Apollon watched as Ariadne stepped onto the water that ran through Castellan. She twisted and twirled through the air, dancing happily alongside the naiads and nymphs that took refuge in Castellan's waters. She looked so at peace as she flipped through the air.

He felt almost overwhelmed with the strength of his love, and yet—it didn't feel as it did before. He didn't feel as if he wanted to rid the worlds of her suitors to only have her heart for his to keep.

[Though he was still struggling with her obvious affection for Hermes. Something in which they both teased him relentlessly about.]

He was sure that he would've gotten rid of Hebe and Zagreus and Zethes and Attina a long time ago if he did. Hermes would help him just as he had been helping him with his 800-page courting plan to win her back over.

Though he hadn't had time to help much, the younger god had taken a more hands on approach to raising his children. At least the ones in Castellan. The children he had at the other camps had seen an increase in gifts and letters from him.

[And that was without mentioning the ones that Apollon and Artemis had taken to visiting for their mortal parents. Delphi's Strawberry Farm has been converted to Delphi's Academia. Athena and her children had lots of fun designing the new face of the camp.

Hades was just happy to get unclogged places in the Underworld as they placed more ghosts around the camp to teach the kids. And according to Athena, the new camp designs that the Fated created were much better than the old ones that she remembered.

That had sparked a lot of debate. The Moirai had appeared to give them the memories of the future-past. Some like he and Hermes had refused them. Athena and Hades had accepted their own. Hades was just using the excuse to find ways to fix the traffic in the underworld, and to get ahead start on any paperwork for the deceased.

But Poseidon refused. He didn't want a cheat sheet to love his children. He didn't want to know how he failed them the first time around. Though Amphitrite took some of hers so that they could be prepared for any war at sea.

Surprisingly it was Apollon's own father that caused the most controversy. He refused his memories also . He wanted to be a good king. A better king. He didn't want to have his mind tainted by betrayals that would hopefully no longer happen. Though Apollon knew that Ares and Athena were still keeping careful watch on those that did. But for his father, he wanted to be a king that made mistakes and learned from them.

And the other gods while not knowing that they were given a second chance appreciate it much more. His father apologized when he made mistakes. He was much more hands-on with his advice and help and leadership. The change was gradual, but many people were still very much alarmed when they recognized that there was a change.

There were a lot of cries about the end times when he first got started.

Even his relationship with Hera had been greatly approved. Though she still held an intense dislike for any of his lovers and children sprung from the affairs, she became much more sympathetic to the ones that didn't know about their world. She spearheaded marriage counseling and worked alongside Aphrodite and the various gods of emotions such as love and hate to ensure healthy relationships.

Her first encounter with an abusive step parent had made her take a step back and rethink her relationships with them all. She would never be their mother, nor could she erase the pain she caused them, but she could be friendlier. And as long as she never had to see any of their mothers, she was just downright pleasant to be around. Though Herakles could still rot for all she cared.

Regardless, once word got out about the baby Stolls' abusive stepfather, she had beaten Hermes there to rip into him. It was the only time she was willing to be around Leto due to their shared domain of motherhood and where they had a little dungeon built to thoroughly punish child abusers.

She also decided that if she couldn't stop father from having affairs, she could one up him by becoming the favored grandparent.]

Anyhow, as he gazed upon Ariadne… all the problems in their world seemingly faded away.

"She's lost her manipulative edge," a voice hummed at his side. He turned to see Helen and Hector standing beside him. That had been the shock of the century when the two of them started dating. He wasn't sure how that worked, but good for them.

"Manipulative," Hector questioned. Helen nodded absently as she watched Ariadne laugh when Jackjack [Percy] walked into water to join her.

"Yeah. the entire time that we were captured." And here Hector winced for it was his strike that took her down. "It was as if she had just a ten step plan waiting to unfold at any given time. It was as if Troy had been the one kidnapped and vulnerable and not the other way around. Nothing could phase her and she was just biding her time to escape at the most dramatic moment."

Apollon knew that was a lie. Sitting in on her sessions with Dionysus, he knew that the girl was very traumatized from that event and that she had no idea what was going on half the time.

Hector seemingly agreed though as he moved to get comfortable, "She was determined though. I knew she was something special when she tried to seduce me all while knowing I had a wife." The ghosts' expressions tinged with guilt as they thought of their deceased lovers that they left behind.

Helen shook her head before raising a brow at the prince, "Can she truly be at fault in her attempt? The men in our time are what Silena calls easy. Lady Aphrodite could have promised your brother a glimpse up my skirt and he would have tripped over his feet trying to lift the underskirt."

It had been a cultural shock to watch Helen adapted to the new era. She took to it quickly. Whenever she got the chance [meaning whenever Nico and Ariadne weren't paying attention] she slipped out of castellan to go stalk the humans and learn their way of life. She was fascinated by phones and was sick with the idea that demigods couldn't use one without signaling monsters. [Those were the times that she stuck around Hermes to watch him use his own.]

"If I may," the Olympian interjected. The two spirits turned to him. "I believe that the Ariadne you all came to know was not the one she truly was born to be. You met her broken yet unyielding under the weight of expectations from a world that did not deserve her. You met one facet of her, and this woman in front of you… this beautiful and talented woman in front of you is someone who bore the weight of the world and was able to reach her hand out for help. She blossomed into the most beautiful version of herself. To love and be loved has been her greatest strength that I admire. To see her as she embraces the world anew. Despite all that has happened to her, she never lost her sense of wonder. She showed that anyone could survive tragedy and still come out strong."

Ariadne's laugh chimed through the air, spreading warmth through all that listened. "She's a miracle."

Their attention was grabbed as Percy and Annabeth walked towards the group. Ariadne looked at her brother with a small smile, winking at him as she swam through hoops of water.

"Annabeth," Ariadne called out. She giggled again as a few sea snakes curled around her arms. The daughter of Athena smiled at the other. Ariadne held her hand out, conjuring a rose made from water. "Annabeth, I believe in miracles."

The girl took the flower in her hand, still smiling as the flower solidified in her hands. Ariadne pointed behind her to where Percy was kneeling on a slab of frozen ice. Ariadne pulled Annabeth into the water and then onto the ice.

Percy smiled up at her, and the girl was already tearing up. Apollon looked around him, taking note of their family that had shown. Each of the twins' royal siblings, alongside the entire Olympian council... Artemis' huntresses... there were the various family members that lived within the kingdom. He turned his attention back to the couple as Ariadne and Krokus swam around them, throwing their hands through the air as arches of water appeared above them.

Water wavered behind Percy until Ariadne manipulated it to say: To My Wise Girl...

"To My Wise Girl ," he said aloud, a ball of swirling water appeared in his hands until it faded away to show an onyx ring with a stone filled with the waters of the Phlegethon.

"To the girl that I have gone to the Underworld and back with...

To the girl that holds my heart in her hands...

To the girl that helped introduce me to the world of gods and stuck by me as I learned...

To the girl that healed the rift between our parents...

We have been on countless adventures together. Most of our friends are here with us to witness this.

I love you more than any words could ever express. You bring so much light into my life.

It's like I've been sleepwalking for so long and now I'm finally awake.

No one had ever been able to tell me who I should fall in love with.

Not our parents, our siblings, our friends, Lady Aphrodite herself—and to an extent, not even you.

Because Annabeth, I love you.

I'll tell you everyday and every night and it would still not cover the depths of my love for you.

And yet, here I am attempting to lay my heart out bare for all to see…

Annabeth, will you marry me?

Annabeth threw her arms around him, blurting out a yes as she tackled him into a hug. The people around them cheered, even the huntresses clapped politely. Ariadne and Krokus gasped as their father unlocked their transformations, glittering scales washed over their bodies as their tails emerged. They swam around for another moment before doing tricks around the newly engaged couples head.

He hoped Annabeth was prepared for it all. She was marrying a prince after all. There were a lot of courting procedures that she would have to go through. Three different weddings also. One for the sea, another for Olympus, and one for Castellan.

Hermes ran forth to the water before jumping in. His sons followed behind him. Splash battles began to commence with the ocean's offspring blatantly cheating by maneuvering the water away from them. Annabeth laughed as she swam back towards the shore with the rest of the people staying out of the line of fire.

Poseidon and Amphitrite joined in, quickly taking sides as they all laughed happily.

"Annabeth, how did you know that Percy was the one for you," one of the naiads questioned as they had pulled all the tables out of Silena's Eatery to dine alongside the bank. She was surrounded by most of their guests as Percy had joined his siblings in the water teaching JackJack how to use his powers. Annabeth sighed almost dreamily, not noticing the way that Aphrodite and her children leaned in eagerly.

"He looked at me the way all women wanted to be looked at..." Some of the people around them cooed, but Annabeth wasn't finished, "... with fear in his eyes."

"Awww," the hunters cheered as the smiles dropped off Eros and his siblings' faces. Aphrodite's smile was a mixture of horror and amusement as Athena looked on approvingly. Annabeth snorted at the people around them before she once again turned to look at her fiancé, "No seriously, we were friends for a long time. I saw his selflessness over and over again. He was always willing to put his friends before himself."

Her voice trailed off, eyes getting lost in memories. In the river, Ariadne and JackJack teamed up to playfully tackle Krokus underwater.

"I wasn't a good person at first. I took advantage of that. It stemmed from our parents' rivalry so we broke our relationship down to the barebones and rebuilt it. We had to unlearn behaviors and learn new ones. It was exhausting, but it was worth it. It was so worth it," Annabeth continued, taking note of the way that Percy chased after his sister playfully.

"It was the way he reacted to my sadness and things that bothered me. He reached out to me, to hold my hand and support me while I forged my own path with knowledge that if he needed me to do the same then it would happen. He was everything that I could ever ask for in a man and then some."

Apollon found that kind of hilarious since they were only technically sixteen when they started to date. Though a demigods' life is short even if they have prolonged their years.

Annabeth took a shaky breath, "He was the dream I never wanted to wake up from." The people around her held their breaths taking in the significance of her words.

[It's like I've been sleepwalking for so long and now I'm finally awake.]

"Falling for him was an accident, but staying with him was my decision. And it's one that I'll never regret." They could tell her words were aimed at her mother and even some of the hunters that had thought she deserved better than some male... some child of Poseidon. "It took me so long to realize that a part of me didn't love him at first. I knew he was a good person and I just hated the idea of him loving someone else the same way he loved me." The guilt on her tongue, and the shadow of a smirk on Rachel's face.

"I realized that I didn't want to feel like that. I wanted to love him for him, and he accepted me for that." Aphrodite nodded approvingly, doting her handkerchief at her eyes. Her favored kind of love was the ones that she didn't touch. [Though he does remember Ariadne mentioning something about Aphrodite interfering until she didn't.]

"I knew he was the one when I realized that he was a good person and the only thing he had wanted was to see me happy. He made me feel beautiful, wanted, loved, and appreciated."

Percy turned to look at them, smiling happily at his fiancée as he knew the words she was speaking. In his distraction, his siblings tackled him into the water. Annabeth stood from her seat, heading towards the water, "If you'll excuse me everyone, I'm going to go support my fiancé. Gods, I'd never get over saying that."

Persephone laughed, the sound twinkling in the air, "Ahh, but just wait until you can call him husband. Truly a wonderful feeling." She tuned out Demeter's following rant as per usual.

Helen furrowed her brow, "I thought they were already betrothed."

Apollon shook his head, "No. But the other Fated have been calling them engaged since it was only a matter of time."

The two ghosts nodded slowly before Hector turned to him with a sly smirk, "Are you and Ariadne going to marry, mi'lord?"

When Apollon looked at Ariadne, she was already looking back.

"One day and forever more."