School :(

"Will, Halt, take the horses ahead," Evanlyn ordered, "Warn my father that we're coming. That there's war on the horizon."

"It will take you another two days on foot to get to the Castle," Will reminded her, "And that's if you hurry. Are you sure we shouldn't all just stay together? It's Percy and Annabeth who know the most about the threat, after all."

"Father needs to know as soon as possible," she responded as they walked, eyes still pinned to the wispy smoke of the campfires, "And we will hurry. There's no use in you waiting for us to catch up, anyway."

"We can get more horses in the next town," Alyss suggested, "And catch up faster that way."

"Right, for this many people?" She scoffed a little, "How many of them even know how to ride?"

Percy looked around at the assembled demigods. "Actually, I'd say most of us. Camp's got a pretty good pegasus riding course."

"I specialize in dragons," Leo offered, "If you can get me a dragon in the next town, we'd be good."

"Where are we supposed to find you a-"

"Horace, watch out!"

The warrior of the Oakleaf had his sword out immediately, pulling his arm back to swing into the sudden mist appearing in front of them. And also Nico Di Angelo's face.

"Wait!" Percy yelled, grabbing his arm and twisting, forcing him to drop his sword. "Don't do that. We need that. What is it with you people and swinging weapons at my family?"

"The presence of godly power is so weak here," Hazel gaped, "How can we even Iris Message at all?"

"Nico, what's going on?" Piper asked over her, "Are you- monster!"

An empousa latched onto Nico's back, leaving him stumbling forward. Percy had to physically refrain from slashing Riptide through the Iris Message himself.

"It's almost at the cabins," the Son of Hades gasped, "You guys really need to hurry it up. We've posted a guard to keep the monsters away from the kids, and evacuated a ton of the Campers to Camp Jupiter, but they're hard to transport and we don't have the funds for a hundred cross-continental plane tickets or enough people to protect them anyway. If this thing keeps going the way it has been, it's going to hit the mortal world, and they won't know how to deal with it."

"Almost at the- Nico," Annabeth interrupted quickly, "How long has it been, there?"

"Since you left?" He clarified, batting away a hellhound, "A couple of weeks?"

"A week there was months here," Annabeth muttered, "But a day here is weeks there?"

"Don't try and figure out the conversion rates, Wise Girl," Percy told her with a sigh, wincing when he saw a blade graze his cousin, "You're going to break your brain. They're never going to match. That's the whole point of Kronos ripping apart space-time."

"How are we supposed to know how quickly we have to end this war, then, Percy?" She demanded, her worry making her snap, "We were indirectly fighting him for years the last time! Even if we defeat Kronos by next month? How many years will have passed by then? Will Thalia's tree still be standing to protect whatever's left? How much of New York will have been swallowed? Camp Half Blood is my home, Percy! It's the only home I've ever had, the only home I've ever known! This time tomorrow, there might not be anything left of it."

"Yeah," he agreed, drawing her into a hug, "There might not be."

"Percy!" Piper hissed, "A little tact, please."

"It's just the truth," he whispered, squeezing Annabeth gently, "But the people will be mostly safe, and cabins can be rebuilt. And hey, you can even make those upgrades you've been dying to."

"My home is falling. And I'm here, and I can't help."

"You are helping. And you won't lose your home. Not in any way that's permanent."

"Annabeth," Nico cut in from the mist, "Trust us. You need to be there. You need to trust that we can do what we need to here."

"I trust you," Annabeth assured him hastily, "I do. I just-"

"You want to be here," he murmured, "I know. Believe me, I know. I of all people know what it's like to be helpless to save the things you love. But you can help, and the best way for you to save us is to be there."

"This is our home, too," Nico said finally, "We're not letting it crumble."

"Nico," she said, restraining herself from trying to grip his vapory forearms, "I'm trusting you."

"And I'm trusting you," he promised, "To come home safe. No matter how much is left of it."

"IM again if things get worse," Hazel told him, "Make sure Will takes a look at those cuts later, too."

He rolled his eyes fondly as the mist dissipated. "Yes, mother."

"Percy," Annabeth murmured quietly, hanging back as the rest of the group kept walking, bringing up their interlocked hands to press a quick kiss there, "Thank you."

"Always," he assured her, grinning dopily, "Now let's hurry. We're saving our home, right?"

Her stormy gray eyes flashed with the steely determination he had come to love.

"We are not letting it crumble."

_______________

"There's no point in going ahead, Princess. Like we keep telling you."

"My father and his advisors need a warning-"

"Do you really think that any of your father's idiot advisors know what they're doing when it comes to things like this?" Halt snapped, scoffing a little, "They manage funds, they eat themselves silly on bread, Princess. They don't lead wars. They've been alive longer than the King, but they've never held a blade in their lives, butter knife aside. I wouldn't trust them to make my breakfast, let alone protect my country."

"I am well aware, Halt," Evanlyn told him sternly, "But we still need their support if we want to wrangle together a sizeable enough army to even stand a chance. They may not be generals, but they're advisors for a reason. Even if they can't fight, they understand delegation and can make sure we can compensate the ones that do."

"And you think that my short, grizzled Ranger of a man can convince them that their entire precious kingdom was destroyed in someone else's past? You think their pride could handle hearing that they never could have hoped to emerge victorious?"

"What are we going to tell your father even if we do go ahead?" Halt continued, rolling his eyes, "Your majesty the king, there has been some dreadful news of a rampaging immortal time lord from another dimension! Whatever shall we do? And we have brought these foreign teenaged commoners before you to back up our claims!"

"Halt has a point there. Do any of you have formal ranks?" Alyss asked, "It will be easier to demand respect if they can see something tangible going in."

"I'm a Praetor," Frank told her, "I lead the legion."

"Centurion," Hazel said, "I lead a cohort."

"What do you think, Will?" Evanlyn mused with a small smirk, "Pass 'em off as ambassadors from Toscana?"

"Percy? Annabeth?"

"Head Counselors," Percy offered, motioning at the rest of the Greeks, "We... assign camp chores?"

"We all still defer to Annabeth, though," Piper said, "Maybe we should give her a fancy title right now."

"Child of Athena, Architect of Olympus, Wise Girl the omnipotent and brave isn't good enough for you, Piper?" Percy snickered, promptly getting elbowed in the ribs by his girlfriend.

"Omnipotent might be a little much," Hazel cut in through her own laughter.

"Nah. In a past life Annabeth definitely had godly powers," Percy said, smothering his grin, "But then, like, the gods realized she was way too over powered and nerfed her stats in the next update so that everyone else would at least stand a chance."

"We'll stay together," Annabeth decided finally, "But we'll pick up the pace. We should get in some strategy before we send your kingdom to war."

"As our omnipotent leader commands," Percy and Leo chorused with small bows.

"Yes, let's hurry," Evanlyn groaned.

"I'll be much less likely to skewer these two if I'm before my father."

_______________

"Get me an audience with the King," Evanlyn ordered, strutting past the castle gates like she owned the place. Because she kind of did own the place. "An emergency council meeting. Quickly."

"He's in a meeting at the moment-"

"Emergency meeting."

"Yes, Princess Cassandra."

"Wow," Percy breathed, "Princess Evanlyn is real."

She shot him a look as they headed to the throne room. "Did you think I was lying about that?"

"I mean, no, but- You live in a castle! You're a literal princess!

"Yes," she said slowly, "As I've told you."

Evanlyn rolled her eyes at him with a small smirk, pushing open the doors.

"Father, I-"

The older man who was assumed to be the king launched toward Evanlyn quickly, pulling her into a tight hug.

"The next time you let me assume you to be missing or dead for months on end," he told her sternly, squeezing, "I'm grounding you, Cassandra. And confiscating your sling."

"Not the sling, Father!" She bemoaned dramatically, only half joking, "I need that to save the country!"

"Again?"

Her eyes softened as she took in her father's weary face, pulling back a little to face him properly.

"Yes," Evanlyn murmured quietly, deathly serious, "Again."

"I was really hoping that deciding what food to serve at your return banquet was the emergency when the maid came in," he sighed, retaking his seat amongst his advisors, "But tell me what you discovered in Grimsdell Wood."

"A parallel universe," Horace told him, motioning to the demigods, "And its people."

"Horace, my boy," King Duncan chuckled, "You know I'm a fan of your humor, but one of these days you'll have to learn to read the room."

"He's not joking," Alyss said, stepping forward, "There is a portal in the woods that leads to another timeline. Filled with gods, civilizations, and technology far beyond our own."

"Gods?" A weathered, old man smiled like he was entertaining a small child's fantasy, "And what next? Would you have me believe you were their children?"

"Actually, yes," Horace mused, "Though with no powers to speak of aside from our talents." His hand came to a rest on the hilt of his sword, a dangerous glint to his eyes that drained the color from the man's face. "As I'm sure you're familiar with."

"Listen, I don't really know how things work around here," Percy interrupted, trying to defuse the situation, "But back home we don't question things like this."

"So we're just supposed to believe that you're from a future in which my entire kingdom was felled by a single man."

"It only sounds crazy because you're saying it like that," Leo cut in, "Now try the Titan of Time and his army of followers and monsters."

"Right," one of the advisors scoffed, "Because that sounds more realistic."

"Do I have to show you our powers? Is that a thing I'm going to have to do?"

"You-"

"Frank!"

The praetor shrunk quickly, into a snarling wolf about the size of a pup. But it had the effect they'd been hoping for, sending the King and his advisors sprawling back against their chairs.

"Witchcraft!" The king's advisors gasped.

"We don't have time to wait for Kronos to make the first move," Annabeth told the King, taking advantage of the stunned silence, "As we speak, our home is being attacked, about to be engulfed in the pit of Tartarus. Destroying Kronos in our timeline ripped apart the space time continuum, but we have to hope that destroying him here, in a world where there is no Underworld, won't allow him to regenerate. That removing the cause of the rifts will save our Camp."

"It took Kronos six years to completely decimate this world and win the war," Frank added, confident despite his surprise, "But then you were unaware and unprepared. He had every advantage and he knew how to use them. But we have Percy and Annabeth. They know his tricks, and we have an idea of how we can stop him."

"He's building an army right now. We don't know how long he's been here, since the times are all messed up. But we have to assume he's had at least a year to prepare himself for war. He's smart. He's a Titan. He won't be easy to defeat, but neither will you. All we do know is that we have to catch him now, before he believes he's ready to attack."

"Or there really will be no future for Araluen."

_______________

"Annabeth!" Piper hissed, pulling her aside as soon as they were out of earshot of the throne room, "What was that in there? About Kronos and the Underworld?"

"I've been thinking about it ever since Janus showed up," she murmured back, "If killing him in our world ripped holes in the space time continuum, then it wouldn't make any sense to kill him here, where it could just happen more. However, if there's no Underworld, then there's no Tartarus, and there's nowhere for him to spend time regenerating, which means that if we destroy his main consciousness here, that should be the end of it. And we'll never have to worry about a third Titan War with Kronos after returning to our world."

"We wouldn't be here if we couldn't help," she continued, "And I... I have to believe that we can help. That we can save both worlds. It was just an added bonus that this was the best way to convince the King that the threat was real and we could stop it."

The daughter of Aphrodite sat back, suitably impressed. "Have I ever told you how much of a genius you are?"

"Of course, it's all just speculation," Annabeth smirked, satisfied, "But I think it's a reasonable assumption to make. And yes, you have. But you can always afford to do it more."

"I don't even care if I'm just feeding your hubris," Piper laughed, "But you're a genius."

"So what's our next move?" Percy asked, "Build an army? Reinforce the boundaries? Sit in this cushy castle and not move while all of our problems disintegrate? I'm a bit partial to that last one."

"It's a Ranger's job to scout ahead and bring back intel," Will said, "So Halt and I will probably head towards the Mountains of Rain and Shadows. Horace, Alyss and Evanlyn should work with the king and start rallying the country and our allies."

Percy motioned to the rest of the demigods. "Let us go with you."

Will's eyebrow shot up, and he folded his arms over his chest, staring at the son of Poseidon.

"All of you? Do you really think you can be stealthy enough to spy?"

Percy just stared back, poorly imitating his expression. "Do you think you know enough about Kronos or his army to make use of anything you see?"

"Touché."

"Not all of us, then," Annabeth offered, "Percy and I will go with the Rangers. We have the best grasp on Kronos's strategies, and there are far better uses for the other demigod skills elsewhere."

"Sounds like a plan," Leo grinned, rolling up his sleeves, "Point me to the forge. I'm gonna be making some huge upgrades to your dollhouse, Princess."

"This dollhouse is impenetrable and has withstood centuries worth of war, Leo," Evanlyn told him, "I don't think you can strengthen it any further."

"Does it shoot lasers?"

"What are lasers?"

"Ooh, am I gonna have fun here."

"I'll probably go with Alyss and Evanlyn," Piper said, "Even if I can't get a handle on the politics of it all, I can Charmspeak the brains out of anyone that gives us too much trouble."

Frank motioned toward Hazel. "Then we'll prepare the troops with Horace. We'll need to get them used to fighting styles that defend better against an army of monsters."

"This is it, then," Percy murmured, steeling himself, "We're going on the offensive. There's no turning back."

"There was never any turning back," Annabeth mused back, "Not from the day we found out our world was in danger. You knew that."

Horace hooked his arms around Will and Evanlyn, plastering a smile to his face. "We're saving your world. And we're saving ours, too."

"No Titan Lord of Time is about to take them from us."