SUMMARY: Thalia was found with an arrow in her neck. Not even Artemis could protect her from them.

Jason's body was singed and charred. It wasn't a coincidence, his death was not mere chance.

Hazel and Nico were found dead under the rubble. Their bodies were found embracing each other, the two children of the underworld traveling to their father's domain one last time.

Annabeth was found dying, screaming silently. Her last words were not of solace to Percy, but rather they haunted him.

It wasn't coincidence. Someone, or something, was hunting demigods, and Percy Jackson was next in line.

Banished from the Greco-roman world in fear of what his would-be murderers would do to kill him, Percy Jackson is now on the run, running from not only his pursuers, but also his past.

While he may be forbidden from the Greek and Roman world he is so used to, why would the former host of Nekhbet ever stay out of danger?

Now a magician at the House of Life, Percy is slowly getting used to a new normal. That is, until the gods that he once revered need him once more.

But it's not just Olympus in danger this time.. The mysterious figure behind all the deaths is now trying to bring about the end of not only Olympus, but also the Nomes of Egypt.

Can Percy step up to plate once more?

BROKEN OATHS - A FALL FROM GRACE

Artemis hated being immortal.

It was a bold statement, but not one she would soon retract. To be fair, she didn't dislike the premise of being an immortal - who wouldn't want to live forever with their family, all-powerful, for all eternity?

But the gods were not her only family. The hunters were who she truly considered family. She lived with them, traveled with them, hunted with them - all for them to eventually end up paying Charon's fare.

"But you're a goddess!"People would say. "Why don't you save them?"

She was a goddess, that was true, but when the Moirai willed the strings to be cut, what could she do? Artemis was powerful, but that power was insignificant in the eyes of fate.

Not even the gods could defy the Moirai. It was the reason Zeus did not turn every child of his immortal. It was the reason Hades did not simply raise his children from the dead. Because fighting fate was like trying to escape quicksand - the more you struggle, the worse it gets.

That was one of the reasons she was so envious of mortals - they only lived once, and they knew it. Whether it was ancient Greece or modern-day America, they were aware of their mortality, and they lived each day as if it were their last.

Take Orpheus, for example. His wife Eurydice had died, and instead of mourning as Artemis did, he marched over to the underworld, coaxed his way into the palace of Hades, and requested an audience. Mind you, this was Hades, a being so immensely powerful he could end Orpheus with but a wave of his hand. And guess what Orpheus did? He asked, no, he demanded a way to bring his wife back, and Hades had granted that request.

And Orpheus was just one of many. The most recent example was Percy Jackson and the daughter of Athena. What was her name? Anna? Annabelle? Ah, that was it - Annabeth. The girl had fallen to the depths of Tartarus, and the son of Poseidon was so stupid, so brazen, as to jump in after her. And then they had the audacity, the nerve to walk where even gods would never dare to tread.

They had tricked Nyx, a goddess even the king of the gods feared. They fought alongside Titans and Giants, beings who anyone with a right mind would be terrified of. They drank from the river of fire, plunged into the river of misery, and escaped across the river of pain.

And they were alive.

Such feats, no matter how awe inspiring, only served to distress Artemis further, It was a reminder that she was limited by fate, unable to tempt it and challenge it as heroes so openly did.

So when a hunter died, she would be devastated. Nobody would see her, for putting on an emotionless mask is mere child's play for a goddess such as herself, but inside, her heart would break.

When Zoë had died, the stone-cold facade threatened to slip. It was stone-cold, but not as sturdy as stone. If you were to look closely, you could see tears begging to escape the confines of her eyes, you could see the trembling of her hands, you could see the way her very being threatened to curl up into a fetal position and weep.

But she couldn't. She wouldn't. Artemis often wondered if it would have been better to never have created the hunters at all, to spare them from a fate that she could not protect them from. But she couldn't bear not to.

Was it greedy? Maybe. But Artemis did it all the same.

So when she found Thalia in her tent with an arrow protruding out of her neck, her mask slipped. She openly wept, for the first time in her immortal life, wailing and crying and letting all the emotions that she had pent up out.

It wasn't fair. Normally, she would at least get a few decades, in some cases centuries, before the hunters died. Partial immortality could save them from the faults of a mortal body, but it would not make them invulnerable.

But Thalia was dead, only a few years after joining the hunt.

Artemis put her hand to Thalia's neck. It was freezing cold; Thalia had been dead for a long time.

In her hand, Artemis realised, was a crumpled up note. She unfolded it with trembling fingers, her heart heavy with dread. As she read the words penned on the parchment, she realised that the words were not written with ink, but rather, water from the Styx.

It was sworn no more would be birthed. But lust and greed prevailed, as they always do. Thalia Grace should never have been born.

LINE BREAK

Reyna thought that the pain Jason had caused her was over.

Granted, it wasn't his fault, but that didn't make it any less painful for Reyna.

She had fought alongside him during the siege of Othrys, she had been there with him as he was promoted to praetor, raised on a shield, she had been a constant in his life from the moment she stepped into it. And how was she rewarded?

By watching him come back with a daughter of Venus wrapped around his finger.

To be fair to Jason, he hadn't meant to hurt Reyna. He hadn't deliberately sought to cause her pain, but intentional or not, he had broke her heart - and now he had shattered it.

Venus had told her that no demigod shall heal your heart, but what she hadn't told Reyna was the fact that a demigod would break her heart. That a demigod was the reason that her heart needed to be healed in the first place.

And now, his body was smoking, charred and beaten near the barracks. Reyna held back a sob. Even in death, Jason had managed to hurt her.

But how? That was the question. How had a son of Jupiter fallen to lightning? Reyna had seen Jason command lightning, be rejuvenated by it, and now it killed him?

Simply put, Reyna didn't know how that was possible.

And more importantly, why? Why were the fates so cruel? To put Jason through hardships, to risk his life time and time again, only to kill him the moment he was happy?

Reyna couldn't fathom the cruelty of fate. It seemed as though every time Jason found a moment of peace or happiness, it was snatched away from him. She remembered the battles they fought together, the dangers they faced, and the losses they endured. Yet, through it all, Jason remained determined to do what was right.

She remembered his honorary title - Pontifex Maximus. He had been so determined to honour the gods who weren't respected, to make the world a better place. He was so selfless it was annoying. Jason had been under no obligation to help honour the minor gods, but he did so anyway.

Why did the gods even let him die? Was his father not Jupiter Maximus, the king of Olympus? How could an all powerful deity let his own son die?

Reyna didn't know.

Even though his body was smoking, his right hand seemed almost unaffected. She realised that there was something inside of it. A note.

Although Jason's body was smoking, the note felt cool to the touch.

She unfolded it. The message was written in Latin.

He swore never to leave. He abandoned her and now his own father has abandoned him. Jason Grace should never have been taken.

LINE BREAK

As Will Solace made his way through the rubble-strewn streets of the once bustling roads of New Rome, his heart clenched with dread. The aftermath of the earthquake had left the city ravaged.

He prayed to his Apollo for strength as he pressed forward, his eyes scanning the destruction for any signs of life.

Or rather, any signs of Nico.

His boyfriend had gone to New Rome to visit Hazel.

"It'll be fine," Nico had said. "I can take care of myself."

If only Will hadn't been so foolish as to listen to him.

When Will had heard about the earthquake, he had instantly Iris Messaged Nico, and then Hazel, to no avail.

So he had accompanied Frank to go find them.

"So," He said, trying to break the silence. "Where do you think they might be?"

Frank shrugged. "I don't know. Hazel just said she was meeting Nico in the city, nothing else."

"Hm."

It was then that he spotted them, embracing each other amidst the debris. Nico and Hazel lay motionless beneath a collapsed building. Their expressions were deceivingly peaceful for such a violent death.

Will rushed to their side, his healer's instincts kicking in despite the overwhelming grief threatening to consume him. He knelt beside them, hands trembling as he checked for any signs of life, but deep down, he knew it was futile.

Tears welled in Will's eyes as he realised the full extent of the injuries. The pair was dead, no doubt about it.

Frank stood silently, his own eyes filled with tears. "Hazel…" He muttered.

"Is she alive?" Frank asked. He looked so hopeful that Will couldn't bear to shatter his friend's last glimmer of hope. But the truth had to be faced.

Will's throat tightened. "I'm sorry, Frank," he whispered, his voice choked with emotion. "They're gone."

A strangled sob escaped Frank's lips as he sank to his knees beside them, his hands trembling as he reached out to touch Hazel's lifeless form. "No..." he murmured, his voice thick with grief.

With trembling hands, Will reached out to gently close their eyes, offering a silent prayer to Hades. As he did so, his fingers brushed against something crumpled in Nico's hand.

A note.

The son of Hades' hand was extremely cold. Will frowned. His hands felt like ice. That wasn't… that wasn't natural. Will slowly unfolded the note and read it silently.

He made an oath and broke it. He promised to move on, but brought a sibling from the past. Nico di Angelo should never have broken his oath.

Frank silently unfolded a note of his own. "Hey," he said to Will. "It's Greek. I can't read this."

Will hadn't even registered that he was reading in Greek. "Give it here. I'll read it aloud."

"She should not have left. She should never have been a hero. Hazel Levesque should never have lived, so she will never walk the earth again."

LINE BREAK

For probably the first time in his 18 years of life, Percy Jackson was content. And, to be fair, he had good reason to be. There were less and less monster attacks, there was no war to fight, and no big bad that was somehow related to him trying to enslave the world.

His mom had married Paul the summer before, and Percy couldn't be more happy for her. Jason had proposed to Piper soon after, and wedding preparations were underway. Percy had been hoping to pop the big question to Annabeth as soon as humanly (demigodly?) possible. He just needed a ring, and he could propose.

Annabeth Chase. She was the most important person in Percy's life. The perfect girlfriend, and as far as the son of Poseidon was concerned, the perfect human being. It had been two years since the second Gigantomachy, and the pair had only grown closer in that time.

The sun was shining brightly, without a cloud in sight, yet it wasn't overbearing. Perfect. That was the only word to describe life in his mind. Perfect.

Percy sighed happily. Life was good.

Almost too good, was the rational thought at the back of his head. And the unfortunate thing was, whenever something seemed to good to be true, it was, especially in the life of a demigod, and especially in the life of Percy Jackson.

It'll be fine, Percy thought. I'm just paranoid.

He could have sworn he heard the fates laugh at his naivety.

"Percy!"

He was shook out of his thought by Annabeth. She leapt into his awaiting arms. "How have you been?"

He responded with a peck on the lips. "Better now that you're here."

She laughed. "You're too corny."

The demigod wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "But you love me for it."

"You're right about that, at least. C'mon, Chiron said that there's a meeting at the Big House."

Percy frowned. "Why would we need to meet at the Big House?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Beats me. Chiron just told me to call you."

The demigod held his girlfriend's hand. "Well, lets go!"

She grinned. "Race you there!"

"You're on."

The couple laughed as they ran towards the Big House.

The atmosphere at the Big House was heavy with tension as Percy and Annabeth, arrived. Clarisse was fiddling with her spear apprehensively while Chris whispered something to her. The Stolls were uncharacteristically quiet. Drew was sitting in Piper's place, citing that she was too occupied with wedding planning. But she didn't have the normal vain look that she usually had. She looked almost… solemn.

Percy exchanged a worried glance with Annabeth before they approached Chiron. "What's going on?" Percy asked.

The centaur raised his arms in a placating gesture. "I will address the group as a whole."

Chiron stood, his expression grave as he addressed the group of demigods.

"We have gathered here today in the wake of unspeakable tragedy," Chiron began. "The deaths of Thalia, Jason, Hazel, and Nico have shaken us all to our core."

His first thought was Piper. Oh gods, she had been so excited planning the wedding. What would they tell her? That her fiancé was just… dead?

Jason was dead. He would never get married. And Thalia? He wasn't as close to her as Annabeth, but he was still saddened by the loss. Hazel and Nico, too - two more people who didn't deserve to die, who shouldn't have died. Percy's mind raced, trying to process the losses.

"What?" Percy said. "This- this is a joke, right?"

"I'm afraid not, my boy. Someone, or something, has taken the lives of these four heroes."

Annabeth's grip on his hand tightened, her pained expression probably mirroring his.

They were dead. Thalia, who had gotten eternal life just to die. Jason, who had just wanted to make the world a better place. Nico, who was just a kid. Hazel, who never got to truly live, even after living twice.

"But how?" Connor Stoll asked. Percy had been wondering the same thing. How had one person managed to kill four powerful kids of the Big Three?

"We don't know," Chiron answered. "All that's left are notes."

Percy felt a surge of anger mixed with sorrow. "Who could have done this?" he demanded. It didn't occur to him to ask what the notes said.

Chiron shook his head solemnly. "That, my boy, is what we aim to find out. But for now, we must mourn the fallen and prepare ourselves for whatever may come next."

"Nevermind how," came the voice of Travis. "Why?"

Katie frowned. "I mean, they're all kids of the Big Three? That's got to count for something, right?"

Murmurs rippled through the table of troubled demigods.

"It is clear that someone is targeting the children of the gods, and Percy, you are undoubtedly the next target."

The murmurs became full-on shouting at Chiron's words.

"Me?" Percy's throat felt hoarse and dry. "Why me?"

Why me? It was the story of his life. Why was he subject to the Great Prophecy, or the Prophecy of The Seven? Why was he supposed to be at the forefront of two wars? Why was it always Percy Jackson.

"Yeah," Chris Rodriguez said. "Why does it have to be Percy?"

Nods of agreement rippled through the crowd. Clarisse nodded along with her boyfriend. "I agree. Prissy shouldn't have to be targeted like this."

Chiron sighed. He looked as old as he actually was - that is, about three thousand years old. "I do not like any of my students to be in harms way like this. But unfortunately, what I want does not matter in the eyes of the Moirai."

The old centaur unfolded a note. It was icy cold, and written in Greek. He passed it to Percy. You cannot run from me, Perseus. I will end you as I ended your friends.

Percy felt a mix of emotions swirling within him - fear, anger, and a deep sense of loyalty. "I don't know why this is happening," he said quietly, "but I won't let anyone else get hurt because of me."

Because that was what it always boiled down to for Percy Jackson. The fact that he would rather kill himself before putting his friends in danger. He pondered what Athena had said all those years ago. You do not know when it is time to cut your losses. To save a friend, you would sacrifice the world.

Too often, he wondered if she was right.

Annabeth squeezed his hand tighter, her expression one of fierce determination. "We'll figure this out together," she said firmly.

Because that was what Annabeth Chase did. She kept him grounded.

He offered her a soft smile. "Yeah. Together."

"C'mon," Annabeth said. "Let's go."

As Percy got up, he was met with an headache, as if someone had been punching it repeatedly for hours on end.

He stretched and turned to look at Annabeth.

Annabeth. Percy didn't know what to do about her. He loved her, more so than anyone else, but that just meant he was even less willing to put her in danger, even if that meant leaving her.

She took his hand and smiled at him, but her eyes conveyed a silent message: don't even think about it.

With a sigh, he walked out of the Big House with his girlfriend.

He felt a clap on his back. Percy turned to see Chris. "Hey man." He said. "How have you been?"

"Better than you, probably. You look like you've just seen Tartarus."

Chris immediately winced at his choice of words. "I'm sorry dude, I didn't meant to-"

Percy held up a hand to silence. "It's alright. We're fine."

Going through Tartarus left its mark on his body, but despite what many thought, he and Annabeth didn't break down at the mention of the word, nor did they have downright debilitating nightmares. Though, sometimes, the nightmares did get bad enough for Annabeth to put on her Yankees cap and sneak to the Poseidon cabin to Percy.

Tartarus was horrible, but since they were demigods, their minds were more suited for survival in such a harsh and cruel environment. A mortal's mind would've broken within seconds down there.

But Percy felt he wasn't giving them enough credit. Most demigods would have been broken within a few hours there too. Annabeth and Percy were just more resilient when it came to each other. He had no doubt that if they didn't each other, they wouldn't have made it alone.

That didn't mean the effects weren't there, they were. They were just a little more subtle. There were things like the fact that Annabeth was a little more protective over Percy and vice versa. Then there was the whole thing with them spending hours alone together behind closed doors. Rumours flew, and some were correct, but a good portion of them were wrong.

Percy was taken out of his thoughts when he saw Will.

He knew something was wrong when the blonde son of Apollo came marching up to him with an angry look on his face.

"Percy, what the Hades is wrong with you?!" He exclaimed.

Percy stared at him with a dumbfounded expression, he hadn't done anything to upset Will, he hadn't done anything to upset anyone really. In fact, he was fairly certain that he had been doing the exact opposite.

"What?" Percy asked as he came to a stop.

"I know you did this, don't play dumb!" Will accused.

"I don't know what 'this' is, so calm down and tell me what happened."

Will pulled his arrow quiver around and showed Percy the arrows. Every single arrow was wrapped in a grey wrap, which he recognised as duct tape. Then he realised that the duct tape had been taped in a way that the adhesive was facing outwards, which meant all the arrows were stuck together.

Percy stared at the arrows before looking up at Will, "I didn't do that."

Annabeth interjected. "Leave Percy alone!"

"Percy, almost every arrow quiver in the armoury is like this!" Will said in a frustrated tone, "Just because I scored you low on archery didn't mean you needed to go and do this."

Percy knew what he was talking about. Will had scored him the lowest of his class and gave him a note that he was slowing down in improvement. It angered him, but he certainly wouldn't do this over that.

"I didn't do this, Will!" Percy defended himself, "I couldn't have done this! I was asleep for the past few hours, you can check with Chiron!"

"Oh, you didn't do this?" Will asked, "Then explain where you where last night after I graded you."

Now, Percy could have told Will that he was praying to Athena for her blessing to marry Annabeth, but she was right there, and that would ruin the surprise…

"That's none of your business." Percy said, "I can tell you it wasn't so I could come and do this."

"I can't believe you, Percy." Will shook his head while pinching the bridge of his nose, "I'm going to have to cancel archery practice today because of this. Thanks a lot."

"Will!" Percy called as the son of Apollo walked off.

"Leave him be," Annabeth said. "He's probably still sad about Nico."

Oh gods. Nico. The young boy who was just figuring out who he was was dead. The son of Poseidon just couldn't wrap his head around it. Who, or what, had killed his friends? And why were they now after him?

Percy sighed as he was left standing at the steps of the Big House. That whole conversation left a sour taste in his mouth. He knew he didn't do what Will was accusing him of doing.

He didn't know why Will came to blame him specifically, there were plenty of other people at camp who would've done that sort of thing. To Percy, the duct tape looked like some sort of prank, and if Percy knew the Hermes kids, they were definitely prime suspects. Either way, he figured there wasn't any point in tracking down Will just to speculate, the guy was already dead set on accusing him. He had much more things to worry about.

"Hey." Annabeth said. "Where were you last night?"

Percy gave a lop-sided grin. "You'll find out soon enough."

"I'd better," Annabeth said, "You keep going off to random places at random times, and I want to know why."

"You will. Soon."

Annabeth groaned. "You're so annoying."

"Just for you."

It seemed like everything would be alright. No matter who died, or was annoyed with him for some unknown reason, Percy always had Annabeth.

Until she dropped to the floor, mouth agape in a silent scream.

And that's a wrap! I know, cliffhanger and all that jazz. I'll post another chapter in like, a week tops. This will be a Kane Chronicles and PJO/HoO crossover, so yeah, there's that I guess.

Anyways, I'm gonna do trivia each chapter with answers on the next. First question: What are the names of Annabeth's step-siblings?

Please review, it's always appreciated.

Over and out!