Before that came to be, the God of the Dead sired three children.

Hazel, the daughter of Pluto, of riches.

Nico, the son of Hades Adesius, of the dead.

And Bianca. The daughter of Hades Moiragetes, Hades Pasiánax, Hades Orkus, of the guider of fate, of the universal king, of oaths.

Everyday he mourns for his third child, the one who will be forced to hide herself to survive, who was born from a part of him that was forbidden to have children for centuries now. But he can feel his power waning, his control over the earth lessen, and he knows that soon, his grandmother shall rise, and with her, Thoon.

Zeus and Apollon won't heed his and Demeter's warnings, their pleas. So Hades will make sure the Fates have a chance regardless. And then, he'll spend the rest of his life making it up to Bianca.

But for now, they are children, and Gaea has been delayed from Hazel's sacrifice. (Oh, now he mourns her. So focused was he on the daughter he gave power to, that he forgot about the one he had cursed.) And so, he'll let them be children until the time comes.

Luke Icarus Castellan has always known too much. He could tell when somebody was at death's door. He knew how certain people would die. He was able to tell who would fall to the speeding car on the road and who wouldn't.

For a long while he assumed the power came from his mother. That one day too, he would fall mad from all the things he wasn't meant to know.

Until one day, she looked at him, with that look in her eyes that promised another story of his cursed fate, and she let it slip.

His father wasn't just Hermes, the traveller, the thief, the merchant.

He was the son of Hermes Psychopomp. The son of the reaper.

"Children of death have been forsaken for long now," she said in a voice made of thousands of other spirits, "for someone who knows death with power over that which has passed, is far scarier than a being that shall never die ruling over such. But you, my darling little reaper, can change things."

He ran away soon after and met a young girl on the streets.

(Soon. She would die soon. She will never grow up.)

Her skin crackled with electricity and her bright blue eyes sparkled with lightning. Her name was Thalia Alcestis, and as for her last name, it changed every time he asked.

Not like he was much better, which led to them calling themselves 'Skywalker' and 'al Ghul' for a long while.

They met two others.

The first was an Annabeth Ulyssa. She was younger than either of them when they ran away, and a lot smarter too. Thalia got attached to her almost immediately. One evening, when Annabeth was asleep and the night was late, she told him about Jason.

After that, Luke started orbiting closer to her as well. Even if she sometimes looked at them in a similar way to his mother. Even if it seemed like she knew what they were going to say before they did so.

Thalia could literally untie any knot and let out bolts of lightning. He could steal practically anything. They were all a bit weird.

Then Grover Underwood showed up.

To say he freaked the hell out when he saw Thalia fight for the first time was an understatement. He told them about the rules.

Or, the rule, at first. About the big three being forbidden from siring children. But Luke pressed further, until he spilled everything. All the variants of the gods created by various epithets whose children were too powerful to be kept alive.

Thalia, still pale with the shock of her realisation won't say anything. He will remain silent himself, terrified of revealing himself. It will be Annabeth who will speak up.

"What powers are children of Athena forbidden to have?" She asks, as if she any choice in what she was given by her mother.

"Extreme foresight that comes from Athena Pronaia, I believe."

She'll say something about being safe, but later, in the dark, when Grover is asleep, she'll tell him about the tapestry she can see when she closes her eyes. About the fact that she knows, that if she reached out, she could change what was woven by the three.

But she doesn't dare. She can't see what the tapestry presents, just the weaves. She doesn't know what she'd be changing.

Thalia murmurs about her mother's boasts after Jason's birth. That she was chosen to birth both the daughter Zeus and his son, years later. The tells them of the price paid for that, one child for the other.

In turn, he tells them about the people who's deaths he senses. He doesn't mention the fact he knows Thalia is close to it. He has a feeling they both know anyway.

Thalia Alcestis dies sacrificing herself for the ones she loved.

The irony is bitter on his tongue. He can see Annabeth thinking, the next few days. Considering the risks.

She doesn't interfere with the tapestry. This time. But Luke has a horrible feeling that she might not have the self-control to stop herself, next time.

He gets sent on a quest at 16. He picks two of his friends, one of his sisters, Yvonne, and a son of Dionysus, Caelan. He senses their incoming death the moment they step past the border, but by then it's too late.

Yvonne dies at 18 having been poisoned by Lagon at the entrance to the garden, her blood staining the blonde highlights in her waves. Caelan is meant to die there, too, as he intervenes when the dragon attacks Luke. But he screams, and the sky splits, a bolt of lightning temporarily scaring the beast. They share a look and flee.

Barely ten metres away, the sky roars again. This time, it's not the son of Dionysus Bromios [thundering, I think] who summoned it, but his grandfather, punishing a boy for the power he didn't choose to have.

Caelan Asclepius dies at fourteen with cuts on his jaw from the first time he tried shaving just a few days ago. (He'll never get to try again.)

His rage simmers.

He smiles though, as he becomes head counsellor, replacing Yvonne. Practically every new kid walks through his cabin, even if for a few days, so he gets the chance to get a feeling for them, talk to them, subtly warn them about what abilities might be dangerous.

Rhianwen is twelve when she arrives at Camp. Every step she takes ends in the grass around her dying. The strawberries ferment and get covered in mold when she gets near. Her skin is pale and always cold.

Rhianwen was the daughter of Demeter Melaina [black], and was struck down for it shortly before her thirteenth birthday. Because her power scared the gods.

That is when the hatred in his veins boils over. And a voice comes with an answer.

He knows how his story ends the second he takes the bolt and helm. He hears his thread being cut. He finds he doesn't care all that much.

Is this what Icarus felt like?

A few months later, Grover brings a boy to camp. He's twelve. (Like Rhianwen was).

He has black hair and sharp features like Thalia. He has a snappy temper and the mouth of a sailor like Thalia. He smiles crookedly and likes blue mnms the most despite them all tasting the same, just like Thalia.

He's protective of those he likes, at first just Grover but slowly it extends to him and some of the younger kids in Cabin 11, the same brotherly instinct that Yvonne had. His hair was wavy in a way reminiscent to the sea and filled with highlights.

He questions the rules, cursing without fear for consequences, jaded in his worldview despite being so young like Caelun. He wears flannels over his Camp shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows like Caelun.

He wears scuffed, blue off-brand Converse held together with bandaids, duck-tape and dreams, covered in signatures, doodles and random quotes like Rhianwen. His laugh is a delicate sound like Rhianwen's when he makes jokes and quips in his nerves.

His name is Percy and his eyes are sea green, his skin tanned and jaw unblemished, the highlights in his hair blue.

He smiles, greets him, and then sneaks him away one night. He tells him about all the rules, about his predecessors. Percy looks at him with fearful eyes and asks what to do.

Luke tells him to run. Percy asks to where, with his mom dead.

So he stays, for now. Luke teaches him how to hide his power in the dead of the night and to protect himself during the day. He can do it, this time. He can save him. (He can save Thalia and Caelun and Yvonne and Rhianwen.)

Percy remains unclaimed. A quest is never issued. Nature turns on itself. Slowly, the Crooked One rises.

Luke throws the bolt into Tartarus and keeps the helm near, to hide himself or Annabeth or Percy or whoever might need it.

One of Percy's friends, a boy called Ethan, an unclaimed kid with anger in his veins and the power of an Ares kid when wronged, disappeared over the months. Luke, who had the same conversation with the kid as he did with Percy, has a theory Ethan's parent wasn't part of the approved pantheon.

Thalia's tree gets poisoned. It's Hades who gets blamed. Foolishly, Luke believes this too. Camp is still in chaos, so it isn't hard to sneak out. He, Percy and Annabeth travel and find the golden fleece.

It's then that Luke finds out what kind of forbidden Percy actually is. A son of Poseidon. Pelagaios [of the sea], to be specific. (Perhaps more. Because whenever Percy wakes up from a particularly bad night, he looks at Luke in the same way his mom did.)

It heals the tree. More than that, it heals Thalia.

And then, its stolen.

Of course it is. Of course this was another of the Crooked One's plan. He had managed to gather his essence and crawl out of the pit but he was still so weak.

That is the moment Luke turns of the Titan Lord. They had a deal, no more hurt forbidden children. And even as a tree, that was still Thalia, still his friend.

Still, even with the war going on, Luke knew they couldn't stay at Camp for long, because one of the Gods would see the forbidden daughter of Zeus alive and get rid of her permanently.

Thalia and Grover leave Camp, setting up the former in some military school, before Luke could figure out an alternative. During those few months, the two end up befriending a certain set of siblings.

Grover looks at them and knows. These are children of death. (Like Luke.)

He also knows about the incoming danger, he can smell that Thorne isn't human.

(He just hopes history won't repeat itself.)

That's when Dionysus looks at Luke and calls him by his real name for the first time in a while. The god tells him about the entrance to the Labirynth at Camp.

"Ariadne has already blessed you and your group of fuck-ups. You'll be safe in the Maze. If you find anyone else who'll need the protection, pray to her, Luke Castellan."

"But why are you helping us?"

"Caelan was my son and Ariadne treated him as her own. He deserved better."

It's snowing when he meets Bianca and Nico di Angelo.

The younger is a young boy with stars in his eyes and dark eyes like Rhianwen's.

The older is Bianca (she's as old as Rhianwen was when she died, as old as Percy was when his mom died and his safety was torn away from him), her hair braided like Yvonne kept hers.

They start moving, him, Grover and Thalia stuck answering Nico's endless babble of enthusiastic questions, whilst Annabeth, Percy and Bianca hang back slightly, talking about something between them.

(They keep looking at them, growing quiet whenever the two groups grow too close. He forces himself to believe it's just gossip.)

Of course, things can't go well. They get attacked by a manticore, and it rushes forward, at the kids, at Nico.

Despite his expectations, Bianca doesn't move towards him. He lurches forward towards the kid, but as her dark eyes turn sky blue, and then sea green, he finds himself frozen.

"That one." She says, and Annabeth reaches forwards with her eyes closed and pulls on a thread only she can see.

It's Percy who pushes Nico out of the way. Percy who is grabbed by the monster and pulled down the cliff as hunters swarm the meadow.

They changed how this story was meant to go. But he could tell no one was going to die this way.

He can't help but be terrified for them. But their threads remain uncut.

"Do you wish to return to Camp, demigods?" Artemis shall ask, as they wind down from the fight.

No one says anything, for a moment, terrified of either option. Saying 'no' would reveal their loyalties, saying 'yes' might put Thalia in danger.

"Do not worry. I am, at the end of the day, Artemis Philomeirax. Forbidden or not, many of you fall under my domain."

"No." Bianca will speak up first. "We don't want to. We have to go after Percy."

The hunt leaves, and they take their bags and set out. Nico and Grover go down into the Labirynth. The rest of them try to follow Percy.

(Nico and Grover, whilst searching for and entrance to the maze, stumbled into Rachel Elizabeth Dare. They told her about the godly world, explaining what she could see, explaining the war. Upon hearing they're friends with other people associated with Fate and prophecy, she decided to join them for the time being.)

Bianca and Annabeth eventually tell him and Thalia what happened. That Bianca was the guider of Fate, and could show her which strings whilst Percy was a prophet who could see the outcomes. That this version they've created was the only one were no one died.

They reach a junkyard, and as soon as they entered, something shifted. He heard a distant movement of metal, saw a thread of dark red curling around Bianca's neck like a noose before ending sharply.

He saw parts of the very thread wrap itself around her limbs, as she walked forward to grasp a small figurine in a fluid motion, hiding it in her pocket.

He wouldn't have caught it if he wasn't the son of a thief, he thinks. Or if he couldn't see the outcome of her choice.

Could he do anything? Could he intervene? No, he was too far, she was too close to the border, he wouldn't get to her in time. He could try yelling, but Annabeth might hear and try messing with the tapestry again, and surely she'll get caught this time? He couldn't sacrifice his sister for this stranger, as much as she reminded him of those he lost.

Thalia, of course, noticed his terrified staring at the girl. Her blue eyes narrowed as she rushed forward like the bolts of lightning she'd shoot, knife in hand, and she slashed across the web holding Bianca, the hilt hitting her palm, causing her to drop the figurine.

Bianca will come to with a startle, pain in her hand and a child of thunder in front of her.

"What happened?"

"The Fates had you in their ropes."

"How did you save me?"

"My father is Zeus Eleutherios [the liberator]. I don't take well to people being tied up."

Ladon sees and recognises him, feels the electricity crackle on Thalia's fingertips and backs away, letting then through in fear.

When they find Percy, his hair is halfway to being white, his lips nearly blue like his shoes, but his cheeks are flushed and his eyes bright.

"The sky and the sea were never meant to mix. But the sky has always loved the earth, and my father is Poseidon Ennosigaios [earthshaker]." He'll explain later, when he isn't shackled and hypothermic, curled next to Apollon Kourotrophos [protector of youth], who's stuck holding the sky.

The area bursts into chaos, as they get locked in a battle. Atlas is... an enemy. One Luke doesn't think he can properly fend of with just his sword skills, even with Thalia's lightning, Annabeth's cunning and the unpredictable powers Bianca is still learning to control, and they are locked in battle with the Crooked One's other soldiers.

(One of them, he's pretty sure, is Ethan. Ethan, who, now has a white streak in his hair.)

Even as Percy managed to stand after Thalia breaks of his shackled, managed to fight, they are still missing a lot of power to stand a chance.

But... Apollo is here. And he's much stronger than any of them.

It feels like some sort of joke that the namesake of Icarus took the burden of the Sky from the God of the Sun, but honestly, he's too exhausted as he sways beneath the curse.

The battle rages on, but he only catches flashes. One of those is, what he's pretty sure, is the scene of Percy's sword hitting Ethan's eye. Another is the voice of Apollon telling him to get ready to let go.

They lock Atlas under his burden again, and as Apollo returns to Olympus, they stumble into the Maze, which conveniently has a nearby entrance, to heal their wounds and rest for the night.

They don't expect Apollo and Artemis to come back down just hours later. The Sun God helps them with the worst of their wounds before he looks gravely at Thalia.

He tells them of the prophecy. And Artemis gives them her offer.

What follows is a long conversation. Thalia can feel the Fates pushing her to swear her oaths, and while they're tempted to do the opposite out of spite, they have to analyse the consequences of their choices.

And a consequence of the prophecy is this.

A hero dies.

And like fuck is Luke losing his best friend again.

But if she takes her oath, Percy will become the hero of the prophecy and die.

A dangerous thought curls in his gut, as he shares a look with Annabeth, who seems to have come to a similar conclusion.

"We won't be fullfilling the prophecy." Luke will tell the twins with far too much faux calm for how terrified he is. "But we appreciate your aid."

The gods will smile and warn them to be careful.

After that, they split up again. Thalia, Bianca, Rachel, Annabeth and Nico stay down. Percy, Grover and Luke return to Camp. Dionysus looks at them, nods, and pretends he never saw them leave.

Whilst the gods remain distracted with their disputes between each other and the threat of the Titan King, Camp is left free to talk.

The Campers remember all the tragedies over the years. All the children killed because of their parent's mistakes. They remember Caelan and Rhianwen and dozens of others.

Most of them choose to stay, for now. Too many demigods disappear and the Gods will get suspicious. But a select few follow him down into the Labyrinth.

A daughter of Hecate, Lou Ellen Blackwood.

A son of Apollon Loimios [plague-bringer], Will Solace.

A daughter of Aphrodite Melaina [dark], Silena Beauregard.

When they return, it's Thalia's birthday. Annabeth's hands are covered in burns that only get worse from ambrosia, as she touched divinity, and Bianca and Rachel struggle to see properly for the next few hours from the blinding tapestry, but it's done.

Thalia is alive, sixteen, the world hasn't been put to sleep or whatever and whilst Olympus stands for now, it's not in any way permanent. They did it.

They stay under, create a sorts of headquarters in the Labirynth. They find a serious of rooms, roughly close to Camp and the Hephaestus kids offered to create doors for them so they could sleep safe, and Rhianwen's "normal" and "safe" siblings, Miranda and Katie managed to create them a small garden to grow food, with Will's older siblings created solar lamps so it'd grow better.

The Ares kids put traps in front of the doors because 'For Hades' sake, if we're gonna have war meetings here, the enemy better not be able to sneak in'. The Athena kids came in and actually managed to make the place look like somewhere safe to live, and Luke's own siblings stole everything they needed.

Slowly, the place became home. It became safe. More and more campers trickled down, joining them down there, even if they weren't 'forbidden'.

Eventually, their patrols started finding the scouts.

The scouts were individual demigods, usually already insane, but with Castor and Pollux' help they managed to put together a vague picture of what happened.

The Crooked One wanted to use the Labirynth.

They bought back all the scouts they found, of course. All these demigods wanted was to change things, wanted the cruel gods gone. And the Crooked One was really good at manipulating lost souls.

Luke would know.

They healed them the best they could, and with Rachel's help, eventually, they managed to start finding them before they lost their minds.

Many of the found scouts switched sides, joining them, seeing what they've created.

And then, Percy came back from his patrol with a new one. Except this boy had a patch over one of his eyes and a white streak in his hair.

Thalia's fingers crackled with electricity immediately.

This was the boy who hurt her cousin. This was the boy who almost killed Percy, trapped him under the sky.

"We're equal." Percy shrugged. "He put me under there, I took his eye out. Right now he's just another demigod who needs help."

"We are most definitely not equal." Ethan murmured, exasperated. "I would know. If you called upon my mother to ask for balance, she would punish me much more."

"Details." Percy shrugged again, and that was that.

And if he and Thalia, the unofficial leaders, kept giving him the worst patrols, and Annabeth was rougher when sparring with him, well. Those were details as well, weren't they?

That was the first of the more notable additions to their home. The other was a girl found by Bianca and Rachel, who was caught wandering aimlessly around the corridors. She had golden eyes and dark curly hair.

"I'm not sure." She answered when asked for her name. "I don't really remember anything. I think it was something to do with a colour?"

They settled on Amber, after the sweater she was found wearing. She said it didn't feel quite right but she seemed to like it more with every new memory she made with it.

More monsters started appealing, and he guessed these were scouts as well. These ones, however, they didn't bring back. These were killed on the spot if they got too close to their headquarters, the newly named "Rebel Camp", because "it sounds so cool Luke, please!", and otherwise they were ignored.

The Rebel Camp wanted nothing to do with the war. They were a third side, a neutral party, motherfucking Switzerland, leave them out of it.

They weren't, of course. The Titan King's forces attacked on a simple day in July. They were prepared, of course. Rachel and Percy had managed to forewarn them. But they still weren't ready, not truly.

They would've been done for, had they not been aided by Daedalus, who grew fond of these demigods who managed to survive in his cursed creation. He managed to move the corridors to help them, and when he grew too weak from his curse to do that, Nico killed him, and the power of the maze settled on Amber, for whatever reason.

That didn't change the fact that so many of their people died in the siege. So many children.

Camp Rebel, despite the name, was meant to be a neutral party in this war. But now, as they look at each other in the remaining destruction, they all reach a conclusion.

They would make the Titan King pay. They would avenge Lee and Castor and Yasine and Ilya and —

Too many. They've lost too many.

So they gather and plot. Percy, Rachel and the children of Apollo Phoebus [prophet?] and Niyathi, the daughter of Ourania, and Lou Ellen and her siblings all try to gather what they can see and divine.

In turn, their strategists plan. Not just the Athena kids, but the older children of Ares who've learnt what war actually is and all the children of Hermes (both biological and the ones who have adopted their ways due to years of living at Cabin 11) with their cunning plots and Nike's twins and so many others.

They create scenarios and dozens of plans.

They set up actual, proper leadership. Luke gets chosen as General, and his Lieutenants become Annabeth, Thalia and Bianca.

They gather weapons. They train.

They talk. They start with Dionysus, at Camp Half-blood. Inform him, that, whilst Camp Rebel refuses to work with Zeus, they are going to be working against the Titan King. The God looks at them, with the eyes of an older, darker deity and says that if their willing, he and Ariadne would gladly take their side.

They reach out to Apollo next. His kids decide they need more arrows and he might be able to gift them to them, and Percy kindly reminds them how the Sun God saved him, and he had told them about the prophecy as well.

That conversation led to Artemis finding out because the two have no secrets between them. Which then ended with them suddenly gaining a bunch of huntress roommates.

Nemesis shows up at some point. The conversation goes somewhere like this:

"Didn't you side with grandfather so you could get revenge after we disrespected the minor gods."

"I did. And I will get revenge. Did you really think these demigods have forgotten about what you Olympians have done to them?"

Many more minor gods join them after that.

Then one day, Hades shows up.

Amber looks at his with furrowed brows and a complicated look in her eyes.

"You seem familiar." She murmurs.

"I would, to you." He replies, and leaves it at that. He then tells them that there is another threat rising. That not only Olympus is at war with itself, but both Kronos and Gaea will be trying to bring it down.

Thankfully, the two aren't at risk of joining forces. Gaea still hates her son for killing her lover, and Kronos is bitter that his mother brought back the Giants but not the Titans.

Camp Rebel does what it does best. It readjusts its plans and plots.

They decide to stay dormant, for now. Hope the three sides tire each other out in a three-way war, and they'll be able to intervene once they're weakened.

Which is when Annabeth disappears.

They panic, and those who can, do their best to figure out which of their many enemies could have taken her.

There's nothing. Not even Apollon could see where she was. But at the very least, Hades reassures them she's not dead.

There's nothing. Not until Amber, Rachel and Percy sense someone they need to find in the Maze, and bring three demigods back.

There's a girl with choppy hair, curses on her tongue and bruised knuckles who he'd assume to be a daughter of Ares if it weren't for her kaleidoscope eyes. She introduced herself as Piper Clytemnestra.

There's a boy with a wide smile, calloused hands and insecurity hidden behind jokes, whose eyes burned with fire and who went by Leo.

And the third. Oh the third.

His hair was blond and cut short, his features sharp, his teeth like fangs and fingers covered in gold rings that turned into claws on command. And his eyes were a bright, electric blue.

"I don't know what my name is." He shrugged.

"We found him lost in the woods a bit back while looking for this place." Piper explained. "He doesn't remember anything, so we've been calling him Taran."

That was when Thalia showed up.

Apparently, Taran's real name was Jason. And wasn't that a fun little reveal?

Later, after they've calmed down, he will ask Piper how she knew to come here.

"Oh some Lady told me to. Said we'd be safe here."

(That lady, as they'll later find out, was Artemis.)

Once Jason and his companions, as well as Thalia are out of earshot, Apollo will appear and explain that Jason isn't Zeus' child, but Jupiter's.

At this, Rachel will sit up straighter.

"The other place! With the sick son who yearns for powers he wasn't given and the sorceress daughter of war!"

"The Eaglet." Percy murmured. "The son of Jupiter Elicius. He was meant to die but he defied his own fate."

"We got one of their fate-breakers, and they have ours! That's were Annabeth is!" Rachel will finish.

Of course, it won't be that simple. They're still unable to figure out where, exactly, the 'other-place' is, as their prophets are too Greek to be able to look into a place like that and Jason still doesn't remember anything.

They can't send out more searchers than they already do, not with the War going on. It's too risky and Luke refuses to lose anymore people than they need to.

They struggle. A lot.

One of Camp Rebel's Lietenants is gone, and Clarisse, her second in command, can try her best, but she isn't used to these responsibilities. It doesn't help that Thalia spends most of her time running around with the hunters, trying to find Annabeth, leaving, of all people, Ethan and Jason trying to pick up the slack.

A boy who once hurt one of their own and a boy with no memories who doesn't truly belong here.

The Labyrinth grows more dangerous by the day too. Amber can do only so much to control a place that is quiet literally underground against the primordial goddess of the earth, and that's ignoring the other things.

The other things being the following.

Gaea brought someone back from the dead. They're not sure who, exactly, but its some magician, who can partially control the maze as well.

And two. Gaea seems oddly focused on Amber. Somehow, the primordial can make the girl go unconscious, and then torment her with taunts and blurry memories.

Percy's grown weaker too. He's always been closely connected to his father's Earthshaker epithet, and staying in the Labyrinth, away from the water and close to the earth has only strengthened that. Now, as Gaea rises and wrestles his control away, he's left... drifting.

Percy has always seen more than Rachel or Niyathi or Lou Ellen or any of their other prophets. But now, with nothing to ground him, it seems like he's living in the future more than he is in the present.

Apollo warned them that's dangerous. That even he had to spread his power across many Oracles and he was a God.

But Annabeth was missing, Rachel and Thalia spent most of their time searching for her, Luke and Bianca were busy trying to keep everything running and they might've fucked the matter up a bit.

Luke might be tempted to make a joke about carrying the responsibilities of the world, but while his and Ethan's white streaks have faded, Percy's is as stark as ever.

He can't help but wonder if the boy ever truly let the Sky go.

(He knows he feels like he hasn't, every times his powers warn him of death. Like when Leo made Jason laugh for the first time and a blazing orange thread snapped.)

They learn about Hera's kidnapping. The only person who cares is Jason, and even for him it's a detached thing born from old respect rather than actual worry. It doesn't take make to dissuade him of the motion of sending a quest.

The gods who care can save her themselves.

The day that Camp Rebel and the other-place interact for the first time starts like an ordinary day.

Which is, to say, it's horrible. There are three fights that have to be stopped (between Piper and her 'safe' sister Drew, between Niyathi and a son of Apollon Phoebus, Ciro, over their interpretations of a tarot spread, and between Thalia and Bianca over the former's searching for Annabeth.

On top of that, Nico and Will needed almost an hour to keep Percy grounded for long enough that he actually managed to eat properly.

And. Amber had another black-out that lasted two hours and when she woke up she had a whole confrontation with Leo. Apparently, she say a boy who looked identical to him in a flashback, but he stubbornly insisted he's never seen her before coming to Camp Rebel.

This almost started a fourth fight, between Piper and Amber, actually, when they were interrupted by a patrol coming back with three demigods.

One of them was a boy who looked a bit like Will but more sickly, his skin pale, hair thinner, eyes dull.

The next was a boy with red eyes, dark hair and a large but clumsy figure.

The last was a girl with blonde curls, tan skin covered in burns on her hands and cold, calculating eyes. This girl he knew.

This girl, they called Maven.

But that wasn't her name. Her name was Annabeth Ulyssa.

And she looked at them like she did at a stranger.

He'll admit, he was a bit dumbstruck at what to do. What do you do, when faced with someone who's everything to you and you're nothing to them?

Bianca was the one who talked to her, in the end, while Clarisse ordered her apparent brother, Frank, to spar with her, and Will spent half an hour yelling at his relative, Octavian, for 'not using your fucking powers and hurting yourself'.

When Annabeth and Bianca came back, both were crying. The former told him she didn't remember him, but she'd regain her memories and come back.

In turn, after Will finished his rant, Octavian told Jason about the other-place, Camp Jupiter, which, ew, Luke was going to stick with their name.

Then, Annabeth told them about their quest. That Thanatos had also been kidnapped and they'd been sent to take care of it.

"Can't you just leave it to the other Gods?" Thalia suggested.

"Tha- That's disrespectful! We can't do that!" Octavian sputtered.

"The gods don't care about you, you shouldn't care about them. Although, I guess Apollo is cool." Luke sighed, and said God, who appeared, somewhere during their conversation, beamed.

"Damn right I am. But they're right, you know. Obviously, I'm not gonna tell you what to do, but I'd recommend ditching."

The three still went, joined by Jason who wanted to see the other-place, Will who decided he was going to babysit his idiot relative, Nico who went were Will went these days and Percy who just insisted he needed to be there.

Luke made them promise to be back soon.

They promised, all of them, even the Romans.

Should've figured Percy would lie.

He wasn't sure exactly what it was. Just that something was horribly wrong with his sea green thread. It didn't snap.

(Maybe it would have been better for him if it did. )

But Bianca stiffened, eyes wide in terror and Rachel gasped, eyes widened from horror only she could see.

Later, when the others kept their fucking promises unlike someone and came back, they would learn the full story. That Kronos arrived shortly before they could do anything and started fighting with Gaea to control the doors of death. That these two powerful deities split the very earth between them and Percy, just like all those years ago, pushed Nico out of the way and fell himself.

That this was punishment from the Fates for all the times they've defied them. That their threads wrapped around him like a noose.

That he knew this was going to happen.

And that's the worst part, isn't it?

They've been losing Percy for almost as long as Annabeth has been missing and this was the final part to that story.

He didn't notice Percy had been lying through his teeth when he promised and now it was too late to do anything.

"I'm going to kill them." Annabeth swore viciously once she was done recounting the story. "I'll kill the Fates. I'm going to kill them for hurting us again."

But still, they waited. Involving themselves as a fourth side to the War was useless and would only end in more death. It was better to wait for themselves to tire each other out.

That didn't change just how much waiting hurt.

They met with the representatives of the other-place. Or, well, the representatives of Camp Jupiter, without the Senate of New Rome, who thought of Camp Rebel as a rabid dog that needed to be put down.

They talked to Reyna and her soldiers. Explained to them how unfair it was that children were forced to fight for their gods whilst the adults sat back and watched them die.

They taught them the idea of rebellion. The worship of Libertas, of freedom.

Camp Rebel soon gained a third General. Luke, of the Greeks, Artemis, of the Hunters and Reyna, of the Romans.

Reyna, having picked up some tricks from her time with Circe, managed to give their amnesiacs their memories back. It turns out Amber's real name was Hazel, and she was a dead daughter of Pluto who fucked Gaea up in the 40's.

Because why not?

The War came to an end somewhere in August, coincidentally on Percy's sixteenth birthday. They aren't sure exactly what happened.

The Olympians, the Titans and the Giants met together of a battlefield somewhere near Rome. Those deities who made it out in any state to talk were covered in poison rashes and acid burns and talked in hushed voices about a newly ascended deity.

Apollo and Artemis report that even Ares refused to say their name.

Both Gaea and Kronos' forces were shattered and returned to hiding as their leader's essence was scattered in Tartarus.

Zeus' was as well. Athena became the new Queen of Olympus and she reached a deal with Camp Rebel.

No more 'forbidden' children.

The killing of the Fates was more symbolic than anything in the end. Thoon got them pretty good, and their repeated breaking of their tapestry have weakened most of people's belief in them.

They were half-way to fading when Camp Rebel's forces found them.

They found Percy soon after. Or rather, Artemis did.

She brought him back to Camp Rebel and said she found him in Rome. Not so far from the final battlefield.

The injuries on his small body bled gold, not red.

When he opened his eyes a few hours later, they were unseeing.

"My sight is what first allowed us to disobey the fights. Figures I'd lose it when they punished me." He shrugged, as if it was a small thing.

It took them a while to heal. They never really forgot about all those they've lost.

But they would never let their tragedies happen again.

[A few things that weren't explicitly stated but I think are important and you might not have picked up on:

- Luke has slightly different motivations here than in canon. He's more focused on making sure the tragedies of forbidden children don't happen again rather that revenge, which is why this allows a good Luke.

- Leo and Luke lived bc the team broke the fucking fates

- Octavian is a descendant of Apollo's plague aspect, like Will. But he wanted to be a prophet rlly bad, so he repressed his powers which caused him to get sick.

- The Three-Way War happens between roughly September after BoTL and the Battle of Manhattan. Like, the events of HoO are wildly sped up in this thing.

- Piper is the daughter of Aphrodite Areia [warful]

- Hazel is brought back earlier bc Gaea rises earlier. Why does Gaea rise earlier? Bc the Fates' plan got fucked up, idk

- I chose Amber for Hazel bc 1) it's also a shade of brown, 2) it's a gemstone.

- As for Taran and Maven, the first means thunder and the latter 'one who understands'

- Annabeth doesn't actually remember Percy properly when he falls, but can feel she cares about him deeply. It's part of the reason why she's so pissed at the Fates, bc they took her friend/boyfriend (up to your interpretation) away before she could remember him.

]

Also, Hades: I'm gonna give Bianca my 'guider of Fates' aspect so she can save them when Thoon tries killing them

Bianca: *kills the Fates herself*