The Chaos War

As promised, the first chapter of my magnum opus…again. Veterans of my fanbase may recall years ago when I tried to start the Chaos War for the first time, and it didn’t go very well. The general consensus was that the other stories needed to be finished first.

Well, all the stories have been finished, one way or the other.

There will be changes to this compared to the first time. For example, the continuity herein takes place in the timeline established in Piper’s Untold Story because it fits extremely well. If you haven’t read the Piper story, please go read it. If you don’t want to read it, you’ll make me sad.

You might also be slightly lost as to some of the characterization herein, as well.

Another way this story will be different is that the other Percy’s will not be getting huge expositional blurbs on their backstories. You’ve either read their stories, will go read their stories, or will just roll with the flow. Other than that, the premise is still the same. All the bad guys team up to defeat the good guys, Chaos brings in outside help, overarching themes of power and responsibility still abound, and the main characters face the consequences of their actions in ways that may be considered unfair.

In short, this story is still what I always intended it to be. My way of ending the story of Percy Jackson.

Obviously, this story is an AU post-TSATS, but the divergence starts post-ToA in ways beyond just Piper’s Untold Story.

Let us begin.

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

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Piper said to her old friends through the Iris Message.

It was a summer evening after Apollo teleported in on her and Shel having their moment on the roof, but before the end of summer when Nico and Will embarked on their quest down into Tartarus. In attendance of this Iris Message was Piper in her ancestral farmhouse in Tahlequah, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, and Hazel in the praetor’s barracks in Camp Jupiter, Leo and Calypso in Leo’s room in the Waystation, and Thalia and Reyna in their tent within the Hunter’s encampment.

Piper didn’t know how long she spoke for, but she covered mostly everything from how she fell out of love with Jason and eventually broke up with him, the rough patch they went through because of her emotional turmoil, his final moments against Caligula, her reception in Tahlequah, meeting Billy, the nightmares she started having of Jason, meeting Shel, meeting Jisdu, and everything else after. Piper revealed her new powers, piquing Frank’s interest with her animal shapeshifting, awing everybody with her Tlanuwa armor; she talked about how she and Shel became girlfriends, her battles with Incognito and the Asgina, and how her talks with Jisdu and Billy had led to her converting to Christianity and adopting the firm belief that she had a responsibility to use her powers for greater purposes—and they shared that same responsibility.

Finally, after so much talking and answering questions, there was silence as Piper concluded her story with her bold declaration.

Obviously, she kept some things to herself, such as how she was millionaire thanks to Billy’s will, that Jason was still alive, and the strange lawyer she met in Texas.

In truth, Piper didn’t know what she was expecting, or hoping for. Maybe for all of them to nod in agreement and join forces as another team of passionate, superpowered teenagers, and go off to fight the forces of evil men. Maybe for at least a few of them to agree with her. That being said, Piper was unsurprised when all of them just looked like kicked puppies.

But of course they did, and Piper didn’t blame them. They’d all been through so much already, seen so many horrible things already, why should they have to subject themselves to more? Force themselves to fight more? To have to travel more, instead of finally being able to settle down and enjoy the peaceful lives they’d earned? Well, at least in everyone’s cases except Thalia and Reyna, as they were constantly on the move anyway, being Hunters of Artemis.

But as Piper had already been told, and as she had already told them and come to firmly believe herself, none of them had that choice. Not in the sense that they needed to completely sacrifice their personal lives for the pursuit of justice, but they couldn’t just completely abstain from fighting the good fight, using their powers to go above and beyond just gods and monsters. Efforts needed to be made. There were people out there they could be helping with the powers they had, people that they needed to help because they could help.

Piper could see it on their faces, the cognitive dissonance that was tearing them all apart. Piper could see that they all felt that she was right, that they really did need to step up in world affairs and do what they could to make the world a better place after they’d all fought so hard to save it, but that selflessness was running smack into their innate selfishness, running head-on into the personal belief that they’d done enough, and that they’d earned their retirement, earned the right to leave the life behind and say, “I’m done. It’s someone else’s turn.”

Piper found it ironic that Thalia and Reyna would be having this quandary given that they were nomads, not bound by school or society, and were therefore in the perfect position to be jumping right on board Piper’s ideological train of using their powers to fight the bad guys, especially because the Hunters of Artemis were literally equipped to be the greatest vigilante team in the world, what with all the powers and skills the Hunters had developed and honed from their decades, centuries, and millennia of life, and a goddess that could teleport them across the continent in the blink of an eye. Perhaps, then, it wasn’t that Thalia and Reyna were on the fence about this, but that they were feeling guilty that they and the Hunters weren’t already doing that, using their powers to fight the forces of evil—cartels, gangs, sex traffickers, drug dealers, etc., something that should’ve been right up the Hunters’ alley given that most of the perpetrators of the crimes listed above were men—or were feeling nervous about trying to convince the Hunt of Piper’s ideas, and the rebuttal they would receive.

Whatever the case, Piper did her best to put an end to her friends’ mental and emotional suffering.

“Guys, relax. I didn’t tell you my story in order to convince you to come join me on my crusade against darkness or whatever. I told you my story so that all of you would know what happened between me and Jason, know what happened to me in Tahlequah, and know where I came from when I told you what I was going to do with my life. I’m not saying you have to join me, I’m not saying you have to sit there and just completely ignore everything that’s happening in our world. What I am saying is that after everything we went through, we have to be active in our communities, using our powers however we can to help whoever we can. We can’t just sit by and do nothing while we can be doing something.”

“Like what, Piper?” Percy asked quietly. “What are we supposed to do that either won’t make a bad situation worse, or bring a bunch of unwanted attention to us? We can only stretch the Mist so much, and none of us want the mutant treatment, where the government is hunting us down either to kill us, or capture us and take us to a secret base so they can experiment on us.”

“Aww, dude,” Leo sighed. “Now I’m going to be having nightmares about that exact situation for a week.”

Calypso grabbed his hand reassuringly.

“That’s what it’s up to us to figure out,” Piper answered Percy’s question. “There isn’t a clear, definitive answer I can give any of you on what the best course of action is. It’ll always vary depending on the exact situation. We’ll have to be smart about what we do, and how we do it.”

“And what if the best course of action is no action?” Frank asked. “What if the best thing we can do, in order to avoid making something go from bad to worse like Percy said, is to do nothing?”

“Then we do nothing,” Piper shrugged. “If that really is the best we can do for someone, then so be it. The whole point of this is to make things better, not worse.”

“I’ll talk with Lady Artemis and the other Hunters,” Thalia said. “This isn’t the first time a conversation like this has come up. Other Hunters have gone out to do what you’re talking about in the past. I’ll see what Artemis says.”

Piper nodded. “Thanks.” She cleared her throat. “Okay, enough doom and gloom. How are all of you guys doing? Reyna, I see you joined the Hunt—how’s that going?”

The mood lightened considerably as Piper moved the conversation away from the uncomfortable topic of power and responsibility.

Reyna brightened considerably. “It’s been great! A huge breath of fresh air being able to travel, see things, and explore who I am without the constant pressure of having to be the praetor. No offense, Frank and Hazel.”

The current praetors of Camp Jupiter laughed a tired laugh, but there was something wrong with it. It wasn’t tired as if they were fatigued and exhausted after a long day of work; it was tired as if they were emotionally beaten and worn down, ready to give up on something and admit defeat but refused to do so out of principle. What didn’t help the sudden mounting tension were the pensive expressions that appeared on Percy and Annabeth’s faces, and the angry shadows that darkened their eyes.

Piper, Leo, Calypso, Thalia, and Reyna were all instantly alert.

“What’s going on over there?” Reyna demanded, her back straight and her voice full of authority as she slipped into her old praetor mode.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Frank dismissed. “We’ve got it handled.”

Annabeth smashed her fist upon the ground, startling everyone. She looked at Frank with so much anger in her eyes it was scary, especially because her eyes were growing red and watery. Annabeth glared at Frank, and when Percy put his hand on her shoulder, she glared at him, too.

“Anna-­”

“No!” she snapped at him. Her lower lip trembled as emotion threatened to overwhelm her, but she kept herself contained, if only barely.

Frank and Hazel looked away, and Percy stared at the boardgame of Life between the four of them.

Annabeth looked back at the Iris Message window. “There is a situation we got through. I’m sorry that we were heading into a good mood and about to tell fun stories, but this story is anything but fun. And all of you need to hear it, just like we all needed to hear Piper’s….”

Piper felt a cold cannonball of dread settle within her stomach. She could tell from Annabeth’s expression and tone of voice that what she was about to share was not going to be pleasant.

Sure enough, it wasn’t.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On the warm night of April 8, the birthday of Lester Papadopoulos, the night that Caligula, Commodus, and Tarquin marched on New Rome, Percy and Annabeth were going on a pleasant date to the opera because Annabeth wanted to, and Percy, being the good boyfriend he was, did not offer any opposition.

Almost completely heedless of the impending slaughter on the other side of the continent, the power couple of the millennium eventually were able to take their seats. They weren’t at all in the expensive suites, but they weren’t in the nosebleed section, either. Frederick was more than capable of sending his daughter some money.

He kind of had to, really, because Annabeth’s boarding school wasn’t supplying her with anything, and the Blofis family wasn’t exactly drowning in cash, either, since Sally didn’t work and the sales from her book only brought in so much, and Paul was a high school teacher.

Anyway.

Percy and Annabeth were seated next to each other, the opera set to begin in a few minutes. Despite the occasion of the night, just the two of them, with nothing else to (hopefully) worry about, there was still a look on Annabeth’s face. A certain light in her grey eyes, one that Percy knew all too well.

“What’s going through that head of yours, Wise Girl?” Percy asked after leaning close to her ear.

Annabeth sighed. After so many years, she knew that deflecting or dodging was pointless.

“The same thing that’s been running through my head since we first helped Magnus: are doing the right thing? We know that there are at least three emperors currently waging war on demigods, with one of them right here in our city—or at least, there’s a building in the city with Triumvirate Holdings slapped on the side of it—but we’re not doing…well…anything about any of this. I’m not saying we need to grab our gear and try to cross the continent to get to New Rome, Hey, guys. Y’all okay? Need any help? No? Great! Well, we’ll be on our way now, but we haven’t done anything to so much as try to help.

“We—you, actually—haven’t spoken to Chiron, Mr. D, or Nico since robot incident, I haven’t spoken to them at all since the robot incident, so we’re not at all in the loop on whatever Camp Half-Blood is doing about the crisis going on, and we’re definitely not in the loop with anything New Rome is doing because of the communication jam—and that’s the big thing. We could be doing something about the jam. There’re several things we could’ve tried—could try.

“Magnus and his Valhalla ravens. Carter and Sadie with their Duat-travel. The Door of Orpheus in Central Park that goes straight to the Underworld. We could try to get a hold of Nico and see if he’s open to that idea. There’s also the fish idea, where you use your authority as the son of Poseidon to get an aquatic communication network of your own going between the fish and maybe some water spirits, like the naiads and nereids. Then there’s-”

Percy gripped Annabeth’s hand. “Stop.”

His tone was hard, pointed, and brokered no room for argument. It was his scary Now I am serious, and I am in command voice that he almost never used, but when he did use it, even the mouthy Annabeth Chase, famed for her hubris and “control” she had over her boyfriend, went quiet. However, despite how seemingly commanding Percy was when using this tone, the light in his eyes belayed something else:

A frantic desperation for Annabeth to stop making sense, and stop putting them on the spot for sitting out the crisis.

“We have done enough,” Percy said heavily. “We went to the Underworld and back to get the Lightning Bolt, therefore averting World War Three. We went into the Sea of Monsters and brought back the Golden Fleece, saving camp. You held up the sky, and I traveled across the country to also hold up the sky. We navigated the Labyrinth and fought in a battle in which we had to burn a bunch of dead kids. Then we saved the world from the Titans and burned a lot more dead kids, some of them dead by o-our own hand.”

Percy’s voice warbled ever so slightly as he mentioned the Battle of Manhattan, in which he’d been pitted against Titan-supporting demigods and the field of battle, and did what he had to do.

Annabeth’s mouth set into a thin line with that one. It was all but confirmed that Percy had killed demigods during the battle, demigods that were only his age or close to it. So, teenagers. Kids by anyone’s standards. Naturally, Percy refused to talk about it or confirm if he had killed anyone, like most veterans of war didn’t like talking about what they had to do to come home, and no one pressed him on it, not even Annabeth.

“That should have been more than enough for us,” Percy continued. There was a rising edge in his voice now, that commanding tone giving way to frustration, anger, and something almost akin to madness. “But no. We got dragged into the Giant War more or less against our wills. Me definitely, you…kind of but not really. Then there was everything involved in the Giant War, with you helping build the Argo II, me being in a coma then going on a quest, then the entire voyage to Old Rome, then…T-Tartarus-” Annabeth shivered along with her boyfriend at the mention of the pit and its corresponding dark god “-then the rest of the Giant War after that point, followed immediately by all of that recommendation letter bullshit. Annabeth, we have done enough.

“We’ve earned our ‘retirement,’ or whatever you want to call it. We’ve earned the right to finally sit on the sidelines and let someone else handle the situation. And it’s not like there isn’t anyone we can’t pass the torch to. Nico’s gotten a lot stronger, Leo’s back, Piper’s no slouch, and Frank and Hazel have earned their ranks. And Jason and Reyna are veterans like us. New Rome is fine. We don’t need to worry about them. Camp Half-Blood is also fine, because it’s been over two months since the robot attack, and Nero hasn’t done anything else. If he had, Chiron would’ve found a way to tell us.”

Percy gave Annabeth’s hand a comforting squeeze, and he smiled a reassuring smile.

“Okay? New Rome is fine. They’ve got plenty of strong leaders and strong demigods. Camp Half-Blood is in great hands, too. It’s not like we’re just abandoning our friends. We’re having faith and confidence in their abilities and powers to handle themselves while we finally relax and enjoy our lives. Besides, we can’t always be there to drop everything that we’re doing and go save the day at the drop of a hat. We have our own lives, too.”

“I guess,” Annabeth sighed. “It’s just…I feel like there could be some small thing we could—should—be doing. Like, the retirement thing makes tons of sense and I’m totally onboard with finally doing our own thing and not having to deal with any more major mythological meltdowns, but…but that we still have one last job in us, if that makes sense? Like, one last hurrah? One last helping hand to our friends to let them know we’ll always be ready and willing to give them a hand, no matter how small?”

“Trust me,” Percy said, smiling, “they know we would always help them, just like they know they can handle these emperor chumps, no problem. They’re all big boys and girls. They can tie their shoes, brush their teeth, and go potty all by themselves.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “I would hope so, given that they’re all teenagers.”

“Powerful teenagers,” Percy clarified. “So, they’re fine. They’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Now would you please just relax and enjoy the opera? This was your idea in the first place to take our minds off things and just enjoy life for a night, so relax and enjoy life.”

Annabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath, not to launch a counterargument to Percy’s stances, but to focus and center herself. Her boarding school offered free counseling, and she had actually been to see the counselor a few times due to the stress she’d been feeling between studying for exams, keeping up with her homework and internship, the future in general, and the thing she couldn’t talk about: the ongoing crisis with Apollo and the emperors. She’d been taught some meditative techniques on how to destress and let her worries go, and so she put a breathing and mental imagery exercise into play.

After a few seconds of doing this, and she felt better.

Annabeth squeezed Percy’s hand and looked at him. “Okay. I’m good.”

Just then, the lights of the theatre dimmed, and the volume of the audience fell into almost complete silence.

“Just in time,” Percy murmured with a grin as the curtains were lifted.

Tonight’s feature was an abridged telling of the Divine Comedy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was all quiet through the Iris Message feed after Percy and Annabeth finished the first part of their own grand story, the explanation of what they were doing during the Imperial War, or rather, what they weren’t doing, and why they weren’t doing anything.

Piper saw that Frank, Hazel, Reyna, and Thalia all had hollow looks in their eyes, because they knew exactly what happened during the Battle of San Francisco Bay. Piper knew what happened, too, thanks to that mysterious lawyer on the day of Billy’s funeral back at the beginning of June, coming up on three months ago. The lawyer had told Piper about Annabeth and Percy’s shortcomings regarding the Imperial War, along with many other choice observations.

As for the three Romans, Piper could both see and feel the conflict in them regarding Percy and Annabeth. One part of them felt angry, bitter, resentful, prejudiced, and judgmental—like, Yeah, you’re both goddamn right you should’ve been doing something to help us, or at least help Camp Half-Blood, but you did nothing! You didn’t even do anything to protect Sally, Paul, and baby Estelle! You just up and left!—while the other part of them was understanding, accepting, and empathetic—like, We know you two were tired and just wanted to finally live your own lives, and that’s a right that the two of you earned. We can’t blame you for not participating in the Imperial War. We know that if you truly knew what was coming for us, you would’ve dropped everything to help us. It was a classic example of how the Roman principles of duty, honor, loyalty, camaraderie, discipline, and sacrifice—always putting the pack before yourself, always willing to die for the pack, and live for the pack—clashed with the personal connections of friends and family.

The Roman parts of Frank, Hazel, and Reyna all told them that Percy and Annabeth were at fault, but the human part of them said that Percy and Annabeth weren’t at all to blame for anything, and that blaming them wasn’t just wrong, but stupid.

As for Leo, he hesitantly raised his hand. “Er…so…what happened with the Caligula and Commodus? The most up-to-date info I have is that they, uh, killed Jason, and were sailing for New Rome.”

Reyna was the one that cleared her throat. “There was a big battle. The emperors attacked from the San Francisco Bay. Another undead Roman monarch, King Tarquin, launched his own assault from underneath the city. We survived thanks to Apollo correctly pulling off the Sibylline Summon and bringing in Lady Diana. She killed off Tarquin’s forces, and it was through Frank’s and Apollo’s efforts that Caligula and Commodus were destroyed. We won the battle, but the cost was steep. We once had 568 between the legion and New Rome, but after we counted the dead, there were only 87 still alive.”

Leo and Calypso blanched.

Percy and Annabeth looked even more haunted.

Piper spoke up. “It’s done and over with. There’s nothing we can do for the dead except honor their memories, and make sure that if another situation like this arises, we don’t make the same mistakes. I’m not free of blame, either. Even though I knew at least Caligula was powerful enough to kill someone as strong as Jason, and he had Commodus and a fleet with him sailing for New Rome, I still turned tail and ran away for Tahlequah.”

“Hey,” Leo was able to speak first as everyone opened their mouth to protest Piper’s statement, “that was a special circumstance. Jason, what happened to you and your dad-”

“Excuses,” Piper interrupted in the same flat, unamused tone that the lawyer had used on her back in early June. “I could’ve been angry, vengeful, on fire for a fight, and I could’ve accompanied Meg and Apollo to New Rome to protect Jason’s body, and then fight side by side with you guys. I could’ve convinced you to come with me,” she looked at Leo, “and we could’ve figured something out with my dad. In short, where there’s a will, there’s a way. The bottom line is that I actually did know what was heading for New Rome, and I still went the other way. Once could say I’m the most villainous of all, because I was Jason’s girlfriend. I was his girlfriend, but I couldn’t even watch over his body and attend his funeral.”

More silence.

Until Leo spoke, “Well, by that logic, I’m guilty too.”

Piper shook her head. “No. None of us are guilty. We all did what we felt was right for our reasons, and we’ll have to live with the consequences of our actions. The only thing we can do now is not make those same mistakes again. The next time some big threat emerges from the darkness, we’ll know we need to go out and stop it—and I’m talking about something divine. Not what I’m going to do with organized crime and stuff.”

Annabeth sighed. “We’re living with the consequences of our actions, alright.”

With that statement, she moved to the second part of hers and Percy’s story.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The original trio that started it all were steadily making their way through California traffic to get to the Caldecott Tunnel so they could take the secret exit to New Rome. Because they knew him so well, Percy and Annabeth both knew that Grover wasn’t just nervous, but that something truly awful was devouring him alive.

“Grover,” Percy said evenly, looking at Grover’s reflection in the rearview mirror. Annabeth even turned around in her seat to look at the satyr. “The closer we get to New Rome, the more you start to look like how you did when you were making dinner for Polyphemus: terrified for your life. You told us you’ve been out here in SoCal fighting the wildfires, and that Apollo, Piper, Meg, and you were able to free the oracle there and basically put Hyperion back to sleep. We figured there was an emperor out here since Camp Jupiter is out here, and Nero is out by Camp Half-Blood. So, you mind telling us what has you so freaked out right now?”

Grover was literally sweating with trepidation as Percy continued talking, and by the time he finished his question, Grover was pale as a sheet and shaking like a leaf.

But why wouldn’t he be? After all, for the duration of this entire trip, from Manhattan to Berkeley, he hadn’t told them about Piper breaking up with Jason, or Jason’s death, or about Piper’s destroyed financial situation because of the Triumvirate and how she was forced to move back to Tahlequah with her ruined dad, or about how when Grover had left SoCal, Caligula was happily taking his invasion fleet up to Camp Jupiter. In short, Grover had been lying to Percy and Annabeth this entire time.

That was only part of the reason for his being a nervous wreck right now, though. Harpocrates may have faded, and with him the communication jam, but it was still a slow-going process to get magic working again. Because of this, Grover truthfully did not know whether New Rome was even still standing right now. Was it a huge pile of rubble? Had it been overrun by the emperors? Grover did not know if he was leading his best friends either into ruins or into a death trap.

Take the fact that he knew he was lying by way of omission and combine it with the uncertainty of New Rome’s status, and you could understand why Grover was sweating bullets. What were Percy and Annabeth going to say now that they were basically on the doorstep of their destination?

It couldn’t be avoided any longer.

Grover swallowed and took a deep breath.

“Grover…?” Percy asked, seeing the signs of something very bad coming his way.

“The three of us…” Grover started, before he choked and tried again. “You know the three of us are best friends, right?”

“Grover…” Annabeth said, her eyes narrowing.

“And that we would never do anything to intentionally hurt each other, right?”

“G-Man, c’mon!” Percy said loudly. “What’s happened?”

Tears started welling up in Annabeth’s eyes as the sheer possibilities of what she was about to hear threatened to overwhelm her emotions.

Grover couldn’t bear to look at them as he answered.

“Commodus was the emperor in Indianapolis. The emperor here in the West was Caligula. Medea was with Caligula, and she used the Triumvirate’s resources to exact her revenge on Piper for what happened last year in Chicago. Medea went after Tristan’s finances and successfully got him convicted of tax fraud and tax evasion. The banks swooped in and took everything he owned, and every penny he had, and Tristan’s life and reputation as an actor have been destroyed.”

Percy and Annabeth both gasped.

“What about Piper and Jason-” Annabeth started.

“Piper broke up with Jason,” Grover said quietly. “I don’t know why.”

Percy slammed the break and laid on the horn as someone cut him off.

Annabeth’s hands flew to her mouth as her breath left her, her eyes going wide as plates.

After that episode, Percy rounded Grover. “What do you mean Piper broke up with Jason!? Piper was the one who wanted to be his girlfriend in the first place, and after everything they went through together during the Giant War-!”

“I said I don’t know!” Grover shouted back.

A horn sounded from behind them, prompting Percy to put his eyes back on the road, seeing that there were now at least four car lengths ahead due to how traffic had moved.

Annabeth was trying to hold back her sobs, and Percy was openly crying angry tears.

How could Piper do that to Jason?

It was impossible! At least, it seemed impossible to Percy.

“A-Are you sure that Piper actually broke up with Jason?” the son of Poseidon grasped at straws to ease his own rising emotions. “You said that Medea used the Triumvirate to mess with Tristan’s finances—could Medea have used magic or something to get inside of Piper’s head and-”

“I said I don’t know, Percy,” Grover answered tautly. “When I first met Piper, it was with Apollo and Meg. We were all shocked that Piper had broken up with Jason. I think she found the time to talk to Apollo about it, but she didn’t tell me anything, nor did Apollo. You’ll have to ask either of them when you next see them what happened.”

Percy was having to consciously measure his strength so he didn’t grip the steering wheel so hard that it imploded.

Annabeth tried to ask something, but her voice cracked on the first syllable.

Percy pulled onto the secret exit ramp that led to New Rome, his eyes bloodshot, twin tears running down his face. The drive down the tunnel was tense, the electric lights at some point turning into magic torches.

“Stop,” Grover said before they reached the exit. “It might be a trap.”

Percy slammed the break. “What do you mean it might be a trap? What the hell happened here!?”

Grover just jumped into it and didn’t stop.

“Piper broke up with Jason sometime around December or January. The Triumvirate destroyed Tristan’s career and reputation. Piper and Jason kept working together on small quests and kind of fighting the Triumvirate, but they never reached closure and really worked together. In March, Jason managed to navigate the Burning Maze until he found the Oracle, where she gave him the prophecy that if he and Piper continued pursuing the Triumvirate, one of them was going to die.

“Jason took that prophecy on himself. He didn’t tell Piper about it because she and her dad were about to leave Malibu for Tahlequah. Despite how she broke up with him, he still loved her enough to die for her. And…yeah. He, Piper, Apollo, and Meg found Caligula’s fleet, and they tried for a sneak attack, it failed, and the reason for the latter three still being alive is because Jason isn’t. He’s dead. Unless something happened to her, Piper should be in Tahlequah right now. As for Caligula’s fleet, they were due to attack New Rome on April 8. I don’t know if they succeeded in their attack or not, so I don’t know if we’re walking into a trap.”

Percy and Annabeth both stared at Grover with horrified, shocked, heartbroken, colorless expressions. There was total silence in the vehicle for a grand total of three seconds before the incomprehensible shouting started.

Grover shut his eyes and took the verbal abuse, letting the righteous fury of his best friends cascade upon him like torrential rain. He deserved it. He’d lied to them this whole trip, withholding crucial information from them about current events. All in the name of:

“I just wanted you to be happy!” Grover shouted at the absolute top of his lungs, bringing silence back to the car. He continued, “I just wanted you two to be happy. Everything you’ve already been through, all the bullshit you’ve put up with—I just wanted the two of you to finally be happy. I didn’t tell you about Jason and Piper and the attack because I knew you would hate yourselves for not doing anything more about the Imperial War, you wouldn’t want to leave Manhattan until you were certain Nero was defeated….I-I just…I just wanted the two of you to finally be happy, finally be able to live your own lives, not worry about anyone but yourselves for a change, and just be able to look forward to a better future…”

“A better future,” Percy echoed hollowly. “Jason died on some ancient Roman battleship-”

“Caligula’s fleet was actually made up of pleasure yachts,” Grover coughed. “50 of them.”

“50 pleasure yachts…” Percy said, staring a thousand yards into the distance. “Jason died on a pleasure yacht…on the water…on April 8^th?”

“No. Jason d-died the morning of April 1^st,” Grover confirmed in a shaky voice. “Their sneak attack was the night of March 31^st. April 8^th was the scheduled day for the attack on Camp Jupiter.”

“The night we were at the opera,” Annabeth choked back a sob. “The night we were enjoying ourselves, just the two of us, and Jason was already—he was already—he had-” Annabeth stopped to take a breath. “And Piper’s life had been turned upside down, and our friends here were under attack. And we were having that argument about whether we were doing the right thing or not.”

Percy slumped in his seat. “Fuck,” he muttered. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

Grover winced at the volume of the last explicative.

“Fucking figures!” Percy continued to lament. “The one time—the one fucking time that we actually have the choice on whether or not go rushing out there to save the day, and we choose not to do that, we choose to put ourselves before others—just this one time—and everything goes to hell! Jason’s dead, Piper’s life’s been destroyed, and we don’t know about Frank, Hazel, Reyna or Le-” Percy turned around in his seat, his crying, bloodshot eyes wide with panic. “What happened to Leo? Do you know what happened to Leo?”

Grover’s voice cracked. “L-Leo’s—ahem—Leo’s alive. After Indianapolis, he flew straight to New Rome to warn them of a vanguard we learned about from a prophecy we got. He was able to get there in time and minimalize the casualties of the initial assault before he flew south to Malibu. He got there just as we were all about to part ways, Meg and Apollo taking Jason to New Rome, Piper about to leave for Tahlequah. They told him what happened, and Leo left with Piper. That’s all I know from there.”

“Terrific,” Percy grumbled. “Piper and Leo survived the emperors, but on their way to Tahlequah, they got jumped either by monsters or mortals, and now they’re in Elysium too.”

Annabeth smacked his side. “Don’t say that! Don’t even think that!”

Percy didn’t say anything. He just kept staring into the distance, the odd tear running down his cheek. Annabeth fell into silence, and Grover dared not say anything. The whole cabin was thick with a typhoon of emotions, all three on a thin line between control and nuclear meltdown.

Eventually, Annabeth turned around to look at Grover. In as soft a voice as she could manage, she said, “Thank you for considering us, Grover. I appreciate it.”

“I feel like you’re about to say, But you should have told us about this when you got to Manhattan,” Grover said, which triggered Percy.

The son of Poseidon whipped around. “You’re goddamn right you should’ve-!”

Annabeth set her hand on his knee. In that moment, she demonstrated her true power, and what an awesome power it was: the power to calm the storm.

Percy noticeably simmered down at the mere touch of his beloved. “That was definitely something you should’ve told us. Now I’m internally freaking out over Mom and Paul and Estelle, who we left behind in Manhattan, having not told them at all about the emperors ironically for the same reason Grover didn’t tell us about Jason and Piper, that being so they didn’t worry about anything.”

Grover shifted in the backseat. “I, er, had a talk with the local nature spirits about that. They’re watching over your family, Percy. From a distance. I told them to be discreet.”

Percy looked at Grover from the rearview mirror, his eyes alight with a dozen different emotions. He shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded stiffly, saying, “Thank you, Grover.”

Annabeth turned back around to face the satyr. She nodded gratefully, then she said, “I was going to say something about shoulda, woulda, and coulda. Not just you, but the two of us. We should have been more active in the Imperial War, we would have been more active if we knew what the emperors were really capable of—I mean, killing Jason, a whole fleet of yachts—and we could have been more active if…if…”

“If we weren’t burnt out and tired of being heroes and just wanted to live our own lives for once?” Percy supplied.

Annabeth didn’t lie or argue the sentiment. “Y-Yeah,” she let out a shaky breath, “that.”

Grover swallowed. “Guys, I’m so sor-”

“Shhh!” Percy cut him off, punctuating the syllable with a flail of his arm. “Do not say that word right now.” He put the car back in gear and started heading down the tunnel. “I really hope that the emperors didn’t capture New Rome. If they did, I’ll probably destroy the whole place myself.”

Grover gulped, appreciating the fact that he had basically pushed Percy so close to the edge that his best friend was seriously contemplating mass destruction.

Annabeth was reminded of when they were down in Tartarus, and Percy had broken the boundaries of his domain, presumably because they were so close to Primordial Chaos and things got weird around those parts of creation, and nearly killed a Primordial goddess with her own tears and poison. Percy had that kind of energy about him right now. He had that same detached, cold, murderous look in his eyes.

Annabeth couldn’t blame him. She couldn’t even say that if they got to New Rome and found it overtaken, that she would stop him from bringing about total annihilation of the whole valley.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Obviously, the emperors didn’t win,” Percy said, his eyes having gone a little red and watery from the recollection, same with Annabeth.

Piper’s own eyes had gone misty.

How she wished she could tell them all right now that Jason was alive and well, and that she strongly suspected he was now an einherjar in Odin’s Valhalla army—or something like that. Jason had shown her the nine-branched tree sigil on his shield the night she fought Incognito, and after a simple Google search when she had the time, the first thing that popped up was Yggdrasil. Piper put two and two together to equal Jason might’ve been scooped up by a Valkyrie because he died honorably while fighting, and then carried to Valhalla.

Whatever the case, Piper knew Jason was alive, but she was sworn to secrecy.

Back to the current situation, it was a classic Greek tragedy. The reluctant heroes, forced at almost every turn in their lives to be on the frontlines, fighting, fighting, fighting, watching their friends and allies die left and right, and then when they finally get to a point where they actually have the choice about whether to and fight some more, they choose not to fight, and everything gets fucked as a result. Of course, this all hinged on the idea that the presence of Percy and Annabeth would’ve completely changed the tide of battle, pun intended. After all, if Percy been there, either for Jason’s final battle or the Battle of San Francisco Bay, he could’ve sunk the whole fleet and saved everyone’s lives.

At least, in theory.

It was a two-fold tragedy in that the one time Percy and Annabeth said, “Naw,” to getting involved with a major mythological conflict, almost everyone died, and that they died during an assault in which water was a huge factor. Jason died at sea, and the emperors had to launch their ground forces from their yachts across the bay, hence that battle’s name.

But like Annabeth had said: shoulda, woulda, and coulda.

There was almost something like fear in Thalia’s voice when she asked, “Is that all that happened, then?”

A mirthless smirk crossed Frank’s face, accompanied by a derisive snort. “Nope. Percy got court-martialed.”

Everyone sat up a little straighter, with Reyna being the most alert.

“Court-martialed?” she demanded. “Why wasn’t I notified of this?”

“You aren’t the praetor anymore,” Hazel said.

“But I was his praetor when he joined the legion! By right-”

“Reyna,” Frank cut in firmly. “You know how it goes with praetors. Once you’re gone, you’re gone. Yes, people will still respect you, and you might still have some influence, but you aren’t the praetor anymore. You’d be given courtesy, but no special treatment. You’re a citizen now, not a legionary. And you’re technically not even a citizen. You’re a Hunter of Diana.”

Reyna almost pouted. “I still should’ve been there.”

Annabeth palmed her face. “For fuck’s sake,” she cursed, throwing almost everyone for a loop since it was her that was cursing, “this whole thing is boiling down to a whole bunch of should have, wouldhave, could have statements, and it’s getting annoying at this point. I guess we all, in some form or fashion, from some point of view, epically screwed up with the Imperial War. Let’s please just move on. Frank, please make it fast.”

Frank nodded. “Grief was still running high enough in some that when Percy and Annabeth made it in, those people had some choice words to say about them not being there during our time of need. Things escalated, and the people in question went through the legal procedures to have Percy court-martialed on the grounds of being AWOL, and they also filed suit against you and me-” Frank looked at Reyna “-giving Percy and Annabeth permission to attend college at NRU and live in the city despite not having given their ten years of service, or even being Roman demigods.”

Reyna looked ready to blow a gasket, and even Piper and Leo were ready to get mad with that one.

Hazel picked up the story. “The trial didn’t really go anywhere. The people who had a bone to pick with Percy and Annabeth were a minority group. They got hit really hard during the battle and just wanted somewhere to take out their emotions. Anyway, Percy explained what he and Annabeth already said, and the tribunal ruled that Percy was a unique circumstance. He was acquitted of being AWOL on the grounds that he was a retired praetor and therefore had been honorably discharged from the legion, and the tribunal also ruled that Frank and Reyna were well within their rights as praetors to give special permission to Percy and Annabeth to stay in the city and attend college, on the grounds that it was a great showing of good faith, two camp leaders to the others. And also because of everything that Percy and Annabeth already went through during their careers as demigods, they had more than earned the right to stay in New Rome.”

Finally, some good news in this story.

However, Piper could tell, just like she could tell that everyone else could tell, that there was still something bad coming up.

“But,” Annabeth finished, a rueful smile on her face, “due to the heavy losses sustained during the battle, only 87 souls still alive between the legion and the citizenry, New Rome University will not be opening this schoolyear due to not having enough students or staff left alive. As such, Percy and I will be commuting to UC Berkeley for our freshman year.”

The bittersweetness of this hit everyone on the same level.

Percy and Annabeth finally got to stay in New Rome, but it was practically a ghost town. They finally got to go to college, but it wasn’t the college they were hoping for. They finally got the chance to choose what to do with themselves, and they were suffering the consequences of their actions in a way that wasn’t the worst imaginable, but it definitely wasn’t ideal.

“And Grover?” Thalia asked. “Is he okay?”

Percy nodded. “We made up. Went to dinner, big group hug, no hard feelings, and he went back to CHB to be with Juniper.”

“We also ran into Apollo the last week of June,” Annabeth said. “he came in to check in on us, but that was, er, after we’d processed our grief over Jason and were still excited for college but before the trial and we were told the college wouldn’t even be open.”

There was a round of everyone briefly recounting their own visit with Apollo after he regained godhood.

“Anyway,” Annabeth said, forcing herself to be chipper, “that’s enough about us, and we have Piper’s big story, so who’s next?”

“Well,” Thalia started, “we finally caught the Teumessian Fox. We’ve been chasing that damn thing since early February.”

“You caught the fox that can’t be caught?” Piper asked with an eager tone, excited for the story.

Thalia clapped Reyna on the shoulder. “We had the idea for a while of repeating history by getting Laelaps, the dog that always catches its prey, and sending her after the Fox, but it was Reyna that finally pulled it off. She and I went on a quest to return Laelaps to earth, and when we did and sent Laelaps after the Fox, they both turned to stone again.”

Reyna blushed. “It wasn’t that much of a quest.”

Thalia jostled her shoulder. “Ah, quit being modest.” The daughter of Zeus looked back at the Iris Messages, looking every bit the excited and supportive big sister that she technically was as Reyna’s senior in the Hunt. “So, here’s how it happened…”

As Thalia launched into the epic tale of how she and Reyna were able to free Laelaps, Piper’s mind started to wander.

She couldn’t help but feel that this was only the beginning. The misfortune Percy and Annabeth experienced, her own ordeal with Incognito, the Hunt’s prolonged nightmare chasing down the Teumessian Fox, and just the whole pattern that had been developing. First the Titans, then the Giants only a few months later, and then the first encounter with the emperors barely six months after the Giants. There was the lawyer’s dire warning about a dark future, reinforced by Jason’s own words of a coming calamity.

Piper had asked if it was going to be in her lifetime, and Jason said he didn’t know.

Now there was a growing little fear in Piper, the fear that they weren’t going to be ready, that, in the words of Bane, peace was going to cost them their strength, victory was going to defeat them. Maybe not so much for Reyna and Thalia, Hunters, but Leo, Annabeth, and Percy? Maybe even Frank and Hazel depending on how they decide to live?

Piper was broken from her foreboding thoughts when Leo called her out.

“Pipes, you okay? You have a look on your face.”

Piper thought about her words and how to step around what she knew she couldn’t talk about. “Just…worried about the pattern. You know? First it was the Titans, then the Giants popped up, and then the emperors popped up—so what’s next? Like, three months from now, are we once again going to be fighting for our lives against some major mythological threat? Maybe not even mythological, but World War Three actually starts and now we have to worry about nukes…” Piper shook her head.

“No, enough about that. I didn’t call you guys to talk about doom and gloom. This is a happy moment for us. All of us kind of together again to share stories and make some more good memories, and-” Piper’s ear twitched as she heard the telltale creek of the old gate to her gravel driveway. She sighed. “Dad’s home.”

There were nods and understanding hums from the heroes. They all knew that Tristan was one of those kinds of humans that couldn’t handle the world of gods and monsters, and so him walking in on Piper, asking who she was talking to, and seeing a bunch of Iris Messages, would not be good for his sanity. Granted, they all knew Piper could just say she was on the phone with friends, and if Tristan did pop his head into her room, maybe the Mist would make it look like she was on a Zoom meeting on her computer, but there was also a certain feeling of “done” to tonight’s meeting.

A certain feeling of, “We’ve talked about a lot of heavy stuff today, and we’ve got a lot to think about. We should call it now.”

“It was great talking to all of you again,” Piper said. “I have Fall break scheduled for the Thursday and Friday of the third week in October.”

Leo perked up. “Hey, that’s when my Fall break is! But I get the whole week, ha!”

Piper stuck her tongue out at him.

Frank and Hazel blushed. “The legion doesn’t get a Fall break…” Frank said dejectedly.

“We can change that, though,” Hazel said.

Percy nudged Annabeth with a grin. “Listen to all these babies talking about going to high school.”

Annabeth grinned back. “Maybe one day they’ll be big kids like us, and go to college.”

Thalia nudged Reyna with a grin of her own. “Listen to all these nerds talking about college and school.”

Reyna adopted the same grin. “I know. Maybe one day they’ll free themselves from the shackles of society like us.”

There was laughter and chuckles all around until Piper heard the honking of the jeep as her dad locked it.

“I love you guys. I can’t wait to see you all in person again. I’ll be in touch!”

They all bid their farewells, and Piper swiped through the messages, bringing an end to the conversation. She heard the front door open and shut, the footsteps of her father coming closer, and then a knock on her door.

“Come in!”

Tristan entered. He was definitely tired, but he looked satisfied.

Piper stood up and gave him a big hug. “Hey, Dad. Welcome home.”

“Good to be home, Pipes. Did you have a good evening?”

“I had a great evening.”

“Good, good. Well, I’m going to shower and head to bed.”

Piper giggled. “All right, Dad. Osda usvi. Gvgeyui.”

Tristan smiled. “Good night, Piper. I love you, too.”

They’d been practicing their Cherokee language together as they deepened their connections to their culture.

Tristan shut the door on his way out, and with nothing better to do, Piper crawled under her covers, shut her lamp off, and went to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Days later, as Nico, Will, Bob the Titan, Small Bob the Skeleton Sabretooth, and the host of cacodemons that Nyx produced, were all piled into a large enough rowboat on the River Acheron and gently sailing upstream on their way out of the pit of evil, they were completely and totally heedless and unaware of the gigantic iron boots standing upon a cliff above the river, and the dreadful menace that was wearing those boots.

The dark god Tartarus, in the humanoid form he had assumed over a year ago when he decided to squash Percy and Annabeth with his bear hands, stood alone, silently watching as the host left his domain by his will alone. It was an amusing thought to him that at any moment he so desired, he could vaporize the whole lot of them with nothing more than a thought. They were in his domain, after all, since this whole miniature continent was his body, and he could destroy them as easily as he destroyed Krios and Hyperion. He could’ve just as easily destroyed Iapetus and Damasen in like manner, but chose fisticuffs for the hell of it. Despite being thousands of years out of practice in terms of melee, Tartarus had gotten his groove back within seconds, and easily defeated his son and his nephew, both of whom were still fresh in the ways of combat.

A pillar of darkness grew behind Tartarus and solidified into the form of Nyx. The goddess of night looked no worse for wear than she did a few hours ago before her “battle.”

Stunning performance, Tartarus said in his disembodied voice.

Nyx scoffed, disgusted with herself. “Feigning all of that concern over a mere demigod infant, throwing a battle to my own ornery children, and then pretending that river had any affect on me, Night itself—this ruse had better be worth it.”

Have the cacodemons been accepted?

“Yes. The little fool actually believes they are the product of my efforts and his own worst memories. He has no inkling of an idea as to who their true father is.”

Nyx smirked, setting her hand upon her brother’s armored shoulder.

Tartarus hummed, the glowing lights in the depths of his helmet shining with satisfaction. Then the ruse is worth it. Our children will wait for my command, and then they will strike.

A third deity joined the pair. “A day I look forward to most eagerly.”

Akhlys, Tartarus greeted formally. Welcome.

The goddess of misery hissed. “When I get my hands on those two…”

“Patience, daughter,” Nyx said. “Eternity is eternal. We will kill Percy and Annabeth, and their immortal souls will be our playthings until we get bored or manage to produce some form of sympathy and toss them into our father over there.”

Nyx waved in the general direction of the nearest edge of the landscape where it dropped off into the void of Chaos.

Have you located the other two that I seek? Tartarus asked the goddess of misery.

“Setne is currently trapped within a snow globe upon the desk of Carter Kane in his office in the Brooklyn House, and the Aesir were truly stupid enough to place Loki’s new prison in our realm. Upon the North side of Mt. Everest, in fact.”

Tartarus made a sound akin to a derisive snort. How amusing.

Nyx practically shuddered with excitement, showing she was just as antsy as her daughter, but with a small degree of greater control over herself. “This will be glorious. All of us-”

This will be short and quick, Tartarus interrupted his sister. I have no interest in occasion, or important dates, or revenge, or any other silly concepts. It has happened that I now have enough iotas of care in me to make my own attempt at ‘world domination,’ and I will do it according to my vision. There will be no grand ceremony, or a sequence of rising events concluding in an epic climactic battle. There will be one, swift, coordinated, crushing attack at my order, making sure that the major powers that would oppose us are caught off-guard, and are summarily destroyed. Once our enemies have been defeated, then we may revel. But not a moment sooner.

Nyx nodded. “Understood, Brother.”

“Agreed,” Akhlys inclined her head.

We are immortal. There is no reason for us to get ahead of ourselves. Tartarus looked at Akhlys. Free Setne and Loki. But do it discreetly. I do not want there to be any inkling of evidence left behind. Right now, anonymity is our ally. The deeper our enemies are lulled into a state of peace and false sense of security, the easier they will be to annihilate.

His piece said to the primordial of poison, he looked at Night.

The same goes for you. Let your errant offspring believe in your defeat. Thousands of years of being what amounts to wild teenagers has made them crafty. Even if you were to somehow imprison them for their insolence, I have no doubt they would find a way to warn their siblings of our plans, and they may warn the Olympians, which could make an easy task much harder.

Tartarus looked out over his body.

As for me, I will continue to build our army. I will make tens of thousands of monsters, perhaps even hundreds. I will accelerate the regeneration of my children, and even make new ones if I feel like it. Once I am satisfied with the size of the army, and have determined that our enemies have become complacent and weak, then we will crush them.

The goddesses nodded.

The physical form of Tartarus dissolved into dark particles as the spirit resumed his work on industrializing monster regeneration.

Nyx teleported back to her mansion, mindful of keeping a weak and frail appearance on the odd chance one of her children decided to pop in for a visit.

Akhlys teleported herself right inside of Carter’s office in the Brooklyn House, her power as an ancient, eldritch Primordial deity allowing her to not only easily bypass the magic protecting the House, but also all the alarms within.

Misery stood above the snow globe upon the desk that housed the old magician, his tiny form looking up at her with true, genuine fear on his face, because he knew that there was no swindling the likes of her like he could swindle the Kane children, their father Julian/Osiris, or anyone else, really.

“Hello, Setne,” Akhlys said. “I have a proposition for you…”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“I have an interesting development to report,” Nyx said with a tinge of sarcasm in her voice.

Oh? Tartarus asked.

Obviously, they were down in the pit, the goddess of night having called her brother to her mansion because she didn’t feel like putting forth the miniscule effort of manifesting a physical presence elsewhere upon the landscape.

“Do you recall Triumvirate Holdings?”

The puny mortal monarchs that tried to take control of the oracles so they could manipulate Fate itself. I recall you were quite amused by their attempt at usurping your daughters.

“Yes, quite humorous, even a year later. Even more humorous is that the company they founded is still thriving despite their founders having been destroyed. Whomever would have thought that an ‘evil’ organization that existed for two millennia would have a chain of command in place, and successors lined up to take over in the event the emperors were defeated.”

Planning ahead? Perish the thought, Sister. I take it the new generation has reached out to you?

“Yes and no. There is only one true ruler, with the other two subservient to him. He beseeched me yesternight with a proposal that I admittedly find to be very amusing.”

So amusing that you have deigned to bring it to my attention. Very well. I am interested.

“He wanted to speak to me personally.”

The dark god paused. How presumptuous. Yet bold. Fine, then. Bring him here.

Nyx waved her hand, and she did something truly terrifying: from the depths of the evil pit, she teleported the current leader of Triumvirate Holdings from his Manhattan office to the throne room of the Mansion of Night to stand between her and her brother. Obviously, the implications of this were horrific.

The new emperor was a most unassuming man. 5’9, dark blonde hair, fair skin, skinny frame, clean-shaven, and bluish-grey eyes. He wore a simple black business suit with a white shirt and a purple tie. However, despite his average appearance, he quickly displayed that there was something very wrong with him. He looked at the 40-foot-tall form of Nyx on her throne, and then he turned around to look at the 40-foot-tall form of Tartarus.

“Are you expecting pleasantries, or do you want me to get to the point?”

Tartarus’s nonexistent lips quirked up. To the point.

“I would like your help for something I think would be hilarious.”

And that would be?

“The demise of the teenagers with attitude and their moronic parents. On both sides of the family. I’m already working on something of my own design, but I had an idea that involved your resources that would make things delectably sweeter.”

Really now? And what is your own design for the demigods?

The new emperor smiled like a snake.

“Triumvirate Holdings has been in business for two thousand years. With our wealth and powers, we have been a major unseen influence in most world affairs. I’ll skip the details, but I will say that we created the CIA, FBI, and NSA. In addition to having the most exhaustive mortal spy network on this planet, we also own the IRS, and have many skilled immortal demigods on our payroll that have had centuries to develop and hone their skills. In short, the demigods fought and died so valiantly to defend mankind, and I will use mankind to destroy them. I already have the mortal agencies watching all the demigods in the United States—Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Clarisse La Rue, Travis and Connor Stoll, Katie and Miranda Gardiner, Billie Ng, all the adult Romans in the world, all the children who don’t even know they’re demigods, all the children who were only introduced to our world this summer, even the Egyptian children Carter and Sadie Kane, Walt Stone, Zia Rashid, and the rest of them. All of those that live amongst the mortals in some way are under 24/7 surveillance on the grounds of national security, suspected of domestic terrorism. With a phone call, I can have all the demigods arrested, and if they resist, executed on the on spot, and if they escape, hunted down and killed. And I can have their camps bombed to oblivion. The American military is practically under my control with how many generals and JAGs are on my payroll.”

“Certainly impressive for what it is,” Nyx said. “I do enjoy the irony of using the humans to destroy the demigods.”

Yes, quite delectable. What is it that you wanted of us?

“Hecate,” the emperor chirped.

The Primordials paused.

“Explain,” Nyx said.

“My predecessors were able to weaponize the god of silence Harpocrates by amplifying his powers in such a wat and to such a degree that they created a nationwide magic communication jam. In the same way, I can weaponize Hecate to warp the Mist on a planetary scale. The implications are practically infinite, but my immediate idea is simply global mind control. The emperors became gods because they got enough people to believe they were gods, and gods can fade because no one remembers them. In short, by harnessing the power of the human mind, we can give ourselves gigantic boosts in power by making the humans think something along the lines of Tartarus and Nyx are invincible, and we can also take power from the Olympians and other gods by the same principle by having the mortals think Zeus and his ilk are pathetically weak.”

Tartarus chuckled, a low, rumbling sound like the sound a boulder tumbling down the side of a mountain would make if the sound moved in slow motion. And then you can turn the mortals against us and make yourself the most powerful being in the universe.

The emperor chuckled too. “Oh, no. I have no desire to rule. I have no interest in empires. I am only in this game for my own personal amusement. That’s the only reason I even bothered with setting up the mortal organizations in the first place, and why I beseeched Nyx for her help. Why I plan is funny, but it could be funnier.”

Indeed. Now, what would you do if I said I have a plan of my own for the demigods?

“I would ask what it is, and either propose a blending of the plans, or retract mine entirely.”

I am building an army. A massive one. I am also accelerating the regeneration of my children the Giants, and arranging an alliance with Loki the Jotun and Setne the Egyptian magician. I intend not a war, but a single, overwhelming strike. My army, the forces of Ragnarök, and Isfet. I will destroy the demigods, the gods, and lay waste to this world. And then the spoils can be divvied among those who care, Tartarus finished dismissively.

The emperor looked positively delighted. “Beautiful….Might I still suggest my plan? I can use the humans to break the demigods, empower your forces, and depower the enemy, making your smashing victory all the easier.”

Tartarus looked at Nyx, and the goddess nodded.

You may have Hecate. Squeeze the demigods with the very people they saved. Have your fun with the Mist. The lights in Tartarus’s helmet glowed brighter as gravity increased in the Mansion of Night. And do not cross us.

“Like I said, I have no dreams of grandeur or aspirations of power. I’m just here to have a good time.”

We shall see.

Nyx sat up in her throne. “What is your name, immortal emperor?”

He bowed in a cordial manner. “My name is Gregorio Uberti. I am a human born during the Renaissance and made immortal by Nero in 1527.”

“The year that Rome was sacked,” Nyx observed.

Uberti smiled. “I opened the gate. My initiation into the Triumvirate.”

Nyx sat back, a small smirk on her face. “I see. I will send you Hecate when you have your contraption ready for her.”

“Thank you.”

Nyx waved her hand and sent the emperor back to his office.

A human after my own heart, Tartarus said, pleased. I, too, am only doing this because it amuses me. I will leave the rubble to whoever wants it after I’m done.

And that was truly what made Tartarus the most dangerous threat currently on record for the demigods.

Kronos seduced demigods with promises of revenge and justice, but his whole aim was power and his own revenge, with zero regard for those that followed him. Gaea and her Giants, once again, were motivated by revenge, the Giants desiring another shot at the gods, Gaea wanting to overthrow the gods that had stood there in complacency while her body was destroyed by the mortals. Apophis was the embodiment of hate and had a fervent desire to just destroy everything. Loki came within a hair’s breadth of victory, and may very well have won, if not for the bullshit power of friendship expressed during the flyting with Magnus. Finally, when it came to the Triumvirate, the reason they failed was simply because they sucked.

And also because these were children’s stories at the end of the day, and having the villains defeat the teenage heroes was taboo.

Tartarus was not committing to his own plan of world domination in the name of revenge against Percy and Annabeth because they escaped him, nor was he doing this in the name of his sister Gaea, nor was he disgruntled with how the Olympians had been handling their responsibilities. He didn’t hate all of creation and harbored a burning desire to destroy everything. He didn’t have a desire to cheat fate, nor did he have a desire to rule the world.

In one respect, Tartarus was only doing this for shits and giggles.

It was just that he was putting forth true effort into it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Oh, yeah. It’s all falling apart.

At over 11k words, I feel this opening chapter is long enough. It would’ve been out sooner, but climbing 250-foot-tall, and higher, towers is very physically demanding work, and leaves one quite exhausted after the day is over.

But anyway.

I hope you enjoyed the set up of things to come. Picking up right where Piper’s Untold Story left off, with Piper telling the gang about her adventures and her new ideology, and then injecting some of my headcanons.

I firmly believe that at some point Percy and Annabeth had the quandary about whether they were exercising an appropriate amount of involvement during the Imperial War, and justifying their nonparticipation with the “they’ve done enough” argument. Further, in accordance with the dialogue on page 386 of Tower of Nero, Percy reveals “‘We found out [that Jason died and New Rome was nearly overrun] as soon as we arrived,’” and knowing that Grover was with them on their road trip, this inarguably means that Grover was lying to them the entire ride. Now, it is unclear when Grover left them as he does not feature in ToN, but as far as this story goes, he was with them all the way to the front door, and only finally told them about what they were driving into.

I hope the dialogue and the portrayals were believable and true to their characters.

Finally, one of my favorite headcanons, calling back to the first iteration of the Chaos War, very angry Romans. The situation herein was basically the same as it was the first time, which is why I didn’t go into detail with it. Angry, bitter, grieving Romans take Percy to court over not being there during the Battle of San Francisco Bay, the court rules in Percy’s favor, but it’s a hollow victory because NRU is still closed on account of there not being enough people left alive to even open the college. If you want to know what math I did to arrive at the number of survivors I did, it’s in my Essays and Other Drabbles on my Ao3, in my ToA essay.

Jumping into the villains, it’s still the classic “all the bad guys team up” scenario that’s since become cliché in the fandom when it comes to “Chaos fics,” but now it’s got my special twist on it. It’s also really fun for me to write the cacodemons as the children of Nyx and Tartarus instead of Nico, because the idea that the monsters are secret sleeper nightmares is so much more gripping and lore-accurate compared to the shit show that was TSatS, with Nyx saying that the cacodemons are hers and Nico’s created from his bad memories.

Finally, the New Triumvirate. Last time, I just brought back the old ones, but here I’m doing something different. Another of my favorite headcanons is that the Triumvirate is basically your standard long-running secret evil organization. You know, the kind that’s “manipulated global events from the shadows for centuries,” and “they control every government on the planet,” and “they rig all elections,” and “they have multiple monopolies on everything,” etc. Following this, especially because of magic, it makes perfect sense that the emperors would definitely have successors lined up, or at least there would be high-enough ranking members that would step up and take over in the event of their demises, and that they would definitely have a hand in most global affairs because of how old, wealthy, and powerful they are.

Hence Gregorio Uberti revealing how the Triumvirate created the worst alphabet organizations in the world, and how he can use them to hurt the demigods in ways no monster or a god could ever do. Well, technically speaking. It’s less that a monster or a god couldn’t have demigods publicly arrested for domestic terrorism, and more that they wouldn’t bother. They’d just kill the demigod and be done with it.

In the end, the build-up to the beginning of the Chaos War is still not over. Things will really ramp up next chapter, and it will most likely be a cliffhanger ending in their arrivals.

You already know who’s coming to the party.

In the meantime, please Fav, Follow, and Review the first chapter of the biggest, grandest, most epic fanfic I will most like ever write!