I stayed the night with Apollo at his temple.

It was an accident; past sundown, it's hard to judge the passing time, especially with the new moon. Deme had come looking for me, but as soon as she spotted the god with me, she turned on her heel and left without Apollo ever noticing she was ever there.

Sharing Apollo's offerings was so friendly and intimate, it made my stomach do flips, but it felt strangely natural- no awkwardness between us.

The offerings on the slab were overflowing. A vase of wine was poured out and shared between conversation, and a plate of figs enjoyed together. Fresh bread and a small sampling of cheese were eaten on the floor, our casual posture meaning our chitons were dirtied by the ground.

Every once in a while, we would share the food we were eating, feeding it to each other.

"Try this one," Apollo would offer, and I would take a bite of the offering in his hand.

He asked about my life, and while I had to heavily edit my futuristic childhood, I told him it with a smile. How I grew up not as a princess, and I only learned about my father when I turned twelve; how Pater left me in Ithaca, and how I found a home there. I refused to be the only one talking about myself though, and I gently coaxed a few stories out of him about his childhood with Artemis, and he waxed on and on about how much he loved his mom and how great she raised him.

Slowly, throughout our talking, I began leaning towards him.

Nights in Greece are cold, and the sun god is warm. Just sitting beside him warmed me, and I didn't think much of it.

At one point, Apollo began playing with the jewelry he'd been offered. He put on a pair of golden armbands, but the rest he continuously draped me with.

"It makes you shine," He smiled softly as he put another necklace around my neck. "A gift; an offering from me." He said, in a way that made me think he wasn't quite joking.

I laughed, and my entire body jingled from all the jewelry at the movement. "Apollo, it's too much! It's rather pretty but truly, I don't deserve so many! It's yours."

He frowned, "You do deserve it. Jewels that pale in your beauty is the bare minimum of what you deserve."

That stunned me to silence for a few moments, a blush overtaking my features as I gaped at him.

Unable to formulate an appropriate reply, I instead finished off the wine and loudly asked him about his favorite place to visit.

Eventually, between the warm conversation and the warm wine, I fell asleep.

I woke up to the cawing of a raven, perched on the offering brazier, staring down at me.

Sitting up, a cloak slipped off my shoulders, and I smiled as I recognized it as Apollo's. The thinly knitted woolen cloak was a bright yellow, and it felt like him- like his power.

The jewelry he had piled onto me the night before jangled as I stood up, and while I wanted to return them to him, I know better than to refuse the gift of a god.

Unlike last night, there were no temple workers to watch me as I left; the sun was barely lightening the sky yet.

With a handful of my skirts in one hand, pulled up to avoid getting any more dirt on the hem, I set off on the beaten dirt path back towards where The Black Pearl was docked.

Nobody spared me a glance- other than a few greedy traders eyeing my new gold pieces- too busy with their early morning tasks.

Boarding my ship, I was greeted by Ekrem's too-bright grin and his cheery "Good morning!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Morning."

He wasn't deterred, "Did you sleep well? You look like you had a rough night."

"Ekrem!" Nysia snapped from where she was carrying breakfast dishes, "Must you?"

He just chuckled. "Deme told us that you were with a god last night, and when you didn't show up…" He waggled his eyebrows and gave a cheeky smirk, which vanished as he got smacked over the head with a scarf.

"I most certainly didn't imply anything!" Deme sniffed, holding the scarf she just ruthlessly used as a whip. She paused, then squinted at me, "Of course, I would love to hear as to why the girl who was yelling at the god not two weeks ago was snuggling up to him again. Alone. In his temple. Acting very… wifely."

I groaned, throwing my head back even as Ekrem laughed. "Nope. I don't have to take this. I'm going to take a nap. Goodbye."

I ignored Deme's shout of "Is that jewelry from him too?!" as I headed below deck.

"To dance a dance is to invite intimacy; for your partner knows all your movements, knows all your emotions, the words you sing along to and the beat of your heart."

We were the only ones to leave Aegina that week.

A hot wind had settled over Greece, making ships have difficulty setting sail, but with my abilities as a daughter of Poseidon, I was able to make The Black Pearl set off without much of a hitch.

"Such a hot dryness is unusual for this time of year," Dolops commented. "It's summer, it should still be hurricane season."

I sighed, knowing exactly what it is. "It will pass in another month, until then, most ships will be grounded."

"How do you know?" Ammeris asked, and I noticed that he had his cuneiform clay tablet on hand.

I gave him a bitter smile, "The gods. It's been like this for nearly a whole month now in Aulis, and it spreads as Artemis gets more and more annoyed. Agamemnon has pissed her off, and she won't let any ship sail towards Troy until he sacrifices his daughter to her."

Hyrmione gasped and ducked back into her brother's arms. "That's horrible!"

Deme just snorted, "They're gods."

I gave her a look, but it was half-hearted. I may believe the gods can do better, but that doesn't mean I don't know how bad they can be.

My fingers brush the bronze dagger strapped to my thigh. Annabeth's knife.

I turned my eyes away from the horizon, "Iphigenia will be fine, she will go to Elysium for her sacrifice. Now, come on, this deck won't wash itself."

I handed Dolops a bucket and reached for one myself, ignoring how Deme eyed me.

"A thousand sacrifices do not guarantee miracles, but a thousand sins do guarantee hell."

I was in the middle of instructing Avraham through a sword-fighting lesson when Brison came sliding down the mast of the ship, looking excited.

"There's another ship on the horizon!" He said excitedly, "Are we going to attack it?"

I sheathed Riptide. "Where? Show me."

We followed him to where Leon was staring out towards the horizon, hand on his sword. "There," He pointed out.

Squinting, I could make out the vague shape of a ship.

"We don't know if it's a slaver ship," Avraham pointed out. "It's too far away to tell and we shouldn't attack a ship for no reason."

"Of course," I said. "That's why I'll be checking it out. Turn around, boys."

Before they could question me as to what I meant with that, I started stripping off my outer layer, making them yelp and quickly avert their eyes, until I was left only in my chiton. I carefully took off my veil and folded it before jumping overboard.

"Rhea?" Avraham shouted askance, "What are you doing?"

"I'll be back in an hour!" I yelled back, "I'll just go check out the ship! Tell Deme that I'm gone."

I ducked under the waves, swimming far faster than humans are capable of.

A few fish stopped and stared at me as I swam past, but I paid them no mind. The ship wasn't that far away from ours, and it would be rather easy to direct either of the ships into each other with my powers, but I'd rather avoid that if it isn't necessary.

Coming up to the surface next to the ship without being spotted, I swam around it, looking for any clues as to who was on board.

I stopped, hearing voices drifting down from above.

"Another week to Aegina, sir." A young voice called, "Do you think we have enough to be protected from Athens as we pass by?"

A deeper voice snorted, and I heard footsteps approaching. "I think we got enough to buy a whole temple's protections from that last loot- Aegina won't care as long as they get paid and they piss off Athens."

"Maroula won't be very happy with us, and they're Aegina's allies." The younger voice pointed out, "We raided one of their diplomatic trading vessels, this may end badly."

"You really like making us out to be in between a rock and a hard place, aren't you?" The deeper voice sighed, "Look, Glaukos, we'll stop at Aegina for three nights, and then we leave. There's no way they could have gotten any message about the attack, and by the time they realize that we've swindled them, we'll be long gone. Relax."

The younger voice, Glaukos, continued to worry, but both men seemed to go below deck and I lost them.

So this is a pirating ship. Steals from the state vessels, tricks others, and makes off with the gold. Great.

I ducked under the waves again, and headed back towards the Black Pearl.

"Rhea!" Was the first thing I heard from Deme as I resurfaced.

"I'm fine!" I yelled back, watching as Deme's annoyed face popped out from over the rail to scowl at me. "Can you throw down my veil and shawl? I've got news."

She rolled her eyes but did so.

I boosted myself on board, hissing as Deme immediately moved to smack me upside the head.

"Seriously?" I adjusted my veil from where she knocked it askew. "You're going to break your hand hitting me one of these days."

"You and your veil are a mess," She sniffed. "Stop jumping overboard."

I rolled my eyes and turned to where Avraham was patiently waiting for our squabbling to end. "Pirate ship. They haven't spotted us yet. They're heading to Aegina, and they just attacked a Kythnosi trading vessel."

"Are we going to attack them?" Brison asked, looking a bit too excited. Leon put his hand on his shoulder, "Slow down there kiddo, they're pirates. We're here to stop slaver vessels, not pirates- they don't leave any survivors."

"So we're doing nothing?" Ekrem spat, "We're just going to let these pirates continue to attack innocents?"

"We never said that-" Avraham held his hand up, but I cut the brewing argument with a sharp whistle.

"If you all would just listen." I snapped, having all of them turn back to me, wide-eyed. "Thank you. No, we're not going to attack them, but we're also not going to just let them sail on without facing any consequences."

"Yeah?" Nysia spoke up for the first time, "What do you plan on doing then?"

I smiled. "Dolops, go signal them with the distress flag. Boys, grab your weapons. Hyrmione, you and Nysia will be staying back and protecting the ship with Ammeris in case this goes wrong. Kelila, go hide down below. Deme, you're with me."

Standing on the deck of the Black Pearl beside Ammeris and Deme, I watched as the pirate ship approached.

I had gotten changed, switching from my more casual chiton and veil to a tight bun with a headband veil and a short huntress' chiton. If this went wrong, it'll be easier to fight in this outfit.

I watched as the Dolops got helped on board by Leon, and all the men disappeared inside the pirate ship.

It's much harder to make other people walk on water than it is to make myself do so, and I had to keep the waves steady under their feet so they didn't get little mountains to climb over. But they had all made it to the other ship, and soon their sabotage would begin.

"You are insane," Deme hissed to me.

"Thank gods for that, or else this plan would never work." I grinned back at her.

The pirates finally got close enough that they could shout over at us. "We saw your distress signal! What's the problem, mate?"

Ammeris shouted back clearly yet with distaste in his tone. "Pirates stole most of our food supply! They passed us by a week ago, and left our ship in disrepair!"

The man who must be their captain shared a look with one of his crew, "Oh? Perhaps we can change your fortunes a bit. May we board?"

Ammeris gave the signal, and the other ship began to prepare to board, slowly inching closer to us so we were parallel to each other.

Brison gave a little wave from where he stuck his head out of one of the portholes, and I steadied the water under it.

The men got in and out without a hitch.

The captain, about to put the board down between our ships, sword clearly on his hip, seemed to finally realize that something was wrong.

"Oi! Where are all your men? I can only see women!" He yelled, and I smiled.

With a single hand thrust outwards, a giant wave rose between our ships, and I watched as the pirates shouted in terror, many nearly falling overboard.

Running forward to jump onto the wave, still growing between our ships, I laughed.

"I'm sorry boys, but it seems that you did change our fortunes and your own." I taunted, letting a whip of water rise up from the sea and yank their sail off the mast. "Perhaps next time you'll think twice about being pirates, hm?"

"Sea witch!" One man yelled, terrified.

"No, that's my sister." I corrected, annoyed. "I'm Princess Rhea of Ithaca, daughter of Poseidon, and protector of innocents at sea. Do spread that message around."

With a thrust of both my arms outwards, I sent the wave crashing onto their ship, watching as men shouted out and fell under the water pressure. The ship was pushed away, nearly capsizing under the pressure.

I slowly lowered myself back onto my ship, careful not to let the wave crash onto us too hard.

"Holy shit. You're scary," Ekrem said, staring at me. Avraham was muttering a prayer under his breath.

"She's an idiot," Deme corrected, coming up to throw the yellow cloak that Apollo left behind for me over my shoulders. "You're going to sleep through the day again, aren't you?"

"You don't let me have anything," I whined, but leaned on her gratefully.

"We do have something!" Brison corrected, and held up a small chest he was carrying. "We looted the looters!"

I blinked. I sent them in to untie knots and hack at the oars, not steal from them. But I couldn't help but be satisfied with that. "What did you find?"

"Silver, mostly. Lead pieces, good pottery, dried herbs. A good 400 silver drachma worth of loot," Dolops answered.

Roughly 25 thousand US dollars of loot then, wow, that's a lot. Wait.

"Lead?" I asked, and then sighed when they nodded. "Throw the lead overboard."

"What?!" Ekrem protested, "It's lead. Do you understand how much it's worth?!"

"Yes," I told him. "I also understand how poisonous it is. Lead poisoning is serious and will kill you far quicker than you think. Throw it overboard, we're not having anyone die of any easily preventable deaths. The lead could kill even me, and you could stab me in the stomach and break your sword."

Ekrem looked devastated at the loss in profit, but Brison had dropped his chest so quick like it would bite him as soon as I said it was poisonous.

Avraham just shook his head, "Of course, Rhea. I'll take over now, go rest."

"Even as we run on empty, we work on. Think of the good you bring, the kindness and mercy you are, the love you can give. Give in not to cruelty, but the hope to make others' lives better."

Saturdays are the days the entire crew gets time off.

I let go of any power making the ship sail any faster than it should, leaving only the small strain that keeps it running smoothly. Deme sleeps in and relaxes for once, and when we finally get up at noon, we skip breakfast in favor of girl talk and having fun.

Nobody does any work other than Nysia, but as she insists that cooking isn't work, none of us argue with her.

In fact, most of us spent the day on deck, blankets laid down to protect us from the splinter-filled wood, having a picnic.

I took out my lyre, Avraham joined with his flute, and Hyrmione danced.

Then, at night, we would have dinner together, sharing stories and anecdotes of our lives.

"-And then," Deme said, face flushed from the wine, "Queen Penelope comes into the room, looks at the both of us, and asks 'Why is my foster son stuck on the roof?'"

We all started laughing at the image of Deme and I's antics on Ithaca, and how we terrorized the boys.

"Heirax had it coming!" I defended loudly, starting another chorus of chuckles. "I kicked his ass in sparring, and he asked if it was because all my sweat was helping me win!"

"Gross," Brison said, "But does it?"

"Sweat isn't seawater, even if it is salty water," Leon told him dryly.

"I don't know," I shrugged, "Should I try it out on you?"

He yelped out a "No!" so quickly it sent us all back into laughter.

"Well," Kelila said, raising her winebowl. "I think we should make a toast!"

"Oh?" Ekrem said, pouring himself more wine. "I'm always down for more drinking."

"Alcoholic," I elbowed him. "Go ahead Kelila."

She smiled, and made eye-contact with Dolops. "I just think we should give toast to all of us. We found each other despite all the odds, and I thank God everyday he blessed us with our friendship."

Nysia and Deme let out an aww, and many of the men laughed, clapping each other in friendship. I was quite focused on the way Kelila and Dolops were eyeing each other, and it looked like young love was blooming on board.

"To us!" I echoed her and raised a toast in delight.

"To us!" We drank together.

A/N

Heyo, I'm back! This chapter was written weirdly, as the first RheaApollo bit was written on paper at the back of my school notes, then written yesterday, and the fight onwards just now as I try to finish before Lunch so I can study this afternoon.

So! Rhea and Apollo being married but Rhea having no idea about it, we touch upon how the Trojan war is going, Rhea is scary bamf, and Deme is the best friend we all want. Hopefully all of you are keeping up with the OCs, and if not, sorry, I am limiting myself to 10 OCs at once. And for the money system, I did touch upon it in an earlier chapter, but I did *research* and *math* for this motherfucker so y'all get it dropped in here again. And... I literally forgot everything else I was going to touch upon in the history notes a/n as I didn't really add a lot history this chapter.

1 bronze coin (Chalkoi)
24 Chalkoi to 1 half silver (silver drachmae)
3 Obol (silver coin) to 1 half silver
2 half silvers to 1 Silver drachma
10 Silver coins to 1 Gold drachma
1 Dekadrachm (Gold Drachma) = 10 silver drachma = $600 us
1 silver drachma = 6 Obol = $60 us
1 half silver (Triobol) = 3 Obol = $30 us
1 Obol = 8 Chalkoi = $10 us
1 Chalkoi ~ $1 us

I also have a PJO discord server for this fanfic (and my other fics) that anyone can join! (Just remove the spaces) : / / discord . gg/ hfXGUeraTg