A/N WARNING: The beginning of this chapter involves implied rape. If you can't stomach it, head to the next bold words you see. There will be a summary of what important plot points you missed.

I had a dream that night. I thought then it must have been an event from the past of this world.

I saw Herakles, easily identifiable by his lion pelt, approach a girl in the garden of the Hesperides, but I was too far away to see who she was. I tried to get closer, but I was moving slowly. I didn't know Herakles had been helped, even on this labor. He needed help for three of his labors. Stupid fool. He never was smart enough to trick Atlas. I should have known it was someone else. I saw the girl take something out of her hair, and finally I was close enough to hear some of what was being was being said.

"-the ocean's power is within it. My immortal power," the girl said.

I gasped. She had given up immortality for Herakles? And no one had ever heard of her? I was very angry. So angry that I didn't hear most of the conversation, but I kept slowly getting closer, until finally I saw.

The girl was Zoe. A little younger than she looked now, but definitely Zoe. And if the girl was Zoe, then how did she end up with the Hunt?

My blood boiled. It was obvious that Herakles would use her and then abandon her. I didn't want to see more. I had heard tell of Herakles'... ways with women. If this Herakles was anything like the Herakles I knew... He'd coerce her, and if she didn't want it, he'd take what he wanted from her by force, and leave her for dead, like she was nothing. I wanted to scream to her to run away, but it was too late.

Time seemed to hiccup forward, and Herakles walked away with apple in hand. Zoe followed behind him, and only I could see the malicious grin on his face. I didn't want to see anymore of this. I knew what would happen.

Time lurched forward again, and I wanted to vomit. I was right about what he was going to do. He was leaving her alone in the forest, her silk gown ripped to shreds, and a broken look in her eyes. And Herakles didn't even care. He left with her sword, her immortality, and something else she could never get back. I decided I'd rip Herakles to shreds if I ever saw him again. He would feel the pain of those he broke. Those he used. Those he... He was a god, so he could take a lot of punishment before he stopped feeling the pain, and I would make him capitalize on that. He would suffer.

Some men don't deserve to walk the Earth. Anyone who commits such an act deserves death.

I wished I could comfort Zoe. She couldn't even sob. She sat by a tree for hours, unmoving, broken, tears streaming down her face. It was horrific.

A/N: Nathan dreamed of Herakles' meeting with Zoe, she gives Herakles her sword, containing her immortal power, after which it is implied Herakles rapes her and leaves her for dead; Nathan is absolutely furious. Nathan is still dreaming.

Time leapt forward hundreds of years. I witnessed an event that to my knowledge had not taken place in my world. A fight was taking place at the Titan's fortress, and Atlas was not where he should have been. He was fighting several demigods, including a young Zoe, the same age as the first part of my dream, and what seemed like a young Percy. I saw Atlas strike Zoe, and I saw Percy take the weight of the sky, and Artemis trick Atlas back under his usual burden. But Zoe was dying.

I saw Zoe hand Anaklusmos back to Percy when he handed it to her, and I heard her final words. I watched as Zoe's body shimmered and disappeared, and I watched as she took her place among the stars.

The scene faded into black, and I fell back into dreamless sleep once again, this time restless, and agitated.

I awoke in an empty tent, furious at Herakles, and with all scumbag men, but it wouldn't do well to dwell on that for right now, so I pushed it out of my mind.

I doubted the Hunters would be willing to share their breakfast with me, and I was famished. Traveling to another world takes a lot out of you. I decided I'd have to catch my own breakfast, so I took my knife with me, and left the tent.

I was surprised Percy was up; no one was in the camp, and it seemed quite early. The sun hadn't risen yet.

At any rate, the fact there were no Hunters meant I could easily slip away from the camp to hunt.

As I crept through the forest, careful to stay within a mile of camp, seeing as we didn't know what would happen if I crossed the border, I came upon a raccoon, medium sized, and raised my knife; a delicious and easy kill.

Or, it would have been, if the second weirdest thing in the last 24 hours hadn't happened.

One second, the raccoon was facing away from me and paying me no mind, and the next he was looking at me straight in the eyes, standing on his hind legs. He dropped the nut he had in his hands and put his paws straight up in the air. He looked scared as all Hades.

"I surrender, Elephant Ears! Don't shoot!" the terrified coon shouted in a high pitched, sort of chittering voice. The raccoon was clearly scared for his life, but I just found it adorable. Call me a softie, but I couldn't handle cute. This little fella was safe.

Of course, he didn't know that, and I was fascinated. I'd never met a raccoon who could talk before, and I wanted to know more. The little guy had called me Elephant Ears, which used to be slang for a cop. But that was in the 1920s. How'd he know what it meant? I decided to indulge him in this game of charades, in the hopes I'd be able to find out more about him.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't fill ya full of lead, huh?" I spoke with a vaguely New York accent, I hoped. Luckily, he bought it.

"Look, I knows the bulls is after me for stealin' from that pack o' dames back there, but I had to, ya gotta believe me, dick!" he kept chattering away. Bulls meant the police, dames meant women, and dick meant a detective. And, Zeus above, what an accent he had!

"Tell it to Sweeney!" I shouted back, which meant to tell someone who'd buy it.

"I swears, sir! It's nothin' but the truth!" Goodness gracious.

"Why don't you tell me everything you know, ya crook." I was getting a little into this.

"There's an egg-" overly wealthy man "-who's threatnin' ta take me for a ride-" kill him after driving him somewhere indiscreet "-if I don't pull off enough capers-" robberies "-for him! I swears it!" The raccoon vigorously nodded his head up and down.

"Why don't you take me to this guy then, huh?"

"He's just around the bend! Follow me!" The raccoon scampered off, and I followed right behind him. He was quick, but at a full sprint, I could beat him.

Strangely enough, my little raccoon friend really did take me to another raccoon, and a fat one at that. I couldn't imagine him moving any faster than I could walk normally. I suppose money to a raccoon is just food, so it'd make sense he was fat. Funnily, he did somewhat resemble an egg.

My raccoon started talking to him, and I stayed hidden behind a nearby tree.

"Hey, boss, I, uh, I'm ready for a new heist, ha ha," he said, clearly nervous.

But the other raccoon didn't talk at all; he made chattering sounds, like an actual raccoon. So I hadn't gained the ability to converse with animals just yet, that was good to know.

"Uh huh."

More chattering.

"Right."

Chattering.

"I'm on my way!."

I couldn't believe it. Was the rascally raccoon really being forced to steal food for the other?

Well, I wouldn't stand for mistreatment of anyone. I spun around from behind the tree, and raised my knife, aiming towards Fat Coon.

"Freeze! By order of the... forest police department you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit robbery, and other offenses!" I shouted.

Rascal Coon scattered, but Fat Coon picked up acorns and started throwing them at me.

"Put down your weapon, or we will have no choice but to use deadly force!"

Fat Coon wasn't having it. With a loud screech, he abandoned the acorns and started running towards me with surprising speed. At this point, it wasn't a game any longer. I felt really bad, but I had to kill Fat Coon.

He never touched me.

I dug up a small grave for the poor guy, and covered him up with dirt. I prayed his tiny animal soul would live on in Hades. I'd killed men before. Many, in fact. I'd lived for thousands of years, and fought in many wars. This animal seemed to have at least as much intelligence as some of them. Probably smarter than your average tax collector. It was a bloody waste. I would have eaten him, but.. it just didn't seem right. Almost like eating a person.

The Rascal Coon looked out from behind a tree, standing upright with no difficulty.

"I ain't never seen the fuzz care so much about a dead crook in my life," he said, sadly.

I just looked at him.

"You know, we was human, once." It made sense.

"You were gangsters, from the nineteen twenties, weren't you?" I asked.

"We were. We were. We wasn't no more, but... we were."

"What if you could go back to being human?"

"But I ain't human no more. I'm all raccoon, Elephant Ears."

"You know, I'm not a police officer."

"I know. You don't look like no copper I ever saw. I just... I wanted to run from the law, one last time. So did Eddie. We kept stealin' from those Janes back there, so maybe we'd get chased like the good ol' days. Eddie was so happy I finally got caught. He told me he was gonna go down fightin', just before you came out. Said he'd never get another chance like this. You did him the best favor any good crook could ask for. You know what his last words was?"

"No. What were they?" I felt tears prick at my eyes.

"He shouted, 'You'll never take me alive, copper!' He died with a smile on his face, and joy in his heart."

I stayed silent. Killing... never got easier. Yes Eddie was happy, but... I ended a man's life. That's the immutable fact of the matter. And it's not funny.

"So now I owe ya one, copper."

"I couldn't accept anything you could give me. I killed your friend."

"He had a good life. He wasn't happy, being a raccoon. I always took to it better. He was so down, he couldn't even try to learn human speech again. So I owe ya. For makin' my friend happy, one last time."

"Well, if you owe me, how about you travel with me?" I asked. I felt bad for the little rascal.

He pushed off from the tree, and started walking towards me. "I got nothin' left to keep me here. Where ya headin, boss?"

"Home. It's complicated." I said simply.

"Sounds good, Elephant Ears. By the way, the name's Tony."

"Of course it is."

"Huh?"

"Nevermind." I didn't want to explain that it was a stereotypical gangster name. "Anyways, I still have to find breakfast. Stick with me, Tony."

"Hold up, boss, you never told me your name!" the raccoon shouted indignantly.

"Sorry, Tony. My name's Nathan. Nathan Grey."

You may be wondering how I knew so much slang from the twenties. Simple. I lived in the twenties. I'm immortal. I remember slang that even history doesn't. It took a little time, but all the slang I used was coming back to me. I had no intention of using it to talk to anyone other than Tony, but I felt somewhat obligated to talk to him like he was still a gangster. His life had been stolen from him.

After eating breakfast, I walked with Tony back to the camp.

"How'd you end up a raccoon anyways, Tony?" The mischievous rascal had kept trying to steal my food, and so I didn't really get a chance to talk to him while I ate.

He scowled. "Circe. Somehow I ended up on her island with Tony, and the next thing I knew, we was raccoons! And we never aged. It must have been a hundred years since I was born, and I'm still a spring chicken! But, ah, all my family's dead, by now. I ain't got no one. No one but you, boss!"

"How'd you get away from her island?" I asked, actually intrigued. More so by how he got there in the first place, but I got the feeling that if he hadn't told me, he'd never tell me, so I didn't press it. I assumed he was just running from the law.

"We gots away on a big ol' pirate ship! Two little runts managed to escape, a boy and a girl, oh, a good thirty years back, and we stowed away on their ship. We traveled for a long time, and now we're here! Well, I'm here, anyways." Tony always gesticulated wildly as he talked; I assumed he was of Italian descent, because they tended to do that. He was so animated, he couldn't help but lift your spirits.

"Hey Tony," I said, because I realized we were nearing the Hunters' camp. "Remember the pack of dames you stole food from?"

"'Course! I sure hopes I never has to goes back there!"

I looked away.

"We're gonna have to goes there, ain't we?" Tony asked. It was easy to forget he had the mind of a human, and he was a perceptive one at that.

"Yeah. It's not my home, but I need to go back there in order to get home. There's people there that I can't leave without," I told him honestly.

Tony gasped. "You ain't stuck on one o' those bearcats, are ya, Nate!?" He was asking if I was in love with any of the Hunters, who he was calling hot blooded and fiery.

"Relax, buddy. It's all Jake; I ain't carryin' a torch for nobody!" I told him everything was fine and I hadn't fallen for anybody.

"Alright, nifty. Those Janes ain't normal. They're a bunch of Mrs. Grundy's(apologetic apostrophe)!" A Mrs. Grundy was an extremely prudish or self righteous person.

"You can say that again, buddy. Climb up on my shoulder. They'll shoot you if they spot you by yourself. And don't speak English, either. They're more than Mrs. Grundy's. They'll shoot ya just for bein' a man! So keep yer trap shut and let me handle the talkin'. We don't need them finding out you're really a man."

"But I'm really a raccoon!" he protested.

"Tony, I'm serious. They'll knock you off in a second if they find out about you. Just climb up on my shoulder, so they know you're with me, and I'll be able to protect you if we need to go on the lam."

"We're gonna get to go on the lam!?" He shouted excitedly. Going on the lam was to go on the run from the police.

"Hopefully not, so dry up and hop on." To dry up was to shut up or get lost.

Tony finally climbed up, and to be honest I thought his claws would dig into my skin more. I was barely pricked, and quite pleasantly surprised.

"Well, let's get a move on. And remember not to take any wooden nickels, Tony." I told him not to do anything stupid.

In response, Tony just chattered at me, clearly upset I didn't trust him.

"You're not exactly on the level, Tony. I just don't want to be left holding the bag." I told him he wasn't exactly honest and reliable, and that I didn't want to be blamed for anything.

He chattered a sort of resigned reply, looking away. He was relenting.

"Alright then. Let's face the music.

"Nathan Grey, what on Earth are you doing with a raccoon on your shoulder?" Zoe didn't seem angry, just curious. Maybe even a bit amused.

I had waltzed right into the camp, and didn't see a single Hunter. Zoe seemed peeved until she saw me, and she looked relieved for a quarter second, until she noticed Tony. Then her look morphed into one of confusion. I noticed right away Ayano wasn't with her. Maybe it was lunchtime? The whole raccoon business had taken up a good chunk of time. It was probably about noon. But if everyone was having lunch, why wasn't Zoe with them? Did she not get along with them that much?

"Well, Nightshade... are there any Hunters around?" I asked, furtively.

"I don't think so," she replied in the same hushed tone. "Why are we being so secret about a racoon, Grey?" she said, sarcastically, in the same tone.

I looked around to make sure we weren't being watched. "He's actually a gangster from the twenties," I told her, dead serious.

She looked dumbfounded for a second, before barking out a hefty laugh that would have sounded pleasant if I weren't so shocked. I noticed Tony was not at all happy about her laughing at him, or maybe me.

"Zoe keep it down, please! He really is a gangster! If the Hunters find out they'll kill him!" I pleaded.

Zoe didn't look impressed. "Grey, it was a funny joke, I'll grant you that, but why are you trying to keep it going?" she said, really thinking I was fooling around.

Tony didn't look like was going to take this lying down. He tried to keep his cool, but... I suppose he felt that it wasn't in line with his pride.

He shouted at her in his high pitched, chittery voice, while waving his arms all around, "Hey, dumb dora, the big cheese is on the up and up! If you gots beef with this big six here then you gots beef with me! You must be balled up, bearcat, 'cause you're all wet! I've heard an earful outta out of you and you ain't no ducky doll yourself! Yo-"* I clamped my hand over Tony's mouth.

Zoe, who was also immortal, but probably spent much less time interacting with mortals during the twenties, seemed totally shocked, but also somewhat confused and furious at the same time. I expected her to yell at Tony or me, but surprisingly her face changed back into her normal one.

"He's already been turned into a raccoon. What more could I do to the sap?" At the end of her sentence she poked Tony on the nose. A sap, while still in use today, as much of the slang is, back then meant a fool.

Tony licked my hand so I let him go, "I ain't no sap! Tell her I ain't no sap, boss!" He looked up, or, over, at me when he asked, so I felt a little bad when I told him,

"You were very rude to the lady, Tony. You called her a lot worse than a sap."

He looked a little miffed, but said, "Fine. Maybe you are a ducky doll. Your chassis-" As chassis meant the female body, whatever was going to follow it would not prolong Tony's life, so it was for his own good when I muffled him once again, much to his displeasure.

"Tony, play nice or dry up," I admonished, releasing my hand as I did so.

"Fine," he said, before muttering to himself, "If you're so goofy, why don't you just walk the middle aisle, huh?"

He was so childish. He had literally told me "If you love her so much, why don't you marry her?"

"Have you forgotten you're right next to my ear, Tony? I ain't goofy. I thought I already told ya I wasn't carryin' a torch for nobody!"

Zoe, in all of this, looked on with clear amusement, taking in the spectacle of a man yelling at a raccoon on his shoulder in twenties slang.

She spoke. "I suppose you weren't lying about him being a gangster. He seems to really like you. Sounds like he's you're employee."

"'Course I am. Nate here is a king, and you're just a-" I put my hand over his mouth, sure he was about to offend her. If he called her a gun moll, I was pretty sure I'd let her sock him square in the kisser. If you want to know what a gun moll is, just look it up.

Zoe let out a small laugh, before continuing. "Tony, I presume, you may think Nathan is the big cheese, but he's below me, and above me is the real big cheese."

Tony snorted, which sounded weird, considering he was a raccoon, before saying, "Says you! There's no way that a-" I was extremely worried that he was about to say something sexist, but I had to know if he was, so I let him finish his thought, "jingle-brained bird like you could ever tell Elephant Ears what to do!"

I sighed in relief. A bird was actually a man or a woman, so he was just extremely rude, not sexist. Says you was an exclamation of disbelief, and jingle-brained meant addled, unable to think straight.

I set him straight. "She's right, Tony. If my big cheese is Al Capone, I'm just a hatchet man." I was saying I was just a killer, a gunman.

"No way, boss! You're stronger than any hatchet man I ever knew," he said sincerely.

"Thanks. We're actually trying to find our big cheese. You may not believe it, but... we're not actually from this world. We came here in a magical accident, along with a little girl, from a different version of this world.

Tony's raccoon eyes widened in shock.

"Says you... that's incredible! You weren't kidding when you said getting home was complicated." He gave me a proud look, which was always funny coming from the raccoon. "Don't worry, boss! I'll get you home, safe and sound! You, your moll, and your baby girl!"

I turned beet red. "She's not my. And I don't have a. You can't just. Aaaah!" A moll was a gangster's girlfriend, and was quite rude if used in a different way.

Zoe laughed hard, once again, which made me feel a lot better about it all.

I was just about to ask Zoe where everyone was when I saw Ayano running with delight towards me and Tony, shouting, "RACCOON! RACCOON!"

"That your little girl?" Tony asked quietly.

"She's not technically my daughter, but... yeah. I think so."

And I didn't hear Zoe question it.

*Hey, stupid female, the big boss man is being honest with you! If you have a problem with this big strong guy here then you have a problem with me! You must be confused, bearcat, 'cause you're totally wrong! I've heard enough outta out of you and you ain't no amazing pretty woman yourself!

So, first off, the idea for Rascal Coon originated from Useless Wings by Average Canadian, so check them out if you think Tony is adorable.

Second off, I know this is a filler chapter, and you may not have been wanting it, it doesn't advance the plot at all, but I just felt like the story needed humor and I fell in love with the idea of Rascal Coon, so I put him in the story.

I know I went overboard with the slang. I know. Let the hate flow through you.

I've been wanting to show how Nathan ordinarily reacts to his surroundings, and the only person who could be his friend and not be a hunter was an animal. Rascal Coon. Nuff said. Nate is a person with emotions and he almost never lets them out, and he can't when he needs to be perfect to please the Huntresses. This chapter is a way of showing you Nathan's true colors.

I've been dealing with a lot of rough shit so I'm trying to write things that are more positive. Rest assured, I'll be as cynical as all Hades next chapter, when the fight happens, as well as dinner. It'll be quite the chapter.

Anyways, sayonara!

P.S. Search for my username on youtube and you'll find that I'm recording some of Anaklusmos14's work. If you're a fan of his, I'd recommend checking it out. More chapters are to come for Exiled, hopefully by tomorrow.