Sorry for the delay. I needed to get over my crippling hatred of Apollo after watching DanMachi II before I could write him properly.

"Halt O'Carrick, Will Treaty, Horace Altman, Alyss Mainwaring, and Crown Princess Cassandra," Apollo started, waving his hand to the group, "Whatever knowledge that pertained to their time was lost in the space-time continuum, so they remembered their names and their ranks, but not where they hailed."

"Crown Princess Cassandra?" Percy gaped, "Evanlyn, what?"

She smiled bashfully, rubbing the back of her neck. "Sorry, Percy. But we were in a new place, with no memories, and we were entirely at your mercy. Pretending to be rankless has saved my life many times in the past."

"Oh, but Crown Princess Cassandra," Percy said with a haughty wave of his hand, "I am not Perseus Jackson but Heir to Poseidon's Throne, Slayer of Demons, Prince of the Sea, Sir Seaweed Brain the Glorious and Magnificent. And I am so sorry for not telling you."

"I'm going to strangle you."

Will patted his shoulder, "It's okay, Percy. I thought she was Evanlyn the first time I met her, too. I never could break that habit."

"Wait. so I'm allowed to keep calling you Evanlyn?"

"Sure."

"Many thanks, Your Royal Evanlyn-ness."

"Okay, now you're not."

"They came from a place named Araluen." Apollo said, "Even as I am saying it, their memories are returning."

"The Fifty Fiefs," Alyss whispered, eyes glistening, "And Castle Redmont where we grew up together."

"The battles for Skandia, for Arrida, and Nihon-Ja," Will reminisced, taking her hand, "And the little moments with you at Redmont after the incident in the Norgate Fief."

"King Duncan, Erak, Selethen, and Shigeru," Horace sighed, "And the pie that Jenny makes in Wensley Village."

"We're having this wonderful heartfelt moment," Evanlyn scolded him crossly.

"And of course the first thing that comes to mind for you is food," Halt finished.

"You don't understand how serious this is," Apollo interrupted, his frown deepening, "Do you know how they are here? Defeating Kronos ripped a hole in the fabric of space and time. Where their Norgate Fief was is where Camp Half Blood is today, and so they appeared here. There are dozens of holes to different times and places that I've been trying to mend across the country."

"Of course saving the world has consequences," Percy scoffed, "Maybe next time I'll just let the Titan Lord assume his true form and overthrow Olympus and then I won't have to deal with a dam hole in the wall of the universe."

Piper rolled her eyes. "That joke wasn't funny the first time you made it at Camp Jupiter, and it's still not funny now."

"So, the Rangers?" Annabeth asked. Apollo grinned despite the situation. "My baby sis isn't the only one with a cool squad of archers. My demigod son in the other dimension, King Herbert, founded them, and they protected the Fifty Fiefs from anything the armies couldn't handle. And no offense to you, Horace and Cassandra, but they are much more elite than anything you guys could ever pull off. Of course, they fell apart when Araluen was destroyed, but man, did we have a good run. Then I needed to get Mnemosyne to wipe all memories across the board, so only Artemis and I even remember they existed. Dudes, that favor alone took like five centuries of bribes and like three decades of no poetry, it was a dark time-"

"Wait," Will stopped him, "You said that the Rangers were destroyed? That Araluen was destroyed? How?"

Halt pressed his hand to his forehead. "What have I told you about asking so many questions at a time, Will?"

But for once, Will didn't waver, staring so intently at the God of the Sun he could have gone blind.

Apollo fell silent, a heart wrenching pain behind his eyes, so Artemis answered for him. "A force so powerful that not even the Rangers and their friends could stop them this time. They made a heroic effort, though. For six years Will united everyone across the fiefs and called armies from Skandia, Nihon-Ja, Arrida, even Gallica and the Genovesans from Toscana. For six years you held your ground and kept on fighting."

"It wouldn't have made a difference," Apollo murmured, "In the end, it was a massacre." His eyes flicked to a certain member of the group, so quickly that only Percy caught sight of it. "Not all of us even made it to the final battle."

"What was the threat?" Evanlyn asked as Percy tried not to choke.

"Rifts in the fabric of time and space," Annabeth said, snapping her fingers, "There's an alternate dimension where Kronos still exists."

"And gods, even across time, know what is happening, and know what has happened," Apollo told them, "He knows that he lost once. He won't do it again."

"Well we can't change the past," Percy pointed out, "How-"

"So, what?" Horace snapped, "You're just going to give up, when this is your fault in the first place?"

"How is this our-"

"If you hadn't killed Kronos, Araluen might still be standing!"

Percy's eyes filled with rage. "Us? I'm sorry for not wanting to let a whole generation of demigods die!"

Horace took a breath. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that last one."

"And I'm not giving up," Percy assured him, an easy smile back on his face, "But it's not like we can go back and-"

"Actually," Apollo smirked, "That's not exactly true."

"Time across dimensions is anything but linear," he told them, "It's in constant flux, so Araluen's past can become your future. I like to believe that the Fates simply write about everything that happens and don't foretell it. It reminds me that we still have the freedom to choose our own futures."

"Think about it this way," Apollo continued at their confused expressions, "Wargals. Morgarath. Tell me about them."

"That was years ago," Will said thoughtfully, "Morgarath was one of the worst enemies Araluen had ever faced. The Wargals were his mindless minions."

"Wargals," Leo repeated, "That was your name for Hellhounds."

"And how do you think they got to Araluen?"

"No way," Piper breathed, "Kronos?"

"The Titan War was one year ago. The war with Morgarath, as Will said, has been over for much longer than that. But at that point, Kronos already knew he'd lost. Which is why he was attacking Araluen in the first place."

"Wait-"

"No, Will," Apollo sighed, "Because right now I understand it and I know if you open your mouth and ask all your little questions then I won't, and all you have to know is that time doesn't match up. Your past is our future and our future is also your future, but your past is not also your future and- Argh! It's already happened."

"Tug told me that it'd only been five seconds since we left Araluen before he found us again," Will recalled instead, a dusting of pink appearing on his cheeks, "But at the same time it had been one year here when it had been years in Araluen since the wars. I get it now. Apollo's right."

"Of course I'm right," the sun god flashed them a grin, "After all, I was the Rangers' patron god for hundreds of years. You should have a little faith."

"I would trust Lady Artemis more than you," Halt remarked dryly, "You remind me a little too much of a hungry Horace. That is to say lacking your warrior discipline or common sense. Although, that last one could be true of a full Horace as well."

"Hey!" Horace protested indignantly as Apollo cried, "Woah, there! I'm not that bad!"

To which, of course, Horace felt the need to shout again.

"It's just the clear separation of personalities between you and your sister," Halt explained, not sorry looking in the slightest, "Figuratively and literally like night and day. It makes me wonder about the differences between the Rangers and the Hunters. I haven't seen them in battle yet, of course, but you can tell that they're a lot closer and less exclusive than we are. Not to mention the partial immortality I hear they get."

"My Hunt is for young maidens," Artemis told him, "Demigods, nymphs, naiads, among others. They get trained in much of the same disciplines as you do, although, admittedly, less rigorously. My Hunters are given partial immortality and my blessing, as well as necessities and weapons. No boys, no death, and no romance." 

"My Rangers, on the other hand," Apollo added, "Are almost entirely mortal, with the exception of a couple demigods. It's because there are less of us that we need to be more accurate. We drill it into you from an early age and provide you with little to nothing. Rangers are elite in all aspects, experts in horse riding, stealth, archery, and knife combat You rely on the king and the fiefs for funding, for equipment, and you make your own weapons. In other words, you fend for yourself."

"Why is that?" Evanlyn asked, resting her chin in her hands and chuckling a little, "Honestly, Halt is right. I would expect it to be the other way around."

"It's because my Hunt was created for a different purpose than his Rangers," Artemis said gently, "My Hunt is a haven, far from the greed and idiocy of men. We take anyone who can truly pledge themselves to our cause and train them to not only defend others, but perhaps most importantly, themselves. We are a family, a sisterhood that will last for eternity. We hunt, we protect, we save, and even when we experience loss, we do it together. That is something most of my girls had never known."

"The Rangers are different," Apollo continued, "The Hunt gives a family to those who need one most. I created an elite group of warriors, boys and girls, that would grow to be heroes. We're meant for problems, for missions, for covert operations that will save the country. Each Ranger is basically an army. One riot, one Ranger."

Horace snickered, interrupting the god. "And my Cassandra is two and three quarters riots."

His loving girlfriend and best friend elbowed him on each side, scowling.

"Back to the topic at hand," Artemis reminded them, "There is a way to create favorable futures in both dimensions without jeopardizing our pasts. As the prophecy states, you must fight for Araluen. And it is at that point, should you succeed or fail, that the times of the gods and of the Rangers will become one. And, hopefully, the dilemmas of time will cease to exist further."

"So how do we get there?" Horace asked, "Zeus's Fist was destroyed."

"You need travel," Apollo said cryptically, "The ability to travel between times. And thus you need a relic of such power. You need a time portal like the one the Araluens came from."

"Hermes is the god of travel," Percy thought, "He's got influence everywhere. It shouldn't be hard to find a place of power. Where's the closest time portal?"

"But time," Annabeth mused in lieu of an answer, "Portals. Gateways. Choices. We need the power of Janus especially. Much more than we need Hermes."

She eyed Apollo warily. "And that's the problem, isn't it? He's a Roman god."

"Wait, what does that mean?" Will asked, "What's the problem? Where are the other portals?"

"Greek and Roman gods can't coexist," Piper explained, "They become schizophrenic. The world gets thrown out of balance. When they appear, it's one or the other."

"Then imagine Hermes in his Roman form," Alyss suggested, "Then it wouldn't be a problem."

"That won't work either," Clarisse told her, shaking her head, "Greeks are to the east and Romans, to the west. It's much harder to change mindsets and beliefs than one would believe. With the way time fluctuates, your country may well be destroyed before we get to Camp Jupiter."

"So what can we do?" Horace asked.

"A place of chaos," Apollo cut in at the hesitant pause, "So dark and dangerous that gods of both sides can share space. Somewhere with a connection to Hermes. Somewhere where we know a portal already exists."

"No,' Percy growled suddenly, "I went in there for you once. I won't do it again. I won't."

An unsaid can't echoed in their minds.

"The shrine of Hermes," Annabeth added, "Is in a place I'm not sure they would survive. We barely did. You can't expect us to do it for you. Never again."

"What's he asking us to do?" Evanlyn asked quickly, "If it's dangerous, we can handle ourselves. We've got all of our memories back, and Horace even has a new sword. With all of us I bet we can-"

"No, Evanlyn," Piper interrupted sharply.

"Why?" She demanded, fiery stubbornness appearing on her face, "What's he asking-"

"He's asking you to jump into Tartarus."