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Part I || Percy

"WE'LL NEED SOMEONE who has a way with words." Annabeth said. All eyes immediately went to Piper. Although the daughter of Aphrodite looked uncomfortable with everyone looking at her, she managed a half smile. "Okay."

Predictably, Jason raised his hand. "I'll go. We're both sons of Zeus. Maybe that'll help."

"Or not," Percy muttered under his breath. "Half-siblings don't always get along." The words came out louder than he meant them to and all eyes moved to him.

"Thanks for that, bro." Jason snorted, although he looked distinctly less at ease than he had before.

Hazel leaned forward. "We'll probably need a third quest mate... it's the traditional number, right?"

Before he could think about it, Percy's palm smacked against the table, making a loud, resounding noise. 

"I'm going."

His eyes met Annabeth's stormy-grey ones, and he knew that she knew why he had to go. "Be careful, Seaweed Brain. Don't take any dumb risks. Don't let anger blind you."

Percy pretended to scoff. "Me, a risk-taker? As if."

None of the other Seven seemed to have anything to say, but Leo snapped out of his daze first. "Right, let's go! C'mon! Time to meet like, the most famous dude in Greece!" He herded them up to the deck.

The Argo II touched down on water and the plank extended. Jason went first, offering a hand to Piper, who declined and walked down steadily. 

Predictably, Percy didn't go the safe and boring way. As he prepared to jump off the side of the ship, Annabeth grabbed his hand. "Wait, Percy..." 

He turned and looked at her. Annabeth's eyes were suspiciously misty, but her jaw was firm as she gave Percy a firm nod of the head. 

"Give him hell for her."

He squeezed his Wise Girl's hand, then jumped over the edge, barely making a sound as he landed, catlike, on his feet. Without turning back, he raised his hand in an acknowledgment and a farewell, already swamped in memories.

***

"One of thy parents was mortal. And the other was Olympian." Y/N calmly said.

Bianca's brow furrowed. "Olympian... athlete?"

Percy managed not to crack a grin at that. Once they'd sorted out the whole 'induction' business, a ginger-haired hunter came out of the silver tent in the middle. She whispered in Y/N's ear, and Y/N listened, pokerfaced. 

The H/C girl nodded at Bianca. "Lady Artemis wishes to speak with me and thou." 

Percy made to rise with him. At a glare from the ginger girl, he stopped, halfway frozen between sitting and standing.

Y/N hesitated, and waved him forward. "Thee may come."

Soon, Percy slumped down, thoroughly disheartened. They'd come so far - he'd lost Annabeth - only to find out that they would lose Bianca too. 

He wasn't paying attention, but in front of him, Y/N was arguing with Lady Artemis. "Please, my lady, let me accompany you."

"You are staying at Camp Half-Blood, and that is final. I shall go get help from my brother." Artemis rose and swept out of the tent. 

Percy started. He looked around. Bianca was gone, probably off to explain to Nico why she was abandoning him. Y/N was studying him. She rose. 

"Come, Perseus. Let us go meet Lord Apollo."

***

Percy caught up with Piper and Jason easily, and the three of them slogged towards the distant, musclebound figure. Percy's fists clenched tighter involuntarily, and he brought Riptide out of his pocket, grateful for the familiar weight.

Heracles simply stood impassively, watching as they got within shouting distance. Percy fell back, letting Jason take the lead, because he didn't trust himself to not launch at Heracles and attack him.

"What's up?"

Percy resisted the impulse the stifle hysterical laughter. Oh, nothing much, just trying to stop the apocalypse while also trying to stop myself from killing you.

"Um, nothing much." Piper said, than winced. "Well, kind of a lot, really. You see..."

While Piper explained her current predicament, Percy's mind wandered backwards in time.

***

"No, Bianca!" Y/N screamed as Bianca ran towards Talos. "Please!"

Bianca faltered. She glanced back at Y/N and Percy, standing stock-still, watching her. "Distract it!" she called.

In a blur of silver, Y/N moved faster than Percy's eyes could follow. Although she obviously didn't want Bianca to do this, she understood it was their only chance.

Silver arrows sprouted from each of Talos's eyes, and many in most chinks of his plating. Y/N darted in towards him, taunting him as a mosquito would a human. Percy prayed she wouldn't be stepped on.

He raised his sword. "Hey, Bronze Butt! Over here!"

Thalia and Grover did the same, coming in from different points to confuse the creature. Y/N was still dangerously close, though, within stomping-on-and-squashing range. The creature raised his huge foot, getting ready to squash Y/N. For one split second, Percy wondered, Can giant robots get athlete's foot? It's foot was stained in oil and gods-know-what, occasionally dripping in some viscous, gooey substance.

Y/N didn't seem afraid as she stood there quietly, arms still loading and reloading her bow, as if she stood a chance.

"Y/N!" Percy called. "Fall back!"

"I'm -" at every word, she dodged the thing's giant foot - "not - leaving- without - Bianca!"

Just as Percy prepared himself for a suicide dash that would probably leave both him and Y/N dead, the statue froze. It then began performing something that looked vaguely like the chicken dance. 

"Bianca." Y/N breathed.

Electricity sparked; blue splashes of light flickering weakly. 

"No!" Y/N shrieked. She nearly threw herself at the automaton, but at the last second, Thalia sprinted forward, grabbing her hand.

The automaton fell in Grover's direction, who quickly scampered out of the way. It landed with a shrilling squeal on some telephone wires. The impact from the final thud knocked them all on the ground, dazed, but even so, Percy felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up from the final, powerful electrical discharge.

Y/N screamed, a wordless, painful scream that made Percy's eyes sting. She stumbled up and clumsily made her way through the wreckage, hurling pieces of debris - pieces that should've been to big for her to move, left alone carry - aside with careless abandon.

It was Thalia who voiced what they were all thinking. "Y/N... she's gone."

Her bow clattered on an oversized cog as she put her hands over her face. When she removed her hands, her face was streaked with tears, but there weren't any tears on her face at present. 

Percy unclenched his hand as he looked at the object Bianca had pressed in it. A cold thread of uneasiness ran through him at the sight.

The only one that Nico didn't have, she'd told him. The last of his collection.

Percy looked at the cold, dark figure of Lord Hades, God of the Underworld.

***

"Who assigned you this quest, anyways? Zeus? Apollo?"

Piper jabbed Jason, hard, in the ribs, but it didn't stop the son of Zeus from blurting out, "Hera."

At the mention of the goddess, Heracles's lip curled and his eyes darkened in disgust. "That changes things. I'm afraid I'm going to have to assign you a hard quest." He handed them a tourist brochure, written in Greek. Percy was glad for that, because otherwise everything would've just been a huge jumble. "On this island is a river god, Achelous. I want you to cut off his other horn and bring it to me."

"His other horn?" Percy broke in.

"Ah, Percy Jackson. The next me, or so I'm told."

Percy had to stop himself from making a sour face. "His other horn?" he repeated, trying to not let any emotion show in his voice.

He wasn't sure if it worked, because Heracles looked at him funnily, as if he was expecting Percy to shower him with gifts for this compliment. "I broke off his other horn, myself. So you should be able to do it... without the son of the sea god."

"Wait why?" Piper asked.

Heracles studied him, and Percy was fairly certain that he'd never wanted to punch anyone more in his life. "He and I need to have a little chat."

Jason shifted. "Can't we just... I dunno, sing a funny song?"

Heracles regarded him coldly. "I would get going, brother." He spat it out like an insult. 

When the two disappeared from the horizon, Heracles stared at Percy. Percy turned away, deliberately pretending to study the sea, hoping that Heracles wouldn't talk to him.

***

Thalia looked at Percy, desperation glimmering in her eyes. "Can... can you ride with her? I don't think she likes me."

"Fine. But you owe me two."

"One." Thalia countered.

"One and a half." Percy grinned, and for a second, he was just a normal teenager with his friend, goofing around.

When they got in the boat, Y/N grumbled under her breath. "Naiads. I hate them."

A squirt of water hit her in the face, making her go for her bow. 

"Woah there." Percy interrupted. "They're just playing."

Cursed she-devils have never forgiven me."

Watching her, Percy brought out his pen on impulse. Her eyes narrowed at it in distaste. "This was yours." he said.

"How did thee know?"

"I had a dream."

She nodded, unsurprised. "Then you know of it's tragic past. I gave that to a man, once long ago. I was shunned, forsaken by my sisters, and how was I repaid?" Her laugh was bitter. "He left me for dead."

"Heracles." The name was bitter like poison on his tongue.

"Don't all you young boys want to be like him?"

"Not anymore." The words were spoken with an unfamiliar bitterness. 

Y/N regarded him, surprised. She opened her mouth, than turned away, trailing a finger in the water beside the boat. No naiads tormented her this time, maybe because they could feel the negative emotions coursing through her.

She sighed, a long, bitter sigh that seemed to embody the regrets of the human civilization.

"One mistake has caused my life to run off the track where it was supposed to go. One mistake made my name be blotted from the names of history, to be forgotten.

"One man, rather. Heracles."

***

Heracles, unfortunately, did not take the hint. He regarded Percy. "Son of Poseidon, eh?"

"Yep."

"I hear you slayed the Nemean Lion."

"I've pretty much done all of your labors."

"Hydra?"

"When I was twelve."

"Ceryneian Hide?"

"My friend did that."

"Erythmian Boar?"

"Fought it's girlfriend."

Heracles threw up his hands. "There's no point, you know? I did all these thing. I achieved fame and glory. I was proclaimed the greatest hero. But look where I am now!" He gestured around him. "Gatekeeper to Olympus. Something fancy in name only."

The words burst out of him before he knew what he was saying. "Maybe it's because you used other people as stepping-stones to your path to glory."

Heracles' brow darkened. "I would watch what you say next very carefully, boy."

***

"Sisters." Y/N raised her hands in greeting.

The girls regarded her coldly. "We see no sister. We see two demigods, a satyr, and a huntress. All of which who will be dead now." 

Y/N didn't react. "We shall see." She turned her back on her sisters, to Percy, Thalia, and Grover. "I will distract Ladon. You must go."

Percy wanted to protest, but Thalia dragged him up the path as Y/N approached Ladon. 

"Hello, little one," she cooed. "Does thou remember me?"

The monster regarded her impassively. Y/N kept going, slowly, past her sisters - who disappeared into slips of smoke - going ever closer to Ladon.

"I used to feed thee lamb's meat." Y/N all but whispered, inching closer and closer, within striking distance -

One of the beast's heads launched out at Y/N, who dodged just in time. She sprinted up the hill, rejoining them. "Go," she panted. "We must go."

***

"Your nephew," Percy said. "You used him to help you."

"He wanted to help -"

"He idolized you! He did everything he could to be like you! And you cast him away like last week's newspaper!"

"I would stop right now if I were you."

"And - and when you cleaned those stables! That river nymph? You all but poisoned her! People are nothing but tools to you, aren't they!"

"Boy -"

"And Y/N L/N." The world grew quiet when he said her name.

***

"You're hurt," Percy said, noting the way she clutched her side.

"'Tis nothing," Y/N muttered through gritted teeth. "Let us go."

The sky churned as they reached the summit of the mountain. There in the middle was Artemis, chained and under the sky. Annabeth lay unconscious by her.

Y/N made a sound halfway between a gasp and a scream. She slipped away from Percy, Thalia, and Grover, running to Artemis. "My lady."

"Y/N." Artemis ground out.

"Percy, Anuklusmos!"

He threw it to her without hesitation. At her touch, it shimmered and turned into a silver, glowing hairpin. With two deft strokes, she cut the chains. She tossed it back to Percy; it turned back to a pen. He uncapped it, Riptide growing to it's familiar weight in his hands. 

Without hesitation, Y/N took the weight of the sky on her shoulders.

***

"You left her. She helped you. She gave you her immortal power. You killed her soul. You exiled her. You left her behind."

"Hey!" Percy turned to see Piper and Jason jogging up. They looked at them, Percy with his white-knuckled grip on his pen, and Heracles with his club poised to strike.

"Um... what did we miss?" Jason ventured, his hand subtly digging in his pocket for his coin.

With an effort, Heracles turned away. "Nothing." He held out a massive hand. "Give me the cornucopia."

Piper clutched it tighter. "No."

Percy cut in. "You don't deserve it."

"You realize I could just destroy your ship right now." Heracles pointed out. "I could slowly pick off your friends one by one."

With a satisfying shink, Riptide grew to full size. Percy laughed. "Know this sword, huh. Well, I think we should propose something different. Let's duel."

"You think you can hope to defeat me?" Heracles shrugged. "It will lead to your own downfall."

***

Artemis and Atlas, a blur of silver and movement, fought. Percy helped Thalia against Luke, the two of them fighting seamlessly, back-to-back. Artemis seemed to change forms as she moved, first a gazelle, then a lion, then a deer. Perhaps it was the heat of battle.

It was clear that Atlas was slowly gaining the upper hand. He had Artemis backed up next to Y/N. Beads of sweat gleamed on the goddess' brow.

"The first blood in a new war."

He jabbed at her, sending his whole body power forward. Quick as a viper, Y/N somehow managed to pick up her bow - supporting the sky with her shoulders - and deflected the sword into her, sending Atlas into the weight of the sky. Her body went flying, landing limp like a rag doll on a rock.

***

"If we win, we keep the cornucopia and get free passage. If you win, you get the cornucopia and our ship."

Heracles studied him for a while. "Fine."

Percy turned to Jason and Piper. "Guys. If Heracles wins, I want you to provide a distraction. Give the Argo II time to go away, then Jason, fly to it." He smiled crookedly. "It's time I avenged an old friend of mine."

Jason nodded, serious. Piper squeezed Percy's hand. "Come back, or else Annabeth will kill me." 

That got a true smile. He could definitely see that. "We can't have that, now can we? But seriously... Thanks, guys. And tell the others thanks, too."

"Done saying your goodbyes?" Heracles snarled when he approached.

"Oh, yes." Percy responded. "You probably would've said your goodbyes too... that is, if you hadn't abandoned or killed everyone you helped."

Heracles charged, and everything seemed to slow down.

***

"I am sorry we quarreled," Y/N croaked to Thalia. "We could've been sisters."

"You were right about men." Thalia whispered, blue eyes shining with unshed tears. She blinked, hard, and they were gone.

"Perhaps not all men," Y/N replied weakly. 

Percy took that as his cue. "Percy... does thee still have... Anuklusmos?"

He brought it out, and she nodded. "As it should be. I am glad... that the sword has found a worthy wielder, Percy." She gasped suddenly, and stiffened. A trickle of tears ran down her cheek. Artemis hurried over.

"What is it, my huntress?"

"Have I served... thee well?" Y/N asked weakly, deflecting the question.

If Artemis noticed, she didn't show it. The goddess used her thumb to wipe away tears. "The finest of my lieutenants. Rest."

She closed her eyes, and when she slowly opened them again, they were big and shining in the light of the nighttime. "Stars," she murmured, a little bit of happiness coming back. "I can see the stars again, my lady."

Y/N L/N never moved again.

***

Percy went on the offensive, a flurry of jabs and parrys. Although Heracles tried, Percy knew that Y/N  was helping him, and he could not, would not, lose.

Finally, Percy's sword was at Heracles's throat. The blood-red sun was setting over the sea, and the first constellations were peeking out.

***

"Live forever in the stars, my Huntress." Artemis sighed. She blew silver powder into the air, muttering a Greek incantation, and when Percy looked up, he could see a bright pattern of stars in the air.

A girl running in the sky with her bow.

"Let the world honor you in the stars."

***

"You don't deserve anything," Percy snarled, shaking. "You don't deserve to be a god. You don't deserve to exist!"

Heracles choked, sputtering. Percy realized, with a start, that he had been unconsciously using his powers to choke Heracles. 

He released his power. "You don't deserve to look at her. You don't deserve to honor her."

He left, slipping underwater, but not before seeing the fear and shock on Jason's and Piper's faces.

***

HE KNEW EVERYONE would be talking about it above, on the Argo II. He'd I-M'ed Annabeth and explained that he would follow, but that he needed to be alone now.

The air was cooler than the water (or so it seemed) as Percy popped up. The stars were fully out now, cold and ethereal. The Argo II had put down for the night, gently rocking on the sea. He could see Annabeth's hair as she kept watch in the night. Using the waves, he pushed himself onboard, instantly dry.

Annabeth turned to him, unsurprised. She grabbed his hand.

She traced her finger around the constellations, showing them to him, and he realized how lucky he was. 

I have honored you, Y/N. He thought to the distant stars. I tried my best.

He and Annabeth kissed, under the light of the stars and the moon.

***

I wasn't sure where to end it, so you get some cute Percabeth fluff!

Comment 'supercalifragilisticexpealidocious' if you liked it!

Love you guys!

~Cali.