A.N: God, I'm excited about this chapter and the next one!

Chapter 12: Conflict

Tim p.o.v

Lucia Torres was supposed to be arriving later; we were all congregated into one of the conference rooms in the basement and the energy around the room was buzzing. Callie and Arizona were huddled together in their little love bubble, something must have happened, because they seemed to be more clingy than usual. Aria was with Addison, chattering excitedly about her mother's arrival, choosing to completely ignore the real reason she was coming. I saw Alex enter and sit next to Arizona, studiously ignoring Callie, choosing instead to stare across the room at Mark and Lexie who were sitting suspiciously close. I narrowed my eyes and chose my targets.

"So…" I loudly exclaimed, drawing all eyes on me, "Lexie, you and Mark huh? When did that happen?" She turned bright red, right to the tips of her ears and I saw Mark dart his eyes around the room, before grinning proudly.

"I've been trying to get her since she came to the hospital, and she'd been trying just as hard to ignore me. She started avoiding me completely 2 years ago and I guess I didn't understand until recently. So I doubled my efforts and finally got her to agree to go on a date with me a week ago, and the rest is history."

I was insanely jealous of the man. Not because of Lexie though, I mean I do love her, but in the same way as Arizona. She's like a little sister to me and I'm the crazy big brother who'll never approve of your partners. I was jealous of his confidence, he knew want he wanted and he went for it, and I couldn't do that. I had bigger problems on my hands, and my love life took a back seat. At first my life was centered around finding Arizona; then it became training and education, and now it's all about finding my parents and defeating Hades. I didn't have the time for relationships, no matter how much I loved a person. I glanced towards Thalia leaning against the back wall. I didn't have the choice.

Arizona was different though, she had found love when she was younger, and she would always have Terri to back her up, so she had less to worry about. At first I had resented her, she had carried on with a carefree attitude, facing everything head on, and she had gotten back the love of her life from before, and Terri would pretty much let her get away with anything. She had been tough on me, pushing me harder than anyone else, she was stricter with me, she gave me a lot more to do, always kept me under strict surveillance, she had never given me the choice to choose anything. When we first came to Seattle, both her and Arizona had entered SGMW without any problems because of their qualifications, but me? She had ordered me to apply to Seattle PD, used her connections to get me into the detective position and I had no choice but to follow. I was to always follow her and Arizona could come and go as she pleased; I hated it. But in my heart, I knew the reason why.

She used to be a lot like Arizona, Zeus had trained her hard, but in the end, she had more slack than her brother and could get away with murder, literally. Toby loved her and gave her everything she wanted, everything that he couldn't have, and gave her the childhood he never had; the life he wanted. When Toby died, a heavy burden had been placed onto her. She was forced into the Crown position, and her entire life had changed overnight. Zeus became tougher, harsher, and in the process, she had to harden her heart and give away her freedom; she was only 8. There was no doubt that Terri loved Arizona and I, she would do anything to protect us; she would die for us, and if it ever came to that, the next in line to the throne would fall to the eldest child of Poseidon: me.

I knew that she had been training me to take over the responsibility of the Crown if she ever died, there's no forgiveness as the Crown, each movement and action you make is always watched and judged. You have to think about the greater good, you can't just change laws for one individual or for your own gain; the fate of the entire clan falls into your hands. I know that, but when I was younger, I didn't take it that way and had caused Terri a lot of grief; I'd hurt her a lot with my words and actions, but she had always forgiven me. There was one time, when I was 18, where my actions had brutal consequences, but she had taken the full force of punishment, arguing that we were under her protection and as the Crown and she would take full responsibility. My heart still tightens at the memory of what they'd did to the 10 year old girl; there was no remorse, and Zeus had not even batted an eye at what happened. It made me respect her all the more.

I looked at Lexie staring up at Mark lovingly and smiled, even if I couldn't have my happy ending, it didn't mean I couldn't be happy for others.

"You do know what that means right, Mark?" I stated in my most serious voice, "As her 'older brother' I reserve the right to kick your ass if you hurt her. And trust me, I won't be gentle." I let my eyes grow purple to reinforce my 'threat'.

He gulped harshly, "yeah, but don't worry about it, I swear I won't hurt her. And even if I did, I'm sure she'd kick my ass herself. I've seen her fight, and don't even get me started on that power up thing she does, it's scary" he admitted, embarrassed at the idea that Lexie could easily beat him.

"What's that about anyway?" an interested Addison added in. "I've seen Teddy do it too, it's crazy powerful, but what is it? Can you teach that to us?" she gestured between her and Mark.

"Ah, probably not." She looked disappointed. "Sorry, but it's a unique power of the Royal bloodline."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like a seal. The mark that appears after we sire you is one that proves you 'belong' to us, and it stops you from turning into a stray. Most vampires mark their 'pets' through sharing blood, but it's basically a mark of ownership for them. It's different with the Royals though, if we mark you after siring you, then it acts as a seal that hides away power. It's called the 'Power of the Mark', or as we call it now the 'Seal'. I'm sure you've noticed that Terri, Arizona and I are a lot stronger than you all, and our powers are more advanced?" There were nods all around, "Well, as our 'pets' you gain access to those powers, sort of. It's not as extreme; and it's kind of like what you said Mark, a 'power up'. So basically, unless you've been sired by a Royal, you don't have access to the Seal."

"What about the strays we've been encountering then? They have the extra power, but we haven't noticed any Seals on them." Addison asked darkly, recalling her last encounter with a 'powered up' stray.

"That's actually one of the reasons we split you and Mark up, you needed a partner with a Seal in case you bumped into one of them. It's not that they don't have Seals; it's just a matter of the Seal being placed in a hidden area. Terri, Arizona and I are proud of our family and the ones we induct into it, so we place our Seals in easily noticeable areas, i.e. your chest. We have nothing to hide and we want you to be able to proudly stand in front of other vampires and represent your sire. So I don't know why anyone would choose to hide the Seal. However, judging by their aura, we can tell you that it's from Hades' clan, so most likely Hades himself, or his offspring have been marking these vampires."

As they processed the information, I felt a familiar presence appear and quickly, I took my place at the table, just as Terri and Clio entered the room. Everyone stood to attention and took up their places at the table, with Terri at the head, Arizona and I on her right and left respectively, Lexie to my left, Alex to Arizona's right, and everyone else on the other end facing us. Just like that night at the warehouse. Thalia and Clio took up their usual places standing behind Terri.

"How's Teddy doing?" I asked.

"She's showing no signs of improvement, but she's also showing no signs of deterioration." Sighs of relief could be heard. She looked towards Callie and Aria, "Your mother will be arriving soon, yes?"

Callie looked at the clock on the wall and nodded in agreement, "she's meeting us outside the hospital in an hour, and we were planning on giving her a quick tour before bringing her down here."

Terri turned her attention to me, and I took the floor.

"Right, so as planned, Lucia Torres will be brought into this conference room, at that time you are not to make any movements without orders" I gestured at Lexie and Alex, "this applies to you too Mark, Addison. We may not be your sires, but you are part of our group now, and even if we weren't Royalty, out of respect, you take orders from Terri, understand?" They all nodded. "Right, we're not making any accusation or anything, but if it turns out that she is in fact Mnemosyne, then we will be having a civilised conversation. We want try to figure out the truth behind Arizona's amnesia and Ari, try not to be too impulsive okay? I'm sure she wasn't trying to hurt you and that she has justifiable reasons."

General p.o.v

In front of the hospital, stood a tall Latina, slim, with long silky black hair tied into a low ponytail, she wore a black, form fitting suit with a light green shirt, deep brown eyes sparkling, looking not a day over 30.

"Mama!" She turned around towards the voice to see two women walking towards her from the hospital entrance.

"Calliope, Ariadne, my darlings, I've missed you so much." They gathered into a hug.

"I'm so glad you're here mama, how was the flight?" asked Aria.

"Long, but the perks of owning a private jet outweighs the cons of the long flight. Now Calliope," she turned to her eldest, "Where is this mystery woman you wanted me to meet?"

Callie smiled in return, "Mama, she's busy, she's a doctor at this hospital. We wanted to take show you where we worked quickly, hopefully she'll be free by the time we've finished."

"Lead the way my darlings."

As they turned towards the entrance, a phone went off.

"Torres"

"Hey, it's me"

"Erica?" Callie froze at her voice, Arizona had warned her against associating with the vampire from Hades' clan.

"Can we talk?"

"I don't think that's a good idea Erica."

"Please, its important." She pleaded, and Callie was torn. She'd promised Arizona, but Erica sounded serious, and Erica had bought no danger to her, so there would be no harm in one visit. Right?

"Where are you?"

"I'm actually near the hospital, the exact spot I met your girlfriend."

"I'll be there in 5 minutes."

Callie turned to her mother and sister who were both looking at her questioningly.

"Sorry mama, I have to do something, it's important, I'll be right back. Aria? Can you get mama started on that tour? I shouldn't be gone for too long." She gestured for her sister to come closer and whispered into her ear, "If I'm not back in 10 minutes, just take her to the basement and get started okay? I don't wanna delay things." To which her sister nodded, and they parted ways.

She approached Erica with apprehension, unclear of her plans and distrusting the vampire.

"Callie, you came." She stated softly.

"What do you want Erica?"

"I just want to help you." Callie scoffed at the idea.

"Don't lie, I know who you are. You work for Hades don't you?

"Hades isn't the bad guy here, he wants the throne to create a better place for vampires and humans alike"

"I don't believe you, Arizona and Terri has told me about Hades' work"

"But you've only heard their side, it's two against one, their word against mine, I would never win. I bet they told you that he rebelled against Zeus and Poseidon after they took the throne?" Callie nodded, recalling what she had been told. "And that he's responsible for Poseidon's disappearance?" Another nod, "I bet they've even told you that Hades wants to plant ideas into other vampires that he's the real King?" She got another nod and sighed loudly.

"See? That's what they want you to believe. Hades isn't the bad guy, he was banished from his clan because he tried to take down Zeus, yes it's true, but not for the reasons you think. Zeus was a tyrant, he was a lot worse than his father before him, and when Hades tried to reason with him, he banished his own brother from the clan. The vampires weren't happy with Zeus as King, and wanted Hades instead, but Zeus had fake memories planted into their heads of their King being a nice and graceful King, so they all abandoned Hades. Even Poseidon was tricked, but he discovered the truth 20 years ago and came to us for help. Zeus must have found out because he disappeared right after we had met with him."

Callie was confused, she didn't know what to believe; who to believe.

"But Arizona said-"

"You can't trust her"

"What, why?" She trusted Arizona above anything else, even if Callie was conflicted about Hades and Terri, she would still trust Arizona with her life.

"She's lost her memories right?"

"What? How did you know that?" Callie didn't think that it would be known to anyone outside of the group in the basement.

"It's Athena's doing, her and her father. They forced Mnemosyne to erase her memories, and then they 'saved' her so she would help them"

Callie could feel the doubt start to creep in, it did make sense, Terri seemed to be the mastermind behind everything, and everyone followed her orders. Arizona blindly followed Terri because she was the one to save her, and because Tim was following her. But what if Terri had memories planted in Tim too?

"Look, you just can't trust them okay? Your mother's in town right?"

"How did you know that?"

"And I bet it was Athena's idea?" Callie nodded dumbfounded; Erica seemed to know a lot about everything, was she telling the truth? Was Terri really the bad guy here?

"Then she's probably in danger too."

"Why? She doesn't even know my mother."

"But your mother knows of them right? It's Athena you really need to be aware of, she's really clever, and knows how to twist the truth, if she's brought your mother into the game then she's probably in danger. If you're not careful your mother will probably die at their hands."

"You're lying!" Callie couldn't believe what she was hearing, if anything happened to her mother then it would be her fault. She was the one who convinced her mother to come. No, she refused to believe it.

"Here, take this." Erica held out a short, sheathed blade, it was golden and had three jewels encrusted on the hilt: white, black and blue.

"What is it?" Callie ran her fingers over the jewels, mesmerised by the design of the blade; it was stunning.

"The blade of Cronus, it'll protect you, the jewels represent his sons, white for Zeus, black for Hades and blue for Poseidon."

"Why are you giving it to me?" Callie gripped blade tightly and hugged it to her chest.

Erica shrugged, "Maybe because I genuinely like you. Just, be careful okay?"

Callie looked at her watch and saw that she'd spent 20 minutes talking with Erica already and hurried back to the hospital.

Erica watched as Callie disappeared further and further away from her, an evil smirk on her face. She pulled out her phone and sent a message.

"It's done."

Arizona p.o.v

When the knock on the door came, I was alarmed to see that I couldn't sense Calliope's presence. Where was she? The door opened and in walked Aria and another woman I assumed to be Lucia Torres.

"Lucia Torres, I presume?" Terri asked.

"I've been expecting your summons, my lord," she bowed her head in a sign of respect, "your Royal Highness, Crown Princess, Athena." She raised her head and her eyes were sparkling green. I heard a gasp escape Aria's mouth.

"M…Mother?" The exclamation was not from Aria, but instead, from Thalia who had just entered the room with Clio. They both froze at the door staring in shock at Lucia. Lucia turned around and a happy laugh burst from her,

"Oh my dears; come here! Let me look at you. You've grown so much." She gathered them both into a strong hug, a hug that they had been waiting over 500 years for.

"Oh god, mother, we thought you were dead! What happened?" Clio cried.

"I'm sorry, I knew that you had been found by Zeus, and I had been told of your potential, you had your own destiny to live out, so I left you in the capable hands of my lord, the King."

"Mnemosyne" Terri's voice cut their reunion short, as Lucia turned to her immediately. "I thought I'd recognised your aura, I couldn't be sure, not until I finally met you. You were responsible for these two here weren't you?" She gestured towards Mark and Addie who had had their heads ducked since Lucia arrived.

"Yes, my lord. I needed them to look after Calliope and Aria for me." I tilted my head curiously, why would they need protecting? I looked towards Tim and saw he had the same look of confusion.

"A story for another time, perhaps. You know why I've summoned you here don't you?"

"Of course, it has to do with Artemis." She stated with absolute certainty.

"Perhaps you could enlighten us then?"

"Of course, but I would need to start at the beginning." She took a seat at the table and began.

"I first met Zeus and Poseidon over 800 years ago. When I first awakened as a vampire, I had no idea what to do; I was frantic and confused and so very scared. They approached me and helped me adapt to my new life. They taught me so much, and even introduced me to Theia. I had studied under her for a little while before returning to the humans. It was a ridiculous idea really, but I had no choice, we had to keep up the ruse that I was still human and Cronus had not fed from me. During my time with the humans, Poseidon frequented my home and always came bearing gifts to help me hide my vampire side. We slowly developed strong feelings for one another; feelings that we had agreed were completely platonic, and I became his most trusted confidante.

We were separated during the war when I had fled to Theia for sanctuary, but I had never once stopped praying for his safety. And it wasn't until about 30 years ago that we'd finally met up again. I had just moved to Los Angeles, and sensed a familiar aura floating around. One night I finally decided to trace the aura and found myself outside military owned barracks. I thought I had been mistaken, but I heard a noise and when I turned around, imagine my shock then I found myself face to face with someone I had not seen in over 500 years!

We caught up and I learned that he had joined the US Marine Corps, and had been with them for the last 10 years. He said was getting discharged soon because people tend to get suspicious when your Colonel doesn't seem to age even after 10 years, but more than that, he told me he was getting married. He introduced me to his fiancée, Barbara, and I was amazed to learn that she was another pure blood named Aphrodite, that they had met during the war. She was working as a nurse and had helped him when he had gotten injured. We had spent a lot of time together afterwards and Barbara and I practically became sisters. Eventually, I met my husband, Carlos; and when we finally told him of our real identities, the four of us became inseparable.

When Barbara fell pregnant with twins, she had asked me to become godmother, and I was absolutely overjoyed. But I started having visions of destruction and death, and when I confronted Theia about them, she told me told me that this was my destiny and I could not change it. It didn't make sense to me at the time, until the day Barbara went into labour. We were attacked by strays, and Barbara almost lost her life, it was just the same as my vision, but I hadn't accounted for her will. Her strong will to live was the only reason she managed to pull through and she gave birth to two healthy children, Timothy and Arizona. That night, Poseidon told me that he was sealing away your powers as well as his own and Barbara's. He said he couldn't risk the life of his family for a feud that he no longer wanted to be a part of. He told me that he was moving away as Hades had already tracked him to Los Angeles and advised I do the same, lest I wanted to be discovered as well. The next night we parted ways, them to New York and Carlos and I to Cambridge. A year later I gave birth to a daughter whom I named after one of the daughters I had lost many, many years ago; Calliope.

It wasn't until 16 years later that I would hear from them again. At first, it was purely coincidental. They had no idea I had moved to Cambridge, nor had I any idea they had moved there as well; it was Calliope who reunited us. She had come home one day gushing about a new student who had captured her attention, telling me about her blonde hair and blue eyes, her dimples and her 'ridiculously adorable' laugh; a blonde haired girl that went by the name: Arizona. The blonde haired girl had started coming to by a lot, and I was enamoured by her resemblance to Poseidon. A few months later, Calliope informed me that their friendship had evolved to a romantic relationship and that she had finally found 'the love of her life', and one night when we had arranged for her partner and her family to have dinner with us, I was beyond surprised to open the door to Poseidon and Aphrodite.

They told me how they had lost their son a year before and he was now residing with Zeus in Boston. It broke my heart to know that they were so close, but unable to reunite because of Hades, he must have known of Timothy's awakening, so they couldn't reunite without risking exposure. After discovering that our daughters were together, Barbara asked me to extend my protection to her as well. She had requested that if anything were to happen to them, I would do whatever it took to protect Arizona. I took the promise to heart, praying that the moment would never come. Soon the visions started again, the same ones from many years ago, and I discovered that my vision was not the event that took place during your birth, but it was to occur soon. Theia's words started to make sense to me.

A few months later, I was shocked to discover a huge disturbance to the atmosphere surrounding our city. It was the sign of Poseidon and Aphrodite's revival, and my vision clouded with the thoughts of Poseidon. He told me that they had been attacked, were still being attacked, and that Aphrodite had been critically injured. He reminded me of my promise, and informed me that Arizona had escaped and was probably being chased. He told me of Hades' appearance and that I should make haste for Arizona, and I did; even though I could tell he was injured."

The anger that had been building since she talked of my parents' attack exploded and I lunged at Lucia, grabbing her out of her seat and lifting her up.

"Artemis!" I could vaguely hear Terri's warning voice, but I ignored it. My eyes were raging violet, clouded by rage.

"You bitch!" I hissed out

"He made me choose between my life long friends and their child. I would never have made it in time to save both. So I made the choice."

"You didn't have time? You didn't have the time?" I tightened my hold on her clothes.

"I didn't have a choice, they had begged me to protect you. They'd rather die than lose you, Arizona."

Disgust consumed my body at the sound of her voice calling my name.

"No! No. You don't get to call me that. You don't deserve to call my name. You left my parents to die!" I lifted my free hand ready to strike, "You left them to die!"

So clouded by my anger, I never registered the sound of the door opening or the sounds of chairs scraping back, nor did I hear Lucia's shout of "Calliope, no!"

The sensation of pain penetrated my conscious and the anger melted away. My grip on Lucia loosened and I looked down to see a blade protruding from my chest, blood dripping from the wound to the floor. As I fell to the ground, the last thing I was aware of was Calliope's stunned face from behind Lucia.

Calliope…