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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Thalia's POV
Louisville, Kentucky

I inspected a snow globe on one of the cabin's window sills. But no snow fell, white powder stayed glued to the sky instead of reuniting with the ground. What was the point of this paperweight?

"Thalia, why haven't you joined your friends to bring back my Calydonius?" asked Atalanta from behind.

Forgot to mention that. The others had left readily with plans. Good luck for them, but I sure as hell was not joining them for a stupid quest for a credit card. Annabeth had given me a troubling glance, and Lou Ellen had frowned at me, but that was all. They just abandoned me when I didn't join! What a bunch of quest-mates.

I should have just gone to Camp Half-Blood. Or some other demigod refuge, but there at least I wouldn't be following the whims of deities. I was tired; I am still tired. There had to be peace and freedom somewhere! Maybe in that fake snowglobe. Would I be like it, destined to never connect or befriend anyone I met? A laugh erupted out of me.

"Godly messengers have told me about your predicament," the huntress continued. "I know you joined the quest not out of your heart, but because you thought being a hero would absolve you of your sins."

"I don't have any sins, Atalanta," I replied. "And that was in the past. I have gotten over Artemis and the Hunt. I don't even need Camp Half-Blood. I just want peace."

"Then you best join your friends. The gods are watching from above, and they will know if you are a deadbeat or a hero. Artemis has an ice-cold heart, but once the anger melts she will forgive."

"I told you I am over her. I do not need the Hunt."

"You are not, daughter of Zeus. You are tired because you obsess over the past and how you were treated for fucking. The future does not rely on the past. It relies on your optimism of whatever lies ahead, without using your past tracks to lead you."

I looked at her concerned visage, her set lines. It could all very well be fake. "Nice imagery. And I suppose you want me to join them so you'll get your boar faster."

She laughed. "I am quite confident the four will bring back Calydonius today with no mortal injury. They do not need your help. You may speed it up, but time is fickle to us immortals."

I could feel my blood heat. "I know what you're trying to do. It won't work."

She smiled. "I expected as much. You are calmer than what the messengers say. But I know when a fellow sister is in need of help. These demigods are good people, so stay with them."

I straightened my back. "I guess. Thank you for the advice." I tilted my head in respect and opened the door. The cold air and musty smell hit my nose. I shook the memory of the hunters away, of lethal Phoebe and graceful Naomi and joyous Kyra, and ran along the footsteps that my friends left. A monster could easily track and attack them. If only they could stay unnoticed in the wild!

I saw Lou Ellen first. She was walking slower and a bit behind, making hand shapes to the clouds. Navigating the world with the stars – she would learn much in the hunt. Which I would not bring up, because I was over Artemis.

"Doing some wannabe navigation, huh?"

Before I could say anything else, my throat closed. I tried to speak, but nothing came out or in. Lou turned around, her eyes wide but hands closed. I waved my hand and gestured to my neck.

Lou snapped her fingers and the pressure lightened. Taking a deep breath, I sat down. "Damn, that was strong magic," I said. "But not really effective if a body can hold their breath for three minutes."

Lou rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, do you want me to cast a spell that melts your skull? You can email me at dealwithit . I knew it wasn't a monster who was sneaking up on me." She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "Come on, let's catch up with the others. I thought you were staying at Atalanta's cabin."

I dusted myself off. "I was. But she convinced me that staying on my ass was not the way to go. If I ever earn forgiveness from Artemis, I need to be heroic or whatever."

Lou scrunched her eyebrows. "Why do you need forgiveness?"

"She banned me from entering Camp Half-Blood or the Roman camp," I confessed. "And I really want to go into a place with protection for demigods. If I act well enough, she'll lift the ban."

The daughter of Hecate nodded slowly. "I know of other places, Thalia, where demigods can be safe. I'll tell you more after the quest."

I stopped walking and looked at her. "What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "Let's walk. Percy's wondering why we're so slow."

We soon arrived at the Kentucky Derby stadium.

Annabeth ranted to us about its history and how it was actually called 'Churchill Downs', but did I care? Her facts were reassuring, and they reminded me of normality. Of the days when we were children. I felt calmed and soothed and comforted. But those days were long gone.

The trees faded away. In its place was a ginormous circular building encroaching like a snake. Its three stories, maybe even more, were covered in tinted windows. The evening sun shone on the white rectangle walls. It looked like futuristic science fiction. A bit like a half-century from now, where everything was better and perfect. I could imagine scientists talking and bustling around inside.

It was off-season, so the only people there were riders practicing with their horses. Those should have been the only people there, but it was silent. I could hear no humans chatting or horses grunting. All I heard were some birds and shuffs in the grass.

"Why isn't there anybody here?" I asked.

Jake spotted a paper posted onto a door. "It says that the owners closed the stadium down after some incidents with bad weather. Is that a front for the boar's attacks?"

"Definitely," Annabeth replied. "The mortals must be confused by the Mist. And they aren't trying to fix it, for some reason."

"Or maybe Atalanta scared the mortals away so our job is easier," I suggested. Everyone looked at me like I said the world was flat. I put my hands up. "She was nice to me in the cabin."

Annabeth shook her head. "Let's go inside and deal with the boar. Jake, you have the rope?"

Jake patted his backpack. "Yup."

"Okay. And remember, we are restraining the boar and bringing it back to Atalanta. There should not be any killing. So please don't enchant it to choke on air or electrocute it to death."

I could feel Annabeth's pointed look. "Hey, I will not kill the boar. Probably. And I still think this is a bad idea."

Lou wrapped an arm around me. "Don't worry. I have some spells that are useful for knocking out people and monsters. None of us will get harmed."

"Don't jinx it!" Percy called out.

I nodded, and we walked through the door.

It was fucking quiet. You could hear a pin drop. I swear, I could haul a dead person over and their breaths would be louder than the building. The AC and heater weren't even running! Did Atalanta free this place for us, or was it actually abandoned? Did the mortals leave this cesspit for the boar to live in?

Annabeth swiped a finger along a counter. "The building hasn't been cleaned in days," she said, holding up a dusty finger.

Jake shrugged. We walked up two staircases to the second level, which seemed equally abandoned. I opened the door leading to the arena and let the starlight touch us. The arena was empty. The bleachers were full of empty chairs, the sandtrack was pristinely clean, the grassy layer was unmowed, and the inner bleachers had nobody. Except loud sounds coming from a brown mass – the Calydonian Boar.

"There the boar is," I said to the others, pointing to the center of the track. They followed me out of the building and onto the bleachers.

The air felt pure in the bleachers, just like a forest. I felt more energized, more electricity flowing through me. Was there no human pollution or boar shit smelling the place up? This was… unnatural.

"Let's go over the plan again guys," said Annabeth, crowding us into a tight circle.

She started talking. It all turned into one blurry blurb in my mind. Don't get me wrong, Annabeth's planning is great, but it is annoying to follow her plans! (This is why we chose Percy to lead us in the Battle of Manhattan.) We had our own skill sets that we would use together to capture the boar. The best cohesion happened under stress.

But I'll indulge you. Annabeth talked about how she and Percy would divert the boar away from Jake who had the rope. Lou would be making spells to weaken the boar and pacify it, and I would be sending the boar small shocks of lightning. Lou would enchant us with extra strength when we grabbed onto the secured rope, and then it was a matter of knocking the boar out. Perfectly planned!

Percy took the lead and led us out of the bleachers and onto the sandtrack. After some crunchy shoe sounds later, we were within eyesight of the boar.

He was hideous. I remember Erymanthia and thinking that she was the ugliest boar ever (not that I would tell her that), but Calydonius was ugly. His whole body was unkempt brown hair that just frizzled. If I washed him, would I clog up all of New York? His tusks were dirty yellow, and his snout was misshapen. His body was giant, the size of an actual eighteen-wheeler and more. I now knew why Atalanta clearly favored Erymanthia to him.

I walked around the boar to see his hind legs and what was trapping him. His left leg was jammed in between two wooden posts reinforced by metal, between the sandy ground and the old fence. The boar was still struggling and moving, but it remained in place. Capturing Calydonius would be easy.

Percy gestured forward with two fingers and Lou threw her first spell to weaken the boar. He finally noticed us, and it struggled even quicker from the post, but wiggles were wiggles. His brown eyes glared at Lou with murder. She responded with another weakening spell. The boar struggled even less. Meanwhile, Percy and Annabeth were carefully distracting the boar from its back.

I held my breath and called down a blast of electricity to hit the boar. The churn in my gut increased, and a bright white light hit the boar's head. After a second of struggle, Calydonius collapsed onto the ground, eyes closed and muscles lax. That was… not as hard as I thought. These massive beasts normally needed a few shocks of lightning. But maybe I underestimated Lou's spells and the power of Zeus. It had been a while since I used lightning.

Jake came forward. "Once I finish tying the ropes, one of you has to remove the boar's foot. But only at my signal."

Annabeth nodded. "I'll do it. You and Percy will be dragging it back to Atalanta's cabin though."

Jake nodded back. He opened his backpack and took out a handful of thick rope, at least a fistful wide, and a basketball. He wrenched open the boar's mouth and put the basketball inside. Smart guy - to make sure that the boar couldn't bite away the rope bonds. He then tied ropes around the boar's hind and front legs twice for extra security.

"Annabeth!" he called out. She came forward and cut away a ring of the wooden post. After some wiggling with the leg, the post gave away and the leg was freed. But the ring of fence remained, and Annabeth used her knife's hilt to knock it off the boar's leg. Mission accomplished! The boar was captured and Lou can enchant us with extra strength to drag the boar to Atalanta's cabin.

Multiple things happened at once. The rectangular story-sized bleacher turned on its lights, engulfing me into a field of white. The lights caused Lou's chant for extra strength to erupt outward, diffusing into my muscles. As I stepped away and rubbed my eyes to make the white light not blind me, I heard a scream.

Jake's scream.

I rushed forward and saw what was happening: Jake getting mauled by the boar.

My arms went up without thinking. A churn in my gut later, a lightning bolt came down to hit the boar. It was a giant lightning bolt because of Lou's spell, the type that went boom immediately. Which meant that Calydonius was fried instantly, but so was Jake. The boar collapsed, Jake falling right with it.

I stared at Jake's unconscious body, at his bite and maul wounds, at the horrible amounts of blood. It was so much. The grass kept absorbing the red liquid, but the blood was not stopping. He was decomposing into blood. I had never seen that much. Jake's right leg was completely torn off, and his left arm was a stump of red and charred black. His face was so yellow and orange. And his ribs were visible, bones laid bare. His hands still held onto a small piece of rope. My heart broke.

Lou came forward immediately with her bag, desperately pulling out random bottles and spells. Percy was using his powers to keep the blood at bay, but that wouldn't fix Jake. What the boar and I did to him. I had just fried Jake. Waves of guilt overtook me, pushing me down to sink in the soil. I didn't come forward, because I thought I would make it worse, that my lightning would stop his heart. Did I stop his heart? It was usually better controlled, but the heat of the moment overtook me. I just wanted to stop the boar.

I stood still, letting the world pass around me. I hid my hands from the others, as if they would get cursed as well, and I wanted to run away. To finally cry over something I caused. I should have been more careful. Jake would survive if I hadn't interfered this quickly.

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.

Here is my fifteenth chapter of Greek meets Roman! Did this ending surprise you?

Summary: Thalia is convinced by Atalanta to join the quest. The demigods find an abandoned stadium and a trapped Calydonian boar. They capture it pretty easily, but after some confusion and boar violence, Jake gets mauled and fried. After trying to save him, the demigods realize that Jake's heart has stopped.

So the "dealwithit " email thing came from the most famous twitter argument ever: Andrew Tate and Greta Thunberg. Never mind that this story happens in the past, it was the BEST way to finish 2022. Even though I'm uploading this chapter in February.

As usual, if you have visited Churchill Downs and noticed any mistakes, please do comment it out and let me know. Or don't, either way, I will not be changing the chapter's contents.

Also, Percy can control blood here (when he tries to save Jake). Tartarus didn't happen (yet?) so he hasn't gone further than the breaking point. He won't be torturing goddesses with their poison, mostly because he has no want to and because he doesn't believe he can.

Have a great day and let's all Mystify!