hellooooo! First of all I just want to say I am sooooo sorry this took soooooo long. I was Going Through It. And my muses were Extremely Unhappy for some reason. well I eventually did figure out the reason, which leads me to my next point

I edited the past two chapters: I took out the assault scene and any mentions of it afterward. After weeks and weeks of deliberation, I realized that it just didn't fit in to story I want to tell, and also didn't fit tonally with the narrative. So I nixed it. Lo and behold, it was much easier to finally continue writing this chapter lmao

Well, these next two chapters. This chapter got way, way longer than I was anticipating, so I split it into two. This one will be a bit shorter than my usual I think, and the next one a tiny bit longer, but that's because that was the best breaking point I could choose from.

But the good news is that the next chapter is written :D so I'm going to try and post it a week from now. then we'll be back to my sporadic updates. But we'll see if I can keep a pace of being at least one chapter ahead (for a bit).

Without further ado, enjoy the chapter!

Not Going Anywhere

Five days ago

I looked at my phone again, reminded once again of Luke's anger, of my own anger.

Then I made a rash decision.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I threw my turtleneck back on, donned my jacket, attaching my throwing knives to the inside, and also threw my sword onto my back. I went to my closet, and opened the small safe I kept in there. Inside was something that brought back a whole host of memories.

It was a small, concave disc, just slightly bigger than an average man's hand but small enough to fit inside a coat pocket. Its edge was golden, etched with swirling designs. The middle was colored emerald green with golden flecks.

Luke had used these items to get across the country in seconds. They had been forged by children of Hephaestus and Hecate, blessed with Hecate's own magic, since she'd sided with the Titans in the second war.

Since the Second Titan War had ended, they'd gone dark, didn't work anymore. But the resistance had found some and had worked to repair them. With the help of mainly Hephaestus and Hecate children, once again, they'd managed to get them functional. Not as functional as they had been, but enough they were good for emergencies.

They only worked about four times before imploding. I'd used most of their stash traveling across the country to meet with other demigods, legacies, and nature spirits of the resistance in different parts of the country. This was one of the last few. Really only supposed to be used for emergencies.

I thought about how torn up Jason sounded and decided this was an emergency.

I shut my safe, my closet door, and stood. I looked at my empty suitcase and clothes strewn out on my bed. I could pack when I got back. I downed some pain meds and exited my room, turning off the lights and shutting the door. Transporting in a more open space was usually better.

The nice thing about these transportation devices was, I could just focus on the person or place I wanted to go, and it would take me there. That's partly why we could only use them so many times. Because that kind of magic is hard to come by, and why we'd needed Hecate's constant aid to keep them working.

I didn't want to startle Jason, so I thought about appearing on the outside of his dorm room and hoped the disk would understand what that meant. I was also hoping, because of the late hour, no one would be in the hall when I appeared.

Thankfully, somehow, because I often had rotten luck, I appeared in front of what I assumed was Jason's door. Looking up and down the hall of this building, as I slipped the device into my jacket pocket, it seemed no one was about. At 2am you'd expect everyone to be asleep, but you really never knew. Especially with teen boys. Even teen boys that went to a private school.

As I lifted my hand to knock, I momentarily realized how crazy this decision was—I didn't even know if Jason was still up—but before I could back out, I forced my hand forward, knocking on Jason's door. Also, if I chickened out now, then I'd used a perfectly good transportation disk for nothing. I couldn't let that go to waste, either.

But besides that, I was worried about leaving Jason alone with his thoughts for too long. He sounded extremely distressed on the phone, and I had a bad feeling in my gut he was going to do something stupid to protect Piper.

Not that I could really blame him. But I'd be damned if I was going to let him die. Let either of them die. No one was going to die. Not if I had anything to say about it.

The sound of a deadbolt unlocking broke me from my thoughts. The door cracked open, and to my relief, Jason poked his head through. When he saw me, his eyes widened and he jolted.

"Tori," he hissed. Then he leaned out further, looking up and down the hall, before grabbing my arm and pulling me inside his dorm room. I tensed at this sudden contact, my prickles responding, but turned to face him as he closed the door. I could take in the scenery later.

He locked the door again and turned toward me, but stayed in front of the door.

Jason looked…irritated at me. But it was eclipsed by the shadows under his eyes and the stress lines at the edges of his lips. "What are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?"

"It doesn't matter," I shrugged, shoving away my growing anxiety and thus my growing pin-pricks. "I wanted to talk to you about what you said on the phone."

Jason's expression turned stony, which shocked me if only because of how he'd sounded on the phone, and he crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't know what there is to talk about. What I told you seemed pretty straightforward to me."

I frowned at him. "You're rattled, Jason. I can tell. Whatever the oracle said to you—"

"What she said was pretty straightforward, too," Jason interrupted.

For some reason I was surprised by his tone, and his irritation with me. It was making me irritated, which made me want to argue with him. Not only that, it aggravated my prickles.

Instead, I took a deep breath and counted to ten. I turned away from him, looking around the room, which was miserably sparse. Aside from the usual bed, desk, bookcase, and closet, his walls were almost bare. There was an obligatory window, which looked over the canyons, and there was a framed photo of Thalia, with a bow slung over her shoulder. Propped up against his closet were a lacrosse stick, a tennis racket, and his gladius.

On his desk was a foam poster board with a miniature Temple Hill mapped out onto it. Temple Hill was in Camp Jupiter—pretty self-explanatory. It was a hill with temples to the gods. On Jason's miniature, there were a lot more temples than I remembered there being, represented by the little green and red houses and hotels you find in Monopoly games.

On his bookshelf were, from what I could see, were only textbooks. Nothing that you might read for fun. There were also sketchbooks, but I had a feeling they were only there in tandem with his Temple Hill miniature.

"Tori?" Jason asked, his tone less antagonistic.

I turned back toward him. "How were the clubs?" I asked. "Have you made any friends?"

Jason blinked, his shoulders, which were a bit tense and pulled back, slumping slightly. "What?"

"I know it's been a few months since we last spoke, but…did you end up joining any of the clubs I recommended?"

"I…" Jason shifted, his arms falling to his sides. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "I've enjoyed fencing," he admitted quietly, "and, you were right, I've really enjoyed robotics."

"'Enjoyed.'" I echoed. "Past tense."

The hint of a smile vanished from Jason's face. "I…decided to stop going." Jason shrugged. "Demigod duties call."

I frowned, my immediate response to argue him on that, but I tramped down on it (alongside my growing chronic pain because it always responded negatively to my emotions), curling my hands into fists momentarily before forcing them to relax. Jason, of course, didn't miss that.

His eyebrows furrowed. "That makes you angry."

"Yes." I said in a measure tone, not wanting to explode. If I started ranting to him about how unfair demigod lives were, he'd only respond with a canned, "It's a Roman's duty" response.

Jason waited to see if I would elaborate and when I didn't, he asked, "Why?"

"Because I care about you, Jason," I said.

It almost looked like he was going to ask "why" again, which hurt me in a way I wasn't prepared for.

Instead, he said, "I appreciate that, but this is something I have to do. If an oracle predicts it…" He shrugged helplessly. Whatever irritation he'd felt toward me had dissipated, and I could see the cracks showing. I could see how much weight he carried, his worry about Piper, his loneliness.

"Jason, you're just a kid," I said quietly. "I'm here. You don't have to do this alone anymore."

"The oracle didn't say anything about—"

"Let's just…" My voice came out louder than I had wanted and I tried to tone it down. "Let's just ignore what the oracle said for a moment. I've learned the hard way that you shouldn't go these things alone. I'm not going to let you go this alone. Besides, prophecies are always vague—"

"Not this one," Jason said, his voice sounding utterly defeated. He slumped against the door, looking at the floor. "Die. That's what…she said. She said when we faced Caligula, someone would die."

No. There was no way. Why would this oracle be so gods-damn straightforward, out of every other prophecy? Out of every other fucking oracle?

"Have you told Piper this?" I asked.

Jason shook his head, keeping his eyes on the floor. "No." He lifted his head, blue eyes flashing like lightning. "But I'm not going to let her die. If anyone is going to die, it's going to be me."

"No one has to die, Jason," I said

"The oracle—"

"I don't care what the oracle says!"

Jason shook his head again; his irritation was back. "I should've known you would say something like that. You just don't get it." He straightened, bushing past me. I turned to look at him, but he kept his back toward me as he said, "This is my duty, Tori. To Piper. To my friends. To Camp Jupiter. To the Twelfth Legion."

"You are sixteen, Jason," I reminded him. "Have you ever tried being more than just a hero? More than just a leader? More than what everyone expects from you because of who your father is?"

Jason's shoulders tensed more and more with every question I asked, and I tensed in response. (You'd think I would've learned to carry pain meds with me every time I went out. The bottles were just so bulky!) I didn't think he'd purposefully lash out and hurt me, but knowing how volatile Percy's powers could get (even unintentionally), I had to be prepared for the worst.

For a long moment, there was silence. Then Jason's shoulders started rising and falling visibly. At first, I was afraid he was so angry he was trying to take deep breaths to control it. Then I thought he might be hyperventilating.

But when he turned to finally face me, there were tears in his eyes.

His words were rushed and strained as he said, "I appreciate you concern, but I don't need your help, Mom. I can handle this on my own—"

"Mom," I echoed, stunned, my prickles bursting.

Jason blinked, reeling back slightly, like he was coming back to himself. Then his whole face and neck flushed red.

"F-forget I said anything," he mumbled, turning away from me again. His hands furled into fists.

"Jason," I said, my voice still small, as I was still getting over the shock.

"Seriously, forget it," Jason said, but his voice shook, sounding brittle.

"It doesn't bother me, if that's what you're worried about," I said, my voice stronger now. Slowly, I put a hand on the back of his shoulder.

He straightened up, shrugging off my hand, and turned to look at me. Instead of the irritation I thought might reappear, he just looked…drained.

"Why do you care so much?" He half-scoffed, half-laughed as he sat down on the edge of his bed. He gestured to the items leaning against his closet. His voice now slow, like it was a task to say even one word. "Asking me if I have any school friends. Making sure I'm keeping up on a sword training. Encouraging me to go join clubs. We hated each other when we first met."

"A lot has changed since then," I pointed out. Jason shook his head, rolling his eyes but I continued to speak, not giving him a chance to say more. "Maybe I realized that having a beef with someone, what? Like seven years younger than me was stupid and immature. Maybe I look at you and see how similar you are to Percy. See a boy who was thrust into a position he never asked for—doesn't know if he even wants—because of who is father is. Who is treated differently because of this. Who never had a chance to figure out who he was. Who's perpetually lonely because he feels like no one understands. Or because people only see his father, and not him."

Jason gave me a skeptical look. "Percy? The sarcastic, but incredibly naturally charismatic guy? He seems pretty sure of himself."

I chuckled. "You didn't know him when he was younger. Sure, he's always been sarcastic and impertinent, but when everyone at camp found out he was the son of one of the Big Three, no one would talk to him anymore until after he came back from his quest. He took the burden of the Great Prophecy when he was fifteen. He was defacto leader when we fought off Kronos's army in Manhattan. And…he hides his insecurities behind his sarcasm, you know."

Jason still looked unconvinced. "Then what? Am I stand-in for Luke?"

I let out a harsh breath as a sharp pang went through my chest, followed by my prickles, but tried to quickly composed myself. "No, absolutely not. But I would be lying if Luke wasn't part of the reason I'm annoyingly pushy toward you." The edge of Jason's lips quirked up a fraction. "I look at you, at the rest of the Seven, and I think, 'What if I had just been there? Done this? Seen that? Kept pushing? I would have been able to save Luke. Pull him back from the titan's influence. Stopped the Second Titan War before it had even begun.' So, yeah, I do care about you. And yes, I will keep pushing, and I'm not going to stop.

"And, don't misunderstand me, I don't think anything like what happened with Luke will necessarily happen with any of you. Really…" I took a shaking breath, very aware of the ache in my chest and my growing pin-pricks. It was always hard talking about Luke. "I look at you and see all the lost demigods who joined Kronos's army. Who were tired of being neglected and ignored, or on the other side, used and thrown away. And I don't want you to become another discarded demigod in the name of the gods."

Despite his amusement at my pushy comment, the more I spoke, the less convinced Jason looked. He'd slowly lowered his head and was now staring at the floor.

I silently cursed at myself. Perhaps that had been the wrong thing to tell him? I just couldn't get a read on this boy!

Suddenly, he straightened up, standing again. New determination had replaced his weariness, and I felt my heart sink.

"It's different for Roman demigods," he said firmly. His eyes flickered to something behind me and I looked over my shoulder to see his miniature of Temple Hill. He began speaking again, bringing my attention back to him. "I have a duty. I'm going to help Apollo stop Caligula, and I'm not going to let Piper die. Percy took on the Great Prophecy; I'm taking on this prophecy."

"Jason," I tried again, but he shook his head.

"There's a saying in Latin: memento mori, remember you will die. I've accepted what the oracle told me. Please respect that."

I wanted to ask him if he really felt that way, or if he felt that's what he ought to say because of how he was raised, but I bit my tongue. I didn't want to get into a fight with him right now (well, any more than we had fought tonight). I wanted him to feel he could still talk to me, even if we disagreed about this. Even if I was certainly not going to respect his wishes and figure out a way to save him and Piper.

"It's getting late," he said, when he was sure I wasn't going to respond. "I should get to sleep."

I nodded, stomping down my anger. (I would need to take pain meds as soon as I got back.) Not toward him, but toward the gods, the Fates, any divine entity or being that thrust these children into these situations.

"Sure," I managed. "Thank you for indulging me. I'm…I'm sorry for barging in."

A tiny smile appeared on Jason's face. "I appreciate you being so open with me."

I tried not to snort. Only he would say that, when I was pretty sure he was annoyed with my persistence in meddling in his life.

I turned and began to head to the door, but right before I grabbed the handle, I turned and faced Jason, who had followed behind.

"I know we disagree on this," I spoke quickly, not wanting to give him time to say anything. "But I want you to know that you can still come to me if you need anything, or just want to talk more about this, or talk more about anything, really. Okay? I promise I won't continue to push my own agenda. I'll be good and just listen." I paused, meeting his eyes. "I'm not going anywhere, Jason."

Not giving him time to respond, and too nervous to see his reaction, I swiftly turned and exited his dorm room, closing the door behind me. Then I set down the hall, toward the EXIT sign.

Once I was back out in the courtyard (or a courtyard, since a fancy private school like this probably have multiple), I used the transportation disk to get back to my apartment in New York. It then promptly sparked and steamed, before the emerald green turned a dark jade, indicating it was of no use anymore.

That hadn't been quite as productive as I had hoped.

Present

Commodus had invited us (or, maybe just me) to explore his underground sewer palace, but I near-immediately passed out after the whole situation with Audrey II. I don't remember anything after I had vowed to set her free, but according to Huixing and Ellery, they walked me back to our room, where I promptly fell into bed and passed out cold.

That was a first. Seeing as, usually, I would just suffer, swimming in a sea of my chronic pain until it decided to let me sleep. Maybe everything else was just enough to be too much for my body and mind, my mind mercifully let me be unconscious.

Ellery and Huixing tried to explore a little bit, but they didn't get very far with all the chest monsters around. They were overly friendly, fitting in well with the Midwesterners that resided here. But that also meant they were always breathing over Ellery and Huixing's shoulders, not giving them a chance to really explore.

This did not, however, prevent them from casing the place—making note of places to more thoroughly investigate when there were less eyes around to catch them.

When they woke me up for lunch—which they insisted I go to, despite my protestations—Ellery had sketched a rough map of a huge chunk of the palace on the back of a big mirror that hung in our room, using his pugio. (This was after they had checked the room for bugs and/or cameras, of course.) They'd hung the mirror back up, so as to not raise suspicion, but they were able to tell briefly show it to me before a chest monster retrieved us for lunch.

"The palace is quite big for being underground," Huixing commented, digging into her meatball sub. I had opted for something tamer: a generic ham and cheese. Ellery had chosen a chicken, bacon, ranch sandwich, to my surprise. Though, he was eating it with a fork and knife. Probably not wanting to get that mess on his suit.

"Oh?" I asked.

Ellery nodded. "I think I counted fifty-four different doors to various rooms."

Huixing shook her head. "No, I counted fifty."

Ellery shrugged. "The difference is pretty negligible. He has a few recreational areas. But also, more practical areas, like an infirmary. Strangely empty, though, despite containing around eighteen beds, or so."

"There's also a communal bathroom," Huixing added, "even though we didn't really bump into anyone around. Decently-sized too. Like ten stalls, would you say?" Huixing looked at Ellery, and they both nodded in agreement.

"There was also an employee cafeteria," Huixing continued. "I'd say it could hold maybe two hundred and thirty people?"

Ellery considered this. "Probably more. We also got a glimpse of the barracks. Those held a lot less. Say almost a hundred or so?"

I blinked. "Oh, that's…a lot more than I expected. For being underground, I mean."

Ellery and Huixing nodded, exchanging glances.

They were using a code. 54 cameras, 50 guards roaming the halls, 18 locked doors that might have something interesting behind them, something we could use. 10 guards around Commodus at all times, whether they be right next to him, or in his general vicinity. Finally, the amount of people that lived in this place—that could come to Commodus's aide if needed: the size of a small army.

That didn't bode well. Though, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. Mainly, I just hoped they'd be okay trying to search for useful information without getting caught.

We finished the rest of our lunch in relative silence. We, of course, tried to make small conversation, so it didn't look too weird that we'd chatted about the place and then lapsed into complete silence. Ellery was good for that; far as I could tell, he never got rattled. I, however, could feel Huixing's anxiety, and my own, start to increase, the longer we thought about what we needed to do, to accomplish anything that might help the resistance.

"We're supposed to help the help," Ellery said, scowling.

Huixing batted his arm. "Watch how you phrase that," she hissed, before turning to me, not giving him a chance to retort. "Apparently, Commodus has put us on chore duty. Whatever that means. We have chest monster 'supervisors.'" She rolled her eyes and did finger quotes to emphasize her point.

"They're called blemmyes," Ellery corrected. "I finally remembered them while we were exploring. And I was right that they're sturdy, so you don't want to go hand-to-hand with them if you can help it."

"Wasn't planning on it," I muttered from my seat on the end of the bed.

Huixing frowned. "There must be something we can do. Some way to convince Commodus to invite, at least, one of us to this dinner of his."

I shrugged, though I was not looking forward to being alone with Commodus. "I don't think there is. He seems dead set on only having me with him tonight." Huixing opened her mouth but I continued, "It's better this way. I'll keep him preoccupied. See if you can shake your blemmyae babysitters and find what our intel has been telling us is here.

Realized this chapter is mostly flashback lol. Hope that's not too disappointing after such a long radio silence. But again, the good news is I'll be able to post in a week for sure.

A huge, huge thank you! To all who're sticking with me til the end (of the line). If you're an old fan, you know the drill, and I am forever grateful to you ^_^ If you've just joined, this is how it usually goes for me lmao, but am also grateful to you for being so patient and not giving up on me. That's also why I updated the tags with "Slow To Update." (didn't know that was an option before)

I think that's it for now. I'll see you a week from now :D (maybe sooner if I get excited lol)

Hope you enjoyed! Comments are, as always, very much appreciated!

Thank you for reading,
thebrightestnight