A/N: Sorry about the slightly later update, in a big rush tonight. Hope you enjoy and please review :)

Chapter 4: Lines Crossed, Sides Chosen

On the Argo II

Jason thrummed his fingers against the mess hall's center wooden table. The dull rhythm sounded much louder in the silence that had enveloped the ship for the past few days. On the other side of the long dining table, Piper quietly poked at her food. She had probably spoken the least out of anyone on the ship, some of her sparse words used with Jason but most of them spent on Reyna.

The Roman Praetor had arrived only an hour after Nico and the remainder of the Seven had exited the Necromanteion. While the Argo II was floating a few dozen feet off of the ground, she'd crash-landed on it and was forced to mercy-kill her mortally wounded pegasus. Her demeanor had only worsened after learning of Percy and Annabeth's fates, or more accurately Jason's self-omitting version of them.

After hearing his explanation, Reyna had been devastated, and reasonably so. She and Percy had become friends during his short stay at Camp Jupiter, and she'd quickly grown to respect Annabeth in their brief meetings; it was only natural to be overcome with grief. But that feeling had quickly morphed into uncomfortable curiosity while spending the following days aboard the Argo II. The Praetor had been through a harrowing solo journey across the Atlantic and over the Ancient Lands, and she still seemed to be the most lively one on the ship.

What bothered her most wasn't Jason and Piper barely speaking to one another; she didn't mind that at all. Neither was it Frank and Hazel being so distant from each other, though she found that disconcerting as they'd always been her ideal "old couple." What had her most worried was Leo. The boisterous demigod that hadn't shut up for a moment during the lunch she'd met him at was now deathly quiet. And Nico, who was supposed to be the only resident silent type, had spent his gaunt days melted into shadow, only appearing for infrequent meals.

Reyna knew they'd lost two of their friends, but their expression of grief didn't make much sense to her. Not only were they not talking to their significant others, the demigods were barely talking at all. It was only through sentence fragments and one word answers that Piper had answered a few of the questions Reyna had pestered her with. And the daughter of Aphrodite's haggard expression, creasing whenever she mentioned Percy or Annabeth by name, only made Reyna more certain that there were details she hadn't been made aware of. But she'd find out soon enough, as Jason had grown impatient with Piper's silence.

The son of Jupiter's thrumming became sharp raps of his knuckles, all in an effort to get her to look up at him. The raucous sound accomplished its goal as the daughter of Aphrodite lifted her gaze from her cold pasta.

"Could you stop that?"

Jason's hand obeyed. He winced at the heartrending look in her eyes, but he held a small smile in her direction. Wrestling between his relationship and what he considered his duties, Jason didn't think it was fair to be treated the way he was by Piper. Pushing his agitation aside, he stood from his seat and slowly made his way to the one next to his girlfriend. As he sat down, her eyes shifted back to her bowl.

"How's the food, Pipes?"

"It's fine," she replied flatly.

Piper was looking down, and Jason could see the fresh tear-streaked lines etched into her cheeks; she'd likely been crying right before coming to eat. Ignoring him, meals, and crying seemed to be her daily routine to Jason. The son of Jupiter couldn't figure out a way to goad real conversation out of her. He settled on bringing up the last discussion he'd had with the last person Piper wanted to hear about, though he didn't think to consider that.

"I talked to Lord Jupiter last night," Jason began.

"You're still speaking with him?" she cut in, a soft edge to her tone.

"Yeah, after my solo trip to Olympus, his splitting headaches became too bad to transport anyone, so he has to talk in my head now. Paired with how far we are from their power, he actually has to ask for permission to enter my head."

"And you let him…" Piper said, but Jason powered forward with ignorant enthusiasm.

"Yeah, can you believe it? The King of the Gods has to ask to speak to me," his eyes held an unsettling glint for a moment before he continued, "Anyways, he told me Neptune plans to leave the council after the war."

Piper barely looked up from her bowl.

"And Athena?"

Jason shrugged.

"No idea. He hasn't heard from her since she disappeared while I was on Olympus."

When Piper simply nodded, Jason felt his heart clench. She hadn't looked him in the eyes in days, and her exclusively rigid words had only made the feeling worsen. Impulsively, the son of Jupiter did the only thing he could think of; he leaned in and kissed her.

But the second his lips touched hers, Piper's body tensed and she stood roughly. Her tight-lipped mouth brushed past his nose less than gently, forcing him to stumble back. She paused for a moment, halfway to the sink.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled before she dumped her half-full bowl into the dispenser.

The daughter of Aphrodite turned away to leave while Jason lightly pinched the bridge of his nose. It wasn't so much the physical pain that hurt him, more so the anguish of how she was disregarding him. The feeling had eaten at him for days, though he would never differentiate whether it was her disgust with his choices or his own. Regardless, he didn't bite his tongue.

"What the hell is your problem?"

Piper froze in her tracks. It was only then did Jason notice her shoulders had been softly shaking since she'd stood up; she was quietly crying. The daughter of Aphrodite whirled around, her eyes already red, and she spoke through gritted teeth.

"My problem?" she hissed, more weight in her brief question than the entirety of her words over the last few days.

"My problem," she repeated, "is that I don't understand what happened to you."

"To me? You haven't looked me in the eyes in days. You've all but ignored me every time I've tried to talk to you. You're suddenly treating me like I barely exist!"

Jason's voice slowly climbed in volume, and Piper was not one to back down, especially not now. The daughter of Aphrodite heard shuffling far down the corridor, but she didn't care if anyone heard because she was done being quiet.

"This is exactly what I mean," she bemoaned, her own pitch rising, "all this 'me, me, me' all of a sudden. A few meetings with your dad, and you're now the center of the universe. What about anybody else? All of the times you 'tried talking to me,' did you ask me once how I was feeling? Have you asked Leo, your best friend? Hazel? Nico? No! You and Frank have been just riding it out like we haven't done anything dead wrong!"

Piper hadn't realized she'd risen into a full-on shout. During her rant, both Hazel and Frank had shuffled into the mess hall from opposite sides of the hallway. Hazel nodded in approval while Frank's eyes trailed awkwardly between Piper and the daughter of Pluto. Jason slammed his fist on the dining table, and a firework of sparks spread a few inches around the impact.

"We had a job to do; it wasn't something 'dead wrong.' The gods revealed a dangerous prophecy, gave us a task, and we carried it out in exchange for our better futures. End of story!" the son of Jupiter seethed.

Before Piper could respond, Frank mumblingly butt in.

"All of the gods agreeing on a decision seems impossible. So when they do, it may mean it's time to listen."

"Except they didn't all agree," Hazel retorted, "When they took us to Olympus, three major gods were completely absent. And even with the ones that were there, they didn't all look to be in agreement. I can tell you for sure that Lady Diana looked disgusted while Lord Jupiter said who the target was."

Frank faltered, but Jason's face became a dark red.

"They told us the prophecy! It was the definite end of Olympus, and it needed to be avoided. That prophecy would've killed us, our friends, our camps, and our parents. We did what needed to be done!"

Jason's audience could tell he was trying to convince himself alongside everyone else that he was right. Piper had to bite back her retort when Leo trudged into the hall, the disheveled demigod looking even more scrawny than before. His voice carried the same scanty weight his tired shoulders looked like they could barely bear.

"Prophecy this, prophecy that," Leo muttered, "Blah blah blah. Our friends are dead and it's because of us."

The son of Hephaestus' dejected tone could not have sounded any less like the Leo that Piper had met at The Wilderness School with Jason. It broke her heart to hear him like that. She no longer felt the need to accuse Jason of his father's arrogant nature blinding him; Leo's jarring demeanor should've been enough of a wake up call. The room of demigods had fallen silent. But the tense stillness didn't last longer than a few seconds before Jason set his jaw.

"The gods told us to kill them!" he shouted as unwitting thunder rolled in outside of the ship.

Festus creaked and groaned, offsetting the sails as he shifted course from the darkening clouds. Jason didn't have time to unclench the fists he hadn't realized he'd balled before Piper shouted back.

"No! They didn't!" the daughter of Aphrodite's tears streamed freely, "Jupiter did! Your father, the one you met in secret that tried bribing us with 'glory' and 'titles' and all of that hero garbage! AND YOU FELL FOR IT!"

Piper's voice was unhinged, but Jason had already pridefully committed to his position. Briefly, he winced under her accusing eyes before he narrowed his own. The veins in Jason's neck tightened when Frank spoke, the demigod wavering as his only "ally" teetered with his own choice.

"It's true that they didn't tell us to kill them. They only asked us to allow Annabeth to die at the hands of an enemy of Olympus. That's not the same thing as killing anybody."

"And that was crossing a line," Hazel jumped in, "Everything after was compromise after compromise, all the way until you accepted us having to kill them if they came through the Doors."

"I don't care if you were silent, you all accepted it!" Jason shot back, "Frank and I were just the only ones with the resolve to make good on it if it happened."

As the words left Jason's mouth, he felt every hair on his body stand on end. The demigod's senses shot to full alert, and his worries were answered when shadows coalesced in the mess hall doorway. Nico stepped out, and no one had to question exactly how much he'd heard.

"You killed them."

It should've been a question, but the son of Hades spoke it like a verdict. His entire body shook before more shadows swarmed over his hand and his Stygian Iron blade appeared in it. Nico bounded forward, and Jason barely had time to flip his golden aureus into a gladius to block the strike.

Sparks flew, dousing the remaining demigods who quickly dove for cover. Nico shouted as he swung a flurry of rapid strikes against Jason. The son of Jupiter gritted his teeth, stuck on the defensive, as he shuddered under the weight of the surprisingly powerful attacks. Shoving against his blade, Jason tried to regain some ground, but Nico gave him none. The duel, showering more sparks with every clash, cleaved through the sink and dispenser as Nico kicked Jason against the counter.

Piper wrestled with her own thoughts as she watched the pair battle. She knew she could charmspeak the son of Hades to freeze, like she'd done during Percy and Jason's duel, but she stopped herself. The daughter of Aphrodite couldn't trust Jason to not kill Nico where he would stand, and she'd be a direct accomplice in that death. And who was she to step in and deny Nico his anger, especially after she'd played a part in lying to him about his closest friends dying.

The son of Jupiter used the countertop to somersault back, creating some distance between him and the son of Hades. But Nico dissolved into shadow before he appeared behind Jason and sliced a gash in his leg. Jason groaned as he fell to one knee before receiving an elbow to the face. As his head shot to one side, he dropped his gladius and shoved both hands at Nico. A familiar twist in his gut unleashed a weak jolt of lightning from his extended arms and the son of Hades stumbled back. But he recovered quickly.

Piper and Leo both looked terrified, no doubt in their minds of who was going to die if nothing was done, but the pair stood frozen. Hazel had sobbingly looked away, and only then did she realize Frank was no longer standing behind her. Her gaze darted forward to find a thundering rhino strike Nico's back as the demigod raised his blade.

Launched off of his feet, Nico slammed into the wall adjacent to the entryway before he collapsed to the ground. Doubled over on his hands and knees, he coughed laboredly as Frank returned to human form and helped Jason to his feet. Limping, the son of Jupiter dragged his gladius across the floor as he neared Nico's hunched form.

Footsteps thundered in the hallway before Reyna, soaked from head to toe, bounded through the corridor shouting,

"Di Immortales, do you not hear the thunder?! There's a rainsto–"

Her voice vanished as she stepped into the scene before her. Nico was still on his haunches as Jason stalked closer, Frank behind him and the other three demigods standing as a petrified audience. Reyna had next to no time to appraise the situation before she instinctively chose to stand protectively in front of Nico.

"Jason, what's going on?" she asked, eyeing his tight grip on his gladius.

"He killed Percy and Annabeth," Nico wheezed from behind her, still between coughs.

Reyna's immediate disbelief lasted no more than a moment when Jason only grimaced in reply. He took another step forward, and Reyna unsheathed her own blade. She watched the other three demigods peripherally, unsure who would attack, but her priority was the pair right in front of her. Though she could tell Jason was wounded, Frank wasn't, and the other three were fully unknown variables. Her odds weren't ideal, but Reyna never left people undefended.

"Reyna, thank you," Nico whispered almost inaudibly, "but we can't win here. I'm going to shadow travel to the ground and get back to camp to tell them what happened. Nod if you're coming."

The Roman Praetor tensed for a moment before she tilted her head almost imperceptibly.

"Statue," she said.

Nico's eyes widened. So did Jason's, and he launched forward. The son of Hades grabbed Reyna's leg and the pair vanished into shadow. Jason's slash, already in motion, cut through nothing. He hobbled upright, balancing on his sword, and looked around angrily.

"We let them get away!" he shouted, "Leo, turn the ship around. If they took the statue, no way could Nico have jumped more than a few miles injured like that. They can't escape or it's over for all of us."

Out of his stupor, Leo shot his best friend a worried look. It seemed to him that Jason had dove off of the deep end to keep their secret safe, even if it meant killing more friends. He didn't have time to dwell on his thoughts, or even disagree with Jason, because the entire ship lurched under the weight of something heavy striking the deck.

All of the demigods snapped to attention, rushing into the hallway and up the stairs. Jason lagged behind with Frank, but the burly son of Mars easily carried his weight forward. As they climbed up onto the deck, they had to shield their eyes from the torrential rain. Festus was groaning in alarm, bucking his head towards the back of the ship. All five demigods' heads shifted towards the stern, eyes narrowed against the downpour and dark clouds enveloping them.

They couldn't see anything until lightning struck and erupted a silhouette of a massive humanoid. The group stumbled back as he stepped forward from underneath the mast. If he wasn't an imposing ten feet tall, he could've passed for a muscular man wearing night-vision goggles. Jason flashed his gladius, steadying himself, while the rest of the demigods fumbled unarmed. Their helplessness didn't matter, because the man seemed completely disinterested by them. His bronze mechanical eyes spun and clicked as he stared into the ground underneath them.

The man scowled, tightening his grip on his hulking compound bow.

"The statue is gone," he grated, fuming at no one in particular, before he flung himself off of the ship into a nosedive.

That problem may have solved itself, Jason thought to himself, though he didn't voice it in the silence following.

"We stay on course for Athens," the son of Jupiter rephrased definitively, earning uncomfortable looks from the rest of the crew.

(Line Break)

"How do they stay floating like that?"

"They are hard light. Mortals are millenia away from discovering it, but it comes naturally to us."

"And your clothes? It looks too pure to just be white color."

"Yes, it is prismatic light. Or light made solid, not so dissimilar from hard light."

"What about–" Annabeth paused, "I'm asking a lot of questions, aren't I?"

Aether smiled at the demigod. His warm eyes crinkled at the sides, and his comfortable energy ensured Annabeth couldn't help but smile back at him. She paused at the top of the small set of stairs, finished staring at the intricate fixtures above her head that drifted with no strings attached. Aether stepped back into his white throne, taking his seat next to his wife.

"Lady Hemera," Annabeth bowed, trying to keep her voice level as her mind attempted to normalize open discussion with two primordials.

Several days ago, it had been unbelievably strange to wake up in a room of white marble devoid of anything besides a bed, a pillow, and a man in a suit appearing in the doorway. He'd introduced himself as Aether, the primordial of Light, and given her the short briefing that his wife had saved her from Tartarus. Disregarding that she was speaking to a Protogenoi, she'd only had one question.

"Where's Percy?"

Aether's smile had dimmed before he'd brought her to his wife. And when they'd told her only she'd made it out, Annabeth had broken down. The daughter of Athena had sobbingly excused herself to the room she'd woken up in before crying herself back to sleep. The next few days had passed listlessly between consciousness for the demigod before she'd finally found the will to leave the room again. The pair of primordials had welcomed her warmly, fed her, and ensured her that she could take her time. Annabeth decided that today, she'd need to learn what she could do next for Percy, and she found herself bowing before the Primordial of Day.

Hemera smiled at her, beckoning her to rise, and Annabeth could almost feel her mood elevate from the kindness projected by the primordial.

"How are you feeling, Annabeth?" the primordial asked her.

"I'm doing better than I was before, thank you," Annabeth answered.

"Have you been sleeping well?" Hemera pressed on, and Annabeth wavered.

"Um–no. Every time I sleep, I have dreams of Percy dying. It's always some convolution of our memories together, but–" she choked up.

Hemera's own eyes welled with tears as she strained herself knowing she was lying to this demigod. Aether placed a hand over hers, speaking into her mind.

It has only begun, my love. I am certain you can win, but you are only hurting yourself when you let your emotions control you.

The Primordial of Day stiffened as she cleared her throat.

"I am so sorry to hear that, Annabeth. I have medicine, if you would like, that allows sleep to be cleansed so you no longer have to dream," she offered.

Annabeth smiled, sniffing as she wiped the corners of her eyes.

"I'm okay, thank you. What I was going to say is, but it's the only time I get to see his face again. And before any of the bad things happen, I get the chance to relive our memories like they're real."

Heartstrung, Hemera closed her eyes for a moment before she smiled and nodded.

"I do not believe we could have chosen a better champion," she whispered.

Annabeth looked at her questioningly. Aether's soft eyes had hardened as he began to speak. He revealed the Fates' Greater Prophecy to Annabeth. He then told her about the gods' reactions to it, their subsequent recruitment of her and Percy's friends, and the contents of the secret meetings that had occurred on Olympus.

With each revelation, Annabeth felt a knife twisting in her chest. Her mother had known. Percy's father had known. All of the gods had. All of her crewmates had. One of them had damn near orchestrated it. And even though she was the one marked for death, Percy was dead because of it. For the better part of a year, they'd been oblivious pawns walking to their slaughter.

Her feelings bubbled up in her throat and Annabeth thought, if she started, she'd never stop screaming. It took her minutes, standing in a destitute silence where she felt like she'd forgotten how to breathe, to compose the corrosion in her chest.

"How do you know all this?" she settled on, her harrowed voice barely a whisper.

Before answering, Aether waved his hand to let Annabeth sink into a chair.

"The same way we knew your name without you telling us: we observe mortal and Olympian affairs. Not all of them are just rulers, and we only watched more carefully following the prophecy's revelation. It was horribly cruel what happened to you and Percy, Annabeth, and we cannot begin to understand how you are feeling. But we have to ask you, if not beg you, to do something you will not want to do."

"What is it?" her voice had no inkling of emotion.

"With both you and Percy gone from the world, we do not believe the Olympians and demigods will be able to defeat Gaea. She will almost surely rise and end all of civilization. I know it is unfair, but would you help them defeat her as our champion?"

"What does this have to do with the Greater Prophecy?"

Annabeth had avoided answering the question, her turmoil only building. Help the "friends" that killed the person she loved most? The mother that served her up? The gods that condemned her? She should let them all die, if not carry it out herself.

But Annabeth remembered that not all of the gods had been willing. And not all of her "friends" seemed to have been either. She argued that they still went through with it, only to have her voice rebuke.

But what if they had no choice? Or what if just one of them is innocent? What about the rest of the world? All those people?

Annabeth realized the voice wasn't hers at all; it was what Percy would be arguing if he were right here. That loyal idiot, even if they'd killed him, would surely get up and fight for them. And since he wasn't here to do it, she'd have to stand in his place.

"The Greater Prophecy will follo–"

"I'll do it," Annabeth accidentally cut the primordial off, not hearing him over her internal dialogue.

She winced, ready to apologize, only to have him beam at her. Hemera mirrored him before she reached to the side of her throne. The Primordial of Day revealed a cloth-wrapped bag that she presented to Annabeth.

"Then this is our first gift to you. I wish it were something less violent to mark the occasion."

Annabeth thanked her before she opened it, and she froze. Twin daggers, each almost the exact dimensions of her own that she'd lost. The pair glowed with the same impossible white color as the primordials' robes. The demigod looked up at Aether.

"Is this prismatic light?" she asked, turning one of the blades over in her hand.

The metal felt pleasantly warm, and Annabeth couldn't help but think of the hearth. But there was a very apparent danger in these blades; their light energy didn't hide the violence they were capable of.

"Molten and metallized light," Aether said warningly, "a primordial substance that can cut through almost anything. We hope you wielding it will even the odds in the war against Gaea."

Annabeth bowed to the pair.

"Thank you," she said.

Hemera had one last question, though she believed she knew the answer.

"What changed your mind, Annabeth?"

"Because Percy would've said yes."