern lecture from her, and a warning that one more time would take away my job and my life on Olympus.

Sage held true to his promise. He made sure I didn't get a third strike. He wasn't at the house when I returned, nor was his stuff, and he wasn't there for the next week. Month. Six months.

I knew he was most likely at the farm, but if I went to him, it'd be my third strike. The only way I could see him was in a normal passing, and he'd removed himself from the equation so that no normal passing could turn into a third strike for me.

It tore me apart, inside, but I couldn't do anything about it. I just had to sit and smile through it, do my job. No one else ever noticed a thing.

"Stand up straight, Mikayla." Athena told me, quiet enough only I could hear. It was the fourth time she'd said it to me during this meeting. The full council was here, and I had to attend because it I'd finished my latest project and the proposal for my next needed to be approved by the full council.

The proposal needed to be approved by the full council because it didn't just have to do with mortals, but with demigods and legacies. It was an idea for a safe place somewhere in the middle of the country, because America was quite large and it could be hard to get to either one coast or the other.

The new camp would be modeled after both camps. It would have different home compounds organized by god, with utilities and smaller apartments for residents. There would, of course, be buildings like an amphitheatre, mess hall, and stadium. And there would be activities included from both camps - Capture the Flag, war games, training, etcetera, etcetera. There were also plans for a city, for older demigods to live out their lives.

"And next, we are to hear a proposal from Athena's daughter, for a project in...?" Zeus asked.

"Kansas." Athena announced, giving me a nudge forward. She spoke again, so only I could hear. "Stand up straight and make sure you speak loudly enough."

When I was done, I went back over to stand by Athena. "What was that?" She hissed, very obviously unpleased with me.

She'd apparently spoken a bit loudly, because Demeter spoke up. "The child is just having an off day. We all have them. While the proposal might not have been presented in the very best way, we've all come to know how Mikayla's projects turn out. I, for one, am interested in seeing this one through. All those for a camp in the middle of the country, set up as the proposal dictates?"

All the others of the council said aye. Not a single one disagreed. I think that they realized how good of a thing this could be for their own children and descendants.

But Athena ignored them. She just spoke to me again. "You knew you were to give your proposal today, yet you came unprepared." Her voice held a very annoyed tone, bordering on anger or frustration.

"I was prepared. I just didn't sleep." I retorted.

"And why didn't you? Have you decided to no longer take your duties seriously? Do you wish to quit?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

I snapped. "You know what? Maybe I do want to quit! I may be immortal now, but your orders are slowly killing me! Can't you see what it's doing to me? Don't you ever notice anything?"

A cold, grey fire burned in her eyes. Not figuratively, but literally. I definitely pushed her over that line into anger. "You do not get to blame me for something that I did to protect you. You do not get to place me at fault for something that, in the long run, is only going to keep you safe." Her voice was steely calm, but that anger simmered just underneath.

"I quit." I told her. "I'm done caring about losing my job if I don't follow the one order that will kill me. I'm done with the sleepless nights and bloody hands and arms because I try to tear open my own skin in the little sleep I do get. I'm done with following orders only given because you simply dislike someone."

That pushed her across some line that I don't think anyone can return from, no matter how hard they try. Not even a god, no matter how much they regret something once the anger's gone. Because, even in her anger, she knew that quitting would make me mortal again. Yet, she still decided to kill me.

It didn't work.

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