"What. The. Fuck. What the fuck."

Hermes, rather mercifully, waited until the two of them had been loaded back into the sick bay (Percy landed right onto the very same bed that he had woken up in a few hours earlier, funny enough) to start chewing them out.

And asking a million questions per second.

He hadn't even been able to dry himself off yet.

"I mean, seriously!" Hermes shouted, walking around in a circle as his fingers became tangled in his hair. "Can I please get a gods-damned answer?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "Maybe start by saying something intelligible instead of 'What the fuck' over and over again," he snorted, "An actual question would be pretty helpful."

Hermes looked ready to rip his hair out. "I have a fucking million!" He cried, "What happened down there?! Why did Percy jump into the ocean?! Why does he smell like a burnt steak with a side of Titan? Who the fuck was at the bottom of the ocean with you two?!"

Percy sighed. "You first. What happened to Hippolytos?"

The god sneered, an uncharacteristically dark look on his face at the reminder of his bane - or perhaps at being ordered around by a lowly mortal like himself. "After you two went overboard we kept fighting," Hermes grumbled, "We were winning. Then the storm started to break, he freaked out, and then he ran away like a fucking coward! I would have chased him, but the boat was already about to sink and I wasn't going to risk him coming back for a retaliatory strike."

He nodded slowly. At least the messenger god had a cool enough head to realize that without him, the boat was pretty easy pickings for any immortal or monster who wanted them to drown. "Alright."

Hermes was about to blow a gasket. "Alright?" He repeated in disbelief, "Alright?! Give me answers, dammit!"

Jason looked slightly concerned at the messenger god's outburst, glancing warily between the god and himself.

Percy was just mildly annoyed. "My sister."

"Your… sister?" Hermes repeated, freezing up at the word. "...Rhode?"

"No." He shook his head. "My other sister."

Hermes narrowed his eyes. "What other sister?" He demanded, "I don't know about any other daughters of Poseidon that could do that–"

"She'd be mad as hell if she heard you talking like this," Jason interrupted, "From the sound of things, no one knows about her."

"Kymopoleia," Percy elaborated quickly, "Child of Poseidon and Amphitrite, sister of Rhode and Triton. Cast out by my dad because of her domains millennia ago. It's a long story."

The god nodded slowly, anger slowly fading away as he got a substantive reply. The angry scowl on his face slowly melted into a more pensive look. "I see…" He rubbed his chin. "And she was working with Gaea and Hippolytos to sink us?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah. She and Polybotes were down there. Plan was to sink us, doom the gods, take over the world, yada yada, and she rules the ocean and causes whatever chaos she wants when dad is gone. Words failed, obviously, we fought, and I would have been killed if it weren't for Riptide going battery-mode again. We eventually convinced her to stop, we killed Polybotes, and she agreed to stop and go… deal with some things."

He decided to not tell Hermes about the part where she was going to see Poseidon. Family matters were best left to the family, after all, and there was no reason to inform their immortal companion about that.

Fortunately, Hermes didn't seem to care much about that part. Instead, he seemed much more concerned about the other shit Percy had gone through.

"Riptide gave you more Titanic energy?" Hermes questioned worriedly, "Don't bother answering. I can tell it did - and it did it a lot."

Percy wrinkled his nose. "That bad, huh?"

He nodded. "You smell like Atlas. It's horrible. You'd be dead thirty-times over if it wasn't also healing you as it did so. I can't believe you aren't a quadriplegic by now."

"It was either this or getting killed," Percy shot back, "I needed power for Kym to not immediately turn me into paste, and Riptide saved me. It sucked, sure, but I'm alive, and I wouldn't be if it weren't for my sword."

Hermes sighed. In that moment, he suddenly wore every single century he'd lived on his face. "I know," he admitted begrudgingly, "Doesn't mean I have to like it. Jason, could you step outside please? Me and Percy need to have a… talk."

The son of Jupiter nodded so fast his head nearly popped off his body, slamming the door behind him as he flew out of the sick bay. "Have fun!" He shouted, "I'm going to go sit with Piper and think about my life and priesthood!"

Hermes watched him go fondly, though there was a hint of confusion in his eyes at Jason's parting statement. "He's a good kid," he chuckled, before turning his attention back to Percy, "Riptide fucked you up."

Percy nodded. "I know," he agreed, "I feel like shit. Felt worse when I was being lit up like a Christmas tree by it down there, but it's better than being turned into a shish-kebab."

The god threw a piece of ambrosia at his face. "...Yeah. But not by much," Hermes warned, "Don't let Riptide do that to you too many more times. It can and will kill you if it does… this… more than a few more times. Doubly so if it does it this much again."

"It's not like I had much of a choice." Percy said instinctively, crossing his arms in defense… though he did eat the ambrosia. "It was either that or letting myself, Jason, and eventually the rest of you, all die."

"And that's why I'm warning you instead of beating you black and blue with George and Martha," he agreed, "I understand that you aren't the same dumb kid who mailed an angry Olympus a package with Medusa's head inside anymore. I have more than enough faith in you acting in the interest of all of us now, Perce. But you are definitely going to die if this keeps up. This isn't a problem like the Minotaur or Luke or even dirt-face herself that you can fight. Mortal flesh and blood simply can not handle being forced to house the divine. It's why Heracles and Dionysus had their bodies burn away when they turned immortal - their physical bodies, even with how strong they were, could not handle the divine nature we possess. And that was godly energy. The shit you're messing with is way older than that."

Percy grit his teeth. He obviously knew it wasn't great to keep messing with Riptide like this (his body told him that much on its own), but… "I don't have much of a choice here, Hermes. When it's either this or getting my skull caved in, there isn't much competition. I'll figure out something."

Hermes just shook his head. "No, kid, you won't." The god gave Percy a long, slow look, and in that moment Hermes just looked so old. "Alexander thought he would figure it out too, you know, and look what happened."

He blinked. "...Alexander?" Percy repeated slowly, the word almost foreign to him. "Like, the Alexander? The Great?"

"Yeah. Him. Alexander the Great. Or as we knew him, Alexander the third of Macedon, son of Phillip, of the Argead dynasty, ruler of the universe… and a million other titles." Hermes' eyes quirked upwards at the name, and he chuckled softly at his own words by the end in a somber manner. "I'm sure you know all about him, right?"

Percy nodded slowly. "I guess…?" He mumbled. "Um, obviously I know about the whole conquering Persia thing, and the greatest general ever, but what does that have to do with me? He isn't exactly taught as one of the Greek 'myths'."

The god gave him another look that made Percy feel like a lot of crucial information was being withheld from him. "He was a demigod too, you know. A son of Zeus."

"Okay? A lot of the stories surrounding him say that," he replied, "I think Chiron tells the new kids that on, like, our second day."

Hermes pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well I'm sure he doesn't tell you the real tragedy of Alexander, then." The god sighed softly. "You remember how he died?"

The son of Poseidon shrugged. "Uh… poison?" He tried. "Wasn't it mysterious circumstances, or something? Isn't that what most people agree on? I feel like this is a better question for Annabeth or Nico…"

"I see." Hermes hummed softly. "Well, it's good that Chiron still has a good enough head on those haunches of his to know that we've kept the real story of Alexander a secret. You might want to sit up for this one, Perce. I've got a history lesson for you."

Percy rolled his eyes. Why did everything turn out to be a lecture? It was like he was in high school again, except worse. "Just cut to the chase…" He muttered, pulling himself up to lean against the headboard of the cot. "What does this have to do with me?"

The sandy-blonde god raised up a hand to silence him. "Shush. Alexander and his memory deserve more than your lazy dismissal." Even as he chastised him, Hermes' eyes were foggy and clouded, like he wasn't truly present in the room anymore. "Alexander… was a son of Zeus. A mortal. And yet, he was the greatest demigod - no, the greatest mortal - of them all - that title wasn't ever up for debate, not even when he was compared against Heracles and Dionysus. His achievements, his prowess, his confidence… everything about him screamed perfect. He was practically a god himself, even as a kid. One look and you'd know he was destined for greatness."

His eyes softened. "We all knew him. Whether it be through Apollo's music lessons, where he learned his charm, through Ares and Athena's war games, where he learned to fight… or casual nights where I showed up and we shot the breeze during his siege of Tyre, where he learned his taste in women…" The god snorted softly at the memories of an age gone by, eyes sparkling softly. "He was incredible. Charisma to rival any god, the mind to beat Mnemosyne herself. The looks to make Aphrodite weep green tears, the faith to put even the priests in Babylon to shame. Even Hera liked him - gave his mother her full blessing."

Percy stayed quiet as he listened to the god recall the man. He didn't have anything to say, and even if he did he wasn't sure it would be appreciated.

"He united the Greeks for the first time ever," Hermes whispered, "He conquered Persia. Egypt. The Indus. He brought us to corners of the world even I barely recognized. We were younger then, but not by much, and we grew to new heights with him leading our armies, spreading our influence. Alexander conquered everything… and then everything fell apart."

"His death… right?" Percy asked, voice surprisingly soft - even to himself.

He nodded bitterly, misery clear as day on his face… even after several millennia of time to grieve. "...Yeah. Turns out when you're that perfect, there's a little more to you than what the mortal body can supply. He was practically half-god at birth, and not in the way I know you're thinking. It was like if you tried to cut him, there was a fifty-fifty shot there'd be ichor instead of blood. And it killed him, just like it's going to kill you. He was meant to live a long, prosperous life… but none of us realized that he was dying until he was already in a sarcophagus. He died so suddenly, so sharply… that night in Babylon was one of the worst days of all of our lives. He was supposed to live until he was an old man, ruling his empire and slowly expanding it, uniting the world under Greek hegemony, and joining us the day he finally passed. Instead, his soul burnt up. There wasn't a single thing left of him except his men, his empire, and his unborn son. You… you would have loved the guy, Percy…"

Hermes grit his teeth, fists clenched in rage as he fought to not unleash his godly form on Percy. "We tried so hard, you know?" He hissed, trembling softly. "We tried so hard to fix things. Perdikkas, Eumenes, Olympias, Roxane…"

With each voice that slipped from his tongue, Hermes looked more and more unstable. "We were so close. Even though we ruined Alexander's life, we had a chance to save his legacy, his wife, his son. And that bastard Kassandros ruined everything!" His fist smashed through the small table at his side, turning the poor wood to sawdust. "Him! Antipater! Meleager! Ptolemy! And that fucking prick Antigonus! They butchered his empire, used his legacy for their own gain, killed everyone he loved, and for what? For their own lands to be laid to waste by the fighting? For the Parthians and Rome to eventually butcher them anyways? What is a few hundred years of kingship compared to the eternal glory they would have rightfully earned at Alexander's side?!"

This was clearly a sore subject. Percy barely even knew half the names the god was spouting off, but for some strange reason each and every one tingled the back of his brain - almost like he did know them. "Listen, Hermes," he said slowly, "I think you need to, uh, take a breather. You're going to blow up the Argo."

George and Martha shouted in agreement from his pocket, his caduceus back in iPod mode. Hermes blinked slowly at their words, the fire in his eyes slowly dying out and being replaced with the look Percy had come to expect from the immortal deity. "You're right. I apologize," he said tersely, still clearly very pissed with the subject, "I got off track. The point is this: Alexander wasn't meant to die at thirty-two. He was meant to live a long life, conquer even further, and pass his empire on to his sons in death and join Olympus himself. His empire was meant to last as long as we did. But he didn't, it didn't, all because what's happening to you right now thanks to Riptide happened to him - only back then, none of us even knew what was happening, or that it was a problem. Then the Diadochi wars happened, everything went to shit, and even with all of us trying different ways to save what little we could, it all turned to dust thanks to a few of his generals being evil little roaches that will spend the rest of time tortured by Hades himself."

Percy bit his lip. This… was not a fun conversation. For either of them. He got the memo well enough, though. "Do you… do you want to talk about it? What happened?"

Hermes sighed. "No. But I guess I might as well. After his death, his generals convened in Babylon and negotiated, with Perdikkas as the head, to maintain the empire with Philip III and Alexander's unborn son as kings, until the time was right. The empire was divided into satrapies after Meleager's failed rebellion, with Perdikkas still trying to right the ship, giving land to the generals who had sided with him. Antipater went to Macedon and basically became a king, Ptolemy went to Egypt, Antigonus ruled Phrygia, and Lysimachus got Thrace. There's a bunch of others, but they're mostly unimportant." The god flippantly waved his hand. "Eventually Perdikkas was betrayed and overthrown, the empire fell into chaos and infighting with the Diadochi wars, and Olympias, his mother, Roxane, his wife, and Alexander the fourth, his son, were killed by Kassandros, Antipater's son and successor. Eumenes was our last chance to save them all, and he fought well against Antigonus, only to be betrayed in the end and sold out by his men. Eventually, there was no one left but a bunch of traitors in command of what could have been Olympus on earth, with Kassandros, Lysimachus, Antigonus, and Ptolemy the last ones standing… and then Seleukos rose up for us. Even though his family was all dead and gone, Alexander's dream lived on through that glorious bastard of Apollo."

Hermes' eyes shone softly as he spoke now, still as desolate as earlier, but now with a little bit of joy, like he was finally seeing the silver lining around the clouds. "He took Babylon for himself, regained control of the East, and finally killed that fucking prick Antigonus at Ipsus. There was a chance that everything could come together and maybe be saved, and that thought got even closer to realization when Macedon fell to Thrace, Ptolemy died, and eventually Seleukos even finished off that weasel Lysimachus at Corupedium. Seleukos was the last contemporary of Alexander standing, and all that was left was for him to walk into Macedonia, take what was rightfully his, and then finally finish off Ptolemy's spawn in Egypt… but he was assassinated the moment he returned to Europe. By another of Ptolemy's sons. One he had taken in and offered refuge. His death broke the camel's back. It was when we realized nothing would ever be the same, and Alexander's legacy was gone forever."

The teen sucked a breath in through his teeth. That… was a lot. And sucked. Also a lot. "I'm sorry."

Hermes laughed softly. "Don't feel bad," he said quietly, "It's not your fault. It's ours. We were younger. Immature. Dumber. We let ourselves be defeated time and time again by the hands of mortals that couldn't even stand at Alexander's ankles, and we paid the price each time."

The god looked ancient and weathered, like he was going to wither away at any moment. "He's gone. And yet, the hole he left in us is still there. In all of us. It's like if… I don't know. It's not something a mortal can relate to." He shook his head softly. "It's like an infinite pool, but that pool loses a single bucket that it can't replenish. That loss, even in the infinite, is still gone forever. We all felt that loss once. We don't want to feel it again."

Percy nodded slowly. It felt like the weight of several thousand years was weighing on him - and not just because of the Second Giant War he was fighting his way through. It was as though with each name Hermes had uttered, that spirit had risen from Hades' grasp to watch their conversation play out, to hear as their legend spread onto yet another innocent, unlearned soul.

"I… I understand." He said softly. "I… I won't let that happen to me."

Hermes' eyes rose slowly, smiling faintly at the son of Poseidon. "I know you won't, kid. You're one of the best of us."

The god finally rose, his body looming over Percy even in his pained, weathered image as he smirked. "I'll go let your friends know you're doing okay. You didn't hear it from me… but there's a certain daughter of Atlas right outside your room who is currently going gray due to the stress of not knowing whether or not you're okay."

Percy nodded, gulping softly. It looked like he had another long conversation to look forward to.

The moment Hermes left, true to his word, Zoe rushed into the infirmary. "Percy!" She gasped, eyes shining with relief. "Thou art alright!"

The son of Poseidon smiled softly at her as she hurried to his side. "Hey, Zoe," he muttered, "I'm still kicking. Are you okay? Hippolytos didn't get any more hits on you, did he?"
She shook her head quickly. "I'm fine. But thee, Percy…" Her expression darkened slightly, face falling in worry. "I can tell thou art unwell. The scent of Anaklusmos is overpowering. Thou art drowning in thy blade's essence."

Percy sighed, though it wasn't anywhere near as full of irritation as it was when Hermes was lecturing him. "Yeah… I'm sorry–"

As he tried to justify himself, Zoe decided that she was going to have none of it. She placed her finger on his lips, and the words immediately got stuck in his throat. "Thou need not apologize," the ex-Huntress murmured, moving to sit beside him, "I trust thee. More than anyone else on this perilous quest. Thou need not explain thyself to me. I am merely glad thy safety is no longer in jeopardy."

She finally removed her finger from his lips, and Percy instantly let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. A faint dusting of pink settled on his cheeks as Zoe leaned against him, and he subconsciously moved to wrap his arm around her side and pull her closer. "Thanks."

Zoe smiled softly. "Of course, Percy."

They stayed like that for a long time, nothing but the sound of waves crashing outside and their own soft breaths to keep them company - something they were both more than fine with. Eventually, it was he who broke the peaceful silence. "...Zoe?"

She hummed softly in acknowledgement, and Percy pressed on. "Did you know… Alexander?"

The effect of the name was immediate. Zoe stiffened against him, muscles going taut before slowly relaxing once more. She looked up at him softly, eyes curious and gleaming, with a small hint of nostalgia. "...Yes, I did. The Hunters fought alongside him many times during his campaigns. Lady Artemis and I knew him personally. Why?"

He shrugged lamely, looking back towards the exit of the sick bay. "No reason. Hermes brought him up." Percy paused again for a moment to gather his thoughts. "Was he… what was he like?"

Zoe blinked softly at the question. "I…" She pursed her lips gently, eyes slowly fogging up as she remembered an age gone by. "He was a good man. A respectable one. He was a bold, proud man, even if he held the same degeneracies that cripple all– most - males. Even so, he cared very deeply for those he held dear, including his enemies, and commanded respect from all those beneath him. He was wise beyond his years, brash and cunning. It was a shame he died so young."

Percy nodded along softly at her words. He almost wondered what the other immortals would have to say about the man - if they would gush about him like Hermes, or offer up a few small words of respect like Zoe. He had a funny feeling there wouldn't be too many negative accounts of the man.

The corner of her lips quirked upwards softly as she saw Percy fall into thought. "He was a good man," she repeated softly, "Though I would be of the opinion that you are a better one… and that it isn't particularly close."

Percy snorted softly. "I don't think I've conquered much of anything." He said half-heartedly.

She just smiled and leaned in a little further. They both knew that wasn't what she was talking about.

They fell asleep in each other's arms. And when he dreamt, he didn't dream of darkness and monsters and evil - no.

He dreamt of something far greater.

He dreamt of a man with electrifying blue eyes and blond hair, of thousands of men marching in tandem beneath the hot Anatolian sun, of the fall of a millennia-old pantheon and the adoring eyes of dozens of loyal men - all who would cannibalize themselves and their memories in the years following his death. He dreamt of the known world falling under one banner, his banner, and of crossing the Hydaspes with his four closest allies.

And he dreamt of a massive man who towered over his peers, with an intimidating frame that commanded respect along warm, tired, caring eyes, riddled with scars from days of old. He dreamt of a soldier, a pawn, a rebel, a founder, a warrior, a friend, and a father.

And he dreamt that the man was looking right back at him.

—

A/N: I meant it when I said I'd never abandon any of my fics… though, uh, yeah. Been a hot minute. Thanks for 1,000 followers (if you're reading this on FFN)! I hope this chapter, even though it's been ignored for the better part of six months, was worth it. Once I actually sat down and forced myself to write, it came pretty easily though I might be a bit rusty still. Tell me what you think! Also, I've been playing Imperator: Rome a lot and decided that I could totally add some more stuff for Percy to cope with and relate to by introducing Alexander and the Diadochi here. It should make for a fun ride to the end here! Bonus points if you know who the guy at the end was already, we'll see him soon.

Sorry if you hate the history lesson, and that it's incredibly short. Next one should be longer.

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought! See you next time!