(A/N

I LiVe! I'm really excited I finally got to do this! I've had writer's block for months! Not exaggerating. Totally knew exactly what needed to go in this, had the outline and several quotes, just couldn't actually write it. But BAM! Got a chapter finished! Took several sessions, and it's not long...but progress is progress, right?

On that note, pretty sure I only have one more chapter left... Maybe two if I decide to do an epilogue.

I hope you enjoy! [and remember what's going on lol])

Percy

Spiraling and untethered Percy fought for control of his mind and heart.

He'd spent two weeks alone. It was barely the blink of an eye. He needed more time to control his emotions, but he felt he was getting somewhere though, that was why he'd sought out Apollo, after all. Percy just needed to work through the fact that he was in love with someone wholly out of reach.

But now…

He had to be wrong. Even the Fates could not be that cruel.

But it made sense. The timing, the wording, the fractured oath.

He knew Artemis had a soulmate. It was curious that that fact hadn't bothered him in the slightest as he worked through his pining. Twice it occurred to him to be jealous, but he'd instead remember her soft expression as she wished her mystery soulmate happiness, and he'd be that much more in love with her. But now, only after she'd mentioned Aphrodite's promise to her, did he consider that he may be that soulmate.

He wanted to be wrong. What torment would it be to know that his very soul was connected to the one who'd stolen his heart, and yet she was still happily out of reach. If she did follow her string and discovered him at the other end would she no longer trust him? Would she distance herself from him?

Would she need to?

Pulling at his hair and collapsing to the ground Percy pulled himself into a single consciousness and tried to determine where he'd ended up. The memory of being nauseated and ill in a mortal body did not do justice to how he felt now as he tried to collect himself.

The atmosphere was dim and dreary, caverns making up the space, while sprawled out in front of him was a total and complete darkness. The Pit.

Swallowing another breath he realized this was where Luke had first tried to kill him with the winged shoes. All his raging emotions seemed to slowly calm and numb as he stared into Tartarus.

He hadn't had any nightmares for years now… Annabeth would know what to tell him right now.

"Perseus!"

He startled at his name and realized he was much closer to the edge of the pit than he had been a moment ago. Looking back, he saw Styx, worry creasing her usually stoic face.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

He looked around, trying to clear the fog from his mind.

"I don't…" He was upset, but unsure why he ended up here. With another breath of focus to finish pulling himself back from whatever trance had overtaken him, all his emotions slammed back into him. All the uncertainties, all the fears, all the unwanted love that had welled in his heart.

But Styx was here. Did she hold his hopes and dreams in her waters? Did he even know what those were anymore?

"We've been worried about you. If Themis gets ahold of you you're going to learn just how much of a mother hen she can be. And Artemis!" He flinched, but she continued on. "She's been switching between irate and fearful! What's happened that you decide so suddenly to cut us from your life?"

She sounded hurt and concerned, and the way she kept eyeing the pit made it pretty obvious she was thinking the worst.

"Styx…will you help me?" Her worry lines melted into soft hope as she nodded and took a step towards him, stretching out her hand to lead him back to her waters. Percy didn't take the offered hand, and instead steeled his nerves and met her eye. "I swear on the River Styx-" Her hope of helping him fell to horror as she called for him to stop. "that I will not break Artemis' trust."

Thunder rumbled overhead, shaking the very cavern they stood in.

.

Artemis

Apollo was being no help. Sure, she felt a burden lifted from her after confessing her link to a soulmate, but he didn't seem to really be addressing the issue. At least not to her liking. Artemis wasn't entirely certain how she wanted him to address the situation, but congratulating her, commenting on how marvelous it was that she thought to offer her blessing, and offering to accompany her as she followed the string was not how she envisioned this going. Frankly, she hadn't even wanted to tell him about the string, it just came up.

And now he was insisting they check in with Aphrodite. He had a question of his own to ask her, and she'd made the mistake of telling him Piper was visiting her mother to ask a question about her ring.

Two immortals and Piper McLean sat around Aphrodite's settees and ottomans waiting for Apollo to finish his rambling. Aphrodite seemed to be in physical pain, while Piper sat in exasperated silence as if she'd endured the most grueling of travels only to be told she'd forgotten to turn left at the light in the second town she'd come to and therefore must go back and do everything over again. Artemis however, tried to set aside her own anxiety about deciding to find her soulmate, to listen to her brother.

He was obviously trying to tell Aphrodite about Percy's visit without saying Percy's name.

At another false ending to his tale, Artemis heaved a sigh and summoned a glass of nectar.

"We understand, Apollo," Piper finally purred, cutting him off. Artemis narrowed her eyes at the demigod's obvious use of charmspeak, but she did not hold it against the girl.

"Your assumptions are correct," Aphrodite told him, a light in her eye trying to convey more than she said. Artemis redirected her glare towards her sister, wondering over her meaning while Apollo just sighed. She turned to Artemis "Piper has informed me you are taking her with you to follow your string?" she asked with pursed lips and worried eyes.

"That had been my plan, but Apollo has offered to go in her stead. Is there anything you could tell me? Perhaps why the ring frequently changes appearance? I'd thought I'd imagined it, as I rarely actually look at it, but it very clearly has veins. Sometimes black and sometimes gold."

Aphrodite could only sigh and wither a little.

"Yes. I… I made a mistake, you see." For several moments the room waited with bated breath for her to continue. "The ring was to dissipate when he died. Instead this happened," she waved her hand toward the ring and looked away, refusing to meet Artemis' gaze.

When he died.

He died.

"Oh," Artemis replied, looking down at her ring once more and turning it in circles.

"I'm sorry," Aphrodite said in tight voice.

"Of course," Artemis shrugged. "It was the expected eventuality. I am simply surprised at the timing." She examined the ring again, her desire to follow it somehow increasing rather than dying with the man on the other end.

"I suppose the ring is of no use now?" Piper said inquisitively. For a moment Artemis was torn in two, wanting both to remove the cursed object and return it to the tapestry and to cling to it desperately and mourn the one she never knew.

"It is a reminder," she stated simply, "that choices are always our own." She smiled at Aphrodite, trying to convey her thanks for this gift, this understanding between them. Aphrodite's smile in response was a sad one. "I believe we'll take our leave," she said standing, "thank you for your time."

A nod to Apollo and he followed her to Olympus' gates.

"You're planning something," he said.

"I am. Do you still wish to accompany me?"

"Of course."

"Then we make for Hades' throne room."

"As you wish, sister."

It took but a moment for the two to find themselves in the Underworld. She was surprised Hades allowed them entrance straight into his domain, rather than forcing them through the entrance of the dead.

"What is it?"

His voice surprised them and she turned from the prominent thrones adorning the room to a neat, but overfilled desk on the adjacent wall.

"Lord Hades," she greeted with a respectful dip of her head, earning nothing but a sigh and a tired slump of his shoulders.

"I am rarely visited for anything good. What do you two troublemakers need?" His words weren't sharp or hateful, just tired and old. She wanted to be chagrined, but this was his domain and she really had no right to make the request she was about to.

"I would like to visit one of your afterlives," she answered demurely. He raised a brow in reply. "I have no desire to steal away any of the souls, nor do I know what afterlife I am to visit, I simply have a question to ask and I will be on my way."

"And what is your question?" he asked with a slightly piqued interest.

Grabbing her ring, she willed it to dissolve, to unwind, to guide. "I wish to know if the soul on the other end of this string lived a happy life. I wish to know if… if I can offer any comfort in their death. I wish to know…if I truly could have loved them." She swallowed and found her gaze locked solidly on the ground as Apollo's hand found her shoulder.

The offending red string fell to the ground and pooled at her feet before leading out the doors to her right.

She felt she stood there for an eternity, embarrassment hot in her veins, before Hades' feet entered her line of sight and he stooped to pluck her string from the ground. Her eyes trained themselves on his fingers as he rolled the yarn back and forth through his fingers several times.

"I hope you find the resolution you desire, Artemis." Her gaze darted up to his in time for him to give her a respectful nod and drop the string.

She smiled, gratitude falling from her lips.

Her words were interrupted by thunder clapping loudly within the cavernous space and echoing throughout the Underworld.