Welcome to Greek meets Roman! Sorry if this fanfic has mistakes. I will try to revise and edit as much as possible. Disclaimer: The characters and places that you know belong to Rick Riordan, everything else is mine.

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Previously - Thalia POV

Lou looked at Annabeth, who was also helping Jake. I was the only one away, for a good reason. Annabeth nodded, and Lou hunched forward, keeling over the bloody grass. Percy fell back and screamed to the sky.

Annabeth whispered, "There's no pulse."

I kneeled over and punched the ground. A tear left my eye, and I cried.

Thalia POV
Louisville, Kentucky

It had been a few moments since the announcement. My hand was red, but that pain was nothing compared to what Jake had just gone through. I wanted to punch the ground repeatedly until the pain took over. Until I would suffer what Jake had suffered. Until everything was hurting.

Annabeth screamed. I jumped off the ground, grabbing my spear to see the cause of the scream. But all I saw was a hyperactive daughter of Athena, gray eyes bright next to a dead son of Hephaestus.

"What happened?" I croaked out. My voice was still dry after my shouts.

"Jake might not be dead yet," whispered Annabeth. Her hands were still tingling with excitement.

An unwelcome wave of hope washed over me. "What did you say? Don't you dare say that."

Annabeth put two fingers on Jake's throat. "Correction, he is not dead. He was dead due to blood and fluid loss, which means that his organs couldn't get enough oxygen to literally function. It's a thing called hypovolemic shock. But Percy was able to make sure enough blood stayed in his body, so his organs can still work and his heart hasn't collapsed. What I said about the pulse was wrong."

I could feel a yet coming. "But what?"

"Jake is not dead, but his brain is. Right now, the recovered blood is only enough for his body to survive. We need him to be actually healed for him to live. Keeping blood inside wounds is not going to keep him going."

"We have a literal healer here. Why can't Lou do it?"

Annabeth gave me a look I knew all too often. "I've cast a spell to keep all fluids from Jake in his body with Percy's help," Lou spoke up. "But magic cannot do everything, unless you want to turn insane and wreck the world. Jake needs to go to a hospital or get healed by a god. Magic requires an eye for an eye, a life for a life in Jake's case."

"So, we sacrifice the boar for Jake's life. Problem solved!" Was I the only smart one here? The boar hadn't died yet, it was just knocked out from my lightning. Jake could live!

Lou shook her head. "No, that would infuse Jake with the boar's soul once he gets healed. An animal stuck in a human body is a no-go. He needs a demigod sacrifice–which we will not do at all, Thalia."

I hated that she was right. "So what do we do?" My question came out desperately.

"We transport the boar to Atalanta," Percy whispered, "and hope that it is enough for her to convince the gods to heal Jake." Nobody said anything about if it wasn't enough.

We arrived at Atalanta's cabin after the sun fully set. The night was dark blue, but the city lights blurred the stars even in the forest. For some reason, I expected her cabin to shine magically during the night. It did not. It was just a normal, wood cabin in the late evening.

Lou set down Jake's body on the stairs delicately, his arms covering up his chest wounds. Percy and Annabeth dropped the unconsciousness Calydonius at the cabin's entrance. We had taken turns of two carrying it, which was clearly more than we could afford. Even with Lou's strength spell, my shoulders and arms hurt by carrying the boar. It had to weigh at least one ton! There was a burning feeling in me to kill the boar, to rip its heart out and shred its arms like it did to Jake. But I suppressed it, kept it in the depths of my soul until Jake was healed. The boar's hateful and murderous hide had to stay for Jake's life.

The cabin's door opened. Atalanta stood straight in her gray pantsuit and black platforms. A smile erupted across her face, and she put black glasses on. Ignoring all of our waiting faces, she ran effortlessly to the boar. Caressing its fur, she whispered sweet things and rolled the boar's body. No doubt checking for any injuries or whatever.

Atalanta finished her inspection. "Thank you, demigods," she said. "I can see an injury on his right hind foot, but I think that was caused by a splinter. This was a great service you have done to me, and I commend you for your skills. My boars are now reunited."

She started walking up the stairs. "Hold up," I said. "Remember the credit card and free ride you promised us? Yeah, we would like to talk about that."

Atalanta looked around at us with frowned eyebrows, as if she forgot who we were. "What did I promise you again?"

"A free credit card for seven days and a free ride on Erymanthia. But we want–"

She clapped her hands. "Yes, I remember that." She snapped her fingers. A second later, a silver plastic card appeared between her fingers. "Here is your card, and Erymanthia will be available after her evening nap."

"We don't want the credit card anymore, Atalanta," Percy said, walking to the first step of the stairs. "We want to renegotiate."

"For what reason? We made a deal, and you agreed. Take the credit card and Erymanthia and leave. I need to get back to watching football."

Percy gestured to where Jake was lying down. "Do you see him? He helped you. He's medically dead, but we were able to keep the blood inside him. He needs some help and medicine immediately."

Atalanta raised her eyebrows. "So? I commend him for his service? The credit card is still here for you." What a heartless bitch.

Annabeth pulled me back before I could insult the huntress. "Because your boar was the one that almost killed Jake," she replied harshly, "we are expecting you to be the one to provide medicine and help. As our compensation for retrieving Calydonius and for being a decent person."

"What am I supposed to do? I am a huntress; I kill. I do not heal." At our continuing stares, she nodded wildly. "Now I get it. You assume that because I have godly connections, they will listen to my call and send down Apollo."

We nodded.

"I hate to break it to you, demigods, but they will not. Gods are assholes."

"What do you mean, they will not?" I asked. "You are Artemis' favorite, and she will convince her brother to do anything you want. You have to do this!"

She tutted. "But I don't want to heal Jake Mason. You do. Artemis will think me foolish if I ask her. I will not sacrifice my relationship with my goddess for a demigod's life."

"You should if those demigods reunite your prized boars!" screamed Lou.

Atalanta waved her hand. "I could have done that. That whole excuse of not being able to leave Erymanthia was bullshit. The only reason I didn't go there was because the stadium has been acting weirdly and I didn't want to risk it. Better to put demigods through it to see what would happen."

My blood boiled. I wanted to pummel her red lips until they bled blood and life. "So you just used us as cannon fodder? We could have died due to your elitism!?"

"Yes. Since Calydonius entered the stadium, unnatural things had been happening. I didn't want anything bad to happen to me. And demigods die all the time; they are destined to die heroically, and what could be more heroic than dying on a quest? Your friend did, well almost did, and I commend him for that."

Hold up. Atalanta said that the stadium was acting weirdly. Did that have something to do with the floodlights turning on? Did the boar get free because of the stadium's problems? If Atalanta had told us about the weirdness, we could have been more prepared. Jake could have been saved. It was her fault he died!

"Fine," Annabeth bit out. "But we do not want the credit card or the ride. We want to save Jake from death. What do you have that can help us?"

"Nothing. It's not often that demigods need actual saving from me. And my patron is the goddess of hunting, not the god of healing," Atalanta actually looked sorry, her eyes moist. "What if you called in one of your favors with Apollo? Percy Jackson, you must have tons of them."

"Nope. I used those for the claiming and minor gods things. No favors left with them, so you're our last chance. Please, Atalanta," Percy pleaded, his eyes large with worry.

"No," Atalanta said firmly, although she grimaced. Whose fucking side was she on? "Find your luck with a mortal hospital. I cannot help you."

"Then we cannot help you either," a voice said behind me. I turned around to see Lou Ellen stab a bronze dagger into Calydonius' nose. A second later, the large pile of brown hair dissolved into golden dust on the grass.

My mouth opened in shock. For a moment, I was proud of Lou's courage and wanted to shout damn girl, and for another moment I wanted to throttle her. Why the fuck did she just do that? But the real problem here was that Calydonius was dead, and Atalanta would surely be angry.

"Run!" I screamed. We grabbed our bags and Jake and ran away from the log cabin. I stole a glance at the huntress, who was kneeling grass, running her hands through the gold dust. She looked up, and all I could see was cold, feminine rage. I looked away and ran as fast as I ever could.

We soon stopped near a giant oak tree. The night had already fallen, and the sky was pitch black, casting large shadows on the ground. It was probably a problem that it was difficult to see the others.

"What do we do now?" Lou asked.

"I dunno, not killing the boar?" Annabeth spit out. "Atalanta now wants us dead, and we're in the middle of nowhere."

"What was I supposed to do? Jake is as good as dead, and the boar murdered him. Calydonius deserved to perish."

"Maybe you could have killed him while we had an escape route?"

Percy jumped in between them. "Ladies, ladies! We can't change the past. We need an escape plan, and we probably need Erymanthia to leave."

"Good plan," Lou said. "I can summon her but I need her location. Percy, can you use your water powers to sense a large mass thing in this area? Atalanta would not keep her boars far from her."

Percy nodded. Closing his eyes, he moved his open hands around the air. He stopped and pointed at the trees at my eight-o-clock. If only the sun would shine the path to Erymanthia. Lou chanted a few greek phrases and waved her fingers in magic-stuff, and soon, the boar was in front of us in a poof. She was bigger than I remembered, but was the same ball of brown hair the size of a truck. Erymanthia could carry all of us.

But she did not look welcoming. One glance at Lou, she froze and pushed her shoulders back, as if to appear more macho. I think she would have run away by now, but Lou was holding her in place.

"I can hold her," Lou explained, "but I do not think Erymanthia will be willing to ride all of us away from here. She knows that I killed her brother. We need another option."

"We need to fight Atalanta," I said.

Everyone looked at me like I had sprouted two heads. "Remember 'run hide fight'?" I said. "We don't know where to run, we can never hide from the best huntress in the mortal world, so we have to fight. And it's four against one."

"Make it three, I can't hold Erymanthia and fight."

"Three against one. With water and lightning and Annabeth, we won't not lose. What do yall say?" My plan sounded crazy, but the more I thought it over, it was more and more plausible. Fighting Atalanta was the only option here. I knew I sounded insane, but if they agreed, this could work.

"Let's do it," Annabeth said.

Percy looked at me and nodded. I took a deep breath and summoned a blast of lightning to hit a yard away from the oak tree. If my predictions were right, Atalanta would notice us and fall right into my trap.

My predictions were right. She arrived a minute from now on a tall brown horse with a beautiful dark mane, twin daggers in her hand. Her whole body and even her daggers radiated charcoal black, the color of the dishonorable dead. Atalanta was here for death and for death only.

She unmounted herself from the horse and slashed the air with the daggers. "It's been a while since I've needed to use these," she growled, "but killing you four will be a good return."

We didn't let her make the first move. Percy stepped forward with a stab from Riptide while Annabeth advanced slowly. I stayed behind, ready to strike with my spear or electricity at any moment. I do not remember the specifics of the fight, do not remember who was injured and when, but I do remember that Atalanta's cold rage and inexperience with a dagger was a reason she got disarmed. Her life had gotten too cozy, watching sports and lazying around on a couch.

But Atalanta being disarmed did not mean she was any less lethal. She still had one dagger, and her moves were quick and packed with force that Annabeth and Percy were pushed back. I joined the attack, parrying her attacks with my spear charged with electricity. Now, she was being pushed back.

Somehow, although foreseeable, we were able to get Atalanta on the ground. She was breathing heavily, as we all were, but her rage was still as strong as ever. She had come for death, and death had come. Percy had put a sword on her neck and Annabeth had a dagger to her heart.

"Can I kill her?" I asked. Not because I liked death, no, but because Atalanta was like me: a former huntress. Whoever killed each other would be a huntress, one who knew the perils of creatures and men and the outdoors. One who respected each other and each other's drive to love the wild and forsake romance. We were one.

Percy nodded. He put Riptide away, glaring at Atalanta. Annabeth threw her dagger to Lou and stared at Jake. Atalanta set her lips thinly, but didn't fight my stab with the spear. Thank god she didn't fight. I pushed the spear wood down, crushing through the skull and the brain.

Atalanta stopped breathing. Her charcoal aura disappeared, and her black eyes turned glassy. I let out a breath and kneeled on the ground out of respect. She had come for death, and her wish was fulfilled. I whispered a huntress prayer, one that I will never reveal to anyone. I closed her eyelids and got up.

I think a weight lifted off my chest after Atalanta's death. Sure, I had killed one of my own and probably brought down the wrath of Artemis, but I would welcome the anger. Artemis no longer had any power over me, and my connections to her ended with her favorite's death. We were equals, as equal as gods and demigods could be. I was not a huntress anymore, and I was not trying to be one. Artemis held no power over me. I was free.

"Uh, Thalia, the boar's looking at you weirdly," said Annabeth from behind. I looked around, seeing Erymanthia look at me with large eyes and a panting mouth. What was happening to her? She rubbed her chin on the floor in a sign of difference, her tongue lapping. Why was she acting like I was her master?

Because I was her master. A lightbulb flicked in my head. I had killed her previous master, and that made me her new owner. She would do anything I said just because I had killed Atalanta. I held a hand out, and Erymanthia pet her hairy forehead against it. I told her to roll, and she rolled. I smiled, and she smiled. A loud voice screamed in my head. This was unnatural, it said. She was doing everything I said due to some unnatural force in her head. Was she bound to obey whoever was her master? Was she bound to the words of her brother's murderer?

But we had to get moving away from the night forest, and she was our best option. "Erymanthia, get us to the closest hospital. And you're okay with Lou riding, aren't you?" Erymanthia didn't shake her head. "Very good girl. You'll get a reward," I finished, giving a halfhearted smile.

I gestured for everyone to climb onto her, me at the front. I kicked her side, and the forest became a blur of black and green. In a minute, we arrived at the University of Louisville Hospital. We climbed off the boar and entered the ER section. We registered ourselves with a bit of Annabeth's mist magic and waited for a doctor to join us. We were soon ordered to an operating room.

A short black man in a lab coat greeted us. "I'm sorry, but your friend cannot be helped by us. Not only is your insurance not covered by the hospital, he is too far gone. His heart still runs, but it does so for no use. He has a sufficient amount of blood, but his organs have already failed. They encountered a minute or more of no nutrients and stopped functioning. I don't know how they failed in the first place if the blood content is normal, or how his heart is still running, but he's as good as dead."

I closed my eyes. I had a hunch Jake wouldn't recover, maybe never, but I didn't know it would happen this quickly. I wanted to cry, but I had already cried once about him, and if I cried then I would cry about Atalanta. But I could hear sniffles behind me, so I didn't press about leaving.

"We're going to pull the plug. Jake's blood is going to run," said Lou in a shaky voice. We nodded, and soon after, his chest became a pool of dark red. "He's dead," Percy said. I punched the wall.

"We have to give him a proper cremation," I said. I couldn't give one to Atalanta, no doubt Artemis would, but we had to for Jake. Jake, who had taken the risk of holding the boar and had been useful. He was the best son of Hephaestus there was.

The others nodded. Percy moved the blood to a bag and dropped it into a trash can. We carried Jake out of the hospital and annoying nurses who pestered about insurance, courtesy of some mist magic. Erymanthia carried us to the nearest park and burned his body. Annabeth said some funeral rites, I silently applied my own rites, may his soul stay blessed in Elysium. I did not express much emotion, but I had effectively killed two people today, and the shock was still reeling.

Jake's body was now ash. We spread his ashes across the park ground. Dried tears coated my face. We silently walked back to Erymanthia, no words said between us. But once I saw the boar, I knew I had to change something. I could not have her be my responsibility and risk her death. She had to be free. I murmured a freeing spell, 'Κάπρο μου, δεν είσαι σκλάβος. Ζήστε τη ζωή σας ελεύθερα. Σε άφησα να φύγεις.' Erymanthia looked at me with wide eyes, and I nodded. She disappeared into the greens and blacks of the park. I gave a farewell wave, hoping that she would explore nature as I once did. She would be free.

Here is my sixteenth chapter of Greek meets Roman! This is my favorite one yet.

Summary: Jake hasn't died yet with some blood *magic*. They go to Atalanta hoping to get some godly help for Jake, but she flat-out says no. Lou kills Calydonius, so they escape to the forest from Atalanta's wrath. They decide to fight her, win easily, and hitch a ride on Erymanthia to a mortal hospital. Doctors proclaim Jake dead, so the demigods cremate him and give a final goodbye.

I wasn't very descriptive with fighting Atalanta because I wanted the reader to imagine how the struggle looked like. I am normally very descriptive and scripted, so I wanted to make it more like the books where it was more interpretative. More imagination, yay!

I love Atalanta's characterization. I imagine her to be this female girlboss who is very honorable but realistic, and does not deal with shit. She isn't a bad person, not even morally gray, but she was an obstacle to the demigods. Thalia killing her was character development, and if she didn't need any, maybe Atalanta could have lived. I love her anyway.

Erato's curse became true. I wrote that curse two years ago, when I was young and believed romance was everything, and I regret it. Friendships are real. Lou and Jake were not partners, probably never would have been. Lou had a minor crush on him, that's it. Can I please erase Erato's curse now?

Have a great day and let's all Mystify!