Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

This fic would not have existed without the encouragement of Stereden, who has also done a podfic of it, which can be found in its AO3 crosspost /works/57201739 or on my tumblr tsarisfanfiction!

It didn't take long for Kronos to start using Tris.

The first time his younger brother was yanked out of the room, Lee panicked, straining at his cuffs and almost undoing all of Tris' hard work in healing his wrists. When Tris was out of sight, when he was left with other demigods, who likely didn't have the same instructions about not causing harm to the younger son of Apollo, Lee couldn't be sure he was okay, that he was safe.

Kronos found it amusing, even as he took his usual perch on the stone outcropping and dropped the silver scythe bracelet, Michael materialising in the faded projection.

If the Roman spy was any more aware of Lee's presence than he had been for any of the previous meetings, he didn't show it, mumbling about war games and weapons the same way he often did. War Games, as best Lee could figure, seemed to be Capture the Flag but more based on subduing the opposition rather than successfully claiming a trophy. The head healer in him cringed at the thought of how many injuries there would be at the end of each game.

At least Capture the Flag tended to involve more disarming than actively injuring – even if the Ares cabin sometimes got a little too enthusiastic.

Unlike the Greeks, Lee got the impression that the Romans didn't know it was Kronos, specifically, that they were preparing to wage war against. Michael clearly knew, given the way he referred to him as Lord Saturn, but the Roman's efforts were all centred on taking down Mount Othrys, and showed no signs of looking further afield for the titan in charge.

Kronos showed no signs of being bothered by that, so Lee could only assume it was what the titan wanted them to try and do, although he doubted that Kronos planned on them succeeding at toppling his throne.

As usual, Michael's report was peppered with small, white lies. None of the big details, but some of his certainty was faked, as though he worried that if he wasn't confident in his reports, Kronos would punish him.

Lee couldn't say he didn't understand the fear, but unfortunately for Michael, he didn't know that Kronos had got his hands on someone who could tell.

Following the same routine that they'd fallen into entirely too many times for Lee's liking, once Michael was dismissed and the bracelet back around Kronos' wrist, heavy golden eyes turned to him.

"I suggest you drop your futile resistance, Lee," the titan said, standing up and crossing the room with loud, sure steps until he was standing by Lee's feet, looking down at him. "You and your ability may be irreplaceable and worth too much to damage, but young Tris is not. But you're a smart young man, Lee. You already know where this is going."

He snapped his fingers, the resulting click loud enough to bounce off of the walls and echo back at Lee. It wasn't one of his jaw-freezing clicks, or one that seemed to have any influence over Lee's body at all.

The approaching footsteps, complete with a hurried set that for some reason clearly wanted to come to Lee's room, suggested that it had been a summons instead.

Alabaster appeared, hauling Tris along behind him, although Tris was doing a good job of keeping on his feet so that Alabaster didn't have an excuse to drag him. It didn't stop him flinging Tris into the room, but Lee's younger brother had clearly been expecting it, because he didn't fall over this time.

He'd always had a good balance. Better than a lot of them. Faded brown eyes glinting brightly in the recently renewed torchlight sought Lee out and found him immediately, and Tris made a desperate dash towards him.

Then Kronos was there, one hand gripping the back of his top lazily and the other wrapping Luke's long, calloused fingers around Tris' throat. Tris froze.

"Not so fast," Kronos drawled. "As touching as your attempted reunion will no doubt be, you're here for a reason." The titan wasn't even looking at Tris, still boring deep into Lee's skull. "The lies, Lee?"

Comprehension crashed over Tris, the one thing Lee hadn't been able to bring himself to tell his brother about. The fact that Kronos was using him as leverage against Lee, to force Lee's unwilling compliance.

The other demigod started to thrash more in Kronos' grip, until the titan sighed and snapped his fingers again. Instantly, Lee's youngest brother froze in place, an artificial freeze this time.

It was the first time Lee had seen Kronos do it to someone else, and the new viewpoint made it abundantly clear what it was. He'd had his suspicions, but seeing Tris' limbs completely immobile, at odds with the way his chest heaved in a way that was completely unnatural, confirmed them.

Kronos was the titan of time, after all.

Bits and pieces of Tris were frozen in time, enough to hold him still with no obvious effort from the titan, but other parts of his body – his chest, some of his face – were still free, leaving Lee with the nightmare-inducing sight of Tris begging him with his eyes.

Whether he was begging Lee to get him out of there, or to not answer Kronos' question, Lee couldn't tell. It didn't matter, either. There was only one thing Lee could do.

"He wasn't sure," he said, each word dropping from his mouth like lead. "He told you what he knew, but he wasn't certain when you asked if he was."

Tris was crying. Lee tore his eyes away from that distressing sight – and the way the tears fell so far down his face then froze once they reached his mouth, the bubble of frozen time not letting them in – and wished he hadn't.

His little brother's distress was one thing. The glee on Kronos' face was another entirely. It was the face Luke made when one of his pranks went according to plan, except instead of there being good-natured fun behind the expression, like the cat that got the cream, it was cruel, like the cat whose prey was finally, finally cornered. It twisted Luke's face a little too much, the scar a savage white line creasing its way along the skin.

"Any other lies?" Kronos pressed, and the thought passed through Lee's mind that he could make more up, claim other things that Michael had said had been untrue. Then he caught sight of Tris again, and remembered how awful a liar he was. Kronos didn't need a secondary lie detector to catch him if he tried, and he didn't know what would happen to Tris if he tried.

It wouldn't be anything good.

"No," he whispered, voice cracking as the word fell from his mouth.

Kronos' triumphant smirk somehow turned even more so. "See, that wasn't so hard now, was it, Lee?" he purred. With a snap of his fingers, Tris could move again, and when the preteen writhed in his grip as though he'd never been forcibly stopped, he let go.

Lee ended up with a lap full of quivering younger brother before he could even blink, small and slender hands gripping the fabric of his top, and Kronos eyed the pair of them in clear satisfaction before sweeping out of the room without another word.

The door slammed shut behind him, and Tris started to sob. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he babbled, sniffling. Lee hated that he couldn't even hold him as he tried to tell him he was okay, it was okay. The platitudes sounded thin to his own ears.

Tris was scared. Even though Kronos hadn't hurt him, had barely even threatened him, the fear had finally started to sink in. They were both at the mercy of a titan not known for his mercy, and there wasn't a single thing either of them could do about it except do as they were told and hope for the best. Tris was terrified, and as long as he was cuffed directly to the wall, there was nothing Lee could do to reassure him.

Unfortunately, Michael was just the warm up.

To Lee's relief, Kronos had clearly decided that Tris was going to stay with him, and the first thing Lee did the next time his wrists were released – a bathroom trip – was wrap his little brother up in his arms tightly, not moving until Alabaster made threatening moves in the direction of Tris if Lee didn't do what he was supposed to with his brief freedom.

That came with the downside of Lee no longer being released for anything other than his bathroom trips, and Tris being dragged away from him so there would be no more hugs when that happened. Lee was taller than most of the demigods on the list Kronos seemed to let near him, but he didn't stand a chance of winning a physical struggle to get to Tris. When it was food time, the plate or bowl and bottle were just left in his vicinity, and the only way Lee could eat any of it was if Tris fed him.

His brother always did so without complaint, and it was far, far nicer than when any of Kronos' demigods did it, because Tris actually let him eat at his own pace. Lee still hated it, though, because it kept putting the onus on Tris to be the caretaker, and even though he could do it, his little brother shouldn't have to do it.

It was obviously wearing on Tris, too, seeing Lee so helpless. Every so often, there was more warmth and singing as Tris took it upon himself to keep attempting to heal Lee's weakened wrists and ankles, but while Tris had determination, he didn't have power or experience. He also kept pushing too far, curling up almost asleep with Lee's thighs as a pillow once healing sessions were over, and Lee was terrified that he was wearing himself too thin.

Tris wouldn't hear of not trying, though. Not even when Lee begged him, in tears, to stop. If anything, the display seemed to make the younger son of Apollo more determined.

The next time Kronos visited, silver bracelet ominously in hand and Alabaster a step behind him – Alabaster seemed to be some sort of leader within the army, not the oldest demigod but the one Kronos seemed to let tag along the most – Tris was drowsy on Lee's lap, and there was nothing Lee could do to stop Alabaster picking him up by the scruff and dragging him away.

Tris didn't stand a chance against the older demigod, writhing and spitting like an affronted cat, only to still suddenly as a knife appeared underneath his chin, the tip lightly resting against the delicate skin.

Lee froze, too. "Don't-" he started, and Kronos prowled over to him, dangling the scythe charm like a weapon.

"This is what is going to happen," the titan told him. "You will listen to everything, and say nothing. Communicate nothing. If you give dear Silena any indication that anything has changed…" he trailed off with a careless gesture towards Alabaster and Tris.

Silena didn't know about Tris, Lee realised. She probably knew he hadn't made it back to camp, but she and the rest of the campers would either be assuming that Tris' mom had kept him at home, away from the war, or that Tris had died. After what had happened with him, Lee had no difficulty imagining that if Kronos didn't want camp to suspect he had another prisoner, he would have covered the tracks of Tris' kidnapping well.

That also meant Silena had no idea that Kronos now had active leverage over Lee and had finally got him to cave. Which meant that Silena couldn't trust Lee to not reveal her lies to Kronos, but Lee couldn't warn her of that, because if he did, Alabaster was right there with a knife against Tris' vulnerable throat.

"Do you understand me?" Kronos pressed, and Lee grit his teeth.

"Yes," he said, hating himself for it.

He hung his head as the image of Aphrodite's daughter materialised, his too-long hair long enough to hide his face. It was different to how he usually acted during her meetings, and he knew it, but it was the only way he could trust himself to not try anything, or do anything that either Kronos or Alabaster would interpret as trying something.

There were twin intakes of breath. One was Silena, probably seeing him limp and coming to conclusions of her own – she'd always been open about how she didn't like seeing him chained and helpless as Kronos' prisoner, but given she was still actively working for the titan, that didn't mean much to Lee. The other was Tris.

Tris knew that Silena was a spy. Lee had told him, partly because Tris deserved to know exactly what was going on, and partly because it was a relief to finally be able to talk about it with someone that wasn't going to dismiss him as stupidly sentimental over a betrayal. Tris had only known Silena for two summers, so it didn't hit him as hard as it had hit – still hit – Lee, but Silena was well-liked even amongst the newest kids. He hadn't understood how she could betray them, either.

Knowing wasn't the same as seeing, though, and Lee knew Tris had to be feeling the gut punch of visual proof, even though unlike Lee he was kept out of range of whatever was picking up their images, the same way Lee was always out of range during Michael's reports.

Kronos ignored all the reactions, not even acknowledging them as he began to pry at Silena's report. The campers, emboldened by their success with the coach, were planning more raids. How they were finding out where Kronos' forces were amassing, Lee wasn't certain. Kronos never asked, and Silena never volunteered.

If Lee had to guess, though, he'd point fingers at the nature spirits, who could move around with far more ease and freedom than demigods, and tended to be harder to kill, too.

One planned raid was on a supply line – Lee didn't know what sort of supplies Kronos' army was carrying, unless it was more weapons, or maybe food for the mortals. Old war tactics said that targeting supplies was crucial, though, and Lee could trust the Athena cabin to know old war tactics. The Ares cabin, too, for all that a lot of campers preferred to think of Athena as the brains and Ares as the brawns.

Some of the Ares kids were wicked sharp in their own right, and even the ones that weren't were usually more than dumb muscle. Clarisse wasn't the smartest in her cabin but she had led her forces to victory in Capture the Flag against the Athena-led opposing side enough times to prove that she did have a brain behind the brawns.

Given Silena was saying that it was the Ares cabin that would be heading that raid, Lee suspected it was Clarisse's idea.

Then Silena lied. Just the Ares cabin she said, when Kronos pressed. Just the Ares cabin was planned to go.

It was a clever loophole – planned meant that if it changed last-minute, she couldn't be accused of lying to Kronos. At least, it would have been, if Lee didn't know that Kronos was going to grill him afterwards.

Silena had started playing with fire, perhaps emboldened by her apparent success at her last lie, and Lee wanted to scream because the fire was biting back and she didn't even know, he couldn't even warn her.

The other planned raid was bigger, but also smaller. Camp was thinking big, keeping an eye on the Princess Andromeda, and believed it was the base of Kronos' operations.

They were going to blow it up.

Silena didn't have any issues explaining the plan so far – that it would include Percy, and someone not yet decided (a lie, and Lee carefully didn't let himself think about who Silena would be trying to protect by not naming) sneaking onto the boat with enough explosives to blow it up like the fourth of July. Lee could see her twisted logic for offering up that plan without hesitation – she was still adamant that she was protecting demigods, although Percy seemed to be some sort of exception in her mind, and if she also believed that there were demigods living with the monsters on the boat, which there probably was, she wasn't going to want them to be blown up, either.

"You have done well," Kronos told her, once her report was done. "This information, as always, is valuable to me. I understand that you want to protect those foolish demigods, so as a reward for your service – the demigod that comes with Perseus in their vain attempt to blow up my ship… I will spare them."

LIE.

It zapped down Lee's spine, nerves alight, and it was only years and years and years of not jumping at a lie that kept his head from flying up in horror.

It would have done, anyway, if Tris wasn't there. If Alabaster didn't have Tris at knife point. If reacting to Kronos' hidden declaration that he was going to kill whoever stepped foot on his ship wouldn't get his younger brother killed here and now.

Whoever was going had to know that it was a massive risk. That was the only thing Lee could cling to as tears ran down his face, hidden from Silena by his hair. They'd be on edge and cautious. Experienced, too, if it was a small infiltration party.

They'd have a chance at fighting back, at escaping and not dying.

Tris didn't.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari