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The air was acrid. It burned its way down Percy's throat, boiling in his stomach, spewing fury and hate into his blood.

He would not let Annabeth or himself die down here in this hellhole.

He would not. He could not.

His friends, his family, the world, they all waited on him to save them.

He was the child born of the Great Prophecy and subjugated to all that ensued. He was one of the chosen seven for the next Great Prophecy.

He was the son of Poseidon. The earth quaked at his Father's feet. The sea moved at his words. The storms crashed ashore by his will.

His blood felt like lava; heat rushed from his heart to his fingers and toes.

For a moment, Percy felt clarity. His mind was unplagued from the hell of Tartarus. He could hear the crashing of waves and rumbling of moving earth. He could hear the roll of thunder and whipping winds that trudged across the Atlantic. He could feel the world above so far below.

He opened his eyes to the blackened sand and obsidian glass that littered the ground around him. A green goo sizzled as it crept his way. The hysterical sobbing of Akhyls sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

He was the son of Poseidon, and he would make Tartarus bend to his will just as the sea bends to his Father's.

Percy clenched his hand, and the poison that had dared to move his way halted.

"What are you doing?" the hag moaned. "How are you doing this?"

Percy pointed to the embodiment of misery, "I'm not dying down here."

And the poison moved at his words, retreating from where it came towards the miserable goddess that dared to try and kill him and Annabeth. The ground it had once covered had corroded to an even fouler state than it had been previously.

The poison rose, forming an oversized hand reaching for the primordial. The hag tried to scramble away, but they were at the edge of Tartarus, the void of Khaos behind her. Akhyls had nowhere to go but forward into his poisonous hand.

"Please," she begged. "Spare me. Have mercy!"

The poison lurched forward, and she tried to scramble out of its grasp. Yet, Percy's control of the liquid was as strong as his willpower and as fast as his desire.

It grabbed her, and she screamed.

The hand had seized her by the waist and instantly begun to eat away at the flesh of the goddess.

Misery wept.

She fell, powerless, as she reached into the poison to fling it away, but only for it to eat away at her fingers.

"Let me go!" she screamed. "I repent!"

Percy could feel the poison try to fight back against his will, yet he refused to budge. His life and Annabeth's were on the line.

The closer you are to death, the more the human body can do to try and find a way to live. However, the same applied to the divine. In the face of mortality, the primordial fought once more for control of the liquid death.

The poison peeled away from the hag, and she tried to cast it at Percy and Annabeth. Yet, he refused to let it ever touch him. He extended both of his cloud-like arms forward and mimed tearing the poison away as if he were tearing a hole in reality.

The green liquid scattered everywhere around him into droplets that hissed upon where they landed.

Akhyls' lower half was disgusting. Flesh and bone were unveiled for all of Tartarus to see from where he had held her down. Her legs twitched idly, spasming uncontrollably.

Percy closed his hands into knuckles and scrunched his eyes.

He could not interact beyond power without a tangible form. The Death Mist had to be undone. So, he tapped into that well of lava that had controlled the poison. He forced the misty clouds that were his body to condense into normality by his will alone. It was all too easy.

Now solid once more, he turned to the weeping primordial.

Akhyls gasped as she laid on her back, one arm holding her up and the other outstretched to him for mercy.

Percy reached into his pocket, wherein his faithful pen lay.

He waited to hear Annabeth beg him to stop, but she didn't. She remained silent and out of the way.

The blade cursed by Ares all those years ago glowed in the hellfire light of Tartarus.

"You will not stop me," Percy hissed, stomping forward.

"Mercy!" the goddess cried.

"Mercy?" he laughed. "Where is the mercy you tried to give us?" He swung his blade at her outstretched hand.

Black ichor splattered across him from where it gushed from the severed arm. He could sense the liquid run down his blade length as it wept upon his hands and under his nails.

Akhyls cried out upon her back as she clutched her stump.

Again, Annabeth remained silent as he stepped closer to the ruined monster on the ground.

The primordial goddess screeched as Percy dropped on top of her. One of his knees pinned her chest to the black sand and brought his blade slowly to her jugular. The tip of the blade pushed firmly into the first layer of skin, drawing a single drop of black blood.

Annabeth remained silent. Why wasn't she saying anything?

"RAH!" Akhlys roared and swept her only arm at him.

He flinched back and slashed at the offending appendage. The moment of resistance on his blade earned him a squelch and spray of more blood.

Akhyls roared in pain once more.

Yet, Percy ignored her misery as he brought his free hand to his face. A stinging sensation wept from his left eye and down his cheek. He touched it and was rewarded with a warm, wet texture.

Red blood with flecks of gold.

His eyes stared at the monster that cut him.

His knee remained firm on her struggling armless form. Her head flailed back and forth as her partly dissolved legs kicked helplessly behind him.

Perseus burrowed Anaklusmos into her neck and forced the blade out the other end.

Her head remained moving as it rolled away from her body.

He stood, picking up the severed head with him.

It dripped blackened blood like dirt from an uprooted plant's roots.

He threw the head into the void of Khaos.

"You saved us!" Annabeth finally spoke up, surprising Percy.

He turned to her as a smile was plastered across her face. He smiled back as he stepped forward into her embrace. Together, the two held each other as Percy felt the magma in his veins cool. Yet, the warmth never entirely left.

"Yeah… yeah, I did." He kissed her forehead. "I saved us. I will always save you."

"I love you," she declared into his chest just above his heart. "Forever and always, and nothing will ever change that. Nothing you could ever do would change that."

"I love you, Annabeth. So much."

She pulled away with a dazzling smile.

"Look me in the eye and say it."

He grabbed her hands and brought them to his heart as he met her dull grey eyes.

"I love you, Annabeth. So much that words will never match the fury in which my heart beats for you."

"Becoming a poet, are you, Seaweed Brain?" she laughed as she pulled herself back into his arms. He couldn't help but wrap his arms around her. She was safe. He looked over her to the corpse of Akhyls. Her lower half had been eaten away by her own poison. Her hands were separated from their arms, and black ooze stained the soil of hell. "You are my hero, Perseus Jackson."

My hero?

Hero….

I'm not a hero.

Percy pulled away from Annabeth and met her eyes again. She smiled, even if there was a note of confusion in her gaze as she stared back at him.

He let his arms fall away from her.

"You couldn't even look at me after what I did," he whispered.

"What?" she frowned. Her hand caressed his cheek, her thumb brushing against the weeping cut. "I love you. Of course, I can look at you."

He shook his head.

"This isn't real," he choked out. "This isn't how this happened."

"What are you talking about?" she pulled his head to face hers, but he pulled away.

He couldn't meet her gaze. This wasn't her. This wasn't the Annabeth he fought for. Whatever she was, she was a mirage of his desires. She was a ghost of what he wanted.

"You aren't real. You aren't my Annabeth."

She tried to force him to meet her lifeless grey eyes once more, but he couldn't, no matter how much she tried to convince him that she was his.

He closed his eyes and his ears to her.

And he closed his heart to his desires.

She went silent, but a hand remained ghosting his scarred cheek.

Percy opened his eyes to see the tear-filled ones of Annaki.

Percy threw himself away from her. He tumbled out of the loveseat and knocked into the small fireplace before scurrying even further away. He had to get away from whatever magic she used on him.

"What did you do to me?" he panted. "What did you just show me?" this time, he shouted.

Tears ran from her coal-colored eyes, "I'm so sorry. I thought I was helping. Hekate told me I was helping."

It was always Hekate.

His hand fell into his pocket, "I asked, what did you do to me?"

She sniffled and raised her arms in surrender, but he flinched away when he saw her move them. He was not going to allow her to touch him ever again. She began to cry again, harder than before.

"I just"— she choked on her sobs –" I just increased your desires."

"You knocked me out and poisoned my mind!"

"I know!" she bawled. "It isn't a one-way connection."

His stomach lurched into his throat, "You saw?"

"Everything," she whispered between sobs.

"You had no right! You had no right enchanting me!

"I know! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Her sobs and whimpering echoed across the empty tent. As he watched her break down, his heart strained in his chest. He could see Olive react similarly if she were in Annaki's shoes.

Percy clenched his hands, forming red crescents into his palms, "How?"

"I am so sorry. I thought you would just drift to sleep like you had been before."

"How do I stop you from doing this again?" he ignored her excuse.

"I thought you would just sleep. I wouldn't have done it if I knew. Please, you have to believe me! Please! I thought I was doing the right thing!"

"Just stop!" he shouted, causing her to go still. "How do I stop you and any of the other veela from torturing me?"

She shook her head frantically. Yet, she did not say a word. The only thing that escaped from her were tears, and he could feel every tear that left her eyes. There was almost enough to fill a glass or two.

"How?" Percy pushed, regardless of her distraught. He was never going to let that happen again to him. He had been burying those memories for some time now. She or any other veela was not going to dig them up willy-nilly.

"You cannot, Perseus." Percy jumped as he turned to Hekate, who appeared beside Annaki. "I created the veela to link to anyone and draw out what they desire the most. The allure they possess is just an aura version of that, and anyone can fight back against that." Hekate stroked the redhead's hair like a mother would comfort their child. "But, for her to take your mind into her hands, like I asked her to, no mortal can fight that. Not even you, who is stuck between mortal and immortal."

"Why do it?"

"Do what, Perseus?"

"Why do this to me? Why did you make me relive that moment?"

"I made promises." Hekate pulled away from Annaki and turned to Percy. "One is to keep you safe. If I had left you capable, you would've stormed out of the tent. From there, I could not ensure your safety or that of anyone else. As for what you saw, that was your own subconscious manifesting your desires."

Percy shook his head in denial, "People were screaming for help. I should've helped."

They needed me!

"You are a son of Poseidon. Your powers are destructive, and you have not honed them since the war. It was a risk I could not take," Hekate shut him down.

And he could not refute that. His very powers had been the key to tearing away at the form of Gaia. The destruction he had wrought was only matched by his Father's that day.

"I could have used my blade!"

"You trembled at its touch."

"I have the wand."

"Yet, you know not a spell."

"I could have helped," he begged. "I could have done something!"

"It is not your fight," she sympathized. "This is not your burden to bear, Perseus. You do not owe the world anymore."

Percy shook his head, refusing to meet her mournful eyes, "How many died?"

"No one." She stepped towards him, reaching for his shoulder. "I made sure of that."

Percy groaned, moving away from Hekate and Annaki, "What even happened? What bullshit have you dragged me into?"

"It is not a matter for you to concern yourself with. I did not bring you here to fix the problems of my world."

"Right, you just brought me here for the debauchery and mind-fuckery," he scoffed. "That is why you so willingly introduced me to the veela, huh?"

"Perseus, this is not true. If I had known how this unfolded, we never would have been here."

"But the screaming would still have happened? Wouldn't it have? You still would've let them explode whatever they were blowing up?" he glared.

"I am bound by laws not to interfere," she deadpanned, an answer she had used for millenniums.

"No! That's a load of pegasus shit, and we both know it! You gods hide behind these 'ancient laws' but never say what they are. They are words only applicable when they suit you. That isn't good enough!"

"I assure you, that isn't what they are." Hekate tittered. "They are the divine laws of existence, Perseus. They are governed by Primordials who maintain the Cycles of All. Yes, we can find loopholes and lapses in the laws, but invoking an act against the Cycle of All is a crime no divine can be immune to."

"So, how did you not interfere then?"

"I safeguarded our tent and influenced the acts of those I could. Which, mind you, was many of those here tonight. While this attack was a fixed path in the road, it is not something I could not mitigate.

"What does that even mean?"

"This is the powers of the Crossroad. I see threads of futures that have yet to be decided and woven into the plans of Fate. Only now, after a choice has been made, I know which future we will unravel. Yet, even then, I know only to the next crossroad."

"So how did you not see this attack or whatever happened, then?"

"The road did not lead me to see the acts beyond our tent walls until the next choice had to be made, and by then, I could not stop what was going on outside. I could only offer the choice to enable or to subdue you."

"So, sedating me into my nightmares, who's choice was that? Because I never would have picked that one myself," Percy huffed.

Hekate nodded to the shaken veela, "It was hers."

Annaki glanced up momentarily, tears still in her eyes. She looked to Hekate and then glanced at Percy before she tucked her head to her knees that were pulled into her chest.

"If she hadn't stopped you, who knows what future we would have been in store for. For as the moment you stepped out of the tent, I knew no more. Each step you would have taken would have changed the future. However, I have seen up till this conversation now with her chosen path. The path where everyone was guaranteed to live."

Percy looked from the whimpering veela to her master, "So, that means we are at another crossroads now?"

"Yes, Perseus, we are."

"It's mine, isn't it?" Hekate nodded as he clenched his fist. "I don't even know what the choices are."

"You have every choice you could think of right now," Hekate offered. "From here, you decide whatever you wish."

His brows furrowed, "So I could go home, and you wouldn't stop me?"

"If that is your choice, but may I warn you first? If you leave, you will live a stale life filled with little choice or action till you eventually succumb to the growing divinity in your blood." She waved her hand, and an image floated into existence beside her. It was of himself in his favorite chair on his porch, watching as the sun set and his hair turned grey.

"And if we continue upon this?" he gestured to himself and Hekate. "If we continue this 'vacation'?"

"We shall find ourselves at Hogwarts before you know it. From there, I know not more."

"What if I go to Atlantis?"

"You would struggle to enter the water, afraid of the influx of power it gives you, but ultimately, you would find your resolve and journey to the lost city." Again, a new image appeared of him, but this time, a seashell crown adorned his head, marking him as a prince of the sea. His eyes were blank, emotionless, just as the woman beside him was. The back of their hands touched, but neither held the other. "You would have a loveless marriage forced upon you to settle a matter of debt your Father owes."

He didn't want that….

"Is there a wrong choice?"

"There are less desirable choices, yes."

"Like what?"

She motioned to the first image, "You going back to that farm."

"You really don't want me to go back, do you?"

She frowned as she turned to look at the image as well, "No, you'll likely become the worst god to ever exist when you ascend. You would be the wine god reborn. After all, he was very much like you at one point." She turned back to face him, concern in her eyes. "You deserve better than that."

He sighed and brought a hand to his forehead, "My choice doesn't change the fact I'm really pissed at you." Gods, he hated himself for this. It would just be easier to go back to the farm.

Hekate cracked a smile, "I would expect nothing less of you, Perseus."

"Nor does it change the fact I really want to leave all of this behind," he continued.

"it is your choice. You may leave."

He dropped his hand, "I'm going to regret this."

"You have made your choice, then?"

"I'm not going to become Mr. D Jr."

She swiped her hand through the version of him on his homestead, "Not back to your farm then."

He stared at the version of himself in Atlantis. He looked no better than the man in the mirror, and nobody liked that person.

"Olive told me I need to look to the silver linings of things, and I've been forced along this far, so I guess what I am saying is that I'll come to this Hogwarts with you… willingly."

A genuine toothy smile crossed Hekate's lips, "In kind, I shall seek to provide you with all that I can to ensure you have the greatest silver lining you can have."

Percy offered his hand to shake, "Just one promise." Hekate hesitated before grabbing his hand, eyebrow raised. "Don't ever touch my mind again or try to have anyone mess with me like that again."

"I promise," she took his hand.

The two shook hands.

"Now, before we depart to our next stop upon our odyssey, Annaki and you need to make amends."

"After what she did to me?" Percy mock-laughed. "I refuse."

"Does it make you feel better if I already know you will accept her apology?" Hekate smirked.

Percy groaned and turned to the red-headed veela. Uncertain eyes refused to meet his as she mumbled to herself.

If I already agreed….

"I'm willing to listen to why you did what you did."

"I thought I was saving everyone. She told me no one would die, and I thought it was the correct choice." Teary eyes met his hardened gaze as an ember glowed behind her waterworks. "I did not know the impact this would have on you or even me, but I am sorry. I did not mean to make us experience that."

Percy made an effort of a long sigh.

Hekate had already said he would forgive her, so there was no point holding a grudge over someone doing what they thought was right. Plus, he had done way worse in the efforts to save everyone. Akhyls' massacred corpse was proof of that.

"Don't ever do that to me again, alright?" Percy relented.

"I promise!" she surged forward for a hug, but he stepped back and put his hand in front of her.

"No hugs." She deflated. "But I can forgive you. I would have saved as many lives as I could as well. Plus, Aunt Hestia vouched for you. It has to mean something, right?"

Annaki nodded furiously, stuffing her sniffles as her hair danced about her like a dancing flame.

"Yay! You two made up." Hekate clapped. "I wasn't sure you would've."

"I thought you said we would?" Annaki frowned.

Percy turned on the goddess, "You didn't even know."

Hekate threw her hands up in surrender, "Perseus, you don't understand the importance of having a veela like her on your side."

"You only made us resolve our issues for what Hestia created me as?" Annaki muttered, staring at Hekate. The girl shrunk in on herself.

"Hekate?"

"I told you, Perseus. Veela are a mix of birds meeting witch in one form. The hair color defines the type of veela they are. Blondes are of Aphrodite's doves. Black are crows from Apollo's own design. But her fiery red hair is the telltale of Hestia's creation. She seeks only the good in others, so she used the like bird who only tethers themselves to individuals of good hearts. Annaki is a veela of Phoenix descent."

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