"The Lacedaemonians [Spartans] had once raised up some Helot suppliants from the temple of Poseidon at Taenarus, led them away and slain them; for which they believe the great earthquake at Sparta to have been a retribution." Thuc. 1.128.1

... . .-.. .-.. -

Percy felt like schist. Even with the jump into the water, he still felt the aches. Guess the Tartarus full-body poison-air and fire-water treatment doesn't get healed that easily. Still, the difference was pretty noticeable because now he hurt more. Now that his nerves remembered how to function, he can actually feel the burn.

His day didn't get any better when they got attacked by extras from the Walking Dead.

"Why don't you surrender?" Percy countered. They just all looked at him and then at each other like: Is this guy for real? Who died and made this guy in charge?

"No, you surrender," the one with a more intact plate reiterated. He tried to puff out his chest, but that only made his rotting flesh open further and allow maggots and worms to pour out.

Yuck, Percy thought, "Someone needs a new mortician because your current one didn't give you the full body makeup treatment." Percy hoped that if he kept talking maybe he could find a way to get them out of this. They were both recovering from Tartarus, by the look and feel of it, wounds and injuries inflicted in Tartarus didn't heal like normal. Maybe it was the air they breathed there, and the water they drank. Ya know, radiation style.

"What's wrong with my complexion?" the guy asked as if insulted.

"Well, it just comes on a bit strong?" Yeah, the BO doesn't help any, Percy silently added. He felt around for the sea. The waters were still reacting to the approaching storm.

"You're just jealous we came back from the dead, godspawn," another soldier argued.

"We're fine with our natural status in life, thank you," Percy said, "Besides, I can't afford life insurance."

"Oh, Gaea has fantastic life insurance," a frazzled soldier spoke up, "or she did until someone closed the Doors of Death. Way to go loser, you just couldn't have waited until after my kalos kagathos* boyfriend came through could you?"

"That's it. You, no more stalling," the leader said to Percy, then turning to the soldier that spoke out, "and you. Stop talking about your boyfriend, Agathon. We get it, he's a ten, you found higher love, stop acting like such an Athenian. Business, then pleasure. Got it?"

The poor chastised undead soldier looked down, "Sorry, Arastos, sir," Agathon muttered.

Rolling his eyes the leader faced Percy and Annabeth, "Surrender."

"Nope."

"Oh, for the love of Ares," the soldier was exasperated, "Look. We really would love to have our revenge, but Gaea needs you. So either you come quietly or we break your knees and elbows and drag your sorry fleshy body all the way to Athens."

Banter's over, then, Percy thought. No way is he letting them hurt Annabeth. She looked like she thought the same thing about him.

"Wait, but what do you mean 'have your revenge'?" Annabeth asked. Her voice carrying all the way to another pair of Spartans climbing down to support the half a dozen who surrounded them. Percy took that chance to look around subtly and try to send a message to any sea creature around. HELP! SOS! Sea of Poseidon in danger! We have drachmas! The last one he hoped wouldn't result in bartering. That would just make them lose time.

"Poseidon, Earthshaker, killed many of us, even though we worshipped him," the leader said, his troops nodded.

"He got angry with the Spartan ephors and took it out on all of us," Agathon said. "It wasn't fair, I wasn't even with the group that killed those helots near Poseidon's temple. If he wanted to get angry with the top-brass, he could have spared the ordinary soldiers. Instead, he killed me and my boyfriend."

A few soldiers muttered in accord like "Over Helots! They are not even free!" and "They didn't even die in the temple!" another agreed "They temple wasn't polluted, they died a distance away from the temple!"

"As if you don't know, half-blood," another spoke up from the back, "We were told you were a daughter of Athena, so you should know."

The leader finally spoke up after they let off some steam, throwing insults at Percy and his parentage, "Nothing personal, but we need to get his attention and you happen to be the closest thing in reach. I can't believe how lucky we are."

"But, that was so long ago," Percy said, "Why now?"

"Gaea gave us a chance, she understood that the gods were petty and didn't deserve the power they had. We worshipped them, and for what? We want them to know before Gaea destroys them that they are nothing without us. Honour meant everything to us, look where that got us: dying for someone else's mistake."

"Well," Percy gave Annabeth a nod and grabbed her hand in a vise. They weren't going to get anything more from the soldiers. "Free advice, don't try to corner a son of Poseidon near the sea," Percy said releasing the Mediterranean Sea calling it out from far to attack the undead.

The sea obeyed and crashed over his head but would have toppled Annabeth if Percy hadn't tackled her to the ground. He formed an air bubble around her and let the waves recede and take them out to sea.

... - .- -.- / ... .- ..-. .

"You are not going alone," Frank told Hazel. After the IM Jason had run to talk to Leo on the Argo II while Frank and Hazel walked off to the side to talk.

"You are needed here, it will only be a quick trip for me. Like Percy said, only one of them is injured," Hazel said, "Besides it's not like you can outrun Arion."

Frank felt so great after the latest adventures and being promoted to praetor, but he felt like this is the work of a lifetime. He didn't trust himself. He understood honour and duty but this isn't just a few short quests. This is a way of living, and to do that he would have to constantly prove it. If he didn't go with Hazel, he might just end up getting sidelined again. He couldn't let that happen, he wanted to pull his weight. He finally understood who he was meant to be.

"I need to do this," Frank countered trying to express what this mission meant to him.

Hazel seemed to recognize something in his eyes. She sighed, nodded and looked away, "Let's talk to the crew how things look so far." She looped her arm through his.

Frank knew she didn't agree with him. Pluto, she probably thought he thought she wasn't capable, but gods, she knew that wasn't it, right? He discarded that thought.

Leo and Jason were talking about the trip and Leo thought he figured out what they would do to get to Athens.

"-the thing is that path would mean having to fly over land and the Argo II can only go so high. Overwater is longer but it would avoid the mountains," Leo said to Jason.

"Okay so-" Jason stopped when he saw Hazel and Frank, "Hey, you guys ready?"

"Yeah," Frank replied, "how's planning going."

"We're going over options." Leo replied, "At the least we know we could meet up at fastest route for you would be to cross by land but if you get knocked off your horse, you would be in trouble. The other option is longer, by sea, but it might be quicker if you factor the likelihood of fewer delays..."

"Corinth it is then," Hazel said, "We trust that you chose the best route."

"Okay then," Leo clapped his hands, trying to act all casual and not like he might have potentially miscalculated given that it's Gaea his friends were up against, "I'll get the rigging up but how about we send off our pals first?" Leo compromised.

.-.. .. -. . -... .-. . .- -.-

Leo fiddled with the harness that he made for Nico and co. Damasen and Bob helped out it all together faster. When he offered to help. Hazel noticed that Nico said he would do the rest himself before Bob offered to help. Frank, like Hazel, had a backpack over her shoulders with all they would need for their quest.

With that came the goodbyes. Hazel hugged Nico and told him to take care. Nico made her and Frank promise the same.

"See you when all this is done," Hazel said. Nico simply nodded.

"Then let's get you on the ship," she heard Leo say to Damasen and Bob.

"No sweat!" Leo said smiling excitedly, trying to act nonchalant. Hazel noticed that he really wanted to get back on board to do whatever he had in mind. Hazel wasn't sure if it was their flight plan or something else that was keeping his mind occupied.

After a signal to those below, Leo lowered the ship and with a lot of help from Jason and Frank, they got the giant onboard the ship. Bob and Small Bob, meanwhile, used the ladder after Bob gave Leo his word that Small Bob wouldn't rip up the rope ladder.

... .- .-. .-. -.- / .-. . .- -.. .. -. -.

Percy shifted the water so that it pulled him and Annabeth further out to sea a good 20 metres. As he momentarily looked over his shoulder, he saw a lot of soaking undead Spartan soldiers floundering like newborn horses. He saw that they were still planning to throw spears and swords at them.

It looked like they were themselves too scared to venture into the water, maybe there was something about the water that scared them.

For a second he thought they would be able to evade and then it happened, he saw one soldier climbing down the hill; he realized they called for backup and the backup was a huge snake.

Percy looked to Annabeth. "You okay, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth nodded and asked him, "Is there a way we can lose the sea monster?" She looked down.

Below them were some sand. That was it. Clear sand. Well, there goes that plan of hiding in some coral. Percy pushed them out further to buy them some time to get a better idea. Running from the snake would do no good but stalling might make a difference.

He looked at Annabeth while getting the sea to move them farther from shore, but she was thinking.

"Do you think you can grab some sand?" Annabeth asked.

"Uhh, yeah," Percy said, "What are you thinking?"

"When the snake gets here, throw it at the snake," Annabeth said.

"I'll do you one better," Percy said, "Let's make a sandcastle."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes, "Only you would think of sandcastles at a time like this. Whatever you're thinking. Do it." She grabbed her bone sword and got ready to go fishing.

However fast he thought he could get him and Annabeth to travel, the snake was faster. Percy looked to see that the snake had covered the distance faster than he expected.

As the snake drew nearer, he noticed it had a collar around its neck, well, the part that's behind his head, you get the idea.

Percy quickly made the water push the sand into a wall before the snake. It slammed into a wall of sand. The force of the water gave it more of a punch. As the sand dissipated, he could feel the snake thrashing; it was only stunned.

Percy took out the cap of his pen, and it turned into a sword. Just as the sea monster charged, he pushed himself forward and tried to slice off its head. When the sea monster tried to take a bite, he pushed himself off to the side. It was awkward, but he pushed off the snake in case it would try to bite him, which it did and ended up almost taking a chunk of its own neck. He pushed Annabeth to the top of the water so she could breathe in case he lost focus and the bubble popped.

Annabeth floated to the top and tried to swim away not caring if the Spartans saw them, they wouldn't be able to throw anything at them from this distance. She kept checking Percy and the sea monster to know if she should risk helping. Percy almost got caught by the snake's tail when he checked up on Annabeth. Bad idea. He ducked and pushed up some more sand to distract the snake while he tried to figure out a weak spot.

He tried to think. What could they do? Call for help?

Percy tried to send a distress call, but he didn't know if there was anyone around. HELP! SOS! No response. The sea monster just charged him again. He dodged the tail.

He then tried to get creative. He never tried this, but he wondered if there was a way to crush the sea monster with pressure. He called the water to him and tried to push it down.

Then a second later he realized something, Schist! Annabeth! He checked to make sure she wasn't underwater. He was relieved when she just kept to the top of the mountain of water.

The sea monster thrashed. It charged again this time it went for Annabeth. Percy tried to dodge, but he concentrated on the water, and it grabbed him and kept hold. He swung his sword, but it only glanced off. This snake had serious armour. He tried to strike at the links in the scales as his rib cage was getting crushed but the sea monster tossed him around until he lost the sword. Just when he felt like he would pass out the snake loosened its grip. He looked and saw that the sea did not look too deep, the water must have retreated. The other thing he noticed was that standing swimming above him.

"Hello, again, Percy," the ichthyocentaur said.

"Sup?" Percy said, trying to act natural. He looked around to see the sea monster covered in nets and surrounded by ichthyocentaurs. Percy swam up and tried to help and Arthur gave Percy his sword.

"Thanks," Percy said.

"Since you had found it," Arthur began saying, "what do you say we take this Ketos down together?"

"Ketos?" Percy asked confused.

"I meant as in the general term. Sea-monster."

"Oh." Percy elegantly replied.

He charged the sea monster and stabbed it in its mouth with Riptide with the force of water behind him. The sea monster exploded into golden dust that drifted around in the water before settling down.

"Seems we have much to talk about," Arthur said.

Percy sent an air bubble for Annabeth so she could talk too.

"We see that you are being chased by the Spartans and think that maybe we could help each other. We thank you for locating this sea monster for us. We have been trying to find it but it kept escaping us."

"Sure, no problem, we're used to being bait." Percy joked.

"Thank you for saving us from the sea monster," Annabeth said diplomatically.

Arthur seemed not to know what to say. Percy knew Arthur wanted to stay out of it but Percy decided to just be blunt, "Any chance you could help us take out the Spartans before our friends pick us up?"

Arthur agreed.

.-.. .- - . .-.

After flooding the land and drowning and dismantling the post, they all sat down to have a picnic.

"Oh gods, the brownies are so good," Percy said from the beach.

It was an odd compromise, but they got a chance to regroup and figure out where to go next.

"So where we're your plans?" Annabeth asked the icthyocentaurs underwater a distance from them.

"We would like to keep that to ourselves, all you need to know is that we are keeping the Mediterranean safe. We are headed north to Athens. We hear of monsters heading there. Our group up there will need reinforcements."

"Oh, so are we, maybe we could-" Annabeth abruptly stopped.

Percy heard hissing coming from behind them.

Both demigods got to their feet.

Amongst the cliffs they saw a large snake emerge. It was dark and camouflaged with its surroundings in the fading light.

You have done well, son of Poseidon, the snake said. I have been waiting for weeks to break free. One by one I took the Spartans, but you have saved me the great deal of trouble fighting back for these Caves.

"Your welcome?" Percy said.

A piece of advice, I better not see you come out of that cave, again, the enormous snake said and turned and slithered away back to its cave.

Percy breathed a sigh of relief. "So….lunch?"

"Oh yeah definitely, I'm hungry after cutting down that many Spartans," Annabeth said with a newer bandage on her arm.

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A/N:

* "beautiful and good"- something they called boys. Seen on pottery and in inscriptions in a similar way someone might engrave '[name] is hot' on a wall or something.

I've updated the previous chapters since I've noticed some typos.

Also, I felt like HoO compressed a lot of character development that would take years (like in PJO) so I'm hoping to see if I'm any good at expanding on it. I'm not sure how drastically I want to differ from canon.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. If you have any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. I'm not even going with this fic, to be honest, it was kind of supposed to be a one-shot with them dying and the seven, maybe coping but..I've chosen the less painful option. Reviews are appreciated.