Co-Written by Vanadium Oxide

Not beta'd by PraetorFable on behalf of Pfizer


"Any man can handle adversity. To truly test a man's character, give him power."

Abraham Lincoln


Chapter XX

The Twenty Sixth of June

Thirty One Days A.B.M


"I can't do it. Not both of you, and I can't cheat on Sadie. I can't… I can't take that from her. Maybe… maybe in a bit, if we just decide it won't work, but until then… I'm sorry Sasha, you didn't deserve this."

The three of them were in his room, sitting at his kitchen table. Percy decided it was finally time to settle this vaguely defined relationship they had been in for a while now.

Sasha looked down. She was good at hiding the tears that attempted to come forth, but he could feel her tear ducts swell. He winced, he knew this was going to be hard, but it was the decision he had to make at the end of the day.

He knew that both he and Sadie didn't exactly want to be in a loveless marriage for the rest of their lives, so he wanted to at least try. On top of that,it was cruel to say it, even in the security of his own head, but he really… didn't have any significant feelings for Sasha. She was a nice girl, and he would always think of her fondly. But their relationship... it hadn't meant anything special to him either. It wasn't like what he'd had with Annabeth, or what he'd almost had with Rachel or… Calypso. There were no real feelings there, at least on his part.

Sadie rubbed her back, silently comforting her.

He had known all of that from the beginning, so there was only one reason he'd taken so long to decide.

The… other option.

At the end of the day, he just wasn't that person. He couldn't actually love two people. Or rather, he definitely could, but he couldn't give them what they deserved. Let it be known Percy Jackson did not half-ass things when it came to his loved ones. He couldn't just be in an ill-defined love triangle for the rest of his life. He wasn't built that way. He would be loyal to one person, and give them his all.

Sadie glanced at him with a look he recognized. Him being here right now wouldn't help Sasha, only make her bottle up her emotions.

He would've liked to stick around a little longer and talk about it, but it seemed now wasn't the time for that. Pursing his lips he only hesitated for a few moments before making his way out of the room. He'd give her a few days on her own, at least.


The First of July

Thirty Six Days A.B.M

"How's public perception going?"

"They're afraid, as you wanted them to be."

Percy winced, as much as it was the goal, it still wasn't amazing to have a reminder he was essentially conquering the planet through fear.

"And how has that affected us so far?"

Nico shrugged. "You'd have to talk to Reyna to get the full picture on that one. Near as I can tell, resistance both in the states and Europe has taken a sharp decline."

Percy let out a relieved sigh. "Then it was worth it. All the people that died in Korea saved more lives everywhere else."

Nico nodded slowly. "A few more countries have agreed to meet with Piper, as well. The most prominent being Japan."

Percy let out a low whistle. "That helps. I'll have to look at an updated map later. Do we know if our timeline in Europe has been stepped up at all?"

Nico shook his head. "You'll need to force that on them. Reyna's taking the opportunity to relax her schedule, give the men a reprieve. Stay on the same timeline with better conditions and all."

Percy hummed and leaned forward over the railing. The thin air near the top of the Empire State let out a soft breeze, rustling his hair. "Doesn't she understand we don't have time to relax our schedule? We're on a deadline we can't miss. If it takes us a month to conquer Europe — The continent with the most infrastructure, with the least fanaticism, with the smallest landmass — then we're screwed."

Nico nodded. "I can get her here, if you'd like."

Percy sighed. "Yeah, do that. Thank you, Nico."

Nico disappeared into the shadows, and Percy spent the next few moments staring at the clouds below, contemplating how exactly he was going to meet this deadline. Conquer the planet in half a year. That was a joke, right? The fastest war in recent history, the invasion of Iraq, had taken a month. And the US had absolutely stomped the Iraqi army. For them to expect him to conquer the planet with just a few times that time limit was insane at best. Maybe they were a bit disconnected from the modern day (Scratch that, they were definitely disconnected from the modern day) but surely they didn't expect him to be able to cover an entire planet in just over half a year. He'd find a way to make it work, he always did.

"Your majesty."

Reyna's voice wasn't hostile, per se, but there was a hard undercurrent clear. Percy sighed. "I'm trying to work with you on this, Reyna. But I'm telling you that we don't have the option to relax the schedule. We need to finish this as soon as possible."

Reyna pursed her lips. "There's always another option."

Percy shook his head. "Not when it comes to the gods. There's never another option, there's only their option, and they'll make you regret picking anything else."

Reyna's impartial expression turned into a slight frown. "When did you start believing that? You used to be the most optimistic person I knew, Percy. What happened?"

"This," Percy waived a hand out over the distant skyline. "happened. The gods have shown me exactly what they're capable of doing."

"What they're capable of doing, or what you're capable of doing?"

Percy scowled. "If you don't think that what's happened in the last month wasn't better than what the gods would prefer, then I have some shocking news for you."

"And yet, they haven't actually had to do anything yet. You do it for them."

Percy clenched and unclenched a fist, and then let out a deep breath. "I get it, I'm far, far from perfect. I've done a lot of bad things, I've messed up a lot. But you haven't seen the gods in action like I have. Don't give them an excuse to get impatient, because when they are they have no regard for anyone who's not a god, and even less regard for regular mortals. They'll level buildings because it's convenient for them, or… or wipe a city off the map because they don't like something in it."

"Or create a storm because they're angry, killing millions." Reyna responded, voice neutral. "Yeah, I've seen that first hand. The gods aren't the only ones that throw tantrums, though."

Percy clenched his fists so hard he was sure he'd be drawing blood if his skin wasn't so gods damned hard.

"Your will will be executed, your majesty. I'll make sure our schedule is stepped up."

Percy made a halfhearted waving motion, and they were both gone into shadow.

He… really was hypocritical, to speak about the gods that way when he'd become no better. Hades, he'd become worse in a way. At least the gods had already learned how to control their anger, even if they didn't always feel like it. He was a loose cannon.

But that didn't change the fact that if they didn't have the world under Olympian control by the end of the year, something bad was bound to happen. Regardless of pointing fingers at who was worse, he knew what he had to do. At least Reyna had the guts to talk to him about it. That was why he kept her around, he supposed.


Reyna and Nico exited the shadow realm to a bright grassy field, in the middle of Pennsylvania.

"Hey, what? This isn't the s—"

Reyna grunted as the hilt of Nico's sword impacted her mouth, sending her stumbling backwards.

Now, Reyna liked to think she was pretty good at combat. She was one of the better combatants at Camp Jupiter, and while the powers she had inherited from Bellona weren't quite focused on individual combat, they gave her enough of a boost that she could operate at a level incomprehensible to mortals and unmatchable to most demigods.

That being said, Nico was terrifyingly fast. Before she could so much as lift her hand to her mouth in a knee jerk reaction, Nico's foot was on her chest and shoving her onto her back — more a controlled push than a kick.

"What the—"

Nico bent over and grabbed her by the front of her breastplate, lifting her the foot or so to meet his eyes seemingly effortlessly with a single hand.

"Percy may allow himself to be spoken to that way, but I swear to the gods if you ever speak to his majesty in such a way ever again, the gods themselves won't be able to find your body."

Reyna went through a few reactions in the span of a second or so.

First, she felt immense confusion. What exactly was going on, why was Nico attacking her?

Then, alarm. He was attacking her. She should defend herself. But then she realized that she was currently being held to his gaze under his sword, and it was far too late for that.

Next — rather reasonably, she'd like to argue — outrage. The absolute arrogance to attack her like this and then hold her at swordpoint was astounding. She wasn't particularly prideful herself, but for him to attack her with such ability had crossed a line and left it miles behind them.

And then lastly, she realized that despite how outraged she rightly was at being held at sword point and threatened, she was being held at sword point and threatened. Reyna liked to think she was a pretty courageous person, but looking into the bottomless eyes in front of her, with the soul-sucking sword pressed against her armor (which she had no illusions would do anything should he decide to stab her) she couldn't help but be quite logically, scared.

"Do you understand me? I don't care what your feelings towards him are, but he's been living in hell just to give some people he shouldn't care about a better life. If you ever speak that way to or about him again, I will kill you."

Reyna swallowed, and quickly nodded.

Nico held her for a few more moments before releasing her and letting her sink into the ground, reappearing in the Spire.


"Kelp head."

"Pinecone face. How are things on your end?"

Thalia glanced around. How were things going?

Thunderclouds had rolled in from above, lightning striking any who opposed the invading force like a vengeful god. Currently, the streets were mostly quiet. Civilians sat quietly in their residences and hoped that nothing caused the sky's attention to be directed at them, and any military left walked through the streets with their arms in the air looking for someone to surrender to. A few miles behind her, the Coalition Balkan Force was just arriving to seize the city and officially take prisoners.

"All good over here, just cleaning up. You know how it is," Thalia yawned. "Hey, could you send me to support the invasion of the Carribean or something sometime soon? I could use the change in scenery."

Thalia could hear him chuckle over the line. "Well I was going to send Nico, but we were about to begin working on China if you'd rather be sent there."

Thalia glanced back down at what seemed like the thirtieth identical city she'd seized in a row. The same eastern church, the same(ish) language, the same buildings. "Yeah, that'd work. When do I get picked up?"

" Nico will be around later today. Thanks, Thals. Take the next few hours off."

Thalia shrugged as the call ended, turning to head back down to the ground floor of the small building she was standing on. She'd find something to entertain her for the time being. She always did.


Percy found he'd been spending more and more time on his balcony recently. The thin air, the nature all around him, the incredible view. The combination of them all made it a favorite spot to go to relax during his very limited down time.

"How is she?"

Sadie came to rest on his right, echoing him by leaning against the railing and looking at the sunset on the horizon. "Not good." Sadie winced. "I wish I could lie to you, but it's better I don't. She's hardly coping. Though, she's not… specifically angry at you, if that's what you're wondering."

Percy sighed. "No, not really. But thank you. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Sadie bit her lip. "This might sound cold, but try and keep your distance. She's not super mentally stable, and I think moving on will take some time. It might be better if you're not still… around all the time."

Percy frowned, refusing to meet her eyes. "I can't let it interfere with work. If I need to talk to her, I'll still talk to her."

Sadie chortled. "And when exactly is it necessary for you to work with her? She can be useful in a tight spot, but you have to admit she's still learning. She'll hardly be useful on a global scale."

Percy raised an eyebrow, finally turning to meet her gaze. "And you are?"

Sadie shrugged. "Debatable. Depends what you consider a global scale. Don't get me wrong, I'm hardly anything compared to you or the other Greeks, but I still pack a mean punch."

Percy chuckled, making a show of looking her over with exaggeratedly preening eyes. "I'll give you that, at least." he paused awkwardly for a moment, letting the rustling of the flowers in the wind fill the silence. "Hey, I know you worked with them a bit, do you know if the Hindus…"

"Are planning on striking back? No idea. They could be biding their time and waiting for an opportunity. They could be planning on going public themselves. Duat, they could be about to challenge you to a fight to the death. Honestly, I have no idea. I only dealt with that avatar dude, and he just wanted to protect us until we went public."

Percy frowned, turning back to the balcony. "That's unfortunate. I'll try and have Nico run some intel on them, but for now I'll have to live without knowing what they're planning."

Sadie rested a hand on his arm. "I could try scrying. I'm sure Sasha could help, too. We might learn nothing, or we might get a glimpse at their plans."

"Will they be able to detect you?"

"Maybe? I'm sure some of them can, but I know none of them can do anything about it. Just clam up a little when we're around. And that's if their big players are around to detect us. It can't hurt to try, right?"

Percy stilled, before releasing a shrug. "Yeah, I guess it can't."

Sadie let her arm fall, and they sat there for several seconds in a comfortable silence.

"Hey Sadie, I don't really know how to phrase this, but… how exactly do you want to go about… this?"

Percy gestured between the two.

Sadie shrugged, twirling a piece of purple-dyed hair in her finger. "I mean, we've known each other for a while now, but… I guess a date would be a good place to start."

Percy cracked a smile. "Did you have something in mind? We're not exactly a normal couple. We can hardly go see a movie for a first date."

Sadie sent him a mischievous look. "And why not? I don't see anyone stopping us."

Percy rolled his eyes. "First of all, being in public would be an… event. I caused Manhattan to freeze in place when I decided to go for a walk the other day. Going to a movie would hardly be better. Besides, all of this is assuming I actually have time for something like that. I am running a global war, after all."

Sadie poked him. "No, your command staff is running a global war, and you just like to micromanage. And besides, as your wife it's my job to make sure you're not too stressed. My first decree as the Empress is that we shall go to the movies together."

Percy tensed. While he appreciated how casually she was willing to treat the situation, he wasn't sure he was quite ready to be joking about the fact that they were now, technically and in every way that counted, married. But, he shook it off. He was sure she could hardly be taking the whole situation well either. If she wanted to try and make light of it, who was he to be a killjoy.

"And what exactly do you want to see? I haven't seen a movie in… it's been years, now."

Sadie made an aghast face at him. "Really? Does that mean you haven't seen..." She thought for a moment, tapping a finger to her chin. "Iron man?"

Percy immediately understood. "No, I haven't. I only watched some of the classics with my mom when I was a kid. We didn't really have the budget to go to the movies often. She'd save up some money to take me out when there was something one of us really wanted to see coming out. That was… rare."

Sadie huffed. "Well, that just won't do. You and I will have to catch up on some movies." she tugged his arm back into the building, on the way to the movie theater when she paused. "Wait, does that mean you haven't seen Disney's Hercules?"

Percy made a face. "Not much of a fan of the original, I'm not sure I wanna see a movie made about him by a kid's movie company."

Sadie smiled innocently. "Oh no, we are finding a theater that has it somewhere, and we are watching it. I am not gonna miss the opportunity of a lifetime to see your reactions to this thing."

Percy wasn't sure he wanted to react in the first place, but when Sadie began dragging him back inside again he didn't protest. Maybe she was right, a movie might be good for him.


A couple hours later, they were walking out of a local theater.

It had been exactly as annoying as he'd predicted to actually get into the thing, the brief walk to the theater itself — despite being escorted by a full contingent of royal guards — had been incredibly disruptive, and he could barely get over the fact he was being watched by dozens of people (and probably thousands or hundreds of thousands, knowing how youtube and the news worked nowadays) in every move he made.

Sadie, somehow, seemed entirely at ease on the way there. He wasn't sure if she was somehow used to it or just naturally good with eyes on her, but she was visibly not bothered.

When they did get to the theater, Sadie spoke to a very compliant manager about getting them a theater of their own and playing the movie. When the manager heard which movie they wanted to watch his face went white, which Percy took as a… not great sign.

They had to download it off of one of their servers, but soon enough Sadie and he were sitting in the middle of a theater, watching the movie.

Percy was brought back to the present by Sadie jabbing him in the side. "So, what'd ya think?"

Percy huffed. "If it wasn't in so poor taste, I'd make a joke about executing whichever mortal made it."

Sadie giggled. "That bad, huh?"

Percy narrowed his eyes at her, as if she didn't know already. "The irony of Hades being the bad guy, or working with the Titan's is more sad than funny. And don't even get me started on Heracles. They're calling him by his Roman name despite everyone else being Greek. For some reason he's born a god-"

Percy was cut off by Sadie's laugh. She doubled over, holding her stomach right there in the middle of the street.

Percy scowled, but he couldn't put any heat behind it.

"I knew this was a good idea! Thank you for that." Sadie stood up and rested a hand on his shoulder. "I appreciate you indulging me, Percy. Thank you."

Percy rolled his eyes jokingly. "Yeah, well, it was a nightmare. Let's never see anything like that again. Gods forbid if they ever make a movie about me. I hope they don't make it that bad.

Sadie giggled and raised her hands in a surrender motion. "Okay, okay. I get it. We won't see any more of those. Normal movies from here on out, I promise."

Percy sighed, but couldn't keep the smile off his face. The movie really had helped keep his mind off of… other things. "Thank you, for the distraction. But as much as I appreciate it, I really do need to get back to work now."

Sadie nodded, and together they walked back towards the Empire State Building.

When they got there Lacey was waiting on the front steps, tablet in hand.

She made to kneel before Percy pointed a harsh glare at her, and she stopped mid-kneel, standing back up. "Your majesty. You have a meeting with Madame Sharpe, as well as a couple of prominent members of the House of Lords."

"Thank you, you can bring them in in a minute?" he said, continuing into the building.

"If you don't mind my insolence, your majesty, what exactly were you two doing for so long?"

"Just… seeing a movie."

Lacey blinked, staring back at him as if he'd grown a second head. "Your majesty, you are aware you have a private movie theater on the one hundred and eighteenth floor, correct?"

Percy glanced at Sadie and scratched his head. "No, I didn't know that actually. I'll keep it in mind for the future. Thank you, Lacey."

Lacey just bowed, backing away. "Of course, your majesty."

Sadie smiled at him as soon as they entered the throne room. "Good luck dealing with that, I'll go entertain myself with some of the magic items you guys have" she paused, glancing at him. "Assuming you don't mind, of course."

Percy shrugged. "Go for it. Let me know if you can find something useful."

Sadie shot him a quick smile, leaned up, and kissed him on the lips.

There wasn't a spark of magic like there was with Annabeth, nor was there the mischievous satisfaction that came from Rachel, or the heat filled lust of Sasha. Instead it was just… normal. It felt good, lightfelt, if a bit unexpected. Her lips were cool on his, but before he could even react it was over, and she leaned back.

Percy looked at her, and she smiled right back at him.

"Come on Percy, it's not like we're children. It's just a kiss. Besides, that's what a normal couple is supposed to do after the first date, right?"

Percy coughed, ignoring the implications that brought. "Yeah, I guess you're right. We can hardly try and make this work being so awkward and all." Despite saying that, Percy felt more awkward than he had in a long time. "Thank you though, Sadie, for making this so easy, and… everything."

She smiled easily at him. "Of course. This isn't normal, but it's hardly the most screwed up thing in our lives. Duat, compared to most of the stuff we have to put up with, an arranged marriage is downright normal."

Percy chuckled. "I guess you're right. Thank you again, Sadie."

She nodded and walked off further into the building, while Percy himself climbed the steps to his throne and sat in it. It had truly been too long since he'd taken a rest in his throne. He was suddenly reminded of how whole he felt when sitting on his throne, like there was a part of him he'd left behind long ago and had just come back for. A very large part of him.

As Percy settled into his throne, he reconsidered his romantic situation. A few days and a first date later… he didn't think he'd made the wrong decision. Sasha was great and all, but he didn't love her. Obviously, he didn't exactly love Sadie either, but it would be very shortsighted of him to sacrifice his chance at a happy marriage because of a girl he happened to be dating. Wow, did it feel weird to talk about dating that casually, but… that's what it was like for most people, right?

Either way, Sadie was very easy. She didn't make things difficult (not that Sasha did) and overall, Sadie was just very straightforward and real. Pressing a hand to his lips, he thought back on their afternoon. It was definitely too early to say, but he thought he might have a chance at a happy love life after all.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he felt multiple bodies moving closer to the front of the empire state with a small escort. Getting an idea, Percy chuckled to himself and whistled. A couple of his royal guards glanced at him to see if he actually needed anything, and the shadows in the room gathered closer until they spat out his enormous pet hellhound.

The royal guards — who had yet to meet Mrs. O'Leary — flinched back and raised their spears at once.

But before they could do more than that Mrs. O'Leary bounded up the steps to his throne two dozen at a time, arriving with her snout at his chest in just a couple leaps.

Percy grinned, reaching out to pat her nose. He could use the company, and when it came to politicians he could use the intimidation, too. Mrs. O'Leary certainly fit the bill, taking up a large portion of the enormous room.

"Who's a good girl? You are! Get over here so I can pet you."

Mrs. O'Leary — stuck with the intelligence of a human and the natural urges of the world's biggest puppy — awkwardly turned herself around until she was sitting as next to him as she could manage, though in reality what that meant was that she was sitting with her hind legs next to Percy and her snout almost to the floor. Percy reached out and scratched a small section of her leg, causing her tail to wag and a small earthquake to strike the middle of Manhattan.

Percy tried to hide his smile as Lacey walked in, Maria and some other high level politicians in tow. This — this would be a fun meeting.


The Third of July

Thirty Eight Days A.B.M

There were advantages and disadvantages to being the emperor.

As far as advantages went, there was only one he really cared about; he was only bothered when things were getting really, really bad. Even then he usually had Thalia or Nico able to take care of it before he was involved, so there had been a precious few times he'd been involved personally in the last couple weeks.

The bad part was kind of a mirror of that. Sure, he could let things take place without interfering — if he wanted them to move at a snail's pace. It felt like every day he was intervening in a plan because it was too cautious, too respecting of the enemies capabilities — too rational. His generals seemed to forget that if anything went horribly wrong they had Nico, who could show up within the minute and eliminate any threat there was. They weren't playing by the normal rules of warfare which meant that if they screwed up, they lost days or weeks of progress. They didn't need to secure supply lines as well when the local populace was falling over to appease the gods.

So because of this, Percy had Lacey let him know whenever a specific battle or engagement was going slow so he could march down there and force them to rush it. Often it seemed like instead of being unwilling to rush things, his high command was simply unable to come up with a solution to resolve a situation quickly. They were just… less convinced of the urgency of conquering the world.

After all, why would a mortal be worried? As far as they were concerned, it was much better to conquer the planet in say a year and a half if it led to that many less casualties. What was half a year in the grand scheme of things? But they didn't know the lengths Zeus would go to to prove his point.

It was… frustrating.

Percy was reminded of exactly how frustrating this was when he was interrupted for the third time that day. This time he happened to be when he was 20 minutes into a movie with Sadie, and Lacey walked in, whispering in his ear that there was a delay at the front, and she had the high command room on conference in his office.

That was a bit unusual — usually he just headed over to the spire itself to knock some heads together until things were rushed again. He assumed it was because he was in the middle of a movie. He'd have to thank her for making it extra convenient for him.

Sadie kissed him on the cheek and he stood up, reluctantly pausing the movie and letting him go. He stretched and made his way to the elevator, and then to his office, Lacey and some of his royal guard in tow behind him. Percy was only given pause when he walked into his office to see someone else sitting in his chair.

Do you remember in elementary school, when you were called to stay after class, or to the principal's office? Or maybe when you were a teenager, caught doing something you really shouldn't have been doing by your parents? Well, Percy felt that exact sensation at the moment. His blood drained from his face, and he felt a chill go throughout his body. He tensed, and adrenaline flooded through his veins.

"Leave us."

Without question his royal guards span on their heels and left the room, standing outside. Lacey herself gave a curtsey to them both, and quickly left the room.

"I can't say I expected this."

Zeus scoffed, tossing aside the paper he had in his hands onto the floor, which had doubtless come from Percy's desk. He blessed his past self a thousand times for never putting anything about the primordial artifacts down in writing. "You're not the only one with tricks."

Percy narrowed his eyes. "You're not really here."

Zeus shrugged. "Would it matter if I was?"

"It matters because you wanted to surprise me. Catch me off guard. What is it you want, Zeus."

Zeus' projection scowled, standing from the chair. "That's hardly a way to address your king."

Percy crossed his arms. "Then let me rephrase. How can I possibly be of service, your majesty."

Zeus turned around and exited the room to the balcony. Hesitantly, Percy followed.

"I'm glad you asked. Your conquest isn't going fast enough."

Percy huffed. "It's going as fast as it possibly can — faster, probably. I'm sure we'll lose control of half the places we're conquering before this is all over, despite my best efforts. My military high command think it's going to be closer to two thirds."

"Except it isn't your best effort, is it?" Zeus continued walking forwards, glancing back at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Percy said, and he meant it. It's not like he'd been holding back for some reason, he knew exactly what the gods were capable of if he didn't deliver on time. Besides, he himself wanted to see this hellscape of a war end as soon as possible.

"Of course you do. You could be moving far faster — you could be done by now." Zeus came to a stop at the edge of the balcony, overlooking the city far below and the horizon in the distance. "Your compassion for the mortals has held you back. You're afraid to kill them to get what you want." Zeus glanced back. "You fail to understand how insignificant their lives truly are. They're gone like that." Zeus snapped his fingers, and a bolt of lightning struck a building in the distance. Percy belatedly realized it had likely evaporated a family, and tried to hide his wince. "And nothing they do will truly make a difference with time, with the exception of a very rare few."

Percy restrained himself from clenching his jaw. "They're more worshippers, the more I kill the less power you will accrue in the long run."

Zeus waved it off. "Bah, a few years from now the humans will have bred enough to be back at their prior numbers. That's hardly long term. I'm here to give you another warning. Finish this by the end of the year, or I will."

"Yeah, I got it. You told me the same thing a couple weeks ago and in that time I've conquered half a continent. That seems like a pretty good schedule to me."

Zeus scoffed. "You've not conquered anything, you've not subjugated them. You've merely marched across their cities with your armies, and then left them alone. To conquer a people, you must replace their identity with your own. Revoke their religion, their culture, their traditions, until yours are all that is left. That is what you have a year to do."

Percy walked up beside him. "I can hardly do that in the half a year you've given me. I can invade them, and I can begin encouraging Greek culture and start forcing our religion, but to do what you're asking takes generations, not months."

Zeus gave him a sidelong glance. "For normal men, perhaps. But you are the child of a god. The most powerful we've ever had, I am begrudged to admit. Put the mortals where they belong. They will follow your every whim — The god's every whim — or they will die."

This time Percy couldn't stop himself from gritting his teeth. "People don't work like that in the modern day. We've had a whole enlightenment since the gods were last in charge. If you suppress their ideals, they'll just fight back harder."

Zeus narrowed his eyes, giving Percy a sidelong glance. "You possess the absolute power in your hands to deal with anyone who would dissent. Crush any resistance without mercy — not simply to make an example of them, but so that they themselves no longer exist. We have no other choice, with the Hindus preparing for war." Percy's eyes widened, and Zeus crossed his arms. "Do whatever you need to accomplish this objective. You have my permission to wipe this planet clean and rebuild it from a single city if it is what is required to accomplish your objective." And like that, the image of Zeus was gone.

Percy swallowed. That was not going to happen… He couldn't let it. If he didn't succeed in converting the entirety of the planet in a few months… he didn't know what would happen to the rest.

Percy cut the area around him off from the eyes of the gods and let himself slump against the railing, releasing a long sigh. He really was stuck in between a rock and a hard place.

He felt like cursing, like slamming his hands on the railing and letting his anger loose in a burst of impulsiveness, but he restrained himself. He had no choice, if he didn't want a few hundred thousand people to die on the other side of the globe from a tsunami somewhere. Restraining his anger was a relatively new sensation for him, and it didn't leave him feeling great.

He was… tense. It was either a miracle or incredibly sad that he was only tense after having been told that something like half the world might get poofed in half a year, but Percy was so far beyond caring it wasn't even funny. Something like this caused him about as much stress as failing a class in highschool might have caused most people. Well, maybe that was a bit harsh. He was perfectly aware of what a shitty situation this was, and he was (he thought) appropriately stressed. The only difference was that he dealt with things on a much, much larger scale than most people his age.

Well, anyone his age.

Or anyone at all, really.

Normally to blow off some steam he'd ask Nico to take him to the shore, swim out into the middle of the Pacific, and let loose — let his true self out. He'd be lying to himself if he said that he hadn't considered assuming his true form in front of a hostile army, just to walk through the enemy lines and watch them all dissolve, regardless of how many surrendered. But he'd always managed to suppress that urge, and he wouldn't stop now.

Instead, he decided he had another way of relaxing now, a way that was probably a lot healthier mentally speaking.

He shoved off the railing, spinning back towards his office and walking straight through it, out the door and to the elevator. He didn't pay Lacy or his guards any mind, and Lacey was smart enough not to follow him into the elevator.

He made his way back down to the movie theater and slid onto the couch next to Sadie. She noticed his general demeanor and rested a hand on his forearm. "Is something wrong? We can always reschedule."

Percy leaned over, and for once of his own initiative pecked her on the lips. "No, I'm fine. Let's just… let's watch the movie."

Sadie was not stupid, so he had no doubt in his mind that Sadie knew everything was not indeed fine. But she also seemed to realize he didn't exactly want to talk about it, so she just gave him a quick smile and unpaused the movie.

Percy leaned back and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, attempting to force each of his muscles into relaxing.

This was a… different way of dealing with his problems, but hopefully just as effective. Percy let his thoughts be led astray by the movie, and just tried — at least for today — to forget the circumstances he was stuck in.


The Sixth of July

Forty One Days A.B.M

"That was… quick."

Percy reached a hand out, and she set her weapon in his hand.

Percy hefted the spear and balanced it on his hand appraisingly. It was atrociously balanced, and pretty much unusable for normal combat. He had to assume it was only that way for him because he wasn't its owner. Despite Thalia's loyalty to him, the spear didn't care about that — only her.

With a tug, the spear was disconnected from the divine world. It was getting disturbingly easy to do that, but he just figured it was a perk of his more established godly powers.

Percy handed the spear back to her and nodded. "It's a good weapon. Something that rivals your dad's bolt, if not surpasses it."

Thalia smiled slightly. "Thanks. It's a bit jarring but yeah, I can feel it. It's like holding a star in my hand."

Percy nodded. "Now all I have to worry about is what else to use the cyclopes for. And how to pay them back."

Thalia hummed, hopping up on the railing and sitting on it, balancing precariously on the edge. "What could a bunch of old ass cyclopes want?"

Percy shrugged, sitting on the railing himself. "Freedom, I'd assume. Maybe I should hook them up with a bottomless bank account and let them travel the world."

Thalia snorted. "Yeah, and scare everyone they come across half to death."

Percy shrugged. "I'm willing to let a few mortals be scared for what they've done for us. It's not like they'll actually hurt anyone. I mean, what else could they want?"

Thalia pondered for a moment. "From what you told me, Briaries was awfully eager to free the elder Cyclopes. Do you think they have anyone they'd like to free?"

Percy tapped his foot on the pavement. "Maybe. I'll have to ask them later — see what it is they want."

Thalia shrugged. "Good enough for me. Shipping me back to China?"

Percy chuckled. "Don't make it sound like I'm a negligent parent. Where have you reached now?"

"Our northern front has reached the foot-plains of Beijing, but the local command has seen fit to send me to help with various naval invasions across the coast. Something along the lines of me being 'the most powerful weapon to help take a beachfront since the invention of the airplane.'"

Percy cracked a smile. "Well, I'm glad you're being properly utilized. Keep in touch."

Apparently Nico took that as his queue, because shadows reached up and grabbed Thalia, dissolving her into the shadow realm to be sent back to their east Asian headquarters at Tokyo.

Percy rolled his eyes and turned away from the balcony railing. Sometimes Nico surprised even him with how socially hopeless he was.


The Tenth of July

Forty Five Days A.B.M

"You did what now?"

Sadie rolled her eyes. "I signed you up for a therapist. I think it'll be good for you."

Percy huffed. "It's a waste of time, it's a breach of privacy, and it's not something you can just do for me."

Sadie rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to her breakfast. "It's my job to do things like this for you, Percy. Besides, we can always cancel. But I want you to talk through this with me before we do that."

Percy huffed. "And what exactly is there to talk through? Just telling a therapist that I'm a potential client is a huge breach of security."

Sadie stared at him from across the table. "Do you really think I'd talk to anyone that I didn't absolutely trust?" She took a sip of her tea which had been specifically brought over from some manufactory in the UK. The CEO of the company had pledged a life's supply of tea when he'd heard that the emperor had asked to buy some. "She's one of mine."

Percy raised an eyebrow, pausing for a moment to consider how exactly to bring this up without it sounding bad. "I… wasn't aware there were any of yours left."

Sadie raised an eyebrow in turn. "Did you actually think that by eliminating every nome and the mass gathering of Egyptians that you'd gotten every one of us? Magicians are spread all across the world, in every profession you could think of. I've put out the word not to do anything rash, but otherwise I'm sure there are a few hundred, if not thousands of Magicians out there just living their lives, getting by."

And suddenly, Percy wasn't just perturbed at her going over his head, but mad. "And why?" he asked, attempting to restrain his anger as much as possible. "Did you not feel like telling me about this until now?"

Sadie frowned. "Most are good people. They'll go about their lives and ignore that you exist, despite… everything. They don't want any trouble."

Percy grit his teeth. "And what about the few who do? Who have the means to wipe a mortal army away in moments, with enough preparation. Sadie, I cannot just let those people exist without being monitored."

Sadie huffed, setting aside her tea and pushing her breakfast to the side. "Percy, you don't need to control the individual actions of everyone on Earth. There's quite a few of them."

Percy slammed a hand into the table — much softer than it could have been, for the record — causing silverware to rattle, and thunder to roar outside. Clouds rolled in over the eastern seaboard. "I do need to control everyone on this planet Sadie, that is literally my job description. I have to because if I don't, bad things happen. The one thing I've been tasked with — the most important task I've been given since I was told I had to save the world a second time — is specifically to control everyone on this planet in an incredibly short time period, or they will be erased. If there is a single attack, one more explosion in my tower, or assassination attempt, I can't guarantee he," Percy jerked his head upwards, "won't take the master bolt to the planet and just start erasing it continent by continent. Do you understand the stakes I'm dealing with here?"

To Sadie's credit, she took his tantrum pretty well. Closing her eyes, she sighed. "I'm sorry. I should have let you know, but for the record I only would know where to find a small handful of them. All of them, good people. I understand the stress you're under, but please give this therapist a try."

Percy swallowed, and the thunder clouds in the distance slowly began to roll back. He wasn't used to actually… talking out any of his problems. Usually when it got to the point he was angry, he'd burned a bridge and had simply frightened one of his friends or subordinates into doing something.

"Sorry…" he trailed off.

Sadie opened her eyes and gave him a halfhearted smile. "Just… try one appointment?"

Percy gave a grim chuckle. "Yeah… yeah, I guess I owe you that."

Sadie partially got out of her chair, leaned forward, and kissed him on the cheek, leaning close to speak softly to him. "Thank you, Percy. And I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have kept something like that from you."

She stood up and left the table. Percy just watched her go, resting a hand on his cheek. He was building a relationship on trust again, instead of on lust. In a lot of ways it wasn't nearly as satisfying, it didn't fill a gap in his life. But in a lot of other ways, it was so much better.


So bad news and half of you are gonna hate me, but I'm taking Et Fide off of scheduled uploads.

I feel as though the quality of my chapters have been degrading over the last several, (since the beginning of the year) and it's because I'm not always able to keep up with the schedule, and am rushing 10k word chapters in the last week before update. This leads to me not thinking out my scenes, continuity, deeper meaning, or anything else. Half the scenes before this chapter were just scenes for the sake of scenes. Filler, for a lack of a better term.

That's okay for fairytales — it sucks, but it's just a fun little story I started on the side. It is not okay for Et Fide. I've been working on Et Fide since 2014, have storyboarded with an incredible amount of people, written drafts, rewritten drafts, have a co-writer and an editor, and have had the ending planned since I was in middle school. I will not let it be a halfhearted whimper of a story that started out good.

You can expect updates every month and a half to 2 months or so, but no promises. The only promise I will make is that I am not abandoning this story.

Discord and Pat reon and all that are on my profile (old links in my ANs don't work)

"The fuck its already been 20 chapters?!" - Vanadium Oxide