Getting Back on His Feet

BWAHAHAHA!

I fucking love it!

It's been over four years since Chapter 28 dropped on this story, and I am still getting hate mail for it. I went back and checked to make sure it was still there, and it is. Satan, who is the devil, delivered this warning:

"…the rest of this chapter is rated MA for nonconsenting sexual content, crimes against humanity, disturbing images, drug usage, pedophilia, and intense blood and gore…continue at your own risk…"

I don't think I can put it any more clearly. The Devil is telling you things are about to get super raunchy, and they did indeed get super raunchy.

I can only imagine it goes something like this:

Reader: *reads the devil's warning about things getting super raunchy*

Reader: *ignores warning*

Reader: *proceeds to read super raunchy stuff*

Reader: *surprised Pikachu face*

Reader: "I must go write a hateful message to this person because I am offended by what they wrote even though they gave me a warning about what they were going to write and I was offended by it."

And if you think I'm a disgusting writer, go check out Takara Phoenix and bheat8112. And never, ever get on DeviantArt and look up "percyjackson." You will find some amazing fanart, yes, along with…other…kinds of art.

You have been warned. Don't ignore it this time like you did with Ch. 28.

Anywho, just as a refresher: The last real chapter of this story dropped all the way back in March (of 2021 for the time travelers), and if you recall, Shin'en appeared there at the end. Now, the last canonical time we saw Shin'en was back in 2020 with the end of Armageddon, since Chaos War was taken down for revamping. Meaning as far as Shin'en's story goes, this is his next official canon appearance after Armageddon since Promised Year is a special little story.

Meaning he's coming straight from Naruko's, their unborn children's, Bee's, Yugito's, and Persephone's deaths.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or AC

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Inspired by historical events and an over-active imagination, this work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a single-cultural team of one religious faith and belief, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

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Any and all pretenses of masculinity were foreign to Percy right now. As soon as he'd recognized his visitor—his brother—he'd flung himself against Shin'en's chest and tightly wrapped his arms around the man. With their current height disparity, the top of Percy's head rested at Shin'en's collarbones. Shin'en gently led them over to a statue of some god and sat them down against its cubic base, resting their backs against it. Percy hadn't even hesitated to sit himself in Shin'en's lap and rest his head on his shoulder, not at all unlike how Cheyenne had done so many times before with Zoë.

Cheyenne…

Zoë…

Shin'en hadn't said a word yet, his dark emerald eyes even darker, almost to the point you couldn't even tell they were a shade of green, but that was more than okay with Percy. He didn't want anyone to talk right now. He didn't want to listen to anybody, or do anything besides just sit here.

If you asked him who he was channeling right now, he'd tell you with no small amount of venom to fuck off. That was because, right now, he didn't feel like anybody. And that wasn't meant as in he felt like he was having an out of body experience, but in that he felt like he had felt his whole childhood prior to remembering his past life as Faris.

He'd gone the whole first twelve years of his life without a soul. He'd never felt joy or happiness, not even when his mother took him out for dinner or threw his birthday party. He'd never told her he loved her because he didn't love her. He didn't understand love, couldn't comprehend it, couldn't feel it, and he'd felt that way about everyone and everything. As a literal soulless child, Percy gone day by day with nothing going for him.

He hadn't had any likes or dislikes, no hobbies, no passions, no engagements. He didn't play sports or join any elementary school clubs. He hadn't made any friends, always keeping to himself, always just watching others. It was a boring, horrible, and miserable existence.

But then he lived Faris's life, and he came alive. Essentially, everything that was Faris took over everything that had been the soulless Percy Jackson. Now with the memories and experiences of the Assassin, Percy had gotten into the Bible, finding comfort in the old words he'd studied so thoroughly centuries ago. He understood love and happiness, and regretted so much how indifferent he'd been to his amazing and wonderful mother all his life, though it wasn't his fault.

And everything would've been fine if it had remained purely Faris.

But then he'd remembered his second life as Virgil Cavaliere da Roma, and everything changed.

Virgil had been overpowering. He'd been disciplined differently, taught differently, trained differently, and lived differently. Raised by a strong and militant Christian man, Virgil had been brought up in the ideas of the Old Testament, in that the wicked and unrighteous would face their divine punishment, and it was their duty to remain upright with the Lord, shunning evil and confronting those that did evil.

Against this Old Testament view of a heavy hand against evil was Faris's New Testament ideology of forgiveness and a heavy heart in the act of killing. Virgil's ideas of death had been that those that deserved to die would die, end of story, whereas Faris's idea of death was that it was a tragedy that someone had to be killed in order to preserve the lives of others.

More than these conflicting views of how evil should be handled, Virgil had been a husband, a father, and the Mentor of the Assassin Brotherhood. These stations came with a constitution, fortitude, and mindset that was difficult to shake off. Where Percy had totally integrated Faris, then he'd integrated Virgil, which led to many ethical and moral quandaries as the two ideologies conflicted.

Virgil hadn't necessarily been the "my way or the highway" kind of leader, but he'd been firm and authoritative, unwelcoming of challenges to his orders. But he'd loved his wife and children, his eldest son and younger twin daughters, with everything that he had, and he loathed having to discipline the kids when the inevitable time came, and he loathed it just as much whenever he and Claudia had gotten into fights.

Virgil had been so much more than Faris, but Faris had still been enough to not disappear in Percy's mind, and where the two had "gotten along" nicely enough, they still disagreed, and Percy had been left questioning a lot of things.

And when it seemed that an equilibrium between those two was reached, Jake Swallow happened.

The Grandfather of America with a legacy so resilient and powerful that the most powerful ship in the world was named after him. Movies, cartoons, and videogames drew influence from him. Books had been written about him. Major political figures and civil rights activists had quoted him and spoke of him and used him in their speeches. There was even a national holiday dedicated to Jake, and as far as the American navy went, in the spirit that George Washington was the highest general of the army posthumously, Jake was the highest admiral.

The Grand Admiral.

A rank and title that would be featured in Star Wars.

However, despite Jake's legacy and the length of his life, he had not been anywhere near as powerful as Virgil had been. Jake had been born a slave, a product of rape between his master's daughter and another slave, but he had been raised fair in his master's home, taught to read and write and speak, how farm the sugarcane, and how to work hard. When he'd turned seven, his master had released him as dictated in the Old Testament laws about slavery, and from there, Jake had met Mary Read and formed a sibling-like bond with the crossdressing girl, disguised as a boy by her mother.

Jake had lived a fanciful life as a pirate with a moral and ethical code about him, but amongst his crew was a magician from the Egyptian House of Life, still thriving in the shadows two thousand years after the fall of the once great civilization. With the knowledge of the Egyptian gods and all other pagan gods being alive and real, and Jake not having the same education as Faris and Virgil, Jake had entered into a state of indecision for the whole rest of his life about what to believe in and what to do about it.

After Mary had died, he'd flew into a blind rage and destroyed Kingston, wiping out hundreds of innocent lives in his retribution. The guilt he felt over it stemmed not from his wasting of life, but from the Apple of Eden that had sent him back in time to the Peloponnesian War, and the reason he'd come across the Apple was because he'd decided to go sailing for Rome and encountered Chrysaor. Jake defeated the immortal pirate in a contest of trickery, distraction, and great timing, and found the Apple aboard the son of Poseidon's trireme.

In the past, he'd fallen in love with the mercenary Kassandra, and even lost his virginity to the woman. In his quest to get back to his own time, he'd found Atlantis, the Precursor AI Aletheia, and got a dose of what it was like to be Ezio when the Precursor started talking across time to Percy Jackson.

What Jake got out of that whole experience was a broken heart over Kassandra and decades of confusion.

And also a whole lot of guilt and self-loathing.

If he hadn't gone sailing for Europe, he could've been there in the Caribbean to protect Mary, but he wasn't, she had died, and his revenge had led to even more guilt, when his actions led to a fleet being dispatched after him and his crew. The Running Frenchman had gone up against no less than 20 British frigates, and as powerful as she was, she was only so powerful.

Many of Jake's crew died because of him, and he carried their lives and Mary's for the rets of his.

Once he got to land, he ended up spending decades in the American wilderness as he travelled North to colonial civilization, running into Indian tribe after Indian tribe, often having to fight and kill his way out of their grasp because they sought to burn him alive in the name of their spirits. He eventually made it, just in time to bear witness to the Seven Years' War and the tactics of the Colonial Brotherhood.

Ridden with guilt and desperate for redemption, Jake had thrown himself in with Haytham's Templars, helping him and Shay Cormac take down the Brotherhood, though Jake and Shay were doing it because the present Brotherhood were a bunch of nutcases that were shitting all over the Creed. However, when Shay and Haytham killed Jake's old friend Adéwalé, Jake turned on the two in the name of revenge and nearly killed them both despite his advancing age during that time.

From there, Jake had been seeking redemption for the rest of his life, never committed to any cause beyond its completion, always feeling incomplete himself after it was over, until that fateful day at Lexington. The world would never know it was Jake that fired his pistol into the air and started the war that altered history, for better or for worse depended on your viewpoint.

Jake led a depressed life, uncommitted and unsure of any spiritual path, and he'd died equally unsure whether he'd earned the redemption he sought after Kingston and the sinking of his ship. Because of these heavy burdens on his shoulders, his impact on Percy hadn't been anywhere near as great as Virgil's.

But it had been much greater than Faris.

With Jake came a massive sense of cynicism, depression, and guilt. He didn't have the boldness and robustness and confidence of Virgil, and that was why Percy hadn't immediately taken over America and set started slicing throats until the country looked the way it was supposed to look according to the way Jake and the other founders had envisioned. Jake had the potential to have been the most powerful influence in Percy's mind, but the baggage he carried made him below Virgil.

It was difficult to say whether Jake was equal to Faris or not. They seemed tied.

Then Cheyenne came in and nearly tore Percy's mind apart.

Hateful, angry, vengeful, bitter, spiteful, rude, sarcastic, rebellious, and so much more, Cheyenne was the complete antithesis of Virgil Cavaliere, and the two clashed like Arctic water and lava. Her hatred of the Assassins and all things related to the Creed was almost overwhelming. Her atheist nature didn't fly very well in the face of Virgil and Faris's knowledge of the Bible and the history of it, but that didn't stop her from tangling with them both just to get under their skin.

Her love for Zoë outstripped Virgil's love for Claudia and Jake's love for Kassandra, combined, by far. Zoë had been Cheyenne's only romantic interest, and with the life she'd led, the horrors she'd been through—anally raped by Bellec when she was fourteen, taken to the Court of Miracles and forced to watch as people were sawed into pieces, poisoned so many times—and Zoë's love and motherly affections, Cheyenne had latched onto the Huntress with everything she had and then some.

Zoë was Cheyenne's drug, and she couldn't ever be away from her.

And it had just been Cheyenne in Percy's mind and no one else, he would've immediately went out to find Zoë. If it had been Cheyenne's life that he remembered first instead of Faris, Percy would've gone sprinting out of Yancy Academy, screaming for Artemis at the very top of his lungs until the goddess showed up to take him to Zoë. Percy would've happily let Artemis turn him into a girl, and he would've remarried Zoë, and they would've picked up right where they left off, wife and wife, trying to have a baby together through magical means.

But it had not happened that way. Instead, Cheyenne had come after Faris, Virgil, and Jake, and then there was Percy himself.

Percy shifted in Shin'en's arms, his head starting to hurt.

WHO THE HELL WAS HE!?

A fourteen-year-old orphan with a kind-of girlfriend that pissed herself in her sleep? A rape survivor? An Assassin? A demigod? Honestly, Percy felt like an unwitting pawn right now, just someone being used by higher powers for some purpose, getting used and abused in so many different ways, the lifetimes of a bunch of people getting dumped into his head on top of everything else going in his life.

Percy had thought he'd assimilated them. One by one as they came, Percy thought he'd processed all of them and settled them in his mind, but now it was clear that was not the truth. He hadn't even finished situating Faris, much less the emotional typhoon that was Cheyenne.

Percy couldn't say he was Faris. He couldn't say he was Virgil or Jake or Cheyenne, which was really bad across the board because Virgil's children were alive again, Giovanni as Nico and the twins Maria and Christina as Reyna and Hylla, Altair, Ezio, and Edward as Desmond, Mary Read was Bianca, who was apparently being held captive hell, something Percy promised Nico they would rectify, and even Arno was back as Robert Eliezer Dare.

So many people from Percy's pasts were here with him again, and he couldn't honestly say he was any of those people he was supposed to be.

As Faris, he was Altair/Desmond's little brother.

As Virgil, he was Claudia's husband, Giovanni/Nico, Christina/Hylla, and Maria/Reyna's father, and Ezio/Desmond's brother. Not necessarily big or little, just brothers.

As Jake, he was the grandfather of America, and so burdened with the idea that he had a duty and a responsibility to do something about the country, and he was Mary/Bianca's adopted little brother.

As Cheyenne, he was Shay's granddaughter, Zoë's wife, and former flame of Robert/Arno, something he was going to have to confront eventually.

But who was he as Percy?

Sally and Poseidon's son? How could he consider himself anyone else's son besides that of Maud and Umar, Faris's mother and father? How could he disrespect Aquila and Virile, Virgil's parents? Jake never knew his mother, her having died giving birth to him, and his father had been a rapist. Cheyenne was raised by her grandfather Shay, suspected of being the daughter of whatever child he and Hope Jensen had together, something she had kept secret from him after his change of allegiances.

But Percy had been raised by Sally. She had loved him with all her heart, and he had repaid it all with indifference due to his soulless nature. By the time he came into a possession of a soul, the piece of Faris, he didn't have the time to rectify it all. He happened.

Percy's mood soured even further, going from emotional and mental anguish to anger. Shin'en felt the change, and his eyes slid down to his counterpart, but he still didn't say anything.

He had raped him, violently, brutally, for months. He had murdered Sally right in front of Percy, tearing her apart like a loaf of bread. He had jacked Percy full of hormones and chemicals, hooked his ears into speakers and glued his eyes to a screen, all in the sick, twisted, perverted, and despicable name of turning Percy into his latest iteration of his man-wife, Sporus.

So far, as far as Percy could tell, the only clear defining traits to his life were that Lou Ellen was girlfriend (and he wasn't even sure how that applied anymore), and that his mother had been killed in front of him while he was being raped, rendering him an abused orphan.

And even that wasn't unique to Percy Jackson.

Faris had been orphan, his mother Maud dying in childbirth, his father Umar executed a few years later. Virgil had been orphaned after Cesare Borgia sent men to kill Virgil's family, desecrating the bodies of his father, mother, and little sister. Jake had been an orphan, and so had Cheyenne after Shay was killed. So, orphans all around for Percy's past lives.

And Cheyenne had been raped by Bellec.

Percy shifted and winced in Shin'en's arms, his head hurting even more as he came to realize there was nothing unique about him. Everything that he was, was purely out of everyone else.

He was an Assassin and called himself a Christian because of Faris. He was a husband, father, and the Mentor of the Brotherhood of Assassins only because of Virgil. He had a sense of patriotism of a feeling of duty to American only due to Jake. And he hated the Brotherhood and deeply loved Zoë purely because of Cheyenne.

And it all combined into a horrible, conflicting mess.

Shin'en gave Percy's shoulder a light squeeze, and it made the boy's mood swing like a baseball bat. He sprung from Shin'en's arms and glared hatefully.

"Why are you here!?" Percy hissed ferally, his eyes bloodshot and moist.

Shin'en stood up. "I am here because I was told you needed me."

"Need you? The asshole that didn't have an ounce of sympathy for me after I just spent months being raped and pumped full of so many female hormones the shape of my body changed, and my mom was ripped in half in front of me? What would I need you for?"

"Apparently, to get your ass back on track once again."

Percy recoiled. Get his ass back on track once again—how dare he!? His disregard, his insensitivity, his crassness…how could he? Was there not an ounce of sympathy or understanding anywhere in his body? Percy couldn't take it. In this moment of weakness and vulnerability, he wanted someone to pity him and sympathize with him, and in Shin'en uncaring, unconcerned wake, Percy lashed out.

His emotions finally crumbling and coming undone, he drew the Sword of Destiny, the amalgamation of the Sword of Baron von Wolff, The Spear of Leonidas, and the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus, fused with the power of Chaos himself with a few added things. The Sword glowed, and Percy rushed with a roar, eyes tinged yellow as Amon's influence began to take hold.

Shin'en's own sword appeared in his hand. A sheath five feet long, ovular in shape, made of solid black metal. He drew the sword, revealing four feet of blade, double-edged, thinner than paper, and only an inch wide. He held the sword in his left hand, the sheath in his right.

Percy's attacks were sloppy and wild, yet furious and powerful. Trails of light surrounded him as he swung and slashed the Sword with great speed. And Shin'en almost casually parried and blocked every strike sent at him with barely more than flicking his wrist.

After another parry, and Percy drew back for another hard swing, Shin'en actually put some effort into it and made a swing of his own. He knocked the Sword of Destiny from Percy's hands and sent the weapon skittering across the ground. Being disarmed didn't mean anything to Percy; if anything, it just made him even angrier and even more reckless.

He ran full tilt at Shin'en and got kicked in the stomach. He was knocked flat on his back and used the momentum to pop into a backwards roll to land on his feet. He looked up and saw that Shin'en was gone. Percy whipped his leg around and groaned when his shin struck something comparable to a titanium pole.

Shin'en reached down and picked Percy up by his throat. Then Percy's eyes turned pure yellow. He planted his feet on Shin'en's chest and pushed, freeing himself. He flipped through the air and vanished from sight.

Percy reappeared behind Shin'en and was fast enough to swing his leg up and kick him upside the head, nailing him right in his ear. Shin'en stepped once to the side from the impact, then reached up, grabbed the offending leg, and flipped Percy over his head, slamming him into the ground of Mt. Olympus.

Percy kicked his leg free and popped to his feet, growling. Shin'en stood there with his back straight and his hands clasped behind his back, eyes hard. Blood started leaking from Percy's mouth, his teeth beginning to get pushed from his gums by rising fangs. His skin started rippling and moving, looking ready to tear and split.

Shin'en's eyes widened just a fraction, and he unclasped his hands from behind his back. The action galvanized Percy into charging. Shin'en just stood there this time, and when Percy crashed into him, taking him to the ground, he just laid there and let Percy beat the shit out of him. Technically, anyway.

Percy's demon-enhanced punches actually kind of hurt as his fists came down like rain on Shin'en's face and head, but the former Akatsuki member took them all. He took each punch up until they started losing their fire, and took the rest as they puttered into weak taps. Percy's anger burned like a star, and like a star, he collapsed in on himself.

He pitched forward onto Shin'en's chest, sobbing and crying. Shin'en gently reached up and hugged him, patting and rubbing the boy's back as he let everything out.

"I can't…I can't do it anymore…" Percy murmured through his tears.

"No," Shin'en agreed. "You can't. Not alone. I can think of at least five people that are here to help you at this very moment."

"What?"

"Let's go."

Percy recoiled when Shin'en's forehead opened to reveal a third eye. Solid green, rings around the pupil, with commas spinning along the rings. The eye glowed, and Percy felt vertigo overcome him. Olympus faded away into a tunnel of colors. It was a short "trip," not even a full second and a half, but it was trippy as hell.

When everything settled, Percy found himself standing next to Shin'en in what looked like a prairie. It was a beautiful place, with healthy and lush green grass, clear, crisp blue skies with sparse wispy clouds here and there. The sun was pleasantly warm, and not at all blinding. The air was clear, unlike the smog-ridden city.

Percy turned his head when Shin'en nudged his arm. The taller demigod made a motion with his head and turned. Percy also turned, and he blinked at the sight of the small church. Wooden, painted white, with a steeple and bell at the far end. Stained-glass windows lined the walls.

Shin'en walked to the front door and gently opened it, revealing a quaint sanctuary within. Wooden floor with 24 pews, twelve on either side of the aisle. A big cross hung on the wall behind the pulpit, a baptismal chamber under it.

On the steps before the stand that held the Bible were four individuals, and Percy knew them all intimately well. He was shocked to his core to actually see them, and for a reason he couldn't place, he was nervous and apprehensive at the sight of them, like a child standing before giants.

Shin'en began to walk down the aisle at a sedate pace, the falls of his sandals on the floor creating a dull thumping sound. Percy followed a distance behind, glancing around at everything. When he looked at once spot, he had to stop and look again to make sure he wasn't seeing things. With that second look, it was confirmed.

Amon was here, but the great demon was a far cry from what he usually looked like. Instead of being a huge thing of muscle and power, now he was small, frail, weak, and tiny. Percy could've gone over and picked him up with one hand like you did with a children's toy.

Amon glared hatefully with his weak yellow eyes, hissing ferally.

Because Shin'en paid the demon no attention, Percy did the same, and he turned and followed his brother to the pulpit where the four were at.

At their approach, the four stood.

Virgil had to help Cheyenne to her feet, and he had to coax her to look alive for this encounter. Jake stood on the pair's left, Faris on the right.

"Hello," Shin'en said curtly. "I am Shin'en Yūrei. You could say I am your brother, as all of you are this one." He indicated Percy. "I am here to resolve this matter, and ensure that the next two do not cause this much trouble. All of you are unique, each with your own experiences and opinions, your own morals and ethics, yet all of you are exactly the same. Through Percy, all of you are one. Even you, Cheyenne."

Cheyenne made a noise, here eyes downcast, her lips set into a thin line. Virgil was the only thing keeping her from collapsing into in an inconsolable heap.

Percy stood there, trying not to shift awkwardly before these people, his own pasts.

"Despite this unity," Shin'en continued, "you have all been here, arguing and debating amongst yourselves instead of putting aside your differences for the betterment of the whole. As such, you've all been driving this boy mad with your selfishness, causing him much undo strife. It ends now."

"Are you going to destroy us?" Faris asked neutrally.

"No. To do that would be to destroy four pieces of Percy's soul."

"Are you going to erase our individuality?" Jake asked.

"None of you are individuals in the first place."

"What are you doing?" Percy demanded in a hushed tone, as if him speaking would offend the four Assassins.

Shin'en turned his head and looked down his nose at Percy. "I righting the wrong you've been committing."

"What?"

Shin'en breathed out of his nose.

"Ever since you remembered Virgil, you've committed to keeping each of your lives in their own box. Faris has his box, Virgil has his, Jake his, and Cheyenne hers. However, they were not meant to be contained in boxes. They're not meant to be compartmentalized like you've been keeping them. This entire time, you've been fighting them, and in a way, they've been fighting you.

"All of you are one part of the whole. The soul of Perseus Jackson, taken out of time to serve a higher purpose for higher powers. Split into pieces in order maximize wisdom and knowledge, skill and ability, training and experience. All culminating into a warrior without equal in order to take on a foe without equal. The Templars. However, what should be strength has become weakness. All of you, bickering and debating, have been tearing Percy apart. You've been tearing yourselves apart."

Percy locked eyes with Virgil, and he felt himself swallowing under that piercing gaze. Virgil's eyes softened.

"What are we to do, then?" he asked.

Shin'en answered. "All of you know what to do. You are pieces of the puzzle. Come together."

Shin'en wasn't surprised when Cheyenne was the first one to move. She gave Virgil a squeeze, then turned and squeezed Jake. Then she took slow, heartbroken steps to Percy. She was taller than he was, but not by much. Through the freak chance of their mortal genetics across centuries, they looked like brother and sister with their complexions, black hair, green eyes, and the shape of their noses, eyes, and jawlines.

Cheyenne threw her arms around Percy and he did the same to her. They hugged each other tight.

"Promise you'll never forget Zoë," Cheyenne said.

Percy vigorously shook his head. "Never, ever. But I have to move on from her."

"That's true."

"What are we going to do about Arno? I mean, Lou Ellen…she's our…and we can't just…"

Cheyenne sighed. "It's just not meant to be for Arno. We'll have to help him understand that, and if he can't, then we'll have to be ready for him."

"Right. We will."

The two embraced very strongly, Cheyenne's body glowing before vanishing. Jake went next, descending the stairs to stand before Percy.

"Do you know if Connor's here too?"

"I hope not," Jake answered. "If I had to guess, whoever he is now would make it super awkward for us."

"Probably."

Jake smiled softly. He reached out and set his hand on Percy's shoulder. "Why do we sail?"

"For freedom."

"For freedom," Jake confirmed.

"For glory."

"For glory," Jake nodded.

"In the name of honor."

"Honor," Jake said. "There's a good lad. We're going to be alright."

"Aye-aye, captain."

Jake smiled. Like Cheyenne, his body glowed brightly before disappearing. With the pattern now set, Virgil approached. Percy stood up straight in the presence of the Mentor, this time matching that wise, piercing stare.

"Insieme per la vittoria," Virgil said.

"Insieme," Percy said.

The two gripped forearms.

"There will always be a Mentor. We don't always have to be the one shouldering the burden."

"That is true," Percy said, a smile tugging at his lips as he said it.

A little twinkle appeared in Virgil's eyes. "Nothing is true."

"Everything is permitted."

Virgil switched gears. His eyes turned fierce and serious, and he jostled Percy's arm a little to punctuate his passion in what he said next. "They will always be out children. Nothing will ever change that."

And Percy answered just as passionately. "Nothing."

Virgil nodded, then he glowed and faded like the others. Only Faris was left. He approached, one step at a time, but he stopped at Shin'en first, placing his hand on his shoulder.

"God loves you, brother. He'd been crying for you all your life."

A dark shadow crossed Shin'en's face, and his voice dropped a dozen octaves. "Get out of my sight."

Faris nodded and left Shin'en, coming to stand in front of Percy.

"All that I am began with you," Percy said.

"No," Faris shook his head. "All that we are began with the Lord and will end with the Lord."

"Amen."

"Amen."

And that was all Faris said. It was all he needed to say. Like the others, he glowed like the Sun before he vanished from sight, but unlike the others, he never touched Percy.

With the final piece of the four added, Percy stood there with his eyes closed as everything fell into place. It felt like his mind was now flowing like water, the four dams he'd built broken and destroyed, allowing the natural order to take hold once more.

It was true what Shin'en had said. Percy had been boxing his past lives up, compartmentalizing them in what he thought was an effective means of dealing with all of their trauma and triumphs, but in reality, he'd been blocking them off, keeping them away from him and each other. It had gotten to be too much. He'd repressed them too much, too hard, and it had all started breaking loose.

But not they'd been released, one by one, the water flowing as it should.

The sea didn't like to be contained after all, not even the pieces of its soul.

Amon's disgusting little head poked around the corner of one of the pews. "Don't think this means anything," he rasped. "I'm still here, and I'll still feast on your sins."

Percy's eyes opened and he faced the little devil. "True. And once you've grown big and strong again, you'll be reduced back to your natural state."

Amon growled and scurried away like a rat did when a light was shined on it.

Percy faced Shin'en, remembering what Faris had said to him. In that moment, for the first time since he got here, Percy actually looked at Shin'en, and he gasped. Shin'en's hair was lying limp and flat. His eyes were sunk in and hollow, little bags under them. His shoulders were slumped in defeat. He was beaten down and worn out by something. He was depressed beyond imagining. He was hurting even more than Percy had been hurting.

"You've been through hell," Percy breathed. "What…what happened?"

Shin'en stared off into space as he decided how to answer, and when he did, he shrugged and adopted a rueful smirk.

"God punished me for my sins."

And then Shin'en delivered the abridged version of his life. His start with his twin sister, his kidnapping by Nyx as part of a deal with Susano'o, his time at the orphanage, Kisame's visit which led to Ameyuri's attack, which led to the rest of Shin'en's life. His brutal and bloody training in the Hidden Cloud, the hellacious nightmare that had been the Blood War, its tragic end, and the deeper tragedy behind it, that Yūrei had just been wanting to put it all behind them, but the Third Raikage happened. Then the Hidden Leaf attack, Shin'en's insanity, the interregnum with the Akatsuki with his damaged body, and then the story of the Xenophobic dimension with the transgender telepath Asteria, formerly Percy, and Annabeth.

Then Shin'en wrapped it up with the events leading up to Project Tsuki no Me's initiation, like Naruko's arrival, their relationship as husband and wife, her last-ditch effort in saving the world through love instead of illusion, her rescue from her insane father, and then the Infinite Dream itself.

Percy felt his own heart shatter in his chest for Shin'en's sake as the man spoke.

"…and in order to escape the dream of my heart, I had to kill my heart. I killed my mother there, then all of Yūrei, and when even that wasn't enough, I went to the high school and murdered all the demigods there before I was finally able to get to Annabeth, my sister, and Naruko. It took killing all three of them to finally break the genjutsu, but when I did, I Awakened, and…the explosion of power was too much. I incinerated Bee, Yugito, and even Naruko. And our children. Not even two weeks of development inside her."

Percy was sitting next to Shin'en on the pew, crying even as a few tears fell down Shin'en's face.

"Then I went back home to my sister, hoping to make a new life with her, only to find out that so many decades had passed, and now she was withered, and her hair was white. She passed away in my arms minutes after I saw her."

Percy could tell there was a whole lot more to it than that, but Shin'en was keeping it to himself because speaking it aloud would make him blow his top. Percy could see the fury simmering just below the surface.

"I'm so sorry," Percy said, voice cracking.

"Thanks." Shin'en stood up. "My job here is done. Please, for the love of your God, don't make me have to come back here a third time."

"Hey, wait!" Percy called, getting to his feet. "You can't just leave after all of that!"

"Sure, I can."

Shin'en was walking for the door.

"No, you can't," Percy insisted. "You helped me. Let me help you."

"I don't need your help."

"Yes, you do. You're compartmentalizing. Boxing it up."

Shin'en stopped and turned. "I just told you everything that recently happened to me. I talked it out. I've already had this conversation with the other two. It sucks, it hurts, and I'm going to have to live with this the rest of my life, but I can handle it. I've always had to handle it, and I always will handle it."

"But you don't have handle it alone."

"I'm not handling it alone. I've got nine other personalities in my head."

"Shin'en…"

The two stared at each other with all their wisdom and experience.

Percy knew exactly why Shin'en was keeping him out. Everyone that had ever been close to Shin'en died. The orphans he grew up with, Yugito, Killer Bee, Darui, Cee, Yūrei, Annabeth, Naruko, his own big sister, and literally everyone else. It was a testament to how Shin'en viewed Percy, that he wanted to keep him at arm's length.

He didn't want anything else to happen to Percy.

"Stay strong," Shin'en said. "Stay faithful."

"I will. I'm always here, you know. I can always help you."

"I know. Goodbye."

"For now."

Shin'en nodded.

He turned and exited the church, shutting the door behind him.

Percy sighed. He looked around, looking back at the pulpit where they had stood, and he put his hand over his heart. They lived with him, not in him. Not anymore. Now they were one. There were two more to go, Peter Frye of Victorian London, younger brother of Jacob and Evie, and it was apparently going to be a doozy from what Thalia—Evie's reincarnation—had already said and hinted at, and the final life would take place during WWI.

Yay.

Percy sighed, the straightened up and squared his shoulders. His mind was clear now. He was at piece with them all. Instead of trying to separate them and box them up, he let them all flow at once, achieving harmony and balance between the four.

A thought suddenly occurred to Percy.

He had said he couldn't do it alone, and Shin'en had said he knew of five people that could help him. The first four were the Assassins, obviously, but the fifth….Shin'en had not been referring to himself, and certainly not Amon.

Percy turned to look at the cross, and he smiled.

He left the church, exiting to find himself back on Olympus. The Winter Solstice party was still going on. No time at all had passed from when Shin'en first arrived to now, which explained why they had been able to battle like they had without all the gods descending on them.

Percy began walking from the garden area, and at the entrance, he found those he loved waiting on him. Lou Ellen and her puppy Kira, Nico who was Giovanni Cavaliere, Thalia who was Evie Frye, Poseidon who was his father in this life, and Artemis, his technical mother-in-law since the goddess considered her Hunters to be her daughter since had sworn off romance and sex after the horrors of helping deliver Apollo.

They all turned, saw him, and paused.

Of course, they did.

Percy had left them all while heartbroken and depressed, on the verge of a total mental breakdown. He'd needed company and comfort, certainly a shoulder to cry on, but he'd them all and insisted on being alone. They all thought that was unhealthy and asking for humongous trouble, but now here was, back before them and looking better than he ever had.

"Son…" Poseidon trailed off.

"Father," Percy said with a warm smile. "Thank you, all of you. I had a little help, and now I'm fine. Save your questions, I won't answer them." He went over and placed a hand on Nico's shoulder.

Nico reached up and grabbed it. "Padre."

"Figlio. We're soon to embark on our most dangerous mission ever."

"Bianca."

"Yes."

"Uh, about that," Lou Ellen started. "Hell is, uh…it's not exactly a friendly place."

"I would say so, yes."

"Hang on," Poseidon cut in. "What's this about hell?"

Percy looked at the sea god. "Bianca di Angelo, formerly Mary Read the pirate, is being held captive in hell because the demons want me. Nico and I are going to get her back."

"Oh, well, if that's all, can you please stop by the store on your way home and get some more milk? Thanks."

"I will add it to the list," Percy said just as casually as his father had spoken. He looked at Artemis. "I am so sorry about Zoë. I loved her too."

Artemis was more broken up about Zoë's death than she let on, because her face immediately contorted into a sob and she teleported away before they could see her cry. Poseidon sighed heavily. He looked at his son, who nodded at him, prompting him to nod back, and then Poseidon turned into thosuands of bubbles that popped and released the smell of the sea as he teleported away to comfort his niece.

"Alright," Percy said. "Let's be on our way, then."

Thalia, Nico, and Lou Ellen all shared a look, all shrugged, and then they all followed Percy.

There was a lot to do.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Happy belated Thanksgiving of 2021, everyone!

Ha, rhyme time.

I see you, Guest Reviewer talking about blueballing. I'll probably never read any of those stories, but thank you for the suggestions.

I hope this was a strong enough return, because I had fun writing it. I feel rather accomplished after this one, really.

The next chapter kicks off the Hellblazer arc. I am thinking two chapters at the max, possibly just one depending on how much I add to it, and then it's the customary Prelude to the Fifth Life chapter, coinciding with the Battle of the Labyrinth. We're steadily getting around to answering the question of just what did Jacob and Evie (Jason and Thalia) do to their little brother to make them both feel so guilty and regretful.

Fav, Follow and Review please!