Thirteenth of July

Forty Eight Days A.B.M

"Do you know why you're here, Colonel?"

The man swallowed, back straight as perspiration budded along his forehead from where he sat in the dark room. "No, your majesty."

Percy nodded, extending his hand slightly backwards. A folder was placed in it, which he glanced at the contents of before tossing it to the man.

The Colonel was one of the military staff working in the Capital, and so was one of the first few who'd received the new uniform they were slowly distributing. The silver highlights on the black material flashed in the dim light as he hesitantly opened the folder. An accolade on his upper arm with a sword stabbing up through a crown marked him as an avid member of the Optimates party. Percy hated the idea of political parties actually mixing with the military, but for this task… a fanatic ideologue would suit their purposes quite well.

"We're creating a new ministry, Colonel. Recruiting from the military, but with affairs detached and away from the purview of the prime minister. I've looked over your file and your track record. Along with some recommendations and some..." Percy glanced at the symbol on the man's arm, "other factors, I've selected you to head this new ministry."

The man's mouth was dry, Percy could tell. Judging by the flow of blood throughout his brain, he was entering some very low intensity form of shock. But despite that, he managed to gather his wits enough to stand from his chair and offer a stunned "Hail, your majesty!"

"This folder will have the details of your responsibilities from now on, your contact for assistance, resources, and access to your—" Percy cleared his throat, "rather extensive budget. I expect this project to get off the ground immediately."

Percy turned and walked out the door, trying not to think about what exactly he'd just greenlit.

A specifically partisan military force, created specifically to handle internal affairs where the police and military were unable or unwilling to. The authority he'd given them to ensure that every single citizen in the empire was truly loyal to him and the gods was actually quite frightening. Access to the Royal Security Agency and Royal Intelligence Agency's databases was only one of the more powerful tools he'd given them. Deployed on a mass scale, with the mission they were given, the budget they had and the information they were given access to? Percy thought it was well in excess of overkill, but he just hoped it'd be enough to appease Zeus. If it wasn't… it'd make his crimes look like a bit of bullying in comparison.


"Hello your majesty, I'm Doctor Schwartz, but you can call me Jessica." Jessica adjusted in her chair, pulling out a clipboard from the desk she'd been provided a foot or so away. "Let's start, shall we?" she shot him a disarmingly friendly smile.

Percy was surprised to find it was genuine. He was used to talking with generals, soldiers, and politicians. People he met as of late were far from genuine, but it seemed Jessica was the exception to the rule.

She was not one of those people, he had to remind himself.

Percy shifted uncomfortably in his chair opposite hers, nodding his assent.

"Excellent." She gave him another one of those sickening smiles. "So first, take me through an average day," she began.

Percy hesitated. "Well, there's not really an average day for me. It depends on what's happening."

She shrugged easily. "Take me through today then. What did you do after you woke up?"

"Well, after brushing my teeth and taking a shower, I headed down to my office to check the mail I've received since sleeping."

"And no breakfast?"

Percy shrugged. "I don't have breakfast much anymore."

Jessica nodded, writing something down on her notepad. "I see, and next?"

"I had a few missives from high command, so I went to the spire and dealt with them. I came back and my assistant was waiting with a few projects to look over. I… looked over them, signed them, sent them on their way. After that I briefed a colonel on a new ministry we're opening and well… now I'm here."

Jessica nodded, making sure to look him in the eye before asking the next question. "And how about last night? What were you doing then? Starting at about five."

Percy shrugged. "I think I was in the spire, directing a battle, and then I went over some updated strategic objectives with Darlton—" Percy didn't bother elaborating, by now the general of the army was a household name. "—and then I had a meeting with Miss Sharpe and my assistant. That moved into a larger meeting with some of the party leaders of—"

"Your majesty." Jessica interrupted. "What time did you get to sleep last night?"

Percy scratched his chin idly. "Four?" he guessed.

It was a rather conservative estimate.

"And what time did you wake up?"

"Eight."

Jessica sighed, scratching down some more notes. "How much free time would you say you have a day, your majesty?"

Percy shrugged. "Every few days I make a couple of hours in the evening to spend with Sadie. Otherwise… I don't."

Jessica winced, apparently sensing that topic was doomed for failure. "And your relationship with Sadie, how's it going?"

Percy hesitated once again. "Well, going how? I mean… there's been no problems or anything."

"Do you look forward to seeing her? Does she ever say anything about spending more time with you? Are you intimate?"

Percy coughed, surprised at the blatant nature of the question more than anything else. "In order, yes? No and no. My last relationship was a bit… quick, and me and Sadie, well, ours came up rather abruptly. I think we both want to take it slow and ensure it will be long term."

Jessica let out a long sigh, flipping onto a second page and writing more. But then she gave him another one of those gods damned smiles again. "Well your majesty, I think there's a lot to unpack in the coming days, but I see a lot we can do here. I look forward to working with you."

Percy wasn't confident he shared the sentiment.


The Twenty Eighth of July

Sixty Two Days A.B.M

"Your majesty, Prime Minister Sharpe is here. She says it's urgent."

Percy's tired eyes panned to the guard and waved at him. "Let her into the throne room. I'll be right down."

It was almost midnight, and he'd had no sleep in the previous twenty four hours. He was just glad he hadn't run into Sadie, or he was sure she'd kick his ass as payment.

Sending one last rueful glance at the paper on his desk full of reports from the various fronts that he'd decided to read over himself, Percy walked out the door and to his elevator, not even needing to hit the button for the ground floor before one of his royal guards had done it for him.

Percy used the elevator ride down as time to close his eyes in a brief moment of relaxation. He felt like he could fall asleep right there, standing in the elevator. Hades, why not? If he fell, his royal guards would catch him, and Sharpe would be told he was too busy to speak to her. He could literally pass out right now and be carried to his bed.

But he shoved those thoughts into the immature corner of his mind where they wholeheartedly belonged, stepping out of the elevator once he heard the soft, telltale 'ding' of the doors opening.

Walking until he was almost to his throne, he took a moment to gather his wits and wake himself up. It wouldn't do to look completely dead on his feet during this meeting. As much as he dreaded it he still had somewhat of an image to uphold.

When Percy walked around to his throne, his guards following directly behind him, it was pretty much what he expected. Maria Sharpe stood impatiently in the middle of the room until she saw him, at which point she kneeled.

"You may rise," Percy bade tiredly, not-quite collapsing onto his throne and holding in a groan at how comfortable it felt.

Before she could speak, however, one of his royal guards quickly moved to whisper in his ear.

"Lady McLean is also at the doors, your majesty."

Percy paused for a moment, wondering if maybe it wasn't a good idea to have two people trying to talk to him at the same time. He also decided he probably didn't care that much. He'd deal with them both quickly. "Let her in."

The doors opened almost as soon as he'd said it, letting Piper in to walk right up next to Sharpe and give a token bow. Many of his guards' blood pressure spiked, but he was far too tired to deal with it.

"How can I help both of you? Madame Sharpe first, if you would please."

Maria gave Piper a hesitant look before she stepped forward, giving her own bow before speaking. "Your majesty, I apologise for the late night meeting, however—" Percy waved her on, wanting her to get it over with. "This internal affairs agency… has just arrested a number of prominent senators on the grounds of treason. All of them were members of the populist party."

Piper stepped forward before he could respond. "They've done the same in the house of lords, but instead of detaining them they've censured them, confined them to house arrest and kept it private."

Percy looked between the two, confident he was missing something here, but too tired to really put his finger on it. Giving up, eventually he sighed. "And what's the problem?"

The two glanced at each other incredulously, but it was Piper to answer his question.

"Well, you wanted democracy, right? You wanted the mortals to be able to choose their own laws?" At Percy's nod, she continued. "Well, don't you think these arrests kind of inhibit the democratic process a bit?"

He shrugged. "Not if they're legitimate. Arrests like this can be necessary."

Piper's eyes narrowed. "And why do you think they're legitimate? They're obviously politically motivated, targeting one party. How could you possibly know that these people are guilty of 'treason'?"

"We keep a very close eye on the agency that arrested them," he assured her.

Piper crossed her arms with a huff. Maria looked somewhere between amazed and terrified at the spectacle taking place before her. Amazed because someone was able to speak to him this way without being dragged into an alley to never be heard from again, and terrified, because that was liable to happen at any moment. Maybe to both of them.

"Do you?" she asked petulantly, "Seriously, do you? Can you tell me the name of one senator that was arrested? What their offense was?"

It was Percy's time to narrow his eyes at her and tap the side of his throne lightly twice. Nico appeared by his side a moment later, looking more tired than Percy felt. He was kneeling, his sword out and offering the hilt to him, for theatric's sake. Though then again Nico was into that sort of stuff, so maybe it wasn't purely for appearances. Whatever the motives for his theatrics, Nico was there now.

"Seventeen senators have been arrested so far in an operation being executed starting at midnight tonight. Thirty seven more are scheduled to be arrested throughout the night as soon as manpower enables." The two tensed at that. Apparently that was news to them. "Thirteen legacies and demigods in the house of lords have been censured and confined to their homes, awaiting your final judgement on their fates. Every one of them have been investigated and found guilty of sacrilege towards either yourself or the gods."

Percy rolled his eyes and waved a hand at Nico, as if to say 'see?'. "Is that it? I can hardly let them get away with treason, if that's what you're asking."

"Since when is suggesting that maybe your will isn't worth more than a human's life treason?!"

"Since I took over the gods-damned country!" he snapped back. Huh, no thunder outside. And he couldn't feel a small island on the other side of the globe going under the waves. Improvement. He took a moment to mentally pat himself on the back before resuming the argument. He was tired of the needling, tired of the questions, tired of being challenged at every turn, and most of all he was tired.

He stood from his throne. "You don't have all the information I do, you don't know everything, you don't understand what we're doing here. I get it. I'll leave you safe to play pretend in the world of mortals and politics and squabbling and law, while I deal with the real issues here. That's fine. But when I do something, I don't need you to like it, I just need you to know that I did it and that you can't do anything about it. So live with it, and get out of my fucking tower."

Maria sank to a low, shaky bow and subsequently walked as calmly as she could out of the room. Piper simply gave him the evil eye and stormed off, lips sealed shut. A few of his guards made to intercept her but he waved them off. As childish as she was being, he wasn't about to have an old friend disappear over some disrespect. Emphasis on old.

Percy patted Nico on the shoulder as he walked past him, heading back to the elevator. Despite that whole debacle, at least now he would finally get to sleep.

"Your majesty," Percy paused, half turning back to Nico and raising an eyebrow. "Would you like me to tell the office of internal affairs not to censure Piper?"

Percy barked out a laugh at that. Of course she'd be among those who had harbored less than pleasant conversations about him. Hades, she'd done it to his face. He almost said yes in reflex, and then paused.

Why should she get different treatment? She was making it more clear than anyone else exactly how she felt about him, and a public figure doing something like that…

"No, don't give her special treatment. It's time I stop being so lax with those I consider friends. And tell the ministry I've made my decision now. All of them are allowed to remain in house arrest, return to Camp Half-Blood or to New Rome, regardless of the severity of their actions. And Nico," he perked up. "Make sure the replacements for these arrested senators are of the same party. As much as I need to clamp down on disrespect to the gods, I'd still rather the mortals govern themselves."

Nico's head lowered slightly to show he understood and Percy began walking back to his room.

Now he could sleep.


"Your majesty." Lacey bowed slightly, the lesser incline far more a sign of familiarity than disrespect. She walked up to his desk and took the papers on them at his bidding.

"What… what is this your majesty?"

"Funding. For an expansion of the tower, into a basement. I need somewhere to store all of the magical artifacts we're gathering from around the world, and well, where's more secure?"

Lacey looked over the notes quickly. "This is… this is quite a lot, your majesty."

Percy furrowed his eyebrows, double checking to make sure he hadn't accidentally added a couple zeros or something. "Well, it should still be well within budget, right?"

Lacey nodded quickly. "We're in control of the vast majority of earth's wealth at this point, twelve billion is hardly a concern. It's just… a lot, for a basement."

Percy waved it off. "With the stuff I have down there I'm not cutting any corners on security. I've ordered the works."

Lacey shrugged. "As you wish, your majesty. I'll get to work immediately."

Percy gave her a grateful nod as she promptly turned on her heel and left with a bow.

He leaned back in his chair, moving onto the next bit of paperwork that had found its way onto his desk. He sighed. Another demigod caught on the wrong side of the law. Unfortunately he didn't have someone else he wanted handling punishments for demigods. He didn't want a very biased demigod below him to decide their punishments and potentially let them off lightly, and he definitely didn't want a mortal that either worshipped the ground they walked on or was envious of their power to decide their punishments.

Most of the time for the more severe crimes he just ended up sending them back to either Chiron or New Rome to deal with. It was another chore, but another thing he'd hate himself for shoving onto someone else.

Finishing signing off on the punishment for the rather mundane crime, Percy was about to move on to the next small stack of papers when his door clicked open. There were a very select few people who could get to this floor, and even fewer who his guards would let enter without his express permission.

Percy shot Sadie a smile as she walked into his office, one she returned quickly. He tried to keep the smile from dropping as soon as he saw the person behind her, who looked about as comfortable seeing him as he did her.

Sasha walked in behind her, shoulders hunched in on herself and her head tucked down. Percy held an explosive sigh. He really, really wished things hadn't turned out this way. It didn't need to be awkward between them… but it still was.

Being emperor of half of earth had really sapped him for time, time he no longer had to repair what remained of their relationship. It sucked, but it was just a reality now.

"What's up?" he asked, leaning in for the quick kiss she offered. He made especially sure not to see how Sasha reacted, but the fluctuations of the blood in her body still told him more than he'd have preferred to know.

Sadie leaned back over the desk, splaying a hand out towards Sasha. "I thought we could give you a break and grab some lunch, and I thought it's been a while since you two talked, so I invited Sasha along!"

Glancing at Sadie he could tell this would be more than a simple lunch, but just shook his head and folded. As much as he didn't appreciate her springing this on him, they did need to get over... whatever this was.

Percy nodded, glancing at the untouched paper on his desk, something about appointing a governor to the newly christened Imperial Territory of Sweden.

Speaking of which, damn he really needed to get to work on drawing up some more defined territories than just whatever country used to exist there.

"Sure, just let me finish up—"

"Nope."

Percy blinked. "Huh?"

"Nope! Come on, let's get some lunch. It's rude to keep a lady waiting and all that. That means no work for you."

Percy rolled his eyes at Sadie's unique brand of antics and stuffed his pen away. Whatever, he hadn't even gotten started on it anyway, so it's not like they were interrupting much of anything.

Giving up he joined them down the elevator, taking it all the way to the ground floor and walking with them to some local restaurant he'd never been to. The place was fancier than he was used to, being a cathedral that had turned into a pizza restaurant. But Sadie assured him that the pizza here was great. Apparently she'd called ahead because the place was already empty when they got there, their only company for the duration of the meal being the dozens of royal guards patrolling the building, and the waiters that stood just a bit out of eaves-dropping distance, waiting for the slightest indication one of them needed so much as another glass of water.

Conversation was… normal, if a bit muted on Sasha's part. He could tell she was trying, really she was. But she was so clearly uncomfortable it was making him uncomfortable. It was only about halfway through when she excused herself to use the restroom that he had a chance to talk to Sadie about it.

"So…" Percy trailed off. "What's up with her?"

She gave him a look, one he was not unfamiliar with. It was the 'are you the dumbest person I've ever met, or just close to it?' look.

"Other than the obvious, I mean." he clarified quickly, setting down his piece of pizza and wiping off his hands on an expensive looking napkin. The pizza was pretty damn good, he had to admit. "There's something else bothering her."

Sadie let out a long sigh. "Nothing else necessarily, just… how she reacted to the breakup. I have to admit, letting her have her space… might not have been a good idea."

Percy's eyebrows furrowed. "How so?"

"Well, it's accomplished the goal I hoped it would at least. She's no longer reliant on your attention to function. She's learned to move on in that regard."

Percy scratched his head. "Was it really that bad? I mean I know she kind of had an inferiority complex, but I didn't think she was that reliant on me."

Sadie shook her head. "It's not an inferiority complex, it's a superiority complex. Towards you. She didn't know you before… this." Sadie waved a hand around to exemplify their current situation. "So she learned to idolize you along with the rest of the world. Then she had a relationship with you and grew more personal feelings. I know you don't exactly return them, but you were hardly saying no either."

Percy winced. "So… what, she has some sort of dynamic with me?"

"More like she worships you without the literal worship part. And on top of the fact that you've been separated, she, uhm, isn't in the best state mentally. I think it may have had the opposite of the intended effect."

"So instead of making her independent of me…"

"She's in withdrawal, so to speak. She still has the superiority complex towards you, she's just picked up some less than platonic feelings along the way, and now she's not comfortable with you after the breakup."

"Fuck." Percy summed up beautifully. Sadie just nodded her head in agreement. "Is she at least alright when I'm not around? If she's just this way towards me, then she should be fine otherwise, right?"

Sadie, thank the gods, nodded. "She's doing just fine when you're not around. She's a lot more confident now too. Quite the magician she's becoming. She's learning fast, and with me tutoring her on top of all of the different magical artifacts your people are procuring from across the globe, she'll be unparalleled one day. I just know it."

Percy grinned. "Well that's good news at least. As long as she's able to live well normally."

"There's just one more, teensy problem." Sadie winced. "She still bases most of what she does on your approval. It's an obsession, really. She's gotten better with it recently, but between me and you I think she's just learning to hide that you're at the center of her reasons for pretty much everything. That's not… odd, though. I'm sure millions if not billions of people exist like that now. Fanatics and true believers and all that, just wanting to do what they think you'd want. It'll just be weird because, well, you know her."

It was Percy's turn to let out a long sigh. "Anything you think I should do?"

Sadie threw her hands up. "The last thing I tried didn't work out super well, so what do I know? Maybe we just leave this be. All told, her situation isn't that odd. She's just… really, really dedicated to her work, and you're her boss. Think of it that way."

Percy groaned and shoved his face into his napkin, withdrawing it quickly when he sensed Sasha coming back to the table.

Even as the table returned to more mundane conversation, Percy couldn't help but wonder if this was really something he could just brush under the table. Or at least, if he could live with himself if he did.


The Twenty-Ninth of August

Ninety Four Days A.B.M

Percy was doing something he'd become dangerously familiar with in the last couple months.

Paperwork.

Granted, this paperwork was relatively important. In front of him on his desk was a map that wasn't familiar to his eyes, nor of anyone else's on earth. It was a map he'd had a commission drawing up almost since he'd first taken power. It was a map of the world under the Olympian Empire, drawn into dozens of territories with different types of governments assigned to each.

With it came dozens of pages of justification, stuff that was a bit academic for him. But he had ensured that the committee writing the map up was full of people that actually knew what they were doing. Aside from a few borders which looked… odd to him, he didn't bother investigating most of it.

Borders, from the paragraph he'd been given to explain the concept, were determined based on a variety of factors. Political ideology, cultural similarity, shared history, physical terrain. It was all pretty complicated, and he rubbed his forehead as he looked at North America, which itself was split into seven different territories. It would be a change, that was for sure. A fairly radical one, too. He wondered how people would react for a moment before remembering that it didn't really matter. His goal wasn't to create a stable society, one that was particularly economically efficient, or even a happy society. No, his only goal for the next half a year would be making sure that Zeus didn't have an excuse to cleanse most of the world. Maybe afterwards he could start working towards utopia, but for now brainwashing the populace was the only item on his menu.

This… this would help that a good bit.

Regional governors, viceroys, appointed individuals to subjugate a populace. Percy swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth. It was all for their good. All so that they wouldn't be erased by his manic uncle. Shaking his head, he went back to signing off the last documents for it. He was just glad that Maria would be handling most of the appointments rather than him. The only things he would be hands on with were regarding the US. He needed a strong base, and well, he was American. He wanted to make sure everything was done right, at least before moving on to the other countries.

He just hoped what he was doing would be enough.


Happy Birthday Percy.

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