ObviouslyRavenclaw: Rachel isn't back yet. So, the spirit is reigning free for now. And she's about to introduce a whole bout of chaos to the team. Rachel sees a fixed future that they're all headed towards. Triton knows a lot of the past and the present. And Percy… he is absolutely a ticking time bomb.
Sky and Percy are such a fantastic duo when they work together. Their conflict drives a good chunk of the story. It's sad that canon didn't give Percy demigodly siblings. Tyson is incredible but he's barely a recurring character.
Thanks so much! I'm juggling between my updates on Ao3, so this fic will be slow for a while.

Moncef:
1) The ghost will be revealed in the first half of Immortals! I don't want to give anything away!

2) Percy, Harry, and Rachel's powers were asked for but they've received them. Their story will be focused on the choices they make on how to wield these abilities and for whom. I'll bring the spotlight back on the first prophecy soon enough! (Maybe the real power was the friendship they'd discovered along the way.)

3) The thing about gods is that they're beholden to ancient rules. Even though mortals are seemingly far below their status, without the permission or faith of humans, the gods do not have their strength over them. That's why even though Sally had kept the bracelet close to her, even keeping skin contact, the goddess could do nothing but whisper in her ear and try and influence. Had she more time, Sally may even have gone that route, but circumstances changed them.
4) The fic will have a grander focus on R+H+P understanding the costs of being immortals (neither gods nor mortals, much closer to monsters than they're comfortable). Again, it comes down to their decisions and the way they shape this behemoth series.

5) P.S. Snape will have a tiny closing arc in one of the future chapters. I agree, his character isn't my favourite but I both pity and revile the man. The closure is more for Harry+Rachel than for him, either way.

fatimapausini5:
1) JKR did a great disservice by not fleshing out Lily. She gave some context to James by bringing Sirius and Remus's backstories, but none of Lily's friends made the cut? Yeah, I'm so glad you love my take on her. I've made her a brash young woman who's overly-gifted and is still learning what to do with these powers, but unfortunately never reaches her goal.

2) Alternate title for the Pepe and Pumki saga - Sins of the Mothers.

3) Awesome to hear from readers of different nations! Arwa Karim and Omar Diab are characters I wanted to add because I love the Mummy movies, but it took me years to realise that Hollywood had stereotyped so many beautiful aspects of Egyptian culture and people. I'm not bringing in the Kane chronicles (because there's no way I'd be able to wrap up all the multiple storylines that arise there), but we can assume that Carter and Sadie are doing their thing. In the meantime, Arwa and Omar are here, being real people with real emotions.

4) Cassandra and Iphigenia: They're brilliant women, partially based on characters from The Old Guard. Your views on Rachel+Harry+Percy reflecting so much of the first generation are powerful because it's such a core theme in so many stories. History will repeat unless we change it.
I'll keep your theories on Pandora and bring them up later in the story when all major and minor arcs turn towards that sole thing. Everyone is wondering and terrified of who she is, and when she's revealed, I hope I've laid out enough clues for you to understand why the story chose that character. :)

Enjoy the chapter. The next one could take a while, I'm still keeping to Ao3 for now.

The Spirit of Delphi had logged into Rachel's various social media accounts and was stirring up drama online. Leo wasn't too concerned since he was busy discovering that he was a freakin' demigod.

Still, he got a friend notification from the spirit on his Insta.

"Nyssa?" Leo asked, interrupting the tour of Cabin 9. "Will I be cursed if I don't accept the request?"

Nyssa Barrera, the seventeen-year-old cabin head, (and Leo's older sister, holy hammers, he had siblings) heaved her muscled shoulders and spared the cracked screen of his phone a glance.

"Yeah, a bunch of us got that. Percy says he's gonna check on her. For now, I think we're safe."

Shane piped up from the corner, "Unless the spirit can send curses or quests online, it's chill."

Nyssa huffed like that was a joke. Leo lowered his phone. "Curses? You don't really believe in that?"

The mood dropped for a moment. Nyssa and Shane shared a serious look before she answered, "Just be wary of them, is all I'm sayin'."

"Yeah, but!" Leo laughed, "We got gods and magic! Can't we just stop curses?"

Shane sat back. "If you're not worried, you can take Beck's bunk."

"Shane!" Nyssa snapped. "After what happened to Jake, don't joke about that. Jeez. We're out of Murphy beds for now, Leo. Can you make do with a sleeping bag for a week till I sort out space?"

Leo had never slept in a Murphy bed. He had hated the cots in many of the halfway shelters and orphanages he'd grown up in. After the few nights he'd spent in cabin 11, he was ready for a proper bed.

"What about Beck's bunk?" he blurted.

Nyssa shook her head. "The gears were malfunctioning. Jake was supposed to fix it, but he's out of commission after the accident."

"Accident?"

"With the dragon."

Right.

Leo huffed. "Can I at least take a look at it?"

Nyssa and Shane eyed him dubiously before she pointed to the large space right by the first window. She banged the side of her fist against the metal wall and a section opened up, an rectangular outline of neon white light glowing to reveal an enclosed space. The wall opened and out fell a fully assembled cot. Its legs banged against the floor, nearly splintering and the inner machinery whirred loudly. All the occupants in the cabin winced.

Leo pointed out, "The gear wheels should be interlocked."

Nyssa slapped his back, nearly pitching his gangly body forwards. "If you can fix it, you can keep it."

"Wait, really?"

"Cabin rule," Shane nodded, shooting a thumbs-up.

Leo nearly bounced on the spot. These were his peeps. Literally.

He borrowed some tools from Shane's kit and got to work. There were corroded wires under the cot, unlit gems, unconnected plates, and a host of other defects. He had the control panel open, changing the board out to clean the interiors.

A small boy wandered over. He sat beside Leo and dropped his chin onto his hands.

"Hi!" he chirped.

Leo nodded, three screws in his mouth.

"I'm Harley."

"I'm Leo," he managed through the side of his mouth.

"You're the first demigod dad claimed since the war," Harley said by way of introduction.

Leo spat out the screws and laughed incredulously. "War? What war?"

"The Second Titan War, duh!"

He frowned down at him. "Like, the watch company?"

"No."

"I'm not big on sports, my dude."

"No!" Harley cried. "The Gods and Titans!"

Harley leaped right into a full uninterrupted explanation of the Second Titanomachy. Leo was gaping by the time he was done.

Piper and he had spent a couple of nights in cabin 11 before he'd been claimed. Some of the kids there had brought up a war, but Leo's head had been reeling with the words "demigods" and "Greek" and "dad" to even process anything else.

"You fought in a war?" Leo spluttered. Harley looked like a school-yard runt four steps away from puberty. A strong breeze could blow him away. Definitely Leo's brother.

"I helped with supplies," Harley said proudly. "And I got to keep the med camp safe."

The bed in front of them groaned. Leo closed the panel, deciding that a complete upgrade could happen after a full night's sleep. He kept eyeing Harley as he hauled up the bed and activated it.

This time, the gears spun smoothly. The Murphy bed emerged gracefully from the wall, settling on the floor like it was running on brand new pistons. Gems around the bed glowed like night lights and he tested the reclining angles. Everything was smooth.

Harley's jaw dropped. "Whoa! You did that so fast!"

Leo shrugged, colouring at the comment. "Yeah… I'm good with machines and stuff."

"We're all good with machines and stuff," the little boy parroted, hopping about. "This is awesome! I'mma tell Nyssa!"

Harley bolted and Leo simply dropped onto the incredibly plush mattress. His head hit the pillows (multiple, this was fine living), and he passed out instantly.

.

Wowza.

He hadn't dreamed like this in a while.

Leo found a dancing anvil in front of him. It taunted him, before leaping off the balcony of a marble palace and landing hard on the road outside, breaking the road and sinking in halfway.

Odd. The palace was a hundred miles in the air. How could the anvil hit the ground so quickly?

Leo left the laughing anvil, half-embedded in the cracked tar. He walked into his mother's old workshop.

She was looking over one of his old pictures. Leo immediately blushed. It was a silly drawing by an unpractised eight-year-old. Yet, his mother had pinned it to the corkboard in her office when he'd shown it to her.

"You should show this to your friends," Esperanza hummed warmly. "They ought to know you have incredible plans."

"Ma…" Leo winced. "How can you stand me?"

She looked over him, her dark eyes seeing so much more than a lanky, unfit teen. "Why don't you add wings to the boat?"

Esperanza let the scrap of paper drift away in the wind. Leo watched it flutter away. When he looked back down, his mother had disappeared, and in her place, Tía Callida was standing in the workshop. She still had her imposing presence from years ago.

"Leonidas!" her voice was soft, yet chastising. "Finally made it to camp? You conveniently missed the last war. Better make sure to not sit this one out!"

Leo's jaw dropped. "Uh… what?"

Tía Callida shook her head. "You might think time is abundant, but you saw the treachery out there. The Goddess will spare nothing to raze you. Your stunt with the rocket caused both camps to witness but a fragment of her wrath. When she rises, there will be nothing left to save."

Leo was still gawking at her. "Eh?"

Tía Callida groaned. "Look out for the anvil, boy. It's trying to tell you something. Are you your mother's son or not?"

"My… mom's son. Well, duh!" Leo yelled, annoyed. "What's that supposed to mean? What anvil?"

In response, Tía Callida pointed to the sky. Leo looked up, spying a tiny spot in the immense blue vastness. As he stared, the spot grew bigger and darker, taking the shape of a 500-pound forging anvil.

Leo wondered if this was how Wile E. Coyote felt in those cartoon shows he used to watch. Either way, he received an anvil to the face, its solid iron block smashing him into the ground, leaving him to sink under the soft earth that laughed all around.

Percy found Grover just as he was about to lose his mind. The Lord of the Wild was giggling at one of Juniper's jokes. They were making heart eyes at each other and if it wasn't so urgent, he would have turned around and walked away.

"Hey, Juniper," Percy's grin was tight. "Mind if I borrow Casanova here?"

The couple noticed the heavy demeanour and she said, "Sure. I'll see you tomorrow!"

Grover kissed her cheek and Juniper blushed a strong green, running back to her tree. Percy pulled a dazed Grover away from her and brought him to a less populated place by the strawberry fields. Sunset was imminent and cold winds signalling the onset of winter were on the way.

"How was Camp Jupiter?" Grover asked, slowly.

Percy dropped his head with a low groan. "He was lying! About the whole thing, I could tell! The Earth Goddess sent Sciron to spy on all of us and nobody is seeing that!"

Grover frowned. "Nobody… wait, Romans are supposed to have wolves who can catch someone lying. What happened?"

"They believe him," Percy grumbled. "He's being inducted into the ranks as a Probatio. But Annabeth thinks that's just legality or whatever. He's the first child of Neptune in several decades, they want to promote him as fast as possible. Same with Hazel, I guess."

"Even with the wolves?"

"Even then. Reyna has two metal dogs too and none of them could see through him."

Grover folded his arms. "Perce… is there a chance that you have a problem with him?"

Making a face, Percy scoffed. "Dio Immortales! Yes, of course I have a problem with him! He's been hiding in Alaska for years! I'm not going to trust him and neither should anyone."

He looked around, testing the surroundings to ensure they were alone, before whispering, "You gotta believe me, Grover! Even my… my step mom suspects him."

Grover's eyes widened. "You mean… her?"

"Yeah," Percy hopped on the spot. "That's cause for concern, right? I just have to figure out a way to catch him. But I can't keep going over to CJ to keep an eye on him. Right now, Annabeth, Thalia, Clarisse, Bianca, Nico, and me are the only ones allowed there. And not even to the barracks, just a couple of rooms in their ridiculous Senate building. It's way flashier than the Ministry of Magic and I thought that place was yikes."

He kicked a pebble off the path around the field. There were no strawberries yet since winter was descending on them, but the scent was crisp in the cool breeze. It sent Percy's senses tingling and he could taste the Pavlovian sweetness.

"Could Sciron have used primordial magic to fool the wolves?" Grover guessed.

"That's my thinking," Percy murmured, looking over the campers of CHB slowly making their way to the mess hall. "He could have anything up his sleeve and now that he's inside their boundaries, it makes him very dangerous. But he must have a weak spot."

Grover shrugged. "That's easy. His parents. Harry mentioned how he'd go on and on about them."

Percy was already shaking his head. "Sciron could have infiltrated our party just to get close to him! He's already three steps ahead of us. We don't know that anything he said about 1997 is true!"

The resulting silence was Grover's frown coming into place. "But… you said Triton verified him."

"... yeah."

"And you still don't trust him," Grover mumbled. "Percy… they're all not gonna be like Luke."

Despite the fleece's protection ward, the winds blew cold, clouds brewing dark in the sky. Percy was unimpressed. "Funny."

"You've been tense for days," Grover sighed, clearly saying something he'd had in mind for awhile. "Whatever it is you're thinking, you should take a break, destress and then come back—"

"Can you break our connection?"

Grover stuttered to a stop. "Huh?"

"The telepathic mind-link you made when Polyphemus took you," Percy said, completely changing tactics. "Can you safely break it?"

Obviously, Grover hated the idea. No matter, he could wear him down.

"This is what I'm talking about," Grover protested. "When was the last time you spent a day without… without worrying about anything?"

"Like that's gonna happen," Percy groaned. "Come on, G-Man. This is dangerous. If I'm going to be investigating Sciron, something could happen. You know what happened to Rachel and Bolt. One of them died, the other did too! And unlike me, you can't regenerate!"

Grover bleated, nervous. "But… you haven't died and come back, have you? How d'you know if you can do the same thing?"

He was grasping for straws. Percy understood this but he wasn't budging.

"Come on, Grover. This happened to Harry and then to Rachel. You don't think I could do the same? Apollo confirmed that Rachel isn't… she isn't decomposing," Percy whispered, pained. "Which means she'll be back soon. The bracelet brings us back. It won't help you if anything happens to me."

"But—"

"How long will you need?"

"Percy!" he said. "We made it through the war without this happening. I don't want to just leave, especially when you're out of sorts."

"I'm not out of sorts!"

"Your eyes are glowing."

Percy stumbled back, shutting them tight. Oh gods, oh no.

"They're blue," Grover said, sounding unafraid. "They're kinda awesome. But your veins are also really… um… visible, I guess."

Percy glanced down at his arms. He was right. The veins in his knuckles were the most prominent, glowing through his skin, a soft blue thrumming with dangerous potential. His hands were shaking and he hadn't even realised it.

"Wait, wait," Percy said hushed, breathing slowly. "I got this, wait."

"I always thought they'd be green if they glowed," Grover mused.

Percy's laugh bordered on hysteria. "You think about my eyes, G-Man?"

"Passing thought."

"Harry's do."

"Huh?"

"His eyes. They glow green. Green is good," Percy exhaled and the light died, retreating into his skin. He looked back at Grover who was assessing his hands closely.

"It'll take me a couple of days to get things ready," he finally said.

Percy blinked. "Huh?"

"The mind-link," Grover said, reluctantly. "I'll need some time to severe it neatly. We'll be nauseous for a while after that, so gotta choose a week with least worries."

Percy reeled. He'd thought Grover would put up a harder fight than that. At times, that connection was the only thing holding Percy together.

But he could never forget the sight of Bolt lying dead right beside Rachel's body. Nobody knew how to break the news to her when she did resurface. From what Remus had told him, most Familiars outlived witches and wizards, going on to make new connections with others, forming links with those who needed companionship.

It was exceedingly rare that the person lived past the Familiar.

What if Percy died any time now? The bracelet might heal him and he'd be up and walking fine in days or weeks. Grover would not be so lucky. It was deadly of them to have fought in the Titanomachy with the bond still intact. Had Grover faced trouble, Percy could have accidentally triggered the bracelet to summoning Harry and Rachel to the battlefield. And if anything had happened the other way around, Grover would have never recovered.

"Yeah," Percy choked. "Yeah, that's… we'll make do. The sooner, the better."

Leo woke up when his bed rattled. Odd, he'd fixed it. Unless something had shorted out—

The cabin was quieter than before. The beds were empty and the sun was setting outside. Had they gone for dinner?

He heard footsteps close by.

Leo sat up, heart hammering. Okay, maybe Beck's bunk was haunted? Gods, monsters, spirits, and ghosts. Why not?

Someone was walking under the ground below his bed. Leo frowned, scrambling onto the floor to place his ear to the ground. The footsteps were heavy work boots thumping the ground. There was a cellar beneath him.

Leo looked around, searching the floor for a trap door or an explanation, but he wound up back to his new bunk to stare at the control panel. Many of the wires had nothing to do with the bed at all, and Leo hadn't been sure before…

He opened it again and worked the console to activate the larger mechanism under the bed. The whole thing retracted into the wall and the floor opened up, steel white light bleeding out from the hidden space underground.

Well, what's a magic camp without a creepy futuristic dungeon? Leo poked his head into the brightness.

Scratch that. This was a tunnel.

He put on his thinking face, the one that explored Piper's furious reaction if Leo ended up dead in a mysterious tunnel. But it was so cool, with lights strung up at perfect intervals and wires embedded into the dirt ceilings. The walls were dug and carved with precision. It was a clean cuboid beginning several feet below Leo's new bunk and extending out to the north.

Thump, thump, thump…

There. The footsteps were retreating now.

Eh, camp was supposed to be safe for demigods, right? Leo ignored his rumbling stomach and dropped into the tunnel. This had to be way below any kind of normal basement and yet Leo's ankles barely twinged after the long fall.

He set off into the tunnel, following the footsteps.

He walked until his feet hurt, his regrets grew, and his stomach began to really growl.

But Leo reached a dead end and wondered why he'd left his brain in Cabin 9. Piper would kill him if he died now and left her alone with a bunch of strangers they were all related to distantly.

His pause at the long tunnel wasn't because there was a wall blocking Leo's path. It was because there was a rusty metal dragon, taking up the entire space from ground to ceiling.

It creaked and rumbled, dozens of metal plates sliding over each other as it moved and puffed smoke. Leo was facing the tail end, where the tail was bigger than he was.

Tactical retreat was Leo's two new favourite words.

The heel of his worn shoes knocked against some loose pebbles that clattered over the ground and the dragon froze before struggling to spin around in the tiny tunnel.

Aww, it's kinda cute…

Long metal wings extended from its back, slamming into the ceiling and scrapping the mud away. Leo was filled with awe and terror and wasn't it fascinating how often those two collided?

"No! No!" someone yelled from behind the dragon. Leo caught sight of a large person in dirty overalls trying to calm the wired dragon, but the beast couldn't be placated. Its glowing eyes zoomed in on Leo and it opened its jaw with a clang, a mouth full of stinking oil spraying onto the floor and on his shoes.

Leo yelped on instinct, watching the boiling hot oil sizzling the mud and stones. His shoes smoked and he felt the heat but of course, that wasn't a problem.

Still, he turned tail and ran.

Thalia found Nyssa half-panicking about losing her new brother.

"He's probably just wandering around," Thalia reassured her.

Nyssa groaned, "I knew I should've stayed at the cabin. But Jake insisted on supervising cabin construction and someone needs to be there to help him—"

"I'll round up some slackers and keep a look out for him," Thalia asserted. "Newbies can get overwhelmed. How'd he react to the orientation film?"

"It's a good thing we removed the introductory song. Will said he kept cracking jokes all through the movie," Nyssa said sourly. "You know what that's code for."

Leo was apparently the kind to play things off light with well-intentioned self-depreciating humour. Thalia felt very sober. "We'll find him in time for dinner probably. I'll check the cabins again, you can head for the pavilion."

Nyssa looked around, very uncomfortable. As head of cabin 9, she ought to be leading the search for Leo. But he wasn't officially missing; just out of sight from everyone she'd asked.

Squeezing her bicep, Thalia nodded confidently, giving her the assurance she needed and sending her off.

New campers often needed extra space to absorb their discoveries. The lucky ones came from loving families who were completely safe and far away from the world of gods and monsters. And there weren't many of those. As far as Thalia had gleaned, Leo had bounced around the country from orphanage to orphanage, and had been kicked out of enough schools to get Sally Jackson to notice him and sign adoption papers.

Thalia reached her cabin first, intent on finding anyone lingering around to help, when she was caught off guard by the first person she saw.

Harry was exiting the Big House and making his way to Cabin 3.

"You crazy ass!" Thalia waved him down, "You've never heard of recuperation time, huh?"

He looked over to her, blinking fast, before pointing to his ears and shaking his hand.

"You're here for a check up with Will or Apollo?" she asked.

He looked frustrated. She raised her hands, gauging his face and neck. He seemed completely fine. Still, Thalia was sure that he had lichtenberg marks all over his chest.

Harry brought out his wand and concentrated on the air between them, lips moving silently. His wand flicked down and the air shifted under a heat wave. Thalia tilted her head and said, "What did that do? Oh."

Letters appeared in the air facing Harry, presumably transcribing what she said. He flicked his wand again and new words arrived replacing the previous ones. This time, they faced her.

SAW RELEAESD TODY. MOSTSLY FIENE.

She sighed. "Yeah, this ain't helping."

Harry frowned, a vein in his head going prominent. Thalia was about to ask him to chill when the letters changed, the jumbled English transforming into legible Ancient Greek. She looked up with a smirk.

"Your AG's much better. Been practising?"

ΚΑΘΕ ΜΕΡΑ

Thalia made a face and said, "That's Modern Greek, eh?"

OOPS

"Cheater," she grinned. Then the smile faded. "Seriously, how are you doing?"

Harry chewed on the inside of his cheek. He shrugged.

"Sounds about right," she muttered. "Did you hear about Bolt?"

He went from relaxed to rigid to restrained so fast, Thalia only saw it because she was looking for it.

"Sally said she's asking some witches about it. About what to do. With Rachel out of commission—"

Harry waved a hand irritably, clearly not in the mood. Then he stabbed his index finger at her with a questioning look.

"I'm looking for Leo. Newbie's vanished, Nyssa's freaking out."

Harry looked around and pointed behind her. Thalia turned, confused. only to have a running, panting Leo smack right into her, leaving her stumbling and swearing while he tumbled onto the ground.

"Damnit, kid!" she yelled, fighting the urge to flip him off. "Where've you been?"

Leo's look of terror dissolved when he gazed up at her. His eyes widened, jaw fell open, and nothing came out of his mouth. Thalia angrily rubbed the side of her smarting arm. The tiny kid packed a hell of a body slam.

Harry chuckled. Leo still hadn't looked away from her. Oh, that's a reaction. Few pre-pubescent kids stared at her, not for the heavy make-up and goth outfit, but because they were genuinely speechless at the sight of her. And Leo was one of them.

"Nyssa's looking for you," Thalia said loudly, snapping her fingers in front of him. Seriously, if he started to drool, she was leaving.

"Uhh. Dragon," he said, flustered.

The word glowed in the air for Harry to read and they stared at Leo confused. Harry pointed to the pine tree where Peleus guarded the fleece. Leo was equally befuddled now.

"Are you alright?" Thalia asked, getting to her feet. "Did you tick off Peleus or run into a wild dragon in the forest?"

"I saw a metal dragon underground," Leo explained, breathing hard.

Harry turned to Thalia and pointed to Leo before tapping his head.

"No, Leo didn't get hurt in the crash," Thalia sighed, watching her words form in the air for Harry.

"I really saw it!" Leo insisted. "I swear!"

"Underground," Thalia muttered. "No wonder Nyssa and the others kept losing track of it. It must be smart enough to find its way into the labyrinth."

Harry raised his eyebrows. Leo began stammering, completely taken aback by the existence of a labyrinth.

Thalia figured Nyssa could explain the rest of that to him. But this new news was disturbing. Ever since Beckendorf's disappearance, the metal dragon Cabin 9 had been developing had gone haywire. It had been very attached to him and had not taken his leave well. For a while, campers had been determined to wrangle it in. But after the unfortunate encounter with Jake Mason and a mouth full of fire and oil, it was looking like a lost cause.

"We have contingencies," Thalia reassured him.

Harry frowned before patting Leo on the shoulder and heading towards the mess hall. Thalia took a long look at the trees, trying to think of small mercies.

Leo muttered, "Will said that we have strange dreams."

"Demigod dreams, yeah," she murmured. "Did you see something?"

"Yeah," he mumbled. "It was my babysitter."

Thalia must have made a face. Leo didn't seem to want to say anymore, but she gestured impatiently. His shoulders were tense.

"She said there's a war coming."

Percy wasn't at his cabin. Great, Thalia could have told him that.

Harry felt tired enough to lay down and fall asleep, but he figured the warmth of the hearth in the mess hall would be the best thing to cheer him up.

On the way, he peered into the amphitheatre. Annabeth was alone. Her laptop lay beside her on the steps, surprisingly enough. An Iris Message window lay in front of her, a brunette on the other side.

They spoke fast and serious. The girl in the window wore a purple t-shirt and Harry knew that she was from Camp Jupiter. It was mental to think there was a whole other camp full of demigods solely named after one god.

Sure king of gods, still.

He felt the phantom burn of electricity run through him again. Harry winced. The mere thought of the king sent him shuddering.

The Roman demigod spied him through the rainbow and Annabeth immediately swerved her neck, eyes wide.

"Dude!" she complained. "You look like the walking dead!"

The words lit up in front of him and he made a face, mouthing, Thanks.

She made space for him, shifting her books aside. Harry sat down heavily, realising his chest was more strained than he'd anticipated.

Annabeth introduced him to Reyna, Co-Praetor of Camp Jupiter. That sounded like some kind of magistrate. Harry wasn't surprised that it was a girl his age who was basically running camp. CHB was very similar, without the distinct posts for heroes.

Reyna watched curiously as the air lit up with the words they were speaking. She asked, "And you are the Healer?"

He tried not to grimace as he nodded. This wasn't the lead-in he'd have chosen for his appearance to CJ, as a lightning victim of the god their camp was named after.

"Camp Jupiter wishes you a speedy recovery," Reyna said as though reading out of a script. "Once you are hale and hearty, we are happy to extend an invitation for you to our camp. If you will accept."

Harry nodded again, writing Ancient Greek words in the air. Annabeth tugged on his sleeve, eyebrows high.

"They're Roman! They won't like AG!"

Her words were a scrawl right below the window. Harry erased the Greek words, face burning. Ah, bollocks. His Latin had gone rusty from disuse. He'd barely brushed up on it, since CHB preferred AG and English.

"English is fine," Reyna said, amused. "Unlike the Greeks, we do not have mainstream dyslexia."

Oh, thank Merlin.

Annabeth huffed. Harry wrote his acceptance in English and Reyna nodded, satisfied. On her side, a door opened, light spilling into the room.

She answered whoever it was, but their face was half concealed. It didn't matter though. Harry recognised the soft brown curls immediately. His entire face went red.

Sky looked up from his box of papers, very engrossed in them. But the concentration was broken when he noticed who Reyna was conversing with.

"Sciron, this is Annabeth and Harry from Camp Half-Blood," Reyna said, straight-faced. "Annabeth was at the deposition."

"Yes," Sky muttered, eyes firmly trained away from the Iris window.

"We're using Lady Iris's mode of communication."

"I see that, Praetor."

"Come say hi," Reyna needled him.

Oh, she was having fun with this. By the careful blank expression on Annabeth's face, she was enjoying it as well.

"Hi," Sky mumbled, eyes shifting to just Annabeth. "I'm Sky."

"Hello, Sky," Annabeth said, at ease now. "How are you adapting to Probatio life?"

"Very well, thanks. I've just finished my… this paperwork."

He held up the box again and Reyna told him to place it on the table near a shelf. Glad for the respite, he immediately turned away.

Harry figured he should say something. Despite the constant muted ringing, he raised his voice and said, "Sky?"

"Yeah!" Sky nearly dropped the box, hurrying back to the window.

"Um… thank you for helping me," Harry said, ears burning.

"Welcome, you're really… welcome," Sky answered lamely. "Are you feeling better?"

"A bit. I just…"

Harry hesitated. He figured he wanted to ask this when they were alone, but that could be another few weeks or even months. Best to get this out of the way.

"Why did you do that?"

The hopeful pleasantness in Sky's face vanished. "Err… what?"

"Why did you jump?"

"Because…" he spluttered. "You were falling."

"Yes, but you knew about the bracelets," Harry pestered. "You folks must have told you. You'd have known that I'd be fine."

Sky reeled back. "So… what? I should have just let you fall?"

"It wouldn't have been your fault. It's not on you."

"But I was there…" Sky frowned, stepping forward. "Of course, I stepped in."

"You didn't step in, you jumped," Harry pointed out, a little fierce now. "Without a backup plan."

"My back-up was using the waterline," Sky protested. "And it worked, neither of us died!"

Reyna and Annabeth shared a look. Whatever official discussion they were having before Harry had arrived had dissolved into a popcorn-worthy tennis match.

"But you could have!" Harry snapped, ears hurting now. "You don't have wings or springy knees, you could have hit the ground easily."

"Yeah, I got that on the way down! I thought we'd have time!" Sky burst out.

Harry reeled back, "Time for what? Dial 9-9-9? Reach out to your dad or find a pegasus?"

Sky waved his hands, looking overwhelmed. "I—I don't know, okay! I messed up! I thought it'd take longer for us to fall from Olympus. It's a freakin' mountain. I thought we'd be falling for days, so someone will see us and get us out of the sky. But the ground came up so fast!"

Harry stared.

Reyna blinked.

Annabeth's jaw dropped.

Days? Was that true? He looked down at the words that had appeared in the air in front of him to reread them.

Annabeth' eyes were so wide, she could have seen things behind her. She mumbled, "There's a myth… about… damn, what is it? A hammer? Falling from Olympus… Sky's right, it should have taken at least a week for the both of you to have hit the ground."

"Hesiod wrote that," Reyna said suddenly, frown deepening. She looked towards Sky and asked, "But you and Harry fell for what… a few minutes? How long was it supposed to take?"

"9 days."

The new words appeared and Harry spun around along with Annabeth.

Thalia and Leo were standing there, both looking disturbed. Thalia answered, "Hesiod's Theogony. He wrote that it takes 9 days for an anvil to fall from Olympus and reach the earth. And another 9 days from the ground to reach Tartarus. Harry and Sky fell for less than 9 minutes."

All six went silent. The ringing in Harry's ears rose in pitch. This was wrong. Why would the mountain suddenly not be as high up as it should have?

Annabeth had the answer to that. "Rachel wasn't the only reason why Ajax went to Olympus. He must have done something… or his Locrians…"

"He got into the throne room," Harry winced.

Reyna's head snapped up. "Are you saying Olympus is completely compromised?"

"Someone let him in," Thalia said, shy of a snarl. "If it wasn't just for her, he could have been there for anything. The Ophiotaurus was in the throne room."

"She's fine," Reyna said. "Jason and Percy are up there now. I just got off an IM with them. Bessie… I think. She's rattled, but healthy."

Annabeth swallowed, "There are other things in the throne room."

Bessie had been completely fine, but shaking under Percy's soothing touch. And then he and Jason saw Zeus's throne.

It had gone bad, bits of it flaking off and the base rusted all around.

The thing had blasted lightning after Ajax's arrow bolt had hit it, but now, it looked like it was dying. Jason was speechless and Percy immediately checked his dad's throne. Poseidon's was fine. In fact, all the other seats of power looked like they did before. The latest one, Hades's throne emanated the same forceful energy as his cloak with the awful souls did. No change there or anywhere else.

Wait… Hera's throne was dimmer. It was barely anything compared to her husband's, but still worth noting it. Percy checked the other seats, and understood that only Zeus's was being corroded.

Jason had still been stuck in place, watching his father's seat of power in silence.

"It feels empty," he'd whispered. Before Percy could say, 'Eh?', the walls began to glow.

Percy urged Bessie to dive underneath and then grabbed Jason's arm to drag him out of the room. They pushed the doors, leaving a sliver of space to listen from.

No footsteps. Gods didn't need to make those.

"Thena, when did this happen?" Triton whispered.

Percy's mouth opened to probably yell like a New York cabbie, but Jason shushed him.

"What's he doing here?" Percy asked, furious. "He hates going on two legs."

"Maybe they're checking the same thing we were?" Jason suggested.

They were crouched behind the grand doors of the gods' throne room. Triton was back here? And who the heck was 'Thena'?

"When the room was broken into," Athena answered, just as low.

Umm? Why the frigging frig was Triton giving Athena pet names?

Percy couldn't think of any previous times when Triton and Athena were ever on good or even neutral terms. Was there some myth to this?

"... gone missing," the goddess was saying grimly. Jason inhaled sharply and Percy snapped back to attention.

"What's missing?" Percy whispered, yanking on his shirt collar, but Jason made the same shushing gesture, which, rude.

"Dio Immortales. What's missing?" Triton asked in the same tone as Percy.

"Three things," Athena replied, very somberly. "The King, the Queen, and the Master Bolt."