AN: Heyo! So here we are. The epilogue got a little longer than I meant to and it ended up about the same length as the shortest chapter.

Anyway, this is the last chapter. Leave any questions as a review and I'll either respond or address them in the sequel. (Which still doesn't have a name and it's bugging me.) If you don't know have an account here but have a burning question that you want answered then this story is on Archive of our Own (me and the story are under the same names) and you can comment there without an account and be able to see when I respond (I believe it'll ask for your email that's how you'll be notified of my response.

Apollo desperately prayed that this would be the last time. He had counted the cycles. He thought he must have miscounted as he lived another round when he thought he was done. Then he lived another...and another...another...

There was no doubt that he was living more than the stated thirteen times. He stopped counting at some point.

Percy was approaching him again. About to send him back to start it all over again. The necklace burned where it touched his skin. As it had been ever since Percy forced it on him during the second live through.

His vision went black. When he came to...he was standing in the same place. Tears gathered in his eyes when he realized what it meant.

Percy stood before him, her gaze indifferent. Without a word, she turned away. Apollo thought she would return to her throne but she only continued through the doors. He looked around the room to see who was there to witness his return. He was surprised to see a mortal standing by Poseidon's throne.

With a jolt, he recognized her: Jessica. She wasn't thirteen anymore. She was an adult. He missed so much. She was all grown, she didn't need him. Never did.

Her face was a mask of distant interest. Her eyes dropped to his neck where he was sure the chain was visible. The corners of her mouth twitched up.

"Welcome back, Apollo," Zeus said. Apollo stood and turned to face his father. "Artemis will fill you in on what you missed. Everyone else is dismissed."

Everyone else left until Apollo, Artemis, and Jessica were left.

"Jessica."

"Lord Apollo." The little bow she gave stung more than he thought it would. As she stood he caught sight of her new necklace. It was a pegasus rearing back with wings held high.

Jessica stayed silent as Artemis explained all that had happened over the past five years. Asclepius had filled in for him. Jessica had gone on three quests over that span. The bracelet he had given her was absent as well and he wondered if it was lost in an accident since Percy hadn't thrown it in his face.

Worst of all.

Everyone knew what he did. He dreaded meeting other gods again. The Camp. Sometimes he would visit Percy and stay and teach an archery lesson. The Camp loved Percy. How would they react?

Artemis finished her explanation and there was an awkward pause as the three stood around.

Jessica...

She wasn't sure what possessed her to see her da-Apollo's return. She wasn't as bitter anymore, five years lessened the pain. She wasn't ready for him to try to be her father again.

She felt a little bad when she bowed to him but she didn't want him to think she wanted to try anything again.

"So what were your quests, Jessica?"

"I'd rather not talk about them." Screaming echoed in her ears, a grasping hand, and the snap of her bracelet.

"Oh, of course." The oppressive heat that made it hard to breathe. The glowing necklace that saved...most of them.

"I lost someone. Someone important."

Apollo...

Suddenly, Jessica wasn't there anymore. "What?"

"I sent her back to Camp." She's been practicing her time powers.

"Ah." Artemis's face softened and she went up to give Apollo a hug.

"I missed you." She whispered. It was odd. Five years was supposed to be nothing for her. "It's been a long five years." She must have been more grounded in the mortal realm than usual.

"What haven't you told me?"

"The quests Jessica had to go on were horrific. I kept as close of an eye on her as I could while she was traveling but..."

"There are just some things you can't interfere with." Apollo finished sadly. "What were those quests?"

"The short version? Tartarus started sending out monsters again and Oceanus started attacking Atlantis and her colonies. Jessica was sent out to help her moth-help Percy and Poseidon and later took on a quest to complete a spell that will, hopefully, stop Tartarus for a long time."

"The person she lost?"

"Her partner. They were dating for two years at that point and they died on the quest to put Tartarus down. Percy went in to retrieve their soul..." Artemis shook her head. "She got them out. Put them in Elysium with her friends. She nearly didn't get out. Hades was waiting for her. She came out during a flashback."

Apollo was quiet as he took in the information. Percy was probably having nightmares again.

"I need to get back to the hunt. We're still cutting down the monster population."

He nodded. "Good luck." Artemis smiled before flashing away.

Leaving the throne room was odd. Olympus, a city full of immortals, barely changed. He felt like he was still living out the loop. He wouldn't be able to bear returning to his palace. He had to go somewhere new. Somewhere he didn't go while trapped. He had a hard time thinking of where he wanted to go. For lack of anything else to do, he started walking towards the edge of Olympus.

Turning around he startled when he registered someone standing a little too close. Triton stood scowling at him. The Atlantean prince despised leaving the water, even now he kept his normal appearance just with the addition of legs. His arms were crossed in front of his bare chest.

"Uh, hello." He and Triton rarely interacted despite having been brother-in-laws. Their last interaction having been Triton and his mother keeping him under guard before Percy came.

"King Poseidon would like to speak to you."

King Poseidon? Usually, the aquatic family was more informal even when talking with those outside the family or kingdom.

"Why?" Apollo tried to take a step to get some distance between them. Triton snatched his arm and he was suddenly underwater again. It had only been minutes since he was last underwater. Triton's tails reappeared and an armband appeared on his right bicep, diadem shimmering into existence.

"Apollo." The sun god's attention was brought to his uncle. Poseidon and Amphitrite sat on their thrones. Triton joined them.

"Poseidon." He didn't really mean to but he gave a brief bow of his head, instead of adding a title.

"I refrained from doing anything to you because it would cause undue stress on Percy. People would ask why I acted against you, my daughter's husband." Poseidon smiled. "But seeing as you are no longer married..."

Apollo backed up but froze as the scrape of metal on metal let him know that the guards would not let him leave. He tried flashing away but once again he was trapped. He didn't know how they could keep him here. Stop his magic. Whatever it was, he was trapped.

"I've served my punishment!"

"She was forced to reduce it."

"It was longer than stated! I didn't just live out my thefts. I lived out my banishment again. She forced me to relive it! More than thirteen times!" His voice rose, nearly hysterical. Poseidon's eyebrows rose in surprise but he was otherwise unmoved.

"It's less than you deserve!" Triton growled, moving back towards Apollo.

"Triton," Amphitrite warned, the prince stopped moving but didn't return to his throne.

"My son is right." Poseidon stood, and now Apollo had a passing thought he never saw Poseidon with a tail.

"I really don't think so. We often have a habit of overreacting. Punishment more than the crime and all that." Apollo spoke fast, the words echoed through his brain from his Roman half, some writer had said it.

Light gathered in Triton's hand. "Triton, you got to curse Kate. Leave him to me."

"Kate? What did you do to her!?"

"She's still alive, don't worry." Amphitrite smiled, her malice well hidden.

"It was easy to think of a curse for her when I couldn't touch you," Triton said, tense.

"But you," Poseidon interjected, "it was hard to decide. You don't have a city I can destroy, not that Percy would be happy with me if I did. No children besides Jessica." Poseidon stalked closer, Apollo only spared a glance to the smiling queen and still glaring prince. "What could I take away from you? Or what could I add?"

"Then I thought about it," Amphitrite said. "You are the god of the sun, healing, prophecy, and music."

Apollo bit his tongue at the missing titles, no one ever included all of them, always clumping them together under broad names.

"Now which one of those could I...interfere with?" Poseidon pretended to ponder the question.

He couldn't. They were his. His domains. Poseidon couldn't interfere with them. Apollo had the last say over them unless Helios decided to unfade.

"Of course, not directly." Poseidon waved a hand and walked closer. Apollo felt trapped. There were three very angry deities in front of him and the guards who were loyal to them would not let him leave.

Poseidon's hand lashed out, grabbing Apollo's throat.

"Please," Apollo tried to pry the older god's hand off but to no avail. "Please don't."

"Oh, I've been waiting a long time to finally get my hands on you." Amphitrite approached her angry husband, reaching past him to uncover the necklace still around Apollo's neck.

"What are you doing?" Apollo tried to bat her hand away but had to use it to grip Poseidon's arm instead as the sea god suddenly lifted him, gravity pulling on him like he was still on dry land.

Apollo tried to scream as Poseidon's power suddenly entered him. It stabbed through his throat to wrap around his neck, it traveled up into his brain and his eyes slammed shut. In the periphery of his awareness, he felt Amphitrite's power as well. She had to be doing something to the necklace.

Suddenly he was dropped to the ground. While his whole throat ached, only one part it burned. It felt like it was behind his adam's apple.

"What," Apollo croaked and coughed, "what did you do."

Poseidon and Amphitrite returned to their thrones. "Wait and see." Amphitrite was still more friendly than angry and it was off-putting.

"Take him back to Olympus." Apollo was expecting the guards behind him to seize him but to his surprise, Triton moved forward, roughly grabbing his arm and flashing them both to Olympus. Triton disappeared quickly and Apollo was left shaky and wet outside Olympus' throne room.

He made his way to his palace after that.

Thalia, five years earlier...

She felt like she was walking on air (without the anxiety of actually doing so). She had finally finished. It was disconcerting what a monster had muttered with its dying breath, muttering praise to Tartarus as it died. She prayed the information to Artemis but she had no idea what the goddess decided to do with the information. Artemis couldn't respond in any way since the gods' powers don't work in Alaska.

If she had the food to spare she sent a quick prayer to Percy to let her know she was still alive. That was the only way the prayers would get through, if she sacrificed something.

Stepping across the border into Canada had her relaxing and she reveled in the freedom to just mentally pray to Artemis to come pick her up.

The feeling dissipated as she took in Artemis' face. It quickly turned to anger as Artemis told her what had happened over the past decade. It had all started the day after she left. With no way to contact her Percy had to deal with it without her. Sure, Percy had friends among the other goddesses but they had been friends for longer. Since before Percy had become a goddess. They were practically sisters.

"Where is she now?! Is she okay?"

"She had been missing," Artemis rushed to continue, "But! She just returned! She's drained. She's at Poseidon's recuperating now."

"I want to see her!"

"She's unconscious now. Wait until she feels better."

Thalia glowered. Anxiety rolled in her gut as she thought about what Percy had to go through. The Fates were not kind to her.

"How long?"

"A couple days?"

"Fine."

A couple days turned into four and Thalia was angry.

"Percy shouldn't leave Atlantis. Poseidon is going to ask her if she feels up to seeing us then grant us passage."

Thalia stood up, waiting impatiently for the answer.

"Okay, we can go."

"PERCIA JACKSON!" Thalia yelled when she set eyes on her friend. Anger and worry and happiness coated the name. Percy looked excited to see her but terrified at the anger.

"Thalia!" Her foot moved slowly until someone in the room let her move normally through the water. Percy let her pull her off the bed into a bone-crushing hug. Percy clung back just as hard.

Artemis...

Percy went willingly into Thalia's arms. The goddess was unfamiliar with Percy's mermaid form but Thalia had no qualms.

Poseidon caught her eye, gesturing that they should leave. He waved Triton over too and they all left.

"How is she?"

"Much better. She left yesterday to do some things. I don't think she was quite ready to leave yet, that's why I want her here for a little longer."

There was a silence as they traveled through the hallways until Triton excused himself.

"Percy said that she was sick because of Apollo, because of the other timeline. What did she mean by that? What kind of sick?" Artemis spoke slowly. "Is that why you're so worried about her now?"

Poseidon stayed silent even as they reached a sitting room. He often used it when the other gods visited.

"Apollo knows more. Percy flashed them here and Apollo called me. Telling me she needed help. She had a headache and she went temporarily blind. She fell unconscious. When she woke up she said timelines were overlapping and that she needed to go to Mount Othrys."

"That's why you said to look there."

"Yes," Poseidon poured some nectar into two glasses, "Technically, she was there. Just not in this timeline." Artemis took the offered glass. "I don't know why I also experienced the...bleed." Poseidon took a sip. "How are you doing?"

"Me?"

"Your brother was, essentially, banished for five years. I know the first banishment was hard and the time he was hiding the sun for a week."

"I'm...torn. Apollo is my brother, my twin. All us gods have done horrible things. What Apollo did would've gone unpunished back in the day. But Percy...she's changing us, for the better, I think. She's my friend. As a god, what he did..." she shook her head at her drink, "As a mortal, as Percy saw it, what he did was unforgivable. I'm having a hard time really seeing as Percy does. I know it's upsetting her. But I can't truly feel that pain." Artemis looked up to her uncle. "Logically, Apollo should be punished for his actions but..."

"You feel that he shouldn't." Poseidon finished. Artemis only nodded. "I can't say I understand that. He hurt my daughter. But I understand Percy changing us. It took everything in me to not lash out at him like I would have." Poseidon let out a sardonic laugh. "We always put mortals in the middle of our scuffles. Percy would have hated if I did anything remotely like it again." It forced him to get creative, he still planned on cursing Apollo.

Thalia...

When they broke the hug they both refused to acknowledge the tears pooling in their eyes. Percy shifted into her human form and Thalia sat on the bed with her.

"Artemis told me what happened. So I have to wait five years before I make crispy sun god?"

Percy chuckled. "Yeah, sorry. I might've saved him for you if I knew you were back."

"By the sound of it, I came back right after you sentenced him, Artemis said she came almost directly from that meeting."

"What timing you have." Percy smiled, refercing both her leaving and return.

"I don't know how that happened. I have the time goddess as a friend. If anything, I'm blaming you." Thalia said with no heat, bumping their shoulders.

"Hey, wanna meet Jessica?"

"Sometimes I still feel like we're demigods and you having children, adopted or not, is weird. But sure! In a little bit though. Let's just hang out, yeah?"

Percy softened. "Yeah, I'd like that."

They talked. About Apollo. About Jessica. About her health. About the future.

They talked until they slept. Percy finally sleeping peacefully for the first time in a long time.

AN: Yay! My first complete multi-chapter fic! Took a while but it's done! And with a decent word count too.

Jessica's partner is non-binary. That's why she/he was not used. It wasn't just because I wasn't sure of who her partner was.

I'm not sure if I made it obvious enough. But when Thalia mentioned the thing about the monster's dying breath, that's the beginning of Tartarus and such. Jessica later goes on quests to deal with it. The monster Thalia was hunting is also a part of Tartarus rising.

The bit about "Apollo spoke fast, the words echoed through his brain from his Roman half, some writer had said it." I'm specifically referring to Cicero's On Obligations. I personally hated it but I had to read it for class. He was a Roman so I thought Apollo's Roman half would actually know it.

Before you ask, I'll likely address Poseidon's curse on Apollo in the sequel. And what Amphitrite did to the necklace. If I don't then I'll say in an AN.

Also, Jessica's necklace changing from an hourglass to a pegasus was not a continuity error. She can change its shape at will.

Okay, I think that's all I wanted to say to preemptively answer questions. Lemme know if you have others.

Thank you all for reading 'til the end! I hope you'll stick around for the sequel!