A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!

The faction supporting the dowager queen cheered as the soldiers poured in while the other two factions scrambled to get away from the door. None of them had weapons as the Great Hall essentially became a death trap.

Annabeth felt her heart pounding. Sir Nico had his sword drawn in front of her, ready to lay down his life to defend the queen. This was it. Annabeth prepared for her death. Perhaps she would meet Percy in the afterlife, or she would find herself back in the modern world. Either way, she was prepared to drag anyone down to hell with her, especially the dowager queen.

Then, the invading soldiers ignored Annabeth and quickly surrounded the dowager queen who had stood waiting in front of the door of the Great Hall, expecting them to be at her command.

"What? What is the meaning of this?" The dowager queen demanded. "Unhand me, you fools and kill her!" Amphitrite jabbed at Annabeth's direction, but she was knocked to the ground with her hands quickly bound with chains.

The soldiers ignored her as the dowager queen screamed and flailed her legs. She had seen that the soldiers wore the emblem of Eldoris, the mark of royal knights.

Annabeth saw this in a mere second as she was already off the throne and running towards the door. There was only one person she saw in the room milling with soldiers and unarmed nobles cowering from the soldier's swords.

Everyone and everything else was a blur, only a man with battle swept dark hair and twinkling sea green eyes were clear in her vision.

"Percy!" She cried out, her arms outstretched.

Percy caught her mid-jump and pulled her in. He was dressed in full battle armor and was sweaty, but Annabeth didn't care a single bit when his breastplate dug into her skin. To her, the discomfort was physical proof that she wasn't dreaming and that he was safe here with her.

"I'm here, my queen, I'm here." Percy murmured into the top of her hair. "Don't cry, love."

Annabeth looked up at Percy as though he could disappear from her eyesight at any moment. The king cupped her cheek and gently brushed the tears away. He looked tired with faint shadows underneath his eyes and had a nasty bruise on his temple.

"I didn't want to believe you were dead," Annabeth whispered. "If you were gone, I'm not sure what I would do."

"I wouldn't leave you alone like this," Percy reassured her. "There is no way I wouldn't come back home to you. Even if I have to crawl from the underworld and conquer death itself."

Annabeth could have stayed hugging Percy forever, but she was quickly reminded that they were not alone in the Great Hall.

"Impossible!" The dowager queen yelled out as her eyes shone with hatred at the hugging Eldoris royals. The former queen was kneeling on the ground with both her arms restrained behind her back by two knights. With the crazed look and her loose dark hair, Amphitrite looked more and more like a witch. "How did you come back alive?"

The king smiled darkly.

When the first volley of arrows hit, Percy easily summoned a wave of water that collided with the arrows midway. Upon release, the water and arrows clattered onto the ground between the path and woods.

"Archers!" Percy cried out.

The archers in his soldiers nocked arrows dipped in oil and released them back to the woods. Lord Christopher had come upon this excursion. The wizard lord chanted underneath his breath and the arrow tips burst into flames. As the arrows landed in the woods, the trees caught fire. It was a shame that Percy had to set fire to his own land, but he was controlling the spread through the command of water with the help of Lord Christopher. Another volley of arrows were unleashed from Percy's side, this time releasing poisonous smoke into the woods. The enemy soldiers were being flushed out.

As the hidden enemy soldiers stumbled from the smoky and flaming woods, either Percy's archers picked them off with arrows or his cavalry soldiers slashed with their swords.

Percy had long known about this scheduled attack on the day he would come back from arresting the old duke. Triton had alerted him to it.

Ever since the dowager queen had killed Triton's lover, Triton had sworn loyalty to Percy in exchange for revenge and to keep his mother's life in the end. The dowager queen had never involved her sickly son with her schemes, knowing that her soft-hearted son would not be able to pull off any schemes. Instead, Amphitrite dirtied her own hands to secure Triton on the throne. Perhaps this was why she never expected that her own son would be leaking information from their faction to Percy. With his ill health that seemed to have worsened since his lover's death, Triton wasn't able to gather all the information, but every piece of information he did transmit was vital.

For example, Triton had said that an attack would happen after visiting the old duke, but he was unable to provide where and when exactly the attack would occur. Still, the information was good enough to make prevention strategies. The dowager queen's hired mercenaries and knights never expected that their attack had long been anticipated. But the smoke and fire of Percy's soldiers would not last long as the enemy forces regrouped.

Percy unsheathed his sword. "For Eldoris!" He yelled before charging into battle.

Most of the battle was a blur. Percy let loose all his rage and frustration accumulated over the two lifetimes. Finally, the end stage had been set for the final push against his stepmother.

The enemy had thought they would fight against a small band of royal knights and the king by ambushing them unawares. Now the woods became their final resting place. Percy showed no mercy this time. Most of the enemy soldiers would be slaughtered unless they surrendered. The main leaders would be captured and become evidence in the trial against the dowager queen.

Suddenly, something collided with Percy's chest, knocking him off of his horse. His horse, finding itself with no rider, dashed away. Percy looked down for a brief second to see a large arrow sticking out of his chest from the side. The arrow had perfectly entered a gap between his armor, with the point slipping in. Other than a dull and slightly achy pain, Percy felt no other injury or blood seep. It seems that the dowager queen's side did have a few skilled mercenaries after all. He could count his lucky stars that he hadn't been injured seriously. Percy ignored the painless arrow and slashed his sword at two mercenaries who tried to sneak up while Percy was observing the arrow sticking out the side of his chest.

His shield blocked the jab on the left while his sword cut into the second's sword arm. The enemy went down easily. The soldier on the left was still reeling from the backlash of Percy's shield slamming into his sword. Percy turned on this soldier next and with a deft twist of his sword, the soldier collapsed to the ground.

The fighting was more or less finished at this point. The rest of Percy's knights had cleaned up the rest of the enemy soldiers. Most of the leaders had either been defeated or captured in rope, ready to be hauled back to the palace as prisoners.

"Your Majesty, are you all right?" Sir Grover dashed to Percy's side. "Healer! We need a medic over here!"

"I'm fine. Attend to the other injured knights first," Percy reassured him.

"But, Your Majesty, we must treat your injury first. What if the arrow has been poisoned?" Sir Grover insisted.

Percy gingerly pulled the arrow out of his armor, the arrowpoint breaking off and still lodged inside. Sir Grover hastily helped him remove his breastplate. As the last leather ties of the armor strap loosened, the arrowpoint fell to the ground, landing with a soft thud. But the arrowpoint was attached to a bit of cloth.

Percy picked up the arrowpoint carefully in case there was poison. The metal arrowpoint had easily torn through the ripped cloth. On the other side of the cloth was a silver coin pinned by the arrowhead. It was the remains of the sachet that his beloved queen had made for him. Percy had slipped it into his clothes over his heart. Had he not done so, he was sure that the arrow shot at him would have proved fatal.

As he had thought, his queen was his good-luck charm, a true divine blessing from the heavens above. She was everything in this lifetime. He felt the urge to go back now and hug her for saving his life.

"Your Majesty!" Another knight came up. In his hand gripped a pigeon trying to peck at his fingers.

Percy read the little piece of paper that had come off of the pigeon's leg. The reply had long been prepared. "The rotten oak tree has fallen" was attached back on the pigeon's leg. With an indignant coo and a quick munching of the food offered, the pigeon flew back with the encrypted note.

Yes, indeed, the rotten oak tree of a dowager queen was going to fall soon. Very soon.

"Return to the palace!" Percy ordered.

Along the way, they captured the dowager queen's forces that had just gathered to attack the royal palaces. The knights that Percy had secretly prepared and stationed joined in the fight and overtook the dowager queen's faction. Percy could tell many of the enemy forces contained knights sent from the various nobles in her faction. He raised an eyebrow as he charged into battle.

That was all that had occurred up to this point. Percy sat on his throne above the Great Hall with Annabeth beside him, holding his hand. The nobles who had sent knights to usurp the throne had been gathered in chains as well, kneeling behind the dowager queen.

Percy brought out the evidence he had built up over the years. Sir Rachel was there, presenting the incriminating papers of her father and the bribes he had accumulated from the dowager queen. Then, there was the evidence of freshly minted gold coins with serial numbers matching the serial numbers given to the dowager queen as part of her allowance. The gold coins were the exact coins found on the stable hand who had dared the young noble to throw a snake and excited the horses to rampage. More evidence was contained in boxes waiting to be read.

All the evidence was enough to convict the dowager queen multiple times of treason and assassination. It was only a pity as so many years had passed, Percy couldn't charge the dowager queen with the crime of killing his mother. The evidence had long been eviscerated and the witnesses silenced to the underworld. But this was enough to avenge his mother.

Beside him, Annabeth squeezed his hand and Percy patted it. This was a monumental occasion for him, she knew. Finally, everything that he had worked for had come to fruition.

Amphitrite looked up to where the royals were sitting, not saying a word. Triton had collapsed soon after Percy's soldiers had entered from trying to escape the locked room his mother had placed him in, so Percy sent physicians to look over Triton's condition. Triton had woken up soon after but declined to observe the trial in the end. Perhaps Triton didn't want to see his mother as she was ruined in her demise or look in her face knowing that he had been instrumental in the trial.

Was the dowager queen disappointed that her own son went against her? Did she feel any sense of betrayal? Either way, Percy didn't care.

"Amphitrite Nereus, do you admit to your crimes?" Percy called out.

She made no sound. It was to Percy's satisfaction that the nobles in the Great Hall announced her guilty of all crimes.

Finally, Amphitrite broke her hours-long silence and laughed maniacally. Even when she was pulled out of the Great Hall, her laughter seemed to echo off the stone walls like the remnants of her evil could not be contained.

Stripped of her title and everything she once had, Amphitrite sat in her dungeon cell. Her ankles were still bound with chains so she could do no more than shuffle around, but the cell was a bit nicer than most of the other prisoners from the dowager queen's faction.

"I'd offer you a seat but it seems that you have already done so yourself," Amphitrite said with a sneer as her stepson sat down on the only other available chair in her cell. "What an honor for the king to visit my lowly cell. To what do I owe the displeasure of your visit?"

Percy ignored her words and poured tea into three rough pottery cups. He took a sip from one of them. "It's just as you thought, I wanted to see your despair at your lowest point. But now that I see you…you're really nothing."

He was petty like that. Looking at the once elegant and beautiful woman who was reduced to a shell of herself, Percy felt no other feelings. Now that everything was over, it was as if his enemy had been an insurmountable mountain, only to look closer and see she had been no more than an anthill.

"Then why don't you just kill me?" Amphitrite sneered. "I know that you would love to see me buried."

"Tempting. But your son has spoken for your life."

"How loyal of him," Amphitrite mocked.

"Yes, considering how you killed the one he loves."

Percy wondered if Amphitrite had ever truly loved someone. She loved her son, but it was a twisted love hellbent on gaining power. Amphitrite's family had been like that, too, educating and pushing their daughter until the very moment she had fallen from grace. It was a wonder that Triton came out mostly soft-hearted as he did.

The cell doors opened at this time and Triton stepped in.

Percy smiled. "I'll give you two some time." He swept his empty teacup aside and left the cell.

Yes, he had agreed to let Amphitrite live in return for Triton's role as spy. However, Percy didn't agree to keep her sane. In the teapot was the addition of hallucinating drugs masked by the heavy taste of tea. Percy had eaten the antidote before coming to the cell, and Triton had long ingested the antidote unknowingly when the physicians had treated him earlier with his fainting episode before the trial. That left Amphitrite alone with consuming the hallucinating drugs in the tea. The former dowager queen was already half-way into insanity. Percy was just speeding up the process.

It was the only way to keep Triton's promise while ensuring that Amphitrite would never once again rise into power and threaten Percy's family and kingdom. The dowager queen's faction and her few remaining family members would be unable to support her.

As Percy came up from the dungeon, he felt a sense of relief melt into his body. Annabeth was waiting for him in his office. He quickly hugged her, feeling her warmth wrap around his body.

It was time to let go of the hatred and revenge he had carried in the past. The second chance he had gotten was firmly in his grasp. He had a whole future ahead with his wife to look forward to.

A new era had begun.

A/N: Arc 2 has ended, and onwards to arc 3. Of course, many of you readers would have guessed that Percy is still alive. Don't worry, I'll kill Percy or Annabeth in another future story, hehe. "Never Afraid of Death" is my first exploration in the tragedy tag, perhaps there will be others.

I was doing a little research and found out that in Greek mythology, Amphitrite didn't want to marry Poseidon and actually fled from his advances. Only when the dolphin Delphinus (the dolphin general in the PJO books) convinced her did Amphitrite marry Poseidon. The Roman equivalent of Amphitrite is also Salacia, which roughly translates to "the salty one." LOL, I, too, would be salty if I was persuaded to marry someone I initially didn't want to, and then my husband kept on having children with other people, even if the number was less than Zeus.

As always, thanks for reading, and see you all next chapter!