All rights belong to Rick Riordan

A Game A Long Time Coming

(Percy)

As I sat at Reyna's chair with Nemea's head on my lap it was with some amusement that I studied the two girls in front of me, noting the contrast between the pair. Thalia was almost unnaturally enthusiastic as she finished putting her shoes on and straightening the rest of her apparel out.

Reyna however looked like death warmed up as she sat up with her knees to her chest under a duvet cover. In contrast to Thalia who was already awake by the time I arrived, Reyna had clearly no idea I was coming to collect the Daughter of Zeus. By the way she elicited a quiet scream in fear before burrowing in the covers, I had strong suspicions she was not wearing a lot beneath the sheet judging by her bare shoulder and arm that were exposed displaying no sign of a strap. I had of course averted my eyes immediately, curiosity aside I respected their personal decisions.

Of course I had no evidence as to what the two girls got up to in their intimate moments, but it was still surprising how quickly the pair had embraced their newfound sexuality. Then again was I any different recently? One thing could lead to another very quickly after all in the bedroom. Especially when the daughters of Zeus were seemingly involved.

What was more surprising to me however was the fact that it looked like someone had set off a paperwork bomb in the room. Something that the destroyed desk and claw gouges in the floor told me was Nemea's fault. Nemea however was acting as if nothing was wrong now however as she purred happily as I scratched between her brows. The hunters found the lioness better when she was in her cub form and easily able to be carried as I she was a normal cat. But I always preferred this 'normal' sized form best, because to be honest I still found the concept of having a pet lion pretty awesome even after almost two years.

Her larger form was definitely awesome in a fight or for intimidation purposes but so impractical for day to day purposes. Besides her food consumption was ridiculous providing annoying Praetor idiots were not in readily available supply.

"Ready when you are Seaweed Brain." Thalia said at last causing me to turn and face the hunter who was smiling back at me.

"Why am I not sure if I should be happy or terrified that you are smiling?" I commented sarcastically as the girl rolled her eyes.

"For once Percy things don't involve you. You're not allowed to play again this time after all."

"I don't see why not." I grumbled, the truth was I would much rather take part in this unbalanced 'battle' than sit on the side-lines like a heavily armed cheerleader. Surrounded by a bunch of curious or envious immortals. The truth was that it seemed half of Olympus was planning on turning up, apparently the prospect of the hunters standing a chance of losing was gathering quite the audience.

I had been up all night without rest thanks to my fiancées arguing about wedding planning. How two people that were basically the same person could squabble so much about the smallest things was beyond me. Well until I tried to make a comment at which point they united as if some unspoken rule between them was in effect. After three hours of this they finally got bored for the time being and then went back to final preparations for the game.

Of course apart from the Hunters there was the matter of a few 'unofficial' members that had covertly arrived during the night and been snuck into the city unannounced.

I had to give it to the Amazon Queen sneaking almost a dozen heavily armed girls into a weapon free city under the noses of the Legion and Terminus was impressive in its own right. Three disassembled chariots and automaton horses to suit was taking the cake. Turns out your Amazon Prime subscription can include smuggling services I guess, of course the godly mailman claimed the delivery note said it was just marked down as late Christmas gifts. Of course the 50 Drachma that Hylla slipped into his pocket was just a tip as well for a job well done.

Though I doubted she had to place her hands in his pants to do so and the sudden colour of red his skin turned as she whispered something to into his ear gave away there was something between the pair.

Still not everything had gone according to plan, Zoe's new reinforced bow wasn't ready so she would have to go without for the time being. Still it was not as if someone who could punch through armour plates was useless on the battlefield.

"Reyna I will find see you later, don't you worry about that." Thalia said practically skipping over to me and grabbing my hand from it place on the Lioness's head who growled at the sudden lack of attention as she opened her eyes.

"Easy girl, you going to be ok until the game starts Reyna?" I asked the other girl.

"I will send her back once the game starts, I will have Aurum and Argentum back then. You know I am not going to go easy on you Thalia, I have every advantage…" Clearly she was not aware of the numbers increase on our side then.

"We will see about that Praetor, see you on the battlefield." Thalia told her calmly cutting her off as I got the hint and shadow travelled us both back out of there to the Hunter's house.

Even at this time of the morning I could sense most of the hunters up and about as they completed preparations.

"Is Lady Artemis here yet?" Thalia asked.

"Diana is, Artemis will be around 6 I imagine." I replied sensing the Roman aspect in the kitchen below with a demi-Titan that was obviously Zoe. However just as I said it the goddess left the building.

"Can you take me to her please, Artemis I mean, I want to speak to her." She said looking at her feet as she nervously shuffled them.

"Isn't that what I am here for, providing taxi services?" I joked as I placed my hand back on her shoulder. I was going back there next anyway. With the addition of the amazons the ratio of male to females was too much for me to handle, it was like they wanted Diana to slap a collar on me and drag me off to the nearest available room. Something that I would probably not argue about all things considered, were it not for the likely consequences from her counterpart.

(Artemis)

"Artemis… Anybody home?" I loosely heard Percy say as he returned to the chariot before waving his hand in front of my face. However I was 'distracted' to say the least.

'Are you going to ignore him all day?' Diana asked sharply only to be ignored as well.

'You know, that I know that you are looking at my memories right now of course. Or would you like the narration to go with them? Because I can promise you doing it is better than being a voyeur.' She added teasingly as I suddenly snapped back to reality quickly rubbing my face with my hands. It doing nothing to hide the fact that my skin was heating up and changing colour in embarrassment.

"Oh sorry I was just thinking about you…" I barely stammered out and instantly regretted my choice of words for sounding so… desperate.

'Well one part of you in particular.'

"Will you shut up about that already? It is not as if I go out looking for alternate ways to have sex like you did, besides it is not as if I have a fascination with his peni-." It was at this moment I realised first I was speaking out loud and second that we were not alone. For a few seconds as I stood there looking at Thalia in horror no one even breathed. The moon chariot might as well have been as devoid of life as the celestial body itself.

To be honest I was quite tempted to just crash it into the earth, it would have been far less awkward to explain.

"Anyway… Let's just pretend that we just heard nothing that was just said." Percy said nodding his eyes wide with somewhat embarrassed shock still.

"Thalia not a word or I can him give the play by play of what you got up to last night." I threatened immediately as the other girl hurriedly nodded in affirmation. I was already half considering getting rid of that part of the hunters bond with myself. It was like an alarm going in my head every time they so much as touched each other.

"Wait how detailed is that?" Percy asked half curiously, though I was sure he was not being serious. The truth was not that accurate normally, generally who and what. The problem was because the other party was also a Huntress I got the other end of the feedback as well from Diana's side now that we shared. So basically the only way I could have known more was if someone had shown me a video.

"Seaweed Brain!" Thalia cried in horror.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Besides now is not the time maybe later… That was a joke Thalia before you threaten to kill yourself." I told her smiling as I saw her looking over the edge as if considering jumping.

"Of course it was. She only blurts out our own secrets to everyone else." Percy teased back sarcastically.

'Hahaha… You really are your own worst enemy."

'You are my worst enemy, this is all your fault in the first place. Try and keep your clothes on for once and this would not happen."

"You cannot talk about that very much about keeping them on, thank you. Not my fault you just don't know what to do when you get to that point. As you saw he was not exactly saying no, because I sure as hades wasn't." She retorted smugly as I growled with frustration. This was technically my fault for creating that promise to wait until the Wedding. She had just been better at finding a work around than I had. Now that I had closed that door the only one who was suffering was me really. All I had was someone else's memories of the incident. Which was only making it worse.

"Sooo Lady Artemis about being your Lieutenant again?" Thalia asked nervously breaking me out of my self-loathing long enough to immediately summon the diadem to hand and place it in her hand without another word.

"That's it? I didn't even say yes." Thalia asked in shock staring at the silver circlet.

"What was you expecting a job interview? Do I really look like I want to be having a conversation about the direction we should be taking in the near future right now? If you want more than that speak to me tomorrow when we get the hell out of that stupid city. I knew I avoided the original Rome for a reason; it is just one problem after another in that place. It feels like we have been there forever, rather than just over a week." I cursed venting some of my pent up aggression. The truth was it had just been an uncharacteristically manic part of my long life that strange as was for a three thousand year to admit seemed to be dragging on now.

Out in the wilds one year could pass into a decade and I would not notice except for the change in scenery as Olympus moved. But around others, I and now Percy could not help but become embroiled in everyone else's problems. I was an expectant mother, wasn't I supposed to get the attention! And to cap matters off I was only halfway through this damned pregnancy.

Why do other goddess's put up with this cycle of constantly having demigods one after the other? Do they enjoy being emotional wrecks, wracked by hormone problems all the time or do they think it staves off boredom all the time? One thing was for certain after this one was done, Percy better not want more children for a good few millennia. Not that I was stopping the act that leads to children of course. Just a bit more precaution was needed when doing so…

'I know you are thinking about sex again.'

'How can you know that?' I snapped back angrily.

'Because you just told me, you make this too easy.' Diana said laughing in my head as I wanted to cry. Six months and I had gone from a proud if somewhat solitary goddess to the laughing stock of everyone around me.

I could point the finger at Percy, Diana or that whore Aphrodite as much as I wanted but the truth was I still somewhat enjoyed it. If I was able to go back before this charade began and undo it all would I? How far would I need to go? Yes most of these problems had arrived at the same time as Percy but things had been rough before that, in reality the last time things had been stable was almost a decade ago. Before even hints of the Titan rising began when we were all convinced that everything was peaceful.

In perspective Percy was eight and completely oblivious of the divine world that was about to envelope him within a few short years. And yet he made it through every trial thrown at him with nothing but a few scathing if somewhat witty comments to us Olympians… And a long line of corpses in his wake. We gods were probably the only beings on this planet that did not wish for our offspring to surpass us, so perhaps that was why he was most surprising because he did just that against all the odds.

And yet was different in this situation than had been between the first generation gods and the Titans? History is bound to repeat after all, the only difference this time was that there was no real animosity between Percy and either gods or Titans. Take him back out of the equation and how long would things last?

Perhaps that was why he had thrown himself into his recent proposal so much. To step back from being involved so much in the affairs of demigods. His problem was that the older demigods especially the Greeks still saw him as one of them and in a way he still did as well. However as a result he could not help but get involved when he saw they needed help. Which of course was not helping the six get off their asses currently, as he was doing their job for them.

So perhaps overseen self-governance was the best course of action, true I was biased because it was fundamentally based on the Hunters as a model. The only difference being that the Senior Camper, Praetor, Amazon Queen, whatever. Was not immortal like my Lieutenants were which is why the gods of Heroes were essential, they would provide insight and assistance as to maintain continuity. And if need be in the worst situation Veto what Percy called 'stupidity'. The fact there was three Romans and three Greeks was good and that Jason and Piper were separate, was even better.

Failing that, then things could escalate upwards to delegated Olympians for each group. Myself for the Hunters obviously, Mars for the Romans, Dionysius for the Greeks currently (Athena would then take over when his punishment was up, which was a little over a decade now). The amazons were initially a problem to consider but the easiest thing would be myself and Ares would have joint authority as we were the two immortals they worshiped most. And to keep him happy everyone answered to our father.

Of course that still left out two groups Camp Fish-Blood and potentially the demi-Titans. The first was not so much a problem due to the very little interaction they had with the other groups and besides they ultimately reported to Poseidon anyway, something my father could not complain about. The second for the time being at least was a moot point because the only known demi-Titan was currently a Hunter.

If there should be a time when there was a sufficient number of them, then we would take them into account. For the time being however it was likely considered they could join whichever group they wanted. As long as they did not cause problems, and nor did their parents.

'Are you ever going to notice that they had left? Or are you going to keep looking into space blankly for the rest of the day?'

"What are you on about…" I replied breaking out of my thoughts and looking around the chariot sure enough I was alone again.

'About fifteen minutes ago, they did try speaking to you but you had gone oblivious.'

"Dear gods I am catching it from him." I complained under my breath as I hurriedly returned back to the city below.

(Percy)

"You know I thought it was just me that spaced out when others were talking to me." I teased smiling as Artemis sat across from me at the table.

"Well what can I say you have not managed to monopolize all of the stupidity in the world." She groaned though there was a small smile on her face as she did so. Still it was rare for Artemis to admit to any form of self-weakness so I took the small complaint.

"What were you thinking about by the way?" I inquired taking a sip of coffee. Fortunately unlike most Olympians I did know my way around a kitchen and know to operate a kettle, though some of the Amazons thought it was amusing as I stood there staring at the appliance waiting for it to boil.

"Just you know the future and things... Wedding things you know stuff like that." She added and I would have believed her, could I not see the shade of red her cheeks turned. Considering Diana was gone, it was easy to work out that they had joined together.

Which meant she had Diana's memories of what happened the other night of course. Still she was not trying to castrate me for it, so I would take this course of reaction quite happily.

"Lady Artemis a pleasure to meet you." Hylla said politely bowing her head a little having walked back into the room followed shortly thereafter by Zoe and Thalia. The demi-Titan had been out all night making preparations under the cover of darkness, however she was not showing any signs of being tired. She had told Diana that it was probably one of the benefits of being a true demi-Titan child of the Lord of Endurance.

"The pleasure is mine Queen Hylla, it has been many centuries since I last paid your people a visit. I am honestly surprised you accepted our request for help." Artemis told her sincerely standing up.

"You are a busy goddess and some of our 'practices' don't exactly match up with your Hunters lifestyle. But you do represent the dream our people have in early life. Sadly we generally then focused on Lord Ares for support in our later lives." Hylla explained politely.

"Even if he does occasionally get his ass handed to him by a twelve year old boy." She added as I sat there chuckling only to stop as the four women glared at me. Suddenly my coffee became a lot more interesting.

"You know I never understood why you kept worshiping Ares rather than choose Athena as a goddess of War?" Thalia asked as the older woman looked across at her.

"Athena? To uptight for starters. We fight for the sake of it, or when it would benefit us. She sees the usefulness of the war and how to handle it most efficiently to get the best result. Where is the fun in that? Besides as a virgin goddess she would be against us taking what we want from the men we defeated, yes? No offence by the way Lady Artemis." She added looking across at the goddess who merely sighed.

"Not as if I intentionally lost that title." She said wistfully as I automatically felt somewhat guilty even if it was not intentional.

"Anyway as the father of our founder and more than a few of our followers over the years. Ares is a lot easier to deal with." Hylla concluded.

"I am still amazed you managed to stay hidden from us and Camp Half-Blood?" Thalia commented next, after all she had been 'busy' when the Queen initially arrived.

"As Artemis admitted she never came near us and why would Greeks be in Seattle? The Romans knew of us but like with our ancestors stayed clear to avoid getting their asses kicked. As I am sure Reyna has mentioned this city haemorrhages money, who do you think it ends up with in the end? As it currently stands our mortal side venture earns enough each year to buy some countries. We already own half of this city in some way or another, how else would we be able to sneak under Terminus's nose?"

"I thought that was the benefit of sleeping with Hermes." Artemis mentioned offhandedly causing the Amazon Queen to turn crimson as Thalia's head shot around to look at her. Zoe for her part didn't even flinch; then again Artemis did describe the Amazons as being the 'unofficial Promiscuous version of the hunters' previously. She had probably seen such relationships in the past.

"We… urrr. Have an arrangement of sorts, one that is profitable for all parties involved. How do you know that?" The now very embarrassed Amazon commented trying to uphold a smile.

"He is my half-brother who is best friends with my twin-brother. I could probably tell you the names of everyone important they have ever slept with. When you are stuck in council meetings you listen to anything that sounds more interesting than my father. For interest at least two of your amazons have slept with Apollo in the last few years. Quite the night it was apparently, Kinzie or Kensi something like that I think one of them. Not important." Artemis explained shrugging her shoulders as Hylla looked back in horror, meanwhile I was thinking (correctly) if it was the same one who had been interested in me. At the back of the room one of the amazons suddenly needed to excuse herself and ran for the exit giving everyone a very good idea of the second one.

"I am fourty-two years old, I can do as I wish goddess." Hylla shot back defensively as I hurriedly did the math. Of course it was easy to forget that like Reyna she was also temporarily immortal on Circe's isle, so even now she still only appeared in her early to mid-twenties. Which was still significantly older looking than the rest of the people in the room. Hades Thalia was biologically fifteen (and three hundred and sixty four days.) Myself and Artemis were eighteen either legitimately or not and Zoe was somewhere in between. So the Amazoness was technically the only visible adult in the room.

"Anyhow, you have got four hours to be ready and on the Field of Mars. So as fascinating as this to watch, I would suggest you get back on tangent." I suggested before taking another sip of coffee to escape the glares being directed at me.

Nevertheless it seemed to have reminded the girls of their priorities as for the next fourty minutes they all focused on the task in hand. While I was put to use providing beverages. Which was why for the second time this week I was terrifying the poor Barista down the road, buying one for Artemis. The two mortals in the corner did not seem disturbed by my arrival, though they were facing away so perhaps they did not recognise me.

I had to inwardly curse at the fact that I must be the poorest immortal though. Everyone else had thousands of years of worship and offerings to support them.

Me I was lucky my clothes self-cleaned and repaired.

Even the gods of Heroes had more than me. Hazel was a walking piggy bank that supplied her boyfriend and her very grateful brother's needs. Piper's dad was rich in the mortal world and you could exchange mortal money at the camps for Drachma's. Leo made and sold stuff on Olympus and Jason was spoiled by two Olympians when he wanted something and was turned down he would ask their spouse who would buy it to get back at the other.

Me… I used my most valuable possessions to fly, and I wasn't feeling like plucking myself. Sure I could very easily just do as Perseus did and rob or scam people but that was… wrong I guess.

"You look troubled dear." A gentle voice said from behind me as I turned and found myself looking down at a vaguely familiar young girl, however she seemed to be making an effort to conceal her identity as she was wearing a woolly hat, scarf and sunglasses a combination that in the relatively warm weather outside was more suspicious than appropriate.

Of course I instantly knew it was a goddess, but it still took me a few seconds to identify them despite the disguise. It helped that she was about two foot shorter than me giving me a good indicator; goddesses that went around in the guise of children were not exactly common.

"Hello Hestia."

"Perseus, Sorry you prefer to be called Percy. The other one is running around here somewhere with that other son of Poseidon." She said as I raised an eyebrow and took a breath, even the Olympians knew he was probably causing chaos, the fact that Chrysaor was with him was not making things easier. Two morally dubious idiots in cahoots, just what I needed to improve my already shredded reputation.

"Please tell me they have not done something, if so I am really sorry…"

"No no nothing of the sort, I met them by accident trying to find you." She explained cutting me off as I sighed in relief.

"So what can I do for you, as I doubt it was to find out where I buy coffees, which I am still waiting for!" I said a little louder noticing the Barista had stopped and was listening in on conversation. Suddenly he became very quick to get on with it.

"Rose here is alright even if he does gossip like an old woman. No I was wondering how you were doing with everything recently. None of this can be that easy on you. Artemis is getting the attention as she was the one no one ever expected to fall in love, let alone get pregnant. I was ranked as more likely for heaven's sake. But she has everyone at her beck and call if she wants it."

"Mostly me, or that is what it feels like." I replied wearily punctuating it with a sigh as I lowered my head.

"And that is why some of us are worried about you. Even my brothers are working together towards what they can do for you. The problem is you don't ask for anything, so everyone is at a loss. Artemis won't ask us herself because she perceives it as weakness on her part. You have to remember that her own perception of being pregnant is from her own mother's ordeal. Where Leto was alone and hounded by Hera's rage. She likely thinks that she must be the same and struggle through without help. Sure she has you and the hunters, but does she ever confide in them her own innermost problems?"

"Most of the time I don't think she and Diana tell each other." I conceded simply waiting as my drinks finally arrived and waiting for 'Gino' to disappear down the other end of the counter out of earshot.

"Let me guess their respective flaws causing them both to argue non-stop about things… Or rather someone?" She said pulling her scarf down her face enough so that I could see the sly smile on her young face. It was very easy to forget that the young girl in front of me was the eldest Olympian.

"Perhaps, I am just trying to keep them both from strangling each other, whilst avoiding getting strangled by both of them if you understand me."

"You are in the unfortunate situation where both aspects want to outdo the other because neither wants to concede defeat to the other. Every other couple amongst the gods began at some point when it was just us Greeks; the Roman sides following on later simply inherited that relationship as part of their identity and history. I imagine things are similar for you and Perseus, as much as he whines about her, he cannot ignore the feelings he has for her either."

"Makes sense so far."

"Good, now you originally fell in love with Diana correct. So from the get go Artemis has always seen herself as a reluctant third wheel and is now lagging behind her counterpart in terms of showing you that affection that Diana is more willing to."

"You know you should be the goddess of psychiatry right."

"The ancient Greeks did not have a word for it; still someone had to hold the rest of the family together. Now in terms of your relationship are they both on equal standing or is Artemis behind her counterpart. Because that girl has never liked lagging behind anyone at anything." If I had taken a sip at that point it would have been all over the goddess in front of me.

"Hestia that is a bit personal and I really need to get back." I stuttered in shock grabbing the little carry tray on the counter.

"Be that as it may but you will probably find it solves a lot of your problems." She said with a sigh before disappearing into a brief flash of flames. The two mortals from the corner were also gone and yet I did not remember them passing by me on the way out of the only exit.

I was beginning to think that the goddess bumping into me was not a coincidence in the slightest. In fact the whole situation seemed to be have been orchestrated.

"Basically what Hestia was saying is that the two of you need to just fuck already, not as if you haven't done it before." The barista commented as I turned to look at him where he stood cleaning a pot out with a rag. However I noticed something had changed, his aura was a lot different.

"I know you… Eros right!" I declared angrily, last time I met this god he spiked my drinks and lead to this problem in the first place. I was half tempted to throw the scalding drinks back at him.

"Don't worry they are just normal drinks and one Nectar. Not like I am going to make that mistake again. I didn't know who you were at the time and Artemis was in disguise, besides I was just following orders from my mother. And look where that got her now..." Eros explained putting the pot back on the side.

"You're lucky I don't cut your head off for almost ruining our lives." I growled back at the god.

"I merely enhanced the feelings you already had for each other, the adversity created as a result however is not my fault. My magic cannot create love where no feelings exist. Admittedly Artemis status as a virgin goddess does cause me some sadness, I unlike my mother actually respected her decision to do so."

"Didn't stop you though." I told him glaring.

"As I said before, I did not know who either of you were at that time, I had my mother telling me and my father threatening. It seemed like an everyone wins situation, I guess I was unfortunately wrong."

"Oh that makes it so much better for us. The only thing good that is coming out of this is the fact that I have two children on the way. Do not think that at some point soon I am just going to forgive you for your part in this. Goodbye Eros and if you meddle in my or my families relationships again you will regret it. Do I make myself clear…" I growled at him loudly noting the slight paleness that overcame his skin before turning around and walking out the door.

For once I did not even feel remotely bad about taking something without paying.

Of course even when I returned back to the Hunter's house problems were plentiful.

Mostly because almost all of the assembled Hunters and Amazons were now pointing an array of weaponry at the Titan occupying the doorway.

Quite literally in fact, as the hulking frame of Atlas would have had to turn sideways to fit through the doorway comfortably, whilst still ducking. Behind him in the street the comparatively smaller figure of my sister looked downright bored as she leaned against a street light absentmindedly picking at her nails with a shorter dagger version of her flamberge.

"I thought we agreed godde- Artemis that I could visit my daughter?" Atlas demanded striking his palm against the wall beside the entrance shaking the whole building slightly.

"No what we agreed that when it was convenient as you can see we are a little busy!" I heard Artemis shout back as she appeared in front of him causing the much larger Titan to back up into the street.

"Besides it has only been less than two weeks since she was reincarnated." Artemis told him stubbornly folding her arms before finally noticing my return.

'Please get rid of this annoying gorilla, he is your 'friend' I guess.' She deplored mentally.

'Have you even considered letting him speak to her out of courtesy. He cannot exactly take her away we would both find him instantly and she would not willingly go. Besides unless you want a full strength hurricane on top of you weapons are not going do to do a lot of good. We both know that Atlas is pretty much immune to most standard weapons and Kym can drown everyone in the house (except Marina and Artemis herself obviously) with a click of her fingers.' I pointed out.

Artemis and Zoe had after all both fought Atlas and managed nothing more than mildly annoying him at the cost of Zoe's life. Looking back Artemis was limited to her bows restricted power at the time. Even in a fair fight Atlas would normally have me beat, were it not the fact my weapons and powers were better than his. Kym was the eldest child of Poseidon and had the power to back it up, it said something when the only person who could subdue her was my father himself.

However before anything could happen however Zoe dropped down seemingly from the roof landing beside her father who actually stood back at her sudden arrival. I don't know which was more surprising, her entrance or the fact that she didn't break her legs after jumping down three stories onto concrete paving. I guess her heritage allowed it, anyone else would be rolling around the floor in agony pulling their knees out of their chest cavity.

"Father would you kindly not make a scene, the last thing you want is to get barred from this city or worse start another war." Zoe told him sternly squaring up to him before poking her finger into his chest causing him to back up again. Never mind the fact that she was at least two and half feet shorter than him but the sight of Atlas backing up from a smaller girl was going down as ammunition for future use.

"Why would I care about starting a war?" Atlas arrogantly retorted defensively noticing the snickering of some of the Hunters and Amazons behind Artemis who was barely holding herself together.

"Because then you would have to fight him." Zoe said succinctly before pointing at me.

From an outside perspective the following few tense seconds could be described as comedy gold as Atlas turned to notice me before we both simultaneously paled at the concept.

"Am I the only mature one here who doesn't plan on killing everyone for once?" Kym said in exasperation whilst rolling her eyes. The irony of who was saying this did eventually sink in to each of us as Atlas took another step back and folded his arms.

"We will speak later if that is ok? dau- Zoe." Atlas said simply before pausing and hastily summoning a large duffel bag and handing it to the girl who took it with surprise. The bag chinked with the unmistakeable sound of metal moving on metal but the girl did not seem overly bothered about the weight so who knows what it was.

"Good luck and make me proud." Atlas said simply before turning and disappearing into light. A few seconds later Kym waved with her still knife holding hand before she too disappeared.

"I think that may have actually been the first time my father has been nice to me in about four thousand years." Zoe said with a somewhat surprised smile on her face turning back towards the house as I made way over and immediately handed the goddess her drink.

"It only took him killing you and then you miraculously coming back to life to get him to do it though." Phoebe surprisingly teased causing the demi-Titaness to smirk and roll her eyes as she 'gently' punched the daughter of Nike in the shoulder on her way past. This was still enough to cause Phoebe to take a step to the side from the blow, still Zoe was unable to see the other girls bite her lip at the pain.

"You did deserve that though." Thalia commented dryly patting her other shoulder as she hurried over and took one of the remaining drinks from me.

It was at that moment that Ares suddenly appeared, almost on top of Thalia, startling almost everyone as he looked around desperately.

"What do you want Ares?" Artemis scolded angrily. The cause of her anger less due to her mood and more at the fact she had dropped her drink.

"That bastard Atlas is here, where is he?" He demanded still looking around and not noticing the increasing angry golden-eyed glaring goddess looking at him.

"Watch your language brother, besides not here anymore unfortunately, otherwise I would enjoy watching him beat you into a pulp." Artemis said surprisingly calmly. Either that or she had transcended rage and was back at coherent.

"I am the god of war, I could defeat him in any fight." He defended like a petulant schoolchild only to confronted with Artemis bursting into laughter.

"Remember when you got beaten up and stuffed in a jar for a decade by those Giant twins? It would be the exact same thing except he would squeeze you into something smaller this time. And I don't think anyone would go looking for you this time. Hell if I found it I would toss it into the ocean with a smile before telling father to deal with it. Now get lost before your most valuable possessions will need to be carried home in a bucket with ice." The goddess threatened as a bronze knife found its way half an inch from the god's privates.

"Artemis I think that is enough, as much as Ares and I don't get on, I don't think anyone wants to see him castrated." I told her putting my hand on her shoulder.

"I don't need your help Jackson to deal with a hormonal goddess who should watch her tongu-." He spat angrily only to be silenced as I raised my arm up level with his face. The four feet gap between us closed further by the sword in my hand.

"Are you willing to bet that your tongue will heal if this cuts it off?" I told him firmly before I slowly brought Maelstrom away from his lips. His breath having cooled on the bi-metal blades tip.

With a knife at his crotch and a sword in his face, the god quickly realised that he should keep his mouth shut before disappearing into light as the hunters hastily turned away.

"Bye dad always good meeting you. Asshole." Tanya spat in annoyance before walking back inside the building the rest of the hunters both real and temporary filed in behind her shortly thereafter.

"Thank you." Artemis whispered sadly placing her body up against mine. Careful not to injure either of us with the weapons we both still held. Dispelling Maelstrom I wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"We are in this together aren't we?" I said trying to sound reassuring as she leaned her head onto my shoulder.

"Then can we both agree to get out of this horrible city as soon as possible. I feel like it is driving me slowly insane. Two weeks and it feels like we have been here for years. I thought Olympus was bad, give me a forest or an open plain any day, people are just so… annoying!" She said in frustration closing her eyes and taking slow breaths.

Something which thankfully meant she failed to notice my alter ego turning the corner not thirty meters away, briefly catching sight of the pair of us before hurriedly grabbing Chrysaor's collar and heading the other way.

However she was not exactly wrong the last two weeks had been horrible to say the least. Sure there had been interesting developments the last few nights from both the goddesses but other than that, there were very few positives to take away from it.

"Now as cute as you two are right now, haven't we got a game to win?" Hylla shouted from the front door hurriedly hiding a camera phone in her jacket and leaping back inside the building as a knife buried itself in the upper door frame.

"I blame Ares influence I really do." Artemis said taking one final deep breath and my coffee before heading after her. Only half pausing to flick the blades handle to make sure it was lodged in tight.

As I looked at my rapidly departing drink, I could help but think of this as karma being hard at work again.

Pushing everything else aside I followed after her, unaware of anything else that had changed whilst I was away. Still an hour or so left hopefully nothing else would change in the mean time.

"Surprising to see you outside Uncle, especially in Winter." Artemis told the Lord of the Dead as we both arrived upon one of several floating viewing platforms.

The problem of course was that with Olympians in attendance, they were never going to 'slum' it with the rest of the mortals down at ground level. Therefore Hephaestus had sent over these prototype floating viewing boxes.

The key term there being prototype.

Somehow when even he and Athena don't sound too confident, it leaves me with concerns.

Sure I could fly and the gods were immortal, the New Romans occupying four of the other ones did not have that luxury.

"Persephone has been nagging me about missing her mother, so this was win-win putting it bluntly." Hades conceded looking around at the group of three goddesses in the corner. If seeing Hades and Persephone out of the underworld in December was surprising, then the sight of an almost terrified Melinoe being fussed over by her grandmother was something completely alien.

Now I had only ever met the younger goddess twice. Once when me, Nico and Thalia retrieved Hades sword and briefly when visiting Nico during one of his war simulations. Both times she freaked me the hell out with the fact she is almost literally half zombie on one side of her body. Not that I would tell her this to her face of course, even Nico claimed to have heard her whispering "Brains" once but I was sure he was joking.

But surprising up here she had either altered her appearance or she actually could appear normal, even if somewhat pale and grey. So freshly dead rather than half mummified.

"And here was me thinking you wanted a family day out… Father." I commented with a grin. After all I was also an adopted son of Hades.

"Don't let my brother hearing you say saying that, I cannot be dealing with the headache again of when he found out the first time."

"You have Neptune as your Father, Lord Hades as your foster father and Zeus as your future father-in-law. Only you can make this family seem weirder Percy you know that." Artemis admitted laughing only to stop as the third one turned up at that very second.

"Why was I not addressed as Lord Zeus, Artemis but Hades was?" Zeus demanded not noticing the numerous pairs of eyes rolling behind him of several of the other Olympians.

"Because I picked a short straw a long time ago. Something about letting my little brother have a go first, not knowing he had already rigged the game." Hades said simply before taking a seat and leaving everyone looking between the pair waiting for something to happen.

However to everyone's surprise the king of the gods actually stayed silent before sitting in the centre Throne besides Hera who had been here for a while. To her right was Vesta, a strangely silent Venus (no scar on her neck), Anna Minerva, three seats for Demeter, Persephone and Melinoe. On this side of him was a seat for Mars, followed by Artemis, Myself, Hades, Hermes, Apollo and finally Hephaestus.

One row below us was six simply chairs for the gods of Heroes.

My father was strangely absent, claiming prior engagements. Or so Triton claimed when he arrived before taking a seat in the other god's enclosure where he had got the misfortune of sitting next to Atlas who had been allowed to watch despite Ares complaints, ironically enough he was overruled by Mars who had the last say in this city.

Still I was pretty sure the Titan could have found another time to be French kissing the goddess next to him, as Triton tried to look away desperately. This was the more realistic reason why my father was not here, to avoid Kym of course. Dionysius chose to be in the other stand with Arachne.

Leaving the current seating plan on this side for the fifteen thrones. Despite two minor goddesses sitting in chairs normally reserved for the fourteen Olympians and myself of course.

Still from our vantage point we could see the entirety of the Field of Mars or rather what was left of it after Artemis's orbital landscaping attempt. Much like the Moon Chariot the stands had magic built into it to allow your eyes to focus on specific details of the battle that was to occur.

Of course one side of the devastated field was occupied by the Roman fort they had built over the last few days.

In front of it was the fast forming ranks of legionnaires by cohort as usual. Reyna could be seen riding backwards and forwards on Scipio giving orders to individual Centurions and Decanuses who would then relay those order to individual members who swiftly complied. At the Pegasus's side were the two untiring automaton figures of Aurum and Argentum easily keeping pace.

Whilst off to one side were the forty or so Greek demigods who were milling about talking to each other and overall looking a lot less professional. The only one who actually looked ready amongst them was the armoured figure of Clarisse who stood at the front with Chris holding her red and black triple maned helmet.

To the rear of the formation was the group that were potentially most worrying to the hunter's individual superiority and mobility advantage. Eleven members of the combined children of Apollo. Who unlike the fights in the past wars, did not have to worry about having to double as battlefield medics and were here purely as Archers.

Individually in an ideal world A hunter was a fair match for an Apollo demigod in archery, especially so in the older hunters case. And Atalanta was quite possibly the greatest non divine archer on the planet due to having the best of both worlds. However the same could not be said of the rest of the newer hunters from the last year or so and especially not the Amazons who had no such blessing at all and were lucky if they could use one even half as competently. Add to that Zoe was out of the running as an archer and problems were compounding on that front.

So on paper the enemy actually had more competent archers than the Hunters for the first time and were therefore the priority target. So of course Reyna knowing this had stuck them behind two hundred other demigods for their own safekeeping.

Finally on top of the forts walls were a pair of manned ballistae.

Against this combined force was arrayed the massive force of… twenty-two hunters and Amazons standing in a single rank looking like they wanted to get this over with as Thalia impatiently picked her nails with an arrow tip. Almost no two individual figures was arrayed the same even amongst the Hunters. Some were also sporting swords and shields, others spears. Morganna was holding a tree branch and even know could be constantly seen chanting under her breath as she weaved some form of magic or another. Poor Marina stood at the back with nothing but a pair of knives as there had simply not been enough time to train her in archery. Though she did have the advantages of advanced hydro-kinesis and functional invulnerability as compensation.

Unlike the other thankfully few in number of Hecate's or Trivia's children she had several centuries of experience even if her current body was only around sixteen or so. She would lose all of her actual memories upon death but her magical aptitude was part of her soul and therefor was retained no matter how many times she died. Combined with learning the druidic sagecraft from the Dark Ages and the fact was she was still able to create traps from range without moving.

The problem had come up that there was the unfair advantage with how injuries would be recorded considering everyone was using blunt arrows and nothing was stopping the armoured legionnaires from pretending they were never hid when they bounced off. So all of them now had been 'cursed' by Hecate with a mild form of paralysis that were immobilise whichever body parts were hit unless sufficiently protected by shields and the such.

"Hey Hermes isn't that that Kinzie chick? The one from the Amazons? No way is she a virgin I saw to that mys…" Apollo joked only to notice the glaring goddess staring daggers at them.

"Will the pair of you stop being so immature for a few hours! Is it not bad enough that you two have enough children to actually create a cohort between yourselves?" Hades said in annoyance as the air went cold.

"Yes Lord Uncle." The two Olympians said in synchrony as if scolded schoolboys.

For the next two minutes everyone was silent apart from the goddesses at the other end of platform who were quietly talking amongst themselves. Only upon the arrival of the golden and purple armoured figure of Mars was the quietness broken. Behind him the gods of heroes arrived and bowed their heads. Some a little more reverentially than others, as Pipers face soured upon realising she was standing in front of Artemis. The only figure absent was strangely Frank though no one attempted to provide explanation as Mars began talking.

"Ave Dominus Zeus, all combatants are now ready and assembled." Mars declared formally saluting. To my left I could hear Hermes snickering at his use of Latin but was quickly silenced by the god of War staring at him with fire in his eyes.

Now some of you might be thinking that this was not true as some of the 'hunters' were missing. But the truth was that the ruined landscape could hide a lot of things if one was not looking too hard.

After all apart from Apollo recognising Kinzie, no one but Zeus, Artemis, Hermes and I knew that there were Amazons here at all.

"Here's hoping no one dies this time right."

"Shut up Apollo." Numerous gods shouted in synchrony just as Zeus, Hera and Artemis rose from their thrones to stand alongside Mars. All four of them now being visible to everyone below and in the other stands.

"For more than two thousand years since the foundation of the Rome, we struggled against one another in conflicts and wars. Not two hundred years ago Roman Triremes blockaded Long Island Sound. However due to events of the wars against the Titans and Gaia we have all managed to once again become united despite our fractal differences. If you had asked me a century ago if I ever expected Greeks and Romans standing shoulder to shoulder on this very field I would have dismissed the notion as foolishness." Zeus declared looking about all of the spectators.

"And yet here we stand, due to the actions of all of you combined."

"Mostly Percy Jacksons." Hades muttered from besides me as I grinned at him.

"However even then it was not the camps alone that created this peace, who can forget the sacrifices made by the Hunters of Artemis in the streets of New York, across the wilds of North America as they diligently hunted the very monsters that our enemies hoped to recruit. Or even the proud Amazons who gave their lives on this very field aiding the Legion in routing Gaia's forces." Zeus carried on however avoiding the more touching issue of the Hunters murdered by Octavian at Camp Half-Blood. No way of spinning that into something uplifting despite his clear oratory skill.

"Does anyone believe their sacrifices to be less than those of the camps? Does anyone doubt their resolve in the face of adversity, for years, decades, centuries even Millennia these groups have stood on the outside in the shadows and fought countless unknown battles against foes that the camps have never even seen. Quests are seen as both a glory and a harrowing experience to campers where the next day can bring either great rewards or even death. To the Hunters especially this is called a weekday." Zeus added light-heartedly eliciting a few laughs from some of the goddesses and the hunters below.

"Now look before you, these same girls stand upon this field as all of you. Do they shirk at your numerical advantage, your strength in arms or even your mighty walls? No! For in their hearts they are already alongside you, though whether that is as allies or assassins ready to thrust the knife is up to you. Now Begin!"

AN. Well I am finally back after many long months of delays. Whether it be work, Writers Block, Work, Games, you get the picture. I had to take time off work to actually get this finished otherwise it would have been a few more months most likely.

Now to address a few things that have been popping up in the emails and reviews for the last hell two years. dear gods i have been writing this story for so long now in perspective. YES ALONG THE WAY I HAVE MADE CREATIVE DECISIONS EVEN I DO NOT LIKE ANYMORE. I get it the seven sins have been a pain in the ass, since i created them. However Lust and Pride will serve a purpose eventually. Perseus is here to stay, get used to him otherwise the eventually end game is going to be messed up. In case no one noticed even the characters are breaking the fourth wall with how much they hate being in New Rome. The more characters you have in a given vicinity the more can possibly go wrong and this story as a lot of characters. Who remembers Erika the hunter daughter of Demeter? I think i have only ever used her name once or twice in 600000 words or so.

You have to remember this Riordan universe is ridiculously complicated in the way it operates. Percy knows the Egyptian gods also exist as he has met the Kanes. I still have the Magnus Chase ones to read (they will be non canonical for obvious reasons, buy all the books the week they come out never read any of them. Trials makes no sense whatsoever after reading the first) However those gods do or did exist as do the Sumerian, Indian and Shinto etc. The main issue is therefore compounding all those faiths down to one point in time. The Egyptians predate the Greeks but Prometheus created humans. Stories like these do not fit into the time frame of the books. Chronos hinted at something being wrong back in his insanity spewing speeches. The universes time frame is out of sync with itself and something or someone is the root cause of it.

Of course having the OP as hell Indian Gods in the story would cause equal headaches. Like comparing Karna as a child of the sun god versus any child of Apollo would be a hilarious mismatch.

In summary i get it sometimes i make mistakes that you may not agree with, but sending me ranting messages or reviews is going to accomplish nothing more than demotivating me more. i have a busy life that i even get a chance to write at all is a miracle in itself. you have paid no money to read this, if you see it as a waste of ten - fifteen minutes of your life then i apologise and move on.

Not like i am Karen Travis who gets paid a shit load of money to fuck multiple franchises through the floor by Microsoft.

Still next chapter is the long delayed War Game which is good because action scenes are easier to write than dialogue heavy ones in a short period of time then we can finally get out of this horrible city. sorry to the state of California but i do not think i will ever visit i feel like i have wasted far too much time in you already.

Until next time... Hopefully