A/N: Kind of lost my muse for this fic, hence why it took so long for this update to come out and why it's comparatively shorter. After this chapter, will be taking a break to work on my other fic until things clear up for me.

Trying out something different this time to tie up some loose ends.


Percy's eyes opened to see... nothing.

He saw nothing.

Everything around him was pitch-black, and he felt chains around his body.

Not exactly the best situation to be in.

"I see you're awake."

Percy's blood chilled at the voice. It was the same voice he'd been hearing in his dreams, the one who kept feeding him that drink.

And she was commanding. The demigod could barely open his mouth.

Just like the dreams.

"Do not force yourself to speak, Perseus," the voice commanded. Percy felt his mouth seal shut and the very will to try and yell out drained away.

He was powerless here.

He felt a frown.

"Hmm, perhaps the eons without you have left you weaker than I remembered, Erebus," she sighed. "No matter. This will all be finished shortly."

Percy felt a hand touch his cheek and shivered. He was reminded of when he'd convinced his mom to let him play outside while it was snowing, every flake stinging against his skin, their briskness biting at his nerves, until he was left shivering and numb as the cold seared itself into his mind.

And yet, Nyx's hand was colder.

It wasn't the sharp bite of an icicle or a brainfreeze, nor the rush of cold air of walking into the frozen section of a grocery store. No, it was a quiet, growing numbness that felt as though it was sucking all the warmth out of his cheeks, leaving him feeling... empty.

Still unable to speak, he could only watch as Nyx's hand covered his face. Two fingers gently pulled his eyelids down, and before he knew it, he felt sleep take him.


"Tell me!"

Percy winced as he watched Nyx scream at a cocoon made of chains. The cocoon did not respond.

"I command you to heed me, Ananke," snarled the primordial. The lighting in the room began flickering, and the walls of the building around him, faintly visible to Percy amidst the rapid strobing, began shaking. "Where is my husband?"

The cocoon shivered, before the same voice as the faceless woman leaked out. "You interfered."

"You are in my domain, Ananke," spat Nyx. "Or will I have to wring the answer out of you?"

And then, Percy felt it.

A thrum began permeating the room as Nyx's eyes began glowing a bright blue. A construct of a snake's head formed around hers, and the cocoon began shaking.

"Hauhet," thundered Nyx, in a tongue Percy could barely understand. The cocoon shook more violently, and Percy felt the faceless woman gasp in pain. "Answer me. Where is my husband?"

"The... boy," groaned Ananke. "In the boy."

"How do I bring him out?"

"Erebus's... heart."

The thrum in the air vanished as Nyx dispelled the snake head. Percy felt Ananke take a deep breath and resume her stoic appearance.

"You are committing a grave error, Nyx." The protogenos of the night ignored her, disappearing through the door.

After Nyx left, Percy felt Ananke turn in her cocoon towards his direction. "An apology. You have been caught up in a grudge. I have little to give you but this."

A faint energy thrummed in the air again. Percy felt him dreamself walking towards the cocoon.

"Your ba is difficult to mask," admitted the primordial. "But not impossible. She will not know of this."

Percy placed a hand on the cocoon and shuddered as yellow fire snaked up his arm.

"Take my name. I am-"


The first thing Percy saw was a sea of nothing.

Four individuals rose out of it. A green woman, stones falling off her body like droplets of water. Gaea. She pushed herself up, and from there, ground formed where her skin touched the sea. The ground spread rapidly, feeding on the void's energies, entombing her legs. She screamed and tried to push herself out, creating gashes and craters where her hands beat against the ground, but the earth dragged her back down still, hungrily closing around her as it continued to spread across the emptiness.

A man rippling in muscles, wreathed in mist appeared next. Tartarus. He grabbed the first woman and tore her out of her stony prison with a mighty heave. He leaped into the hole that was her former coffin and lifted the ground that had formed with all his strength. With that, he separated the earth and the formless void, ensuring she would never suffer its grasp again.

The next to emerge was a woman as dark as the void where they once emerged from, eyes glittering like starlight. Nyx. She comforted the pained Gaia, and put her to sleep, covering her like a blanket of night, keeping her nightmares at bay.

Finally, there was an impossibly beautiful man. Eros. Pitying his eldest sister, he showed her sleeping body love, showed her dreams a life without pain. Through their brief union would emerge Pontos, and he would continue Eros's mission of masking her past, burying her scars in water to hide her former trauma.

When Gaea emerged, she judged her family for their efforts. She fashioned Pontos a wife, Thalassa, and as firstborn of Chaos, and thus the ruler of all there was, commanded them to fill the seas with life.

Though Eros did what he thought was right, he had violated her, and she had to execute him per the laws that Chaos whispered into her dreams. With a heavy heart, she condemned him to die within the depths of Pontus's oceans. They had one last union, though, and Gaea promised that she would bring him back in another form. After that, Eros went to his watery grave.

For Nyx, she gave her a husband clothed in black, so that he would make her starlit eyes more beautiful. Erebos, the protogenos of darkness. They moved to the ground beneath Gaea, promising to watch over what she could not.

And to honor Tartarus, who gave up his freedom to keep her away from the void, she dedicated her first husband in his likeness. Ouranos, of the skies. The stars that Nyx comforted her with, the love that Eros had shown her, the strength that Tartarus supported her with - all these were attributes she gave to Ouranos.

Of all those who received the First Judgment, none was more overjoyed than Nyx, who declared her husband to be the most beautiful of them all. Youthful, handsome, and gentle beyond words, she dedicated her children to serving Gaea as thanks for her generous gift.

Eros, though, was less than pleased. Bitter at rebirth without his sister's love, he cursed Ouranos with his dying breath, ensuring he could never feel the touch of love in his heart for anyone save Gaea, who he could not bear to hurt.

One last entity crawled out of the sea of void before Tartarus permanently separated it from the earth. A woman, faceless for she did not have enough time before the primordial of the abyss severed the connection between Chaos and Gaea, blessed the union between the new couples. Ananke. As thanks, the six newlyweds gifted her a lover of her own, Chronos of time.

And so began the start of the Greek pantheon.


Percy saw so, so much.

He saw Ananke bless the new children of the primordial foretelling their domains.

He saw Nyx show solidarity with her eldest sister by severing a portion of her flesh as a ritualistic sacrifice into a hole that lead to the void that was Chaos, and from that created Akhlys, misery itself.

He saw how Ananke came across a dying Ogdoad, and consumed her essence, turning Hauhet into one of her many aspects to preserve the Egyptian goddess's existence, despite the rules against cross-pantheon intervention.

He saw her stand trial before the various leaders of each pantheon, flickering as her aspect changed to match whoever was scolding her.

He saw how her punishment was read to her, and she was forced to pass on her duties to her children, the Moirai. He saw Gaea curse her to never bear children again, forcing her to fade into obscurity.

He saw how she sat on the sidelines as Ouranos, heart hardened by Eros's curse, tossed his own children into the pits below. He saw her mock Gaea, who in an act of vengeance, had had an affair with Pontos, who had inherited his father's love for the earth primordial.

He saw Nyx and Erebos's union flourish with children, while Gaea's own marriage suffered as Ouranos could not show love to anything but her.

He saw Ananke grieve as Ouranos, in one of his violent tantrums, kill Chronos for calling him out on his cruelty. He watched as she cursed him to fall to the next inheritor of time, who in turn would be his Titan son Kronos, named by Gaea in memory of her dead creation.

He saw how Ananke watched in satisfaction as Kronos castrated Ouranos and banished him away from Gaea's embrace forever. He watched as Kronos was crowned as Gaea's inheritor as the new ruler of the pantheon, and how Gaea viewed Nyx's marriage with envy.

He saw how Ananke tried and failed to stop Nyx and Gaea from fighting over Erebus. How Gaea caused Erebus to fade in an act of fury after he refused to have an affair with her, how Nyx used the last droplets of Ouranos's blood to form the first monsters to plague Gaea's descendants, how Nyx cursed those that walked on Gaea's lands to fear the night.

He watched Ananke use up most of her divinity to awaken mighty Tartarus from the void, and it was he who finally stopped his siblings from fighting. Though grotesque from being subjected to the energies of Chaos for eons, his strength still left its mark on Gaea and Nyx's mind, and the two made a grudging truce.

He watched as Nyx was outraged by Tartarus's unions with Gaea, believing that he had sided with bias. And so, believing herself to be alone, without aid from her family, and bound by a contract that would not allow her to hurt Gaea's descendants directly, she bid her time.

He watched as millennia passed, all the actions and consequences of gods and mankind throughout the ages through Ananke's eyes.

And the last thing he watched was his own birth, as two sets of eyes watched him curiously from the shadows.


When Percy woke up, Nyx had not returned yet. He was still in the room, still in those chains he first woke up in.

And yet, that felt so... real.

"What the hell was that...?" he muttered.

He looked at the cocoon of chains from where he was being held. It was still.

"I gave you my True Name."

He blinked.

"Why?"

Ananke didn't respond, and he sighed.

"What does having your True Name mean?"

"Absolute control. My powers are at your whim."

Percy's brows furrowed at that. "But why? Why give all this to me?"

"It is all I have to give. It is my apology."

"I take it that means having your True Name means nothing then?"

Ananke didn't respond, leading to Percy sighing.

And then he felt the pressure, the air feeling heavier around her.

"She returns. I can mask you no longer, demigod."

He felt a cold shiver down his spine, as whatever magic Ananke had exerted on him disappeared. Nyx strode out from a shadow and took a seat on her throne, her face glistening as silver tears streaked down her face. In her hand was a black heart, dripping some golden liquid.

"Brace yourself, demigod."

"I am sorry, Erebus," Nyx whispered, holding the heart close to her face. "But I am so, so close. I cannot allow you to leave arms again."

The tears shone against her dark skin, gleaming with moonlight while the stars in her eyes swirled in a frenzy. She got up and began walking toward Percy.

"Stop this, Nyx," Ananke said. "You are forcing a primordial through a mortal's body. You cannot be sure-"

"I am sure," declared Nyx, continuing forward despite the shaking of the cocoon.

"You will regret this."

"I will have Erebus back. I will have my husband return!"

At her scream, the shadows exploded, walls crying by her side as beads of darkness dripped down them. Percy felt his stomach wrench, his eardrums threatening to burst under her wails. And before he knew it, she was in front of him.

Tendrils of darkness unraveled from her clothing and gently opened his mouth. He found himself unable to stop them, and could only watch helplessly as the primordial placed the heart in his mouth, ichor dripping out of it as the Nyx pushed it in.

As the ichor touched his tongue, he shuddered as raw power streaked through his body. This wasn't the concoction that Nyx had prepared for him.

This was Erebus's undiluted essence.

"Come back to me, my beloved. Return to my arms."


Percy's eyes opened. Despite still being surrounded by total darkness, he could sense it wasn't Nyx's room anymore.

"Well, yes, this isn't her throne room."

He spun around and saw himself face to face with a splitting image of himself.

"What the Hades," he spluttered, stepping back. "Are you-"

The double sighed, before taking off his shirt to reveal black veins coursed across his chest. "No, Jackson, I am not you. Not yet, at least."

Percy frowned. "What does that mean? Don't tell me Nyx-"

"Did not succeed. Don't worry about that, I made sure to delay the process as long as possible." The demigod blinked.

"Why?"

"I didn't want to come back," Erebus admitted. "Of course, I don't want to leave my wife alone, but once I faded, I was destined to fade away no matter how many times I broke out of Chaos's lull. I don't want to give her the heartbreak of watching me disappear a second time."

Percy took a deep breath and sat down. "What exactly is fading like?"

"A very long sleep," Erebus said wistfully. "Where we return to where we came from, and just rest. As you can tell though, it is possible to bring someone back - but they won't ever truly return unless they want to."

"So you..."

"I've been in you from that very first deal you agreed to," Erebus replied. "My death was... not a clean one. Primordials aren't supposed to fade, you see. We live on, perhaps without minds of our own, but Gaea sent me back to the void she created me out of rather violently. There were still bits and traces of me lying around that Nyx could use to force me back into existence. Since then, she's been feeding you more and more of my body, until I have a form in your mind right now."

Percy looked down at his own body. "So all this power I've gotten... was it you?"

Erebus laughed, shaking his head. "No, demigod, that was all you."

"Wait but-"

"I've been siphoning away my power as quickly as Nyx has been giving it to you," explained the primordial. "You've been training - that's where your strength comes from. Your drive, your will to protect - that's what's making you stronger. You're still a mortal, my essence would have made you explode no matter how diluted my blood had become."

Percy thought for a moment and Anaklusmos appeared on the ground. "Then Riptide... what happened to it? Was it also me?"

Erebus frowned, squatting down to inspect the axe. Black sparks danced up and bounced off his fingers. "Traces of Nyx's magic, it looks like. That wasn't your doing."

"But-"

The mindscape where Erebus and Percy stood shook with muffled explosions. Erebus sighed, and tapped Percy's cheek. Before the demigod could say anything, he vomited out a heart - identical to the one Nyx fed him - and Erebus shuddered upon touching it, his body slowly falling apart.

"Ananke's gambit has paid off, it looks like. I will be taking back the last fragment of myself and returning to the void to sleep once more. Take care, Percy."


"No!"

When Percy's eyes opened once again, he winced seeing the state of the room. Craters littered the chamber, and Nyx's own throne seemed to be shattered under her rage.

Where the cocoon of chains once stood was Ananke ichor flowing from her head, Nyx continuing to smash her against the wall.

"You tricked me!" snarled Nyx. A wave of darkness pulsated outwards, rippling across Ananke's skin and causing her to shudder. "Where is my husband?!"

When the wave hit Percy, he felt his world explode into pain, as though his bones were being reduced into dust. As he screamed, his chest began to burn and the bones began to reassemble themselves.

Nyx turned to face him. Moving directly in front of Percy, she gripped his shirt and ripped it open. Shining on his chest was a golden circle.

"So, you have chosen to reveal your trump card, Ananke," sneered Nyx. "So this is how you separated them."

Ananke forced herself upright. "I told you, Nyx. He has a destiny to fulfill. You cannot keep him away from it."

Nyx lowered her finger onto his skin. It seared and black smoke began wafting through the air from the contact, but she didn't pay it any mind.

"You bound him to fate itself to keep my husband from me," chuckled the primordial. The chuckle gradually became more intense, and soon the whole room boomed with her manic laughter.

"To think," she gasped out. "You'd sell your name to a mortal to keep him from my grasp."

"Fate has repaired itself," amended Ananke. "You know the rules. You are forbidden to interfere."

Nyx stopped laughing and gave her a cold look before closing her eyes. When she opened them again, her eyes shone with blue light, and many, many versions of Ananke appeared, each sporting different attire - some with faces, and some without. All of them were in chains

"Of all versions of you, why are you infuriating in all aspects?" she sighed. She nodded, and the chains disappeared. One by one, each aspect of Ananke vanished, leaving the one Percy was familiar with still in the throne room.

Nyx waved her hand and the throne room repaired itself instantly. The walls didn't fix themselves, the craters weren't filled in.

It just immediately turned back to before she started wrecking havoc.

With a wave of her hand, the chains around Percy fell off. "Go, demigod. She has done something not even I would venture towards. I will need to mourn my husband a second time."

The doors out of the Mansion of Night swung open. Percy gave the two primordials one last look. Ananke tipped her head downwards, while Nyx headed deeper into her chambers. Too tired to say anything, he trudged out of there.

Time to find his way back to Zoë.


A/N: Brief note on the state of God-Shattering Star

When I first started writing this fic, there wasn't much thought into the plot outside of just a Perzoe fic. That lack of planning led me to do the dumbest thing possible, which was starting in the middle of the series.

My lack of planning hurt me in that I had no clear objective of how I wanted the story to end - which I feel is emblematic of the era of fanfiction I grew up in. My goal shifted from making a story to something more akin to wish fulfillment of just seeing characters fighting, which I think we can agree was one of the big appeals of the PJO stories to begin with.

I like to think that I handled the combat well, better than the plot maybe. Or maybe I didn't. For now, though, I will say that God-Shattering Star will conclude with TLO. The HoO series, while I do hope to work on that too, will probably be a new fic of its own. In the meantime, I'll probably put more emphasis on When The Stars Do Not Wait, and let this fic update as the words trickle out.

Thanks for sticking through with me on this ride.