#annabeth had him in a trance for one second here | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

angloie · 3 years

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Beach Trips and I'm Falling in Love 1/2

When Annabeth meets a strange boy on vacation, she doesn't expect for their relationship to grow much. He's... terribly sarcastic. Cocky. A not-so great match for her witty self. But after learning he visits the same beach every year she does, their strange friendship blooms into something more.

Their realtionship isn't the only thing that blooms over the yearsー that meaning a certain raven-haired boy.

genre ; childhood friends to lovers, fluff, strangers(?) to lovers, exchanging letters au, percabeth mortal au, 6.5k words.

warnings ; swearing, suggestive(?) themes.

Annabeth first falls in love with the beach at age seven during a vacation.

The airport was a little scary truth be told; new people and big security dogs. Though, the dogs are the things she likes most of the whole expirience. The plane there was much, much worseー she had never liked being so high up for so long. That's why Annabeth slept for most of it. (more like passed out.)

But now that she's woken up in a whole new setting, (that being her parent's cabin) her heart beats fastly with excitement. The unfamiliar aroma of saltwater and sand wafts into the bedroom, making her sniff deepy. The patched quilt that once layed on her is tossed to the wooden planked floors. Everything here is unfamiliar, whether it's the bedroom or the whole place itself.

Annabeth kicks her feet off the bed, rushing to the hallway. She practically bounces off the walls like a rubber ball. New, sights, new place, new people... She'll get the hang of it sooner or later.

Annabeth skids to a halt. "Can I go out?" She asks excitedly to the emptiness of the cabin, her voice echoing off the sparsely decorated walls. There's a pause. Then:

A voice pipes from somewhereー maybe the kitchen? "I dunno about that honey, we just-" Dad!

"Please! Just for a while!" Annabeth cuts him off and begs.

She can hear a sigh emit from him "Well, arlright..." There's a pause; most likely Helen shaking her head and laughing lightly. "But don't go too far! We don't know this place that well."

"Thank you!"

It only takes a second before Annabeth is already sliding her sandals on when she gets the ok to go, grabbing her sand castle building bucket and lathering on her sunscreen.

She beams brightly.

A vast blue sky, yellow sun, and glimmering sand. It's all so beautiful. Gorgeous. Alluring- though the seven year old doesn't quite understand what the new word means. She dashes somewhere, anywhere, excited to go see more. Meet more people! Collect sea shells! And it's fun. Fun with peeking under shells looking for crabs, getting her shorts wet from the water, getting tanned in the beating sun.

Annabeth loses track of time at one point or another. All she knows that the collection of shells in her bright red bucket are just so pretty, so why not collect some more?

'Don't go too far,' She can clearly recall her father's voice, 'We don't know this place all that well.'

That was maybe... three hours ago.

Now, the sun isn't hung that high in the sky. It's starting to dip beneath the ocean, red and orange staining the sky. The pale moon isn't visibleー but Annabeth knows that it might come out sooner or later.

Just a few more shells, she thinks, touge sticking from her lips as she struggles to carry the full bucket, Until I go back.

Where is 'back', anyways?

Annabeth doesn't know where she is right now. At all. Save for the patch of palm trees she had rested under for a while, far behind her.

Oh well. Right now, she tries to focus on collecting more shells. Now, where did that blue shell-

"Uh... What're you doing?"

The question comes as a shock to her, making Annabeth jolt slightly. She whips around.

To her left, there's, well... the ocean. To her right: A cluster of palm tress nestled in the sand. She does a full turn. Than another.

"What-" Annabeth starts in confusion, "Who's there?"

"Up here," The voice (slightly extageratted she might add) chides. It comes straight from the-

-The palm trees?

She comes face to face with blinking sea green eyes. Raven hair splays across the kids' forehead, hiding the tips of his eyes. The kids' legs swinging back and forth on one of the branches, palm leaves shaking slightly with him. Annabeth blinks owlishly in response.

"What're you doing up there?" Is all she can blurt out.

"Sitting," He says matter-of-factly. As if Annabeth couldn't already see that. "What are you doing?" The boy parrots, climbing down the wide trunk.

She steps back when he stands in front of her. He looks about her age, if she's correct. "Collecting shells?" Annabeth burries her sandal-clad heel in the sand. She picks up the blue sea shell she's had her eye on.

"Look, this ones-"

"That's mine!" The boy springs forward suddenly, taking the object from her hands. His eyes are wide like saucers. "You found my lucky shell!"

Annabeth falters. "A lucky shell? What's that?" She tilts her head in confusion. To be honest, that's one of the most ridiculous things that she has ever heard. Not that Annabeth would tell that to the person's face. That would be pretty rude.

When he doesn't respond from being too enveloped in the shine of the shell's blue coat, she grumbles.

"That isn't yours!" She says more loudly. It can't be, it can't! Shells don't belong to people; they're natural things! Aren't they? Plus, what even is a lucky shell?

He scoffs. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" Annabeth stares fully at the shell. "If it's yours, then prove it."

The boy huffs as he flips the shell over, shoving it right in her face. She has to take another step back to see it properly. More like to see the small letters properly. It's small, black, and messy, but Annabeth can make out the nearly unreadable scribbles.

PERCY . J

"You're Percy?" She looks back at him.

"Mhm!" The boyー Percyー beams. "So yeah. That's my lucky shell. I was looking for it for a while."

Her eyebrow twitches. "Oh..." Annabeth trails off, dissapointed. She wanted that shell. Dang it. "Are you sure?" He nods affirmatively, making her face droop. They both stay silent for a second, letting the sound of crashing against the shore take over.

Percy turns around. "I'm gonna go back to my cabin now."

Annabeth, as if breaking out from a trance, grabs his wrist. "Wait!" She yelps, pouting.

He turns back around quickly with a grumble. "What?

"D-do you..." She lets go of his wrist once she see's the judging look on the boy's face. "Do you know where the cabins are, by any chance?"

It's a weird question out of context, really, and Annabeth isn't sure why she asks him of all people. He probably doesn't know his way around either, not to mention that she doesn't expect him to answer.

It's comes as a surprise to her when he asks: "Which ones?"

Annabeth's lips tug upwards in a hopeful smile. "Uh..." She tries to remember where it is. "The ones with the really tall palm trees beside the shore?"

Percy pauses; his eyes look up into space as if he's looking for an answer from the gods. "Oh!" He looks over behind him, "Where there's this weird blue-roofed cabin to the right?"

"Yeah! That's The one!" She exclaims. Her face lights up with memory, thinking of the exact location.

"Oh," He looks directly at her now, "That's where I'm staying, too."

"Oh." Annabeth repeats.

"Yeah."

"Huh."

The Walk back is... Normal. They bicker back and forth, throwing subtle insults. At one point Annabeth bargains to take the blue sea shell back for three of the pink ones, but Percy refuses. She huffs.

"Where'd you get your lucky shell anyways?" Annabeth asks as her feet pads onto the slightly damp sand.

"My mom," He grins, holding it high above his head. "We found it here last year, and I just kept it! She said that it would be a nice souvenir." Percy says proudly.

She wants to ask more, prod more, but it seems like they're already at their detination. The tall palm trees. The weird blue-roofed cabin. Annabeth looks over to him, as it seems like the last time they'll ever see each other. Percy, however, looks surprised.

"You're my-" He freezes, looking back and forth at the two cabins in front of them. One is Annabeth's. And the other is...

"What?" Annabeth asks. "Something wrong?"

"You're my neighbor!?" Percy gasps, horror striking his face. He takes a disgusted shudder and steps away from the blonde.

"Don't act that disgusted!" She jokingly pushes his shoulderー with a little less than just 'jokingly' in the shove. "But this actually sucks. I don't really like you," Annabeth admits.

"Me neither!" Percy rolls his eyes. "Im going inside!"

She crosses her arms as she looks away. "Me too!"

"Goodnight!"

Annabeth doesn't know howー or whenー it happens, but their friendship blooms sometime along with way.

"Whatever!"

Scratch that. Friendship is too much of a strong word. For now, the two can settle on frenemies.

Plus, their frenemieship doesn't exactly happen umpormpted; it takes the parents to force them together. Aparently, Percy had told his mom about the whole scenario. Whispers come to talk, and there they are, sitting on the steps of Percy's cabin while the two's parents talk inside. Annabeth can hear the laughs coming from inside. It makes her seethe.

"Why'd you tell?" Is all she can mutter.

"My mom asked me where I was," Percy simply says, "So I did!"

"I had to thank you ten times because of that, and now look where we are!" Annabeth glared pointedly. "They're all buddies now. Ew."

He reels. "Shut up."

"No."

"Shut up!"

"I said no!"

The door creaks open, and they both freeze.

"Annabeth!" Frederick calls out, stepping onto the wooden deck. "Oh, it looks like you two have already bonded! How nice," He smiles, looking at the two of them who sit side to side. It looks like they had just had a deep convorsationー except not the one you'd expect. Percy's mom, who Annabeth heard her name was Sally, steps beside him with her own smile.

It's weird. This nice-looking, kind woman who is related to such a loser like Percy? Even being his mom? She can't see the resemblance.

"Aw, you two look like best buds!" Sally pats the two of them on the shoulder, warm smile etched across her face. Annabeth smilies in response, despite her thoughts: She has got to ditch Percy as soon as possible.

"Why don't you two go visit downtown?" She looks over to Percy. His scowl is wiped away once she does it, replaced with a forced grin. "It'd be nice for you two to hang out, wouldn't it?"

No, it would not, Annabeth wants to say. I dislike this dude very much.

But as her life goes, she never gets what she wants.

"Okay!" Percy smiles, standing up. He makes an attempt to leave Annabeth in the dust by walking as fast as he can, his actions being immediately noticed by her. All Sally and Frederick do is confuse it with excitement.

Downtown is a sunshiney place with colourful chalk on the shop walls that line the roadsides. There's a white marble fountain in the middle of the square, and a small grass filed where people play frisbee. Ice cream, pizza, ramen, you name it. The smells make both of their mouths water with hunger. Annabeth looks over to the hotdog stand with wantful eyes.

Percy's stomach grumbles.

"What?" He asks, embarassed, when Annabeth looks over at him. She looks away, rummaging through the pockets of her jean jacket. After pulling out a few green bills, she shuffles her feet.

"Here." Annabeth stuffs two of them in Percy's hands. "Let's go buy something."

He falters. "Wha- Thanks, but why?"

"My dad always tells me to be polite," She says formaly, head held high. "And I'm trying to do it. What? You think I actually like you? Please." Annabeth won't admit it, but she doesn't actually mean it.

Percy frowns. "Whatever."

It's bland as they eat, quietness shared between the two children. Annabeth chews dryly. Percy swallows thickly. They find a spot to sit; a colorful bench in the heart of all the comotion.

"No!" Annabeth groans when her half-eaten ice popsicle falls to the concrete ground. She pouts. "Aw, come on." The biker (the reason she accidentally let it fall) is long gone without as much of a glance.

Percy, on the other hand, eyes the red popsicle. He hasn't eaten his own yetー it being still wrapped up in it's yellow wrapper.

He offers it to her.

"Huh?" She takes it suddenly, eyes slightly shocked. Her mouth waters with hunger. "I-is this for me?" Annabeth asks. She peels the wrapper off begrudgingly, the sticky texture on her fingertips. It's blueberry flavoured. One of her favourites.

"Who else?" Percy rolls his eyes.

Annabeth scoffs. "I thought you were hungry."

"Yeah, but you seem pretty hungry too."

There's two sticks in the treat, meaning that they can split it. She does so, splitting it apart with a crack, and hands it back to him while looking away. "Here. Take this."

"Aw, you like me after all!" He nudges her, smiling widely and instantly popping it in his mouth.

"Its politeness!" Annabeth can manage for the word.

Percy isn't such a loser. And neither is she.

The stars twinkle brightly by the time they head back, cicadas and crickets back again to sing their songs. Percy looks at Annabeth while she enters her cabin. Her stares at her from his own doorway.

"Goodnight." Is all he says.

Annabeth doesn't know howー or whenー it happens, but their friendship blooms sometime along with way.

This time, Annabeth replies properly. "Goodnight."

The next week goes a lot like this: Percy comes over to her room, (Frederick and Helen has already taken a liking to him) beach ball in hand and sunscreen slathered on.

"Let's go swim!" He yanks the blanket from her half-asleep figure with a snicker.

"Leave me alone, doofus!"

She always complains, but goes with him anyways.

Some days it was Annabeth who woke him up. Some days she works up at the crack of dawn just to haul him to the beach where they swam for hours. Those days, she never complains.

But today, Percy accompanies Annabeth at the airport.

"You better write back to me," He crosses his arms and huffs as she gives a lopsided smirk. Her luggage, decorated with patches she had collected, stands at her side. Her Parents chat with Percy's with hugs exchanged and sad smiles. "Or else I'm not your friend anymore."

That's the first time Percy says she's a friend.

Despite that, she remains a steady face. Her heart is racing. "You can write?" Annabeth gasps, a fake look of shock on her face. When the boy gives her a dirty look, she chuckles. "Don't worry. I'm coming back here soon."

"When?" He asks instantly.

"Next year. Maybe longer." She replies, rocking back and forth on her heels. Her feet are replaced with her green sneakers, a change from a week of wearing nothing but sandals. There's a certain sadness lacing her tone.

"That's too long."

"I know."

They seem to be acting tough, possibly for their own sakes, but it all crumbles to the ground when they both tear up. They hug each other, tightly, as if they won't be seeing each other for an eternity. Maybe they will.

"I'll write to you everyday!" Annabeth promises, pulling away. Her eyes are puffy and her nose is running.

"You better!" Percy wipes his nose on his shirt. "And I will too!"

Annabeth can't quite keep the promise of sending letters every day, that being the reason of school and other things, but she and Percy can settle on every week.

It takes both their parents to pull them away from each other when the time finally comes.

Percy's letters always has his signature blue envelope. It's bright in her hands when she opens her mailbox a week after seeing him as she reads the front. Her name is misspelled three times, and the envelope is clumsily sealed. It's exactly what she had imagined. His mom must've written it for him, because the writing is ten times more neater. The words make her smile.

That night, she reads it again.

Annabeth sends her own letters, envelope and papers with owl prints drawn on. Like Percy, her own hand writing is messy. So she has Helen write most of it for her.

Back and forth through the four seasons. They both start to send little trinkets to the other, too: dried up flowers, favourite pens, even some of Percy's favourite candiesー blue Jolly Ranchers, but they seem to taste better when he sends it.

I seriously hate school, Percy writes in a letter one week, Everyone here sucks.

Well, not a few people, but a lot of people do. They're all rude. And suck ups. Even the teachers are like that! They all just act all better than me, just because. I don't really know why.

The next part is written in his own handwriting.

But of course, they're not! I beat them in dodgeball today, but i got a bruise on my cheek when I fell flat on my face. Nothing I can't handle!

Annabeth rolls her eyes at that, pen in hand while she reads the remians of it. She notes that there's a picture attached at the bottom with a obnoxious green paperclip. Taking it off, she stares at it.

Percy beams at her; er, the camera, a noticeable bruise square on his left cheek. A band-aid is stuck onto his forehead. Annabeth can only assume where it's from. For some reason the boy is smiling toothily. He looks exactly like he had been only a while ago, tanned skin and scrawny arms. His uncureable case of bedhead has also somehow stayed intact.

She sends her own picture: A amuture snap taken by her dad, standing in the sun at the park near her house. Her lips pull upwards into a wide, bright smile.

"Say cheese!" Frederick points the lenses to her.

Annabeth beams. "Cheeeese!" She giggles.

Percy doesn't want to admit it, but he'd spent more time than he liked staring at the picture.

Annabeth and Percy are right when they next meet again; though Annabeth likes to say that she's eight and three quarters.

The girl had arrived in the middle of the night while she was still snoring. Like last time, she had woken up in a bedー the same one as of today. Though she can't quite notice. Her body still radiates tiredness, mucsles sore and limbs unmoving.

"Annabeth!" Percy shakes the blonde awake, her hair messy hair shaking back and forth. She groans through her lips.

"Wha-" She flips over, looking at him. "Its- Percy!?" Annabeth jolts upwards, eyes wide and fully awake.

He smirks at her. "Hey." Percy stands up straight now, taking a step back. "Its been a while-"

Annabeth pulls him in for a hug. "i missed you!" She says, hugging him even more tightly. "So much!" Percy, after a second, hugs back with just as much happiness. His face burries in her shoulder.

"Me too," Percy replies, voice muffled. "So much."

It might be a long minute when they finally pull away.

"I-I was just being polite," Annabeth turns away with embarassment. "Don't think too much about it."

"Y-yeah, same."

They both know that they're lying.

After a while, it almost becomes routine. They spend a blissful week together playing on the beach. Both Percy and Annabeth cry their eyeballs out when they have to leave. The rest of the year is spent exchanging letters.

Summer of when they're twelve, Annabeth says something that makes Percy frown immediately.

"We won't be able to come back here for a while," She says, laying on the sand.

"Oh." Percy says. "That's what you always say. "So... You'll be here next year."

She sighs, looking at the waves lapping across the sandy shores. People swim happily in the cool waters, unlike them, who sit under the shade of a tall palm tree.

"...Right?" He repeats slowly, carefully, when she doesn't respond.

"No." Annabeth burries her face in her hands. "We won't be coming next year. Or the year after that."

"What!?" Percy''s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "And why not?"

"Helen, she... You know that the twins will be born soon. And my dad wants to take a break from vacations for a while." She grumbles.

"And that means-"

"We won't be coming back for a very, very long time."

Dread dawns onto Percy like a spotlight.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Then it truly settles in.

"Oh, no."

The next night is what Percy assumes to be the last night spent with Annabeth in a few years. That sentence makes him sick to the stomach, so he avoids thinking about it.

If he stops thinking about it, will it never happen? If he somehow begs Annabeth's parents, will she come again next year? If Percy, someway, hopes hard enough, will she be here next year, and the next?

His thoughts gnaw at him like rats. Laying awake in his messy bed, chapped lips and ruffled hair.

There's really only one thing that can help him now.

"Hey." Percy manages to sneak into Annabeth's room via window. Her room is chilly. He feels like scolding her for keeping her window unlocked, but then Percy would just sound like his mom. He nudges her softly. "Wake up."

Annabeth, groggy and sleep deprived, opens one of her eyes. "Hm? Oh..." Hse tries to keep her eyes open. "Percy?"

It's a small whisper. Her mouth is dry and her limbs are sore. Annabeth's pillow is dampened; she had just cried only hours prior before she passed out fron exhaustion. Its a bleak memory that A Annabeth cringes upon. She chews her lip.

"C'mon," Percy says, "Let's go to our spot."

Annabeth doesn't put up a arguement. She knows that he wants to spend the most time together as possible, and the feeling is mutual. She feels her own sort of sadness: An icky feeling that leaves her feeling all scummy when she remembers she wont see Percy for a very long time.

So she goes with him, cotton sweater flimsy flip-flops hastily threwn on. Their footsteps make the old wood creak, but thankfully, no one wakes from the noises.

Their 'Spot' is a hill, high above the rising tides. Its where they go every year. Its where they made memories. Its a place that they can't imagine ever staying away from.

The nightly wind is gone this particular night. It only leaves comfortable silence.

"So how long will you be away for?" Percy asks, pulling his knees to his chest. Hus eyes droop down.

Annabeth fiddles with a stick she found on the grassy ground. "I don't wanna say it. Its too long."

But after she hesitates, Annabeth gives in. "...Six years."

"What?"

"Six years," She repeats, more strongly this time, "That's my estimate."

Percy's breath hitches in his throat. Six years? Six years without her?

"That's forever." Percy comes to the horrible conclusion. No, no- there must be somesort of mistake! Annabethwill be here next year, and that's that. "Are you sure?"

Annabeth nods grimly. Her eyes are screwed shut, as if she cant see it, it won't happen. If she cant see, then maybe it'll all be a bad dream.

She's just like him.

They both know its futile to do anything else. To do something, one last thing, one last visit down, one more. Its bitterly cold. Saltwater invades their senses, and to be honestー they're both exhausted. From a week of long playing in the sun. From a lot of things.

For now, each others company is enough. To know that they're there, in person, is enough. Being together is enough.

So they lay there.

Hand in hand, shoulders pressed up together. The moonlight is the only thing helping Annabeth see in the dark, while Percy grips her hand tighter. The stars above... They're bright. Tiny, miniscule, but they're bright and shining. Like yesterday. Today. And forever. He sniffs. The sky is incoming and unchanging. That's how both Percy and Annabeth want it to beー unchanging between them.

The next morning is bland. Annabeth wakes up with a large amount of dread looming over her, like a heavy cloud of muck. From the clock on her nightstand she can read 5:02 AM; a time in which Percy is most likely fast asleep.

That doesn't really matter. They're goodbyes are said, long done, and that's that. Annabeth already had a bittersweet moment with Percy. Why ruin with a tearful goodbye?

It hurts to not say one last goodbye to him.

The airport. Even at such a early time, it still hums with livelyness and people's chattering. Well, you know what they say. The airport never really does stop working. Not for anyone.

If Percy was here now, what would he say? Give a last cocky smirk and throw a snarky insult? Annabeth would just laugh it off and hug him, as per usual, as per every year. It's a shame.

her parents have already entered the airport, leaving Annabeth standing in front of the huge terminal. She lets out a sigh and clutches her luggage closer. Well. this is it for-

"Annabeth!"

Is that- No. It can't be. Annabeth grips the metal handle of her luggage harder. It makes her knuckles turn into a sickly shade of pale, resembling a sheet of paper. He's not here. He's asleep, gone, and I'm imagining things. He can't possibly be-

"Wisegirl!"

When the voice calls out again, Annabeth knows for sure that it's him.

Percy.

The boy instantly engulfs her in a hug. It's warm, soft, familiar. All the qualities Annabeth likes most about him.

Great, she's tearing up.

"Don't forget me." Percy mumbles into her shoulder. "Please don't forget me." His voice is watery and wavering: He's crying. She can feel is tears dampening her sweater-clad shoulder, and all she can think is how she's doing the same.

"Never," Annabeth says, squeezing her eyes shut. "I promise."

Percy wants to say so much. How he woke up through his tiredness. How he biked here, all one hour of it, to find her, and how he couldn't sleep because he needed to hear her voice. Childish or immature as it be, its true.

He pulls away slowly and rummages through his pockets as he sniffs. "Here. Take this."

Annabeth's eyes widen. "You're" She grips it, mouth going dry. His shell, still blue as ever and pristine, tilts in her hands. "You're gonna give me this?"

She knows it's his favourite thing in the world, save for blue cookies and his small whale plushie. He never leaves it unattended, never dirties it, either. Annabeth knows that Percy never lends it to anyone, and keeps it like it's his life's worth. So why is he giving it to her? His eyes are teary and foggy as tears spill from his eyes, but she can't see any regret or remorse on his face. That's means he's giving it to her with no qualms, whatsoeverー But why?

"You better make sure to return it!" Percy sniffles again, wiping his runny nose on his shirt. "I'll be waiting!"

"I will."

Annabeth thinks that's the most she's cried ever.

The years pass like clockwork, because really, it is.

It's happens like any other year. She goes to school, gets good grades and live like any other day. She sends letters to Percy consistently. They're all sent with souvenirs, trinkets, little notes and scraps. It helps in a theraputic way.

Annabeth doesn't really blame her parents for taking a break. She tries to understand. And it's hard. The twins are lovely. Lovely as newborns can get, at least, they're smiley and bright. Matthew and Bobby, that's their names. They don't cry much. Annabeth likes that. They throw food at her sometimes. Annabeth doesn't like that.

Summer thirteen passes slowly. She tries to pass it with friends, but none of them can really compare to Percy.

Summer fourteen Annabeth enters Highschool. She keeps Percy's lucky she'll on her bedside table, stacked upon a cluster of books. She spends that summer inside, reading books about architecture. They can distact her from the dread of missing him.

Summer fifteen and she sends a package to Percy. There's the usual letter, one of her favourite books, and notes for the new math curriculum that they both happen to be on. She knows that he seriously hates reading, but Annabeth doesn't really expect him to read it.

(He spends all night reading it.)

Summer sixteen, and Percy sends the recipe for his mom's famous blue cookies. That makes her smile uncontrollably. Percy never trusts anyone that much to send one of his favorite recipes; much less the one for his most prized blue cookies. Annabeth is sure to send a recipe of her own for her favorite apple pie.

(Percy can't really stop eating it. Somehow, it reminds him if her.)

Summer seventeen Annabeth makes new friends. They make her mind forget about Percy more, but when she's laying awake at night, she can't really stop thinking about him. He's grown. His smile is as warm and bright as ever, and his hair which was once ruffles in a messy way had become endearing. Annabeth thinks it suits him.

She sends her own pictures. Annabeth thinks that she hasn't grown very much compared to Percy, but she's grown in height. Her hair reaches a length's past her shoulders, and her curls have become more tameable. It's easier to style.

Percy can write much better now, too. His writing is somewhat readable. His letters are still cocky and sarcastic as ever, but his words can clearly shows that he misses her. Annabeth does too. He's learned how to surf. Percy promises to teach her when she visits again. Not to mention he got a dogー a huge, massive ball of black fluff named Mrs. O'Leary. Apparently she's a rescue from one of his neighbours. Annabeth has her own dog as well; a lanky Doberman that she calls cerberus. She swears to introduce him to Mrs. o'leary.

(He looks forward to that.)

Still summer seventeen, and Annabeth learns that Percy has gotten close with someone.

She's supportive of him, of course, but Annabeth can't really say that when she frowns at the news. Rachel. That's her name. Rich, red-haired and pretty, she's probably a good fit for him. Annabeth sees her in the pictures he sends. Beach trips together, days spent in each other's company. She tries as hard as she can not to say something about it.

Rachel is pretty. Rachel is kind. She donates to homeless shelters and fundraises to help the rainforest, Rachel is the daughter of some rich buisness owner.

Rachel is everything Annabeth is not.

Laying on her bed that night, she comes to a horrible realization.

Those feelings of jealousy... They’re more than that, aren't they? It's more, so much more, it's the feeling of desire. Wanting. Because after years, Annabeth learns that she likes Percy.

And Percy likes someone else.

Summer eighteen and Annabeth is on the plane to her family’s cabin. She's eighteen years old now; it's been six years.

Six, long years of waiting, six summers spent wasting, six years of exchanging letters. Six years of waiting and longing.

Her leg bounces up and down erratically as the plane nears it's destination, the window passing blinding white clouds. The airport was just as busy as Annabeth remembered. The sights, smells, sounds... It's been a while since she's experienced this. It makes her mind race.

"You excited?" Helen gives a small smile towards her. The twins snore loudly beside her. "I bet you are. It's been a while since you've seen him, right?"

"Mhm," Annabeth hums, grinning to herself. Somehow, she already knows who Helen is talking about. "Six years."

"Hm?"

"Its been six years," She says, leaning her cheek on her palm. "Six years since I've last seen him."

Percy.

Annabeth is eighteen when she falls in love with the beach for the second time.

The cabin looks just like it was before. Dark brown wood, potted plants littering the windowsills, metal and glass chimes hanging from the ceilings. Nostalgia runs through Annabeth's mind.

So, with her hair flying behind her and parents chuckling behind her from the car, she bursts open the doors with laboured breaths. The humidity is at a level so high it gets Annabeth's hair all frizzyー but she doesn't mind one bit. She takes a deep inhale.

Fresh saltwater. Driftwood, the sweet smell of vanilla, the alluring scent of coral.

"Can I go out?" Annabeth practically jumps the whole way to the living room, parents unpacking. She runs her hands on the walls; she knows the place like a book from all the previous years spent there.

Annabeth's heart drops when they shake their heads. "Sorry, sweetie," Frederick sighs. "Could you wait until dinner? The twins would probably follow you everywhere; they're pretty energetic right now."

She frowns. "But-" Annabeth exhales, and her shoulders slump. "...Alright."

As the blonde walks back to her room, she can't help but think: Where even is Percy? At the beach? In his room? It's been a while since she last sent a letterー but Annabeth thought he would be expecting her. Maybe not. Maybe, he's busy spending time with Rachel. Not that she really blames him.

So she lays there, staring at the white ceiling. It's smooth unlike her popcorned ceilings back at her house. Annabeth can imagine what Percy's doing right now; most likely teaching Rachel how to surf, like he wrote in his most previous letter. That was... A month ago, right? She's learned how to surf, too.

Annabeth eats dinner with a small frown on her face.

What's the point? She thinks to herself, shoving the plate of noodles in her mouth. She slurps it up. What's the point in seeing him, anyways?

Well, let's see. One: I haven't seen him in six years. That's true. Annabeth's heart aches to see him again, but she can't really bring up the courage to see him.

Two: I have to return his lucky sea shell. She thinks of the shell that stands on her bedside table. It's coat is blue and chipped at that point from all the years.

Three: I really, really want to see him again. Annabeth agrees to herself to that, but there's something lacking. Something that's stopping her from seeing him.

What if Percy doesn't want to see me?

It's stupid, sure, after everything they went through, why would Percy not want to see her? The airport visit from six years ago was enough to proove her wrong, but... The doubt still lingers on Annabeth's head. Rachel was probably fine. She doesn't even know the girl for goodness sakeー why would Annabeth ever hate her in any way?

So, stepping out of the cabin with a determined look, she starts off to find Percy.

The cabin next to hers has no occupants. There's people living in there of course, the light inside gives it away. But there's none inside.

Okay. Next, the beach. The sure is setting, so only a few last minute stragglers are there. The waves are just as beautiful as Annabeth imagined. She chews on her bottom lip, where could he be? Downtown. The ice cream shop. Even the boardwalk. Annabeth has no luck in finding the raven haired boy.

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.

She walks up to their spot.

It's like a walk to memory lane, really, the trees stretch even farther and the grass is way outgrown. The old log that she and Percy used to sit on is now covered with moss and growing mushrooms. Annabeth smiles to herself. It's been a while.

Have those bags always been here? She thinks to herself. She eyes the bags: Two of them, one black and one a vibrant splash of colors. They must belong to someone else.

When Annabeth sees a familiar figure, she practically beams, because holy shit, it's Percy!

His shoulders are broader than she remembered. His hair is gorgeously fluffy and volumous, and his voice is more richer than Annabeth thought. But, wait- why is he talking to himself?

"Seaweed br-"

That when Annabeth sees her.

A head of red hair sits beside him, laughing to spend joke of his. Or at least that's what Annabeth thinks is happening. Oh, her face falls. That must be Rachel. She fit the description she has had in her head for a while now: Pretty. Laid back.

Annabeth thought their spot was a spot for themー a spot where their memories were made, a spot where Percy introduced her to, a spot where only Annabeth knew.

Her arm slowly drops to her side when Rachel pecks him on the cheek.

Walking back, she thinks she's a fool. How could she be the only person who knew of that place? Such an idiot! Of course Percy would find someone else, like someone else, kiss someone else. Annabeth can't blame him. She can't blame Rachel, or anyone else, because how could she?

That night, Annabeth can't fall asleep.

(Percy can't either, because he can't stop thinking about Annabeth and how he thinks he saw her back there.)

#WHY DIDWRITING THIS TAKE SO LONG #BECAUSE I HAVE TOO MUCH WIPS THATS WHY #i hate myself #percabeth #annabeth Chase #percy jackson #percabeth fluff #percabeth fic #percabeth au #percabeth angst #chb #camp jupiter #the seven #camp half blood #annabeth #percy #rick Riordan #percabeth oneshot

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knuffled · 4 years

Text

just practice - chapter seven

so hopefully this chapter punched you in the gut and stole your lunch money because that means i did my job. if you liked the chapter, please do reblog or drop a comment on ao3 - i would really appreciate it!

here’s the ao3 link

bonus link to the song i was playing on repeat while writing this chapter

Annabeth’s lungs burned from exertion as she made her way out of the woods behind the high school. To her right, the lake was calm like always, but there weren’t any geese floating atop the water this time of the year. Darkness was already beginning to encroach upon the sovereignty of the setting sun, turning the sky an inky purple, and apart from the sound of her own ragged breathing and swift footsteps, it was blissfully silent.

With the invitational only a week away, Coach Davis had freed her from her responsibilities as captain until it was over, which was why she had the luxury of running this far ahead of everyone else instead of having to slow down to keep watch of the underclassmen. It felt so liberating to run without the weight of responsibility hanging over her head. In her darker moments, Annabeth sometimes found herself wondering if being captain was actually keeping her from reaching her full potential, but despite all her complaining, she did take great pride in her role.

Coach Davis was waiting for her at the end of the trail, stopwatch in hand. When she saw Annabeth approaching, her eyes flitted from the stopwatch to Annabeth and back to the stopwatch again, a smile beginning to break across her face, but Annabeth was too focused to notice it. Within seconds, Annabeth came to a stop in front of her and crouched over with her hands pressed against the top of her thighs and swallowed deep lungfuls of air.

“Look at your time!” Coach Davis said, unable to repress the excitement in her voice.

Annabeth blearily looked up at the stopwatch inches in front of her face and took a few seconds to register the time before knitting her eyebrows.

“Are you sure that’s accurate? There’s no way I finished three minutes earlier than normal,” Annabeth said, still trying to catch her breath.

“Oh, it’s accurate alright!” Coach said, grinning manically. “You’ve really improved over the course of this past month, unbelievably so.”

Three minutes didn’t sound like a long time in most contexts, but for long distance running making such an improvement was nothing short of miraculous. Not for the first time, Annabeth mentally thanked herself for being brave enough to reach out to Reyna. The minor improvements she had picked up on during their run together was paying dividends now. Theoretically, Annabeth knew that the tweaks she made would help but seeing the evidence right before her eyes, especially when the improvement was so stark, was beyond gratifying.

“If you go at a race pace, your time should be even better,” Coach added.

Annabeth stood up and brushed aside the strands of golden blonde hair that had escaped from her ponytail and lay matted on her forehead.

“I sure hope so,” she said.

Today she had done a tempo run, which meant her pace had been around 15% less than her typical race pace. With her veins shot full of adrenaline during an actual competition, her time should improve theoretically, in ceteris paribus at least.

“I’m sure it will. Alright, I’ve got to stick around and finish timing everyone else. Do your cooldown run and stretch. Be sure to get plenty of rest the next few days,” Coach ordered.

Annabeth huffed and said, “I’ve been on the team for four years, Coach – you don’t need to remind me to cooldown and stretch.”

Coach Davis shrugged her shoulders with a smirk. “Force of habit, I guess.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes and made her way closer to the high school track where she jogged a lap before starting her stretches. The coolness of the grass against her flushed skin felt wonderful, eliciting a sigh of relief from her. Annabeth took her time with her stretches and enjoyed the thoughtless, almost trance-like, state she felt after a strenuous run.

It didn’t last for long, however, and she soon found herself thinking about the dream for the umpteenth time that week. Interacting with Percy felt more stilted than ever, much to her dismay. For the first time in her life, she didn’t know what to say around him anymore.

Well, that and Reyna’s confession both made things more awkward than usual. Annabeth knew that she would have to tell him at some point that Reyna had asked her out, but she didn’t know how to broach the subject, especially since Percy didn’t seem to like Reyna that much. There was a part of her that wanted to hide it from him altogether, insisting that she was entitled to keeping secrets if Percy could, but she always felt guilty afterwards for thinking that.

Annabeth had just finished her final set of stretches when Jason flopped on the ground beside her with an exaggerated groan, covering his eyes with his forearm.

“You’re done early,” he said breathlessly.

“Three minutes early, to be precise,” Annabeth said, trying not to sound smug.

He moved his arm to peek at her with one eye, a huge grin splitting across his face. “Holy shit, seriously? That’s amazing!”

“Thanks, I’m just hoping it’s a good omen for the invitational,” Annabeth said.

Jason huffed and said, “Ugh, don’t remind me. I don’t even want to think about it.”

Annabeth patted his arm affectionately and said, “You’ll do fine. I’m sure of it.”

“Easy for you to say, Ms. Three Minutes Early,” Jason scoffed.

“Don’t be an ass,” Annabeth said, laughing.

Jason rolled his eyes and asked, “What’s your secret, oh wise one?”

For a brief moment, Annabeth considered telling Jason that Reyna had asked her out, but it would’ve been difficult considering he didn’t know about the whole fake-dating thing.

Instead, she opted for a half-truth and said, “I ran with Reyna, the girl who won State last year, over the weekend and picked up on some inefficiencies with my form. Didn’t think it would help as much as it did.”

“Oh, Reyna!” Jason said. “I went to summer camp with her in middle school.”

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and said, “Really?”

Jason sat up and nodded, wiping the dirt off his palms against his shorts. “Yeah, she was intense. Beat me at pretty much every camp activity – canoeing, rock climbing, capture the flag – you name it. She was even better than me at arts and crafts!”

Annabeth laughed and said, “Yeah, that sounds like her.”

“It’s gotta be exhausting to live like that. Treating everything as a competition means you can never do anything just for fun,” Jason said.

“She probably thinks that the competition is the fun part," Annabeth said, shrugging. "At least, that’s how I feel, and she and I are kind of similar."

Jason looked at her closely, his head cocked to the side, before a small smile broke across his lips. “Now that you mention, you two are scarily alike,” he mused.

“She’s faster than me,” Annabeth said lightly.

Jason nudged her with his shoulder and shook his head fondly. “I can’t believe you sometimes. I’m pretty sure I would go insane in minutes if I had to live in your head.”

“Saying you’d last minutes is a bit generous,” Annabeth teased.

“Ok, that’s enough bullying for one day,” Jason said, standing up. “I still need to do my cooldown run or Coach will hunt me down.”

A sudden thought occurred to her, prompting Annabeth to catch Jason’s arm before he left.

When he looked down at her quizzically, Annabeth said, “Before you go: what do you know about Kara Mayfield?”

Jason furrowed his brow and said, “Percy’s ex?”

“Yeah, do you know what happened between them?” Annabeth asked.

He looked away from her and coughed surreptitiously. “Uh, no.”

Annabeth narrowed her eyes and said, “I know you’re lying, Jason. You’ve always been dogshit at it.”

When he remained silent, Annabeth sighed and said, “Piper’s already gotten to you, hasn’t she?”

Jason gave her a pleading look and said, “Look, I don’t want to keep anything from you, you know that, but this is a special circumstance. I agreed with Piper when she told me not to tell you. It’s something you need to hear from Percy himself.”

A spark of anger blazed in her chest, but Annabeth forced herself to breathe and nod instead. It was hard not to be frustrated when everyone refused to tell her and insisted she ask Percy when she knew Percy wouldn’t tell her either. No matter what she did, she lost.

“I’m sorry,” Jason said. “We’re not trying to do it to piss you off or anything. It’s just not our business to tell you.”

Annabeth sighed and said, “Yeah, I get it. Thanks anyways.”

Jason offered her an apologetic smile and jogged back to the track to finish his cooldown lap. Annabeth sat there for a while longer before sighing and making her way to the showers. She stayed under the water for longer than usual, trying to stomach the bitterness that had been brewing in the pit of her stomach all week. It was made harder by having to hold the dream in perilous tension at the same time. She almost wished she could just give in and allow herself to be bitter, but she felt too guilty when twelve year old Percy’s promise still echoed endlessly in her mind.

When she finished her shower, Annabeth made her way to the parking lot. She was in the process of fishing for her keys in the front pocket of her backpack when she noticed Percy sitting on the hood of her car, a brooding look on his face.

Annabeth's stomach churned as she tried frantically to think of her best course of action. She didn’t want to have a confrontation with him now while she was still trying to work through how she felt, but she could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t going to let her escape without at least admitting something was going on. With a sigh, she decided it would be best to get it over with and made her way towards him.

Once he saw her, Percy offered her a small smile and pushed off the car. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Annabeth said, gripping her backpack strap.

“Can we talk?”

Annabeth blinked. She hadn’t expected him to get straight to the point, but she supposed it was better this way.

“Sure,” Annabeth said tightly.

Percy raised an eyebrow and said, “Do you want to tell me what’s going on? You’ve been acting weird all week. Almost like you’re trying to avoid me.”

Annabeth was silent for a few seconds, trying to decide how much she wanted to tell him. Part of her wanted to immediately jump to asking him about Kara, but her intuition was telling her that she wouldn’t get any answers out of him that way. She also briefly considered denying that there was anything going on altogether, but she could tell by the intensity in his eyes that he would call her bluff immediately.

She sighed and decided to go with a half-truth again. “I went running with Reyna last week, and she asked me out.”

Percy’s face was perfectly blank, and his body language didn’t betray anything about his emotional state, despite what she had said. There was a brief silence, and when Percy spoke, there was a hint of trepidation in his voice along with something else, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“And what did you say?”

Annabeth scuffed her converses against her ankle, her hands wrapped even tighter around her backpack straps.

“I turned her down at first, but she insisted that I think about it.”

“And you’re still mulling it over?” Percy said slowly.

Annabeth nodded and said, “I want to make sure that I take my response seriously because she asked me out seriously. If I was offhanded about it, I’d feel like a dick.”

There was another pause before Percy deflated a bit and said, “So I’m guessing you want to call the whole fake-dating thing off then?”

“What? No!” Annabeth said, frowning. “Unless you want to call it off.”

Percy blinked before he said cryptically, “I want whatever you want.”

Annabeth hesitated and swayed in place before saying, “Well, I’m not going to go out with her. I mean, I barely know her.”

“I’m confused,” Percy said, furrowing his brow. “If you’ve already decided on that, then what is there to think about?”

Annabeth sighed and leaned against her car, hugging her arms against her chest. “I don’t really know either. It’s just that– well, I’ve never been asked out by a girl before, and I never imagined that I would actually consider saying yes in that situation.”

Percy softened a little bit and said, “That sounds confusing. I think it makes sense that you’re feeling a little conflicted about it.”

“I’m trying to think of what this means. Like, am I straight? Am I bi? Does being attracted to just one girl make me bi or is it a one-off? I don’t really know,” Annabeth said, trying not to sound frustrated.

“So you’ve never been attracted to any other girls in the past?” Percy asked.

Annabeth was about to say that she hadn’t before she caught herself and thought about it some more.

“Well, I mean I think Piper and Rachel are attractive and stuff, but it didn’t really occur to me that I could date them,” Annabeth said, shrugging. “Maybe it’s purely aesthetic?”

“If it was, I feel like you wouldn’t be giving it this much thought right now,” Percy noted. “Like, if you were absolutely straight, you would have known immediately that dating a girl wasn’t for you, I think. The fact that you’re still mulling it over makes me think you might not be entirely straight.”

Annabeth was silent for a bit before she slowly said, “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

Percy leaned against the car right beside her, close enough that their elbows knocked against each other.

“It’s not like you need to immediately think you’re bi, anyways. Piper always says sexuality is more like a gradient than a binary, right? I don’t think you need to be in a rush to label yourself or anything. Take your time and figure it out. It’s okay if you’re wrong or realize differently in the future. It’s not like you aren’t allowed to change or anything,” Percy said.

Annabeth took some to digest what he had said before she turned to him and smiled. “Thanks, I think I feel a bit better now. I mean I’ll still have to think about it more but yeah,” she said.

“Of course you do,” Percy said fondly.

Annabeth shot him a mock-glare, but there wasn’t any venom behind it. All at once, a lump formed in her throat. She had really missed this. When things were just normal and easy and she didn’t have to swim through twenty layers of subtext to understand what the fuck was going on. She missed when they were just Annabeth and Percy.

“What are you thinking about?” Percy asked softly.

Annabeth swallowed and tried for a laugh, but it sounded strained even to her own ears.

“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “Nothing. Just that it’s been a while since we were like this and stuff. It made me realize how much I missed this.”

“Yeah, me too,” Percy whispered, sounding suddenly weary.

Annabeth blinked in surprise – she hadn’t expected him to agree with her. She had assumed he was going to say that nothing had changed at all and that they were still the same. Hearing Percy also admit that things were different hurt a lot more than she thought it would.

Percy gently bumped his shoulder into hers, a small, wistful smile on his lips. Annabeth tried to return the smile but knew it wouldn’t reach her eyes.

“You sure that’s all that’s going on?” Percy asked gently.

The familiar warmth and kindness in his voice nearly made her crumble and admit all the pain and resentment she was holding inside, but she forced herself to stay strong and shake her head instead.

She needed some time to figure this out on her own before she confronted him. For some reason, she knew that if she tried to ask him now without knowing enough that he would just weasel his way out somehow. Whatever he was holding back would take a lot of effort to break through, and she needed to be more prepared for when that time came. At the very least, she knew that it wasn’t a battle she could win right now.

Percy looked at her skeptically but otherwise nodded and stepped away from her car. He ruffled his hair before he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Well, that was all that I wanted to talk about, I guess. I know things haven’t been great between us and stuff, so I just wanted to make sure we were still good,” Percy said.

“Yeah, we’re still good,” Annabeth lied, her voice catching on the last word.

Percy looked at her for a while, his brow ever so slightly furrowed, like he was going to say something more, but then he shook his head and stepped backwards.

“Well, I’ll let you get going then,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Annabeth.”

Annabeth cleared her throat and nodded. “Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

:::

After shutting the car door, Annabeth fiddled with her green cape for what felt like the thirteenth time since she’d put on her costume. The damn thing kept getting caught underneath her feet when she tried to walk, constantly making her trip. She swore darkly under her breath and made her up the driveway to Rachel’s house.

Annabeth rang the doorbell and wondered how anyone would even be able to hear it over the rumbling bass blasting inside, but it wasn’t long before Rachel opened the door, a bright grin on her face. Annabeth had to do a double take when she saw Rachel’s costume. She was painted entirely orange and there was a large yellow mustache taped under her nose.

“Annabeth! I’m so glad you could make it.” Rachel said brightly. “Cool costume! You’re a quidditch player right?”

Annabeth nodded and said, “Thanks! I would compliment your costume too, but I honestly don’t have a clue what you’re supposed to be.”

Rachel put her hands on her hips and lowered her voice. “I’m the Lorax! And I speak for the trees!”

That managed to get a laugh out of Annabeth. Every year, Rachel threw a Halloween costume party, and without fail, she always wore the most bizarre costumes. Last year, she had been Chewbacca from Star Wars, complete with the wookie cries and everything, and the year before that she’d been Vincent Van Gogh after he had cut his ear off.

Rachel craned her neck and looked behind Annabeth. “I don’t see Percy. Is he not coming?”

Annabeth rolled her eyes and said, “He could’ve driven himself here, you know. It’s not like we’re always attached at the hip. Anyways, he couldn’t come because he has a swim meet tomorrow morning.”

Rachel held her palms up in surrender and said, “Alright, sorry, sorry. Just thought you guys were going to do a couple costume or something.”

“That’s not happening in a million years,” Annabeth said, snorting.

Rachel patted her arm benignly and said, “Love makes people do all sorts of strange things, darling. Now come, enjoy the festivities!”

“People in the 21st century don’t say festivities,” Annabeth said, unable to help herself.

“Well, I am honored to be the first,” Rachel said glibly. “There’s food and drinks in the kitchen. You already know where the bathrooms are so I don’t need to give you that spiel. I think I saw Piper and Jason near the backyard. I’ve gotta go greet people, but I’ll find you later! Go have some fun!”

Annabeth only had the chance to nod before Rachel disappeared into the crowd once more. There were a lot of people at the party, some from Westwood, some from Rachel’s private school, and some from other schools that Annabeth couldn’t recognize. She made her way through the throng of dancing teenagers in the living room and made a beeline for the backyard, hoping she’d find Jason and Piper there.

She spent a few minutes looking for them before giving up and heading back inside. Luckily, she ran into Hazel shortly after and joined her in the living room to dance a bit. Annabeth hated dancing with a burning passion, but she was more willing if she was with friends. After all the tension from the past weeks and with the invitational bearing down on her, she figured it was a good time to cut loose.

Dancing in a quidditch costume proved to be more logistically difficult than she could’ve anticipated. She nearly tripped on her stupid cape five more times before she finally called it quits and made a break for the kitchen.

Hazel joined her and watched as Annabeth reached for a bottle of water, downing it in one giant gulp before opening another. Once she finished her second bottle, she wiped her lips with the back of her hand and turned to Hazel, who was still looking for something to drink.

“Have you seen Piper and Jason? Rachel told me that they were here,” Annabeth shouted, trying to be heard over the music.

“Yeah, I think I saw them in the basement a while ago,” Hazel said.

“Weird, I couldn’t find them,” Annabeth said, frowning.

Hazel shrugged and said, “Maybe they don’t want to be found.”

Annabeth pulled a face that made Hazel giggle.

“As long as they’re out of sight,” Hazel said mildly, eyeing the food on the countertop.

She looked like she was going to get something to eat when she paused and fished her phone out of her pocket.

Her face lit up and she turned to Annabeth and said, “Just got a text from Frank saying he just got here and that he brought Leo with him too. I’m gonna meet them at the front door. See you in a bit!”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later,” Annabeth said.

Hazel nodded before leaving the kitchen. Once she was gone, Annabeth sighed and leaned against the counter top, already contemplating going home. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t bring herself to enjoy parties unless she was with close friends the entire time. She found herself wishing Percy were here, telling her some snarky joke about some of the other party goers, but the thought only soured her mood even more.

She was about to leave the party altogether when Kara Mayfield walked into the kitchen, clad in a Sansa Stark costume. Annabeth watched, unable to hide her astonishment, as Kara sifted through the drinks before deciding on a bottle of Jim Beam. Throughout most of her life, Annabeth had pretty terrible luck, but at that moment, she couldn’t help feeling that the universe was presenting an opportunity on a silver platter for her.

Annabeth approached her before she could talk herself out of it. “Hey, Kara,” she said.

Kara looked up, noticing Annabeth for the first time, and took a step backwards, a nervous smile on her face. “Oh, hi, Annabeth,” she said.

“Nice costume,” Annabeth said, nodding to her outfit.

Kara looked down and breathed a laugh. “Thanks. It would be more accurate if my hair wasn’t brown though. Yours is neat too. Repping Slytherin, huh? That’s pretty bold of you.”

“What can I say? I like to live dangerously,” Annabeth said, shrugging.

There was an awkward pause before Kara cleared her throat and busied herself pouring a drink.

“I heard that you and Percy were finally going out. That’s great!” she said with strained enthusiasm.

“Yeah, since the start of the school year,” Annabeth said carefully.

The fact that Kara was steering the conversation exactly where Annabeth wanted it to go only reaffirmed to her that she had to take advantage of this golden opportunity, but in the back of her mind, a small voice whispered that she would be going behind Percy’s back if she continued.

Kara’s lips quirked upwards in the semblance of a weak smile. “That’s good. It was a long time coming.”

How many times had someone said that to her now? “What do you mean by that?” Annabeth asked, frowning.

Kara looked up from the table sharply, her facsimile of a smile dropping, and searched Annabeth’s eyes with a cold stare.

“Are you fucking with me?” she asked lowly.

Annabeth blinked and held her palms up in surrender. “What? No, I’m genuinely curious. I’ve been hearing other people say the same thing, and I don’t know why.”

Kara barked a harsh laugh. “Are you fucking serious? You don’t know why?”

Annabeth’s jaw tightened involuntarily before she forced herself to close her eyes and exhale slowly. “That’s why I’m asking,” she said.

For a few moments, Kara simply stared at her before her eyes widened. “Holy shit, you actually don’t know. Well, that explains a lot of things.”

“I’ve tried asking, but no one will tell me what happened,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. “I wanted to hear it from you.”

“It’s not something you want to hear,” Kara muttered, looking away.

Annabeth bit back her frustration and said, “I can decide that for myself.”

There was a pause before Kara deflated in front of her, and when she looked at Annabeth again, she reminded Annabeth of a lamb being led to slaughter.

“Oh well, you’re going to find out eventually. Might as well get it over with,” Kara muttered. “Let’s go outside. I can’t hear myself think in here.”

Annabeth nodded in agreement, and they both left the kitchen but not before Kara paused and took the entire bottle of Jim Beam with her.

When Annabeth gave her a quizzical look, Kara smiled grimly and said, “Trust me, we’re both going to need this soon.”

A flicker of apprehension began to burn in the back of her mind. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. Annabeth shook her head, trying to dispel the thought. This was the best chance she had to find out what happened between Percy and Kara. She couldn’t afford to back out now.

Kara sat down by the edge of the empty pool, setting the alcohol beside her, and took her shoes off so she could dip her toes in the water. The lights at the bottom of the pool cast smudged beams that swiggled when the water was even remotely disturbed. Kara kicked her feet under the water, forming bubbles that rushed to the surface, and the ensuing ripples sent the fallen leaves floating in the water into a slow waltz.

She leaned back on her palms and stared up at the night sky for a while before suddenly speaking. “So, how much do you know?”

Annabeth sat down beside her and hugged her knees to her chest. “Almost nothing.”

“Well, I guess I’ll start from the beginning then,” Kara said, sighing. “I’ll give you some context, so you can better understand everything. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I do want you to know that I was in a really fucked up place back then, and that led me to making some really bad decisions, decisions I still deeply regret.”

Once Annabeth nodded in acknowledgment, Kara took a sip from the bottle. “Okay, so I had a boyfriend during my first two years in high school that I really liked. I’d known him since we were kids and stuff. We went back a long way,” she said, a forlorn tinge in her voice.

“Kind of like you and Percy, now that I think about it,” Kara mused, looking at Annabeth. “Anyhow, towards the end of sophomore year, he cheated on me for some whatever reason.”

“Shit, I’m sorry to hear that,” Annabeth said.

Kara gave her a terse smile and shrugged. “Yeah, well it happens. We broke up after that, of course, but it was really rough. I remember crying almost everyday after school, wondering desperately what I did wrong, why things happened the way they did. What fucked me up the most was the fact that I’d known him since we were like six years old. I kept asking myself: was I just unaware that he had always been like this, or had he changed somewhere along the way?”

“It got really bad,” Kara admitted softly. “I kind of developed an eating disorder and started drinking a lot, but nothing helped. Instead of waiting to get over it, I thought I just needed to be in a new relationship. Like, more than anything, I wanted someone to make me feel like I mattered.”

“And that’s when Percy came in,” Annabeth said, understanding finally dawning on her.

Kara nodded and said, “Yeah, we had history class together. He was always really sweet. Funny in a dorky way. And really hot. I asked him out at the start of junior year, and I still remember him asking me if I was sure about it. He told me that he knew I had just broken up with my old boyfriend and that he didn’t want to be someone’s rebound. I stupidly said yes, which was the first in a long list of mistakes.”

She paused to take another sip from the bottle, but when she set it down again, her eyes were distant and unfocused.

“We started going out after that, and for a while it was good, but I was still hurting a lot from my previous relationship. Percy was really nice about it though,” Kara said wistfully. “He listened to me vent a lot. It probably wasn’t pleasant hearing your girlfriend talk about her ex all the time, but he was really sweet about it.”

“I think it was the first time in a long while that I felt like I meant something to someone, and not long after, I legitimately did start to fall for him. Like, it was just easy being around him, I can’t explain it,” Kara said, shaking her head.

Annabeth found herself smiling. “Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.”

“Like I said, for a while things were good,” Kara said, sighing. “Only issue was that you were all he talked about. Always ‘Annabeth said this, Annabeth did that.’ It was like he worshipped the ground you walked on. Needless to say, hearing your boyfriend constantly talking about how amazing another girl is, can really make you feel like shit.”

Despite the context, Annabeth couldn’t help feeling a rush of affection for Percy. “I had no idea he talked about me that much.”

“Well, I wasn’t the only one – the other girls he’s dated have said the same thing. It was particularly hard on me, especially when he would sometimes cancel dates to be with you. After what happened with my ex, I felt like it would be monumentally stupid of me to ignore all the red flags popping up,” Kara said bitterly. “So, over time, I slowly became convinced he was cheating on me with you.”

“Percy would never cheat on someone,” Annabeth said reflexively, unable to hide how offended she felt. “If you knew him at all, you wouldn’t think for a second that he would even be capable of that.”

Kara barked a harsh laugh and shrugged. “Well, I thought I knew my old boyfriend, and I was spectacularly wrong about that, so you’ll have to excuse me if I didn’t exactly trust my judgment at the time.”

Her immediate instinct was to protest, but when she was unable to think of a response, Annabeth clenched her jaw and nodded sharply for Kara to continue.

“When I confronted him about it, he insisted that you both were just friends. I really wanted to believe him, but I just couldn’t and honestly I can’t blame myself for that. I mean, anyone could tell that he was super in love with you,” Kara said.

Whether it was through teasing comments made by friends or whispered rumors among classmates, people had been telling her since middle school that Percy was in love with her, in some form or another. Annabeth had always dismissed it as drama stirred by people who had nothing better to do, but hearing it come from Percy’s former girlfriend, even if Annabeth didn’t fully believe it, still knocked the air out of her lungs.

“Percy didn’t love me – he liked me – and that was it. It wasn’t long till I realized that he loved you more than he ever would love me, and, once I did, it just– it just fucking broke me,” Kara said, her voice cracking at the end.

Annabeth’s heart clenched in her chest. She didn’t like where this conversation was heading, but it was already too late to stop it.

“You can probably guess what happened next, but I’ll spell it out anyways,” Kara said, taking a shuddering breath. “Through some demented logic, I convinced myself that I had to cheat on him to get even. So I did.”

Annabeth had already begun to suspect as much, but actually hearing it come from Kara’s mouth hit her in a way she was utterly unprepared for. Time seemed to stop, and her throat felt like it was sewing itself shut. Suddenly, even the act of breathing felt painful.

Kara cleared her throat and stared down at the bottle in her hands, tracing the outline of the Jim Beam logo with her finger, for a few seconds.

“Of course, I told him about it later. He had to know if I wanted to get even, after all. He just sat there and listened quietly. Can’t tell you what he looked like because I couldn’t bring myself to look at him,” Kara said, chuckling humorlessly.

“And, after that, I told him we should break up, but in the middle of that, you texted him. I can still remember exactly what happened, like it was yesterday. There I was, telling my boyfriend I had cheated on him and wanted to break up, and he stops and checks his fucking phone while I’m talking, and do you know what he told me after that?”

Kara gave Annabeth a sidelong glance, cold fury burning in her eyes, but Annabeth didn’t dare speak or move. Before she continued, Kara took a long swig from the bottle and screwed her eyes shut.

When she spoke, Kara sounded utterly dead inside. “He looked at me and said in this super emotionless voice, ‘Annabeth needs me, so I have to go now’. And then he just stood up and left. Just. Like. That.”

Annabeth couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The sound of the party in the background bled into nothingness, replaced by the frantic pounding of her heart beating inside her skull. Bile rose to her throat, bringing with it the sudden urge to vomit.

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck

Kara leaned back on her palms again and laughed humorlessly, shaking her head. “I remember being so fucking stunned. Like, your girlfriend is telling you she’s breaking up with you after cheating on you, and your response is to go be someone else’s fucking therapist?”

If Kara was right, then Percy must have come to see her right after this happened. Annabeth desperately combed through her memory, reviewing all her interactions with Percy that year, searching for a hint or a sign, anything that could possibly betray that something was amiss, but nothing stuck out to her.

Annabeth bit her bottom lip in a vain attempt to stop it from trembling, cutting into her palms with her fingernails.

If Percy had seen her that day, he had acted as gentle and kind as he always had, never letting her know what he had been through, just so he could help her with whatever the stupid thing she’d texted him about.

Then another terrible thought occurred to her. What if Percy was showing signs that he was hurting that day, but she had been so self-absorbed with her own issues that she hadn’t even noticed?

The thought made her want to retch.

Kara tiredly said, “I’ve been trying to apologize to him ever since, but Piper doesn’t let me get anywhere near him, which is really fucking frustrating. If Percy doesn’t want to see me, then that’s fine – I deserve that – but like, let him make his own decisions. He doesn’t need a fucking babysitter.”

Annabeth shook her head and said, “Piper is doing that because despite all this messed up shit that you did to him, if you talked to Percy and apologized, he would still forgive you. Piper knows that and doesn’t want to let that happen.”

For the first time since their conversation began, Kara looked genuinely shocked. “There’s no fucking way he would-” she began, but Annabeth interrupted her.

“I know Percy. That’s exactly what he would do. If I were in Piper’s shoes, I wouldn’t let you within a mile of him,” Annabeth said, anger creeping into her voice.

“Ah, there it is,” Kara said, a mordant smile dancing on her lips. “I was wondering when you’d get angry. I spent all of junior year dreading what would happen once you found out, you know? I mean, Piper was hostile enough, but I didn’t want to imagine how you were going to react.”

She was right. If Annabeth had known about this back then, there was no telling what she would’ve done. Even now, Annabeth balled fists trembled with fury, itching to hurt Kara. Annabeth wanted to hurt her more badly than she had ever wanted anything in her life, but she screwed her eyes shut and steadied her breathing instead.

“I’m surprised he never told you,” Kara muttered. “I figured you’d be the first to know.”

“He knew I’d come for you,” Annabeth said, her eyes still closed. “He did it to protect you. Despite everything you did, he still tried to protect you.”

There was a pause before Annabeth continued, and when she did, her voice cracked with barely suppressed rage, “Percy was good, and you-you!”

Kara fell silent at that, pressing her lips together tightly so they wouldn’t quiver. Annabeth caught a glimpse of the pained look in Kara’s eyes before she turned away from Annabeth to hide her tears, but the way her shoulders shook and she sniffled gave her away.

Despite everything, a tiny part of Annabeth couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for her. Kara made some terrible mistakes, but as she herself admitted: she was in a really fucked up place. That didn’t mean for one second that Annabeth would forgive her – every molecule in her body burned with the need for vengeance – but it did make her feel a small amount of sympathy for her.

In the back of her mind, however, some tiny part of her felt a sick sense of elation after hearing Kara’s story. Percy had chosen her over his previous girlfriends – she had meant more to him than any of them. Annabeth had always known she was important to him, but to see such an obvious, direct comparison made her giddy, and she hated herself for it.

Still, to know exactly how much he cared about her made a lump form in Annabeth’s throat. She couldn’t help feeling that she was partially responsible for this mess too. If she hadn’t taken so much of his time when she knew he had a girlfriend, maybe this would never have happened.

Was it her own selfishness to see him, to have him in her life without thinking about his own circumstances, that had caused him so much pain, so much suffering?

“Will you tell him that I am sorry,” Kara said, her voice raw and bleeding.

Annabeth’s immediate instinct was to refuse – she had no right asking for absolution – but this wasn’t about her: it was about Percy and Kara.

After a while, Annabeth slowly said, “I won’t promise anything, but I’ll think about it.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Kara muttered.

A minute of silence passed, and the sound of thumping bass coming from inside the house rushed in to swallow it, reminding Annabeth that she was, in fact, at a party. The whole thing was so surreal and it overwhelmed her all at once.

Annabeth felt sullied, like she’d failed Percy when he needed her most, and she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to forgive herself for that. It was made worse by the fact that she’d gone behind his back to hear this story to begin with. Annabeth knew now that he had tried to hide it from her because he knew she would blame herself if she ever found out.

He was too good for her.

He had always been too good for her. She was only now realizing just how much.

Annabeth took a deep shuddering breath and her voice was hoarse when she spoke. “Thank you for telling me all this, but I don’t think I will ever forgive you.”

Kara offered her a pained smile and whispered, “I thought as much.”

When Annabeth stood up, Kara cocked her head to the side and looked up at her. “You’re taking this a lot better than I imagined you would.”

“I don’t know how I feel right now,” Annabeth said. “But this isn’t about me – it’s about Percy. It doesn’t really matter how I feel.”

Kara nodded in a clipped manner. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

There was a pause before Annabeth said, “I’m gonna head home now.”

“Okay,” Kara said. “Thanks for not breaking my nose.”

Despite the situation, a laugh managed to escape Annabeth before the pain settled in again immediately. “I wish I could be offended by that, but that’s fair,” she said.

Kara smiled again, but this time it was actually genuine. “Take care, Annabeth.”

“You too,” Annabeth said quietly.

She lingered there for a few seconds longer before heading back inside the house. Annabeth jostled through the party-goers, barely registering them as they passed by. If anyone spoke to her, she didn’t hear them. At some point, she found herself sitting inside her car. Then she was home. Then in her bed, staring up at the ceiling.

The clock that hung over her bedroom door ticking the seconds as they passed was the only sound she could hear, the seconds piling atop another, suffocating her underneath their weight. It was only after surrendering to sleep that she could actually breathe freely – the guilt was too much when she was conscious.

#knuffled fic #percabeth fic #percabeth #percy jackson #annabeth chase #ho boy i am so nervous i worked super hard on this #i really hope everyone likes it #i toned down the angst a bit #it was even worse in the original draft

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thelightiningthief · 4 years

Note

first of all, SORRY that this is coming much later than probably expected!!!! i’m So Bad at writing things in a timely manner

second of all, timelines are....not my strongsuit, so i’m gonna make this idk the summer between botl and tlo so PLEASE bear with me here

chilly summer evenings

Percy lay on the bottom bunk of Cabin 3, staring up at the pictures stuck between the frame and the mattress above him. His arm had already gone numb from propping up his head, but that was the least of his worries.

It was the first of August. The beginning of the month that decided his fate. Well, Percy would be the one making the decision, but it was still the Big Month everyone had been waiting for: the prophecy coming true, the imminent war, Kronos’s impending return in Luke’s body. All of it put a sour taste in his mouth that the fresh sea breeze from the Long Island Sound couldn’t whisk away. It wasn’t like he could do anything right now, though, so why was he still up?

Well, there was one picture in particular that kept drawing his attention: It was him and Annabeth after they’d just won the chariot race together, right before Thalia had been de-tree-ified. The edges of the photograph were frayed from how many times he’d held it in his hands, shoved it into his pockets, and crammed it into whatever small space he could. While it was supposed to be in the Big House on Chiron’s cork board, Percy had asked him if he could hold onto it until the end of the summer. Chiron knew this might be his last summer (hell, it might be the last summer any of them would enjoy), so he relented it to him. Ever since, Percy had stared at it any chance he got, memorizing the happiness it held. A small glimmer of hope.

What he was really looking at, though, the thing that sourced all of that hope in a tiny bottle, was Annabeth’s smile. Percy must have already traced that giant and rare smile a thousand times, practically having imprinted it to the back of his eyelids, but he didn’t think he could ever get sick of it.

Things between them had been... Strange. Good strange! Well, sometimes bad strange... But overall just strange? Did that make sense?

Who was he kidding—nothing made sense anymore. They were on the brink of war for Zeus’s sake! But Annabeth had kissed him before he almost died (for the bajillionth time), but they still hadn’t talked about it. Every time Percy even thought about bringing it up to her, his head felt like cotton and he couldn’t feel his knees. At first, he thought a wood nymph was messing with him, but Grover and Beckendorf both said he was probably just nervous.

They were a lot closer than last summer. But he could say that about any of his friends! Him and Beckendorf had been talking a lot more, too! Most of their talks had to do with Annabeth and Percy’s giant crush on her, but that was besides the point.

Before he could even consider actually turning in for the night, there’s a sharp rap at his door. His body is up with a hand flying to his—oh, right, he’s in boxers. Percy considers his game plan when there’s another knock, a bit more urgent this time. “C’mon, Seaweed Brain! It’s freezing out here!”

His once held breath catches in his throat. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to late nights like this with Annabeth, but it was the first one since everything went down. Since they’d destroyed the Labyrinth. Since he’d practically killed himself. Since she’d kissed him.

“That’s it, I’m just coming in,” she huffed out, clearly annoyed. (Wasn’t the first time, wouldn’t be the last time.) Then Percy’s cabin door was opening right before his eyes to reveal... No one. Just a gust of cold wind that raised goosebumps on his bare skin. He shivered as the door closed just as eerily, and Annabeth finally took off her Yankee’s cap only to punch his arm.

“Ow!” he winced and rubbed the spot. “What was that for?”

“Dude it’s freezing out there, and you were just standing here? Figures,” she rolled her eyes and threw herself onto his scattered bed.

Percy bristled at the slight jab. “Well, sorry! You kind of just dropped in!”

“Excuse me, I came in the front door. And you had more than enough time to put on pants, at least,” she pointed out, covering his lower half with her hands with a giggle.

A harsh blush crept up his cheeks, and he quickly moved to his dresser as she continued to laugh at his embarrassment. He was just buttoning up his jeans when Percy noticed Annabeth was lying back on his bed, mimicking the pose he’d held just ten minutes before. In the dim light from the moon, he could just see a faint blush on her cheeks.

“Where’d you get all these pictures?” she whispered out.

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking over to the fountain Poseidon had gifted to him. “Uh, all over, I guess? They just kept popping up, and I’d asked Chiron if I could have a few.” He said the last part faster than the rest, hoping she wouldn’t pick up on it.

Annabeth’s head perked up to look at him sideways, her gray eyes a bit wider than they had been a moment prior. She searched his own green ones for an answer to an unasked question. It wasn’t difficult for Percy to feel as though he were being scrutinized and start to feel self conscious about the whole situation. Was she seeing right through him?

“What? I just—I just wanted the memories, I guess,” he mumbled out, crossing his arms semi-defensively.

She peered up at him for longer, her eyebrows coming down slowly yet decisively. He didn’t know if he should say something, but he didn’t even know where to start. Yeah, I’ve pretty much collected pictures of us to stare at late at night, because I kinda really like you. In fact, you caught me in the middle of doing that tonight! Ha! Great timing, by the way. Gods, that’d just be weird!

Suddenly, she was up and dragging him by the arm out the door of his cabin. “Let’s go, Seaweed Brain.”

Percy barely had enough time to snatch his blanket from the bed before they were thrust out into the chilly evening air. There was no need to worry about harpies with impending war, but Apollo and Artemis seriously needed to work something out, because it felt completely unprecedented to be this cold at the beginning of August. His teeth were chattering by the time Annabeth had plopped herself down on the sand of the beach, dragging him down with her; she took the blanket clenched in his freezing fists and worked determinedly to wrap them both within it.

After a moment of simply basking in the sudden warmth, Percy became uncomfortably aware of how close he was to Annabeth. To make matters worse, if he scooched even a little to his right, the blanket would completely relent and let in that frigid sea air. So, he sat perfectly still, not wanting to give her the wrong impression.

“You okay, Perce? We can go back if you want,” she said with a slight twinge in her voice that made him look at her for what felt like the first time that night.

Her hair was glowing in the moonlight, silver as if she had joined the Hunters, yet still that bright golden ray of light Percy was so accustomed to seeing a dirty blonde after weeks on a quest. The gray streak that matched his own was tucked behind her ear, and a reminder of a time of longing that he’d rather forget. It was difficult to see in just moonlight, but he could definitely tell her cheeks were flushed, especially with all the staring he was doing at her. In all honesty, it felt as if he were studying a painting. A splash of freckles and a few stray zits were scattered across her face, like brush strokes to a canvas.

However, it was her eyes that made him see the true meaning behind the work. People may call Percy dumb, but there was no mistaking the trust Annabeth was pouring into her downturned, storm-cloud eyes. They were focused so forcedly on his own, that he couldn’t help but come back to them each time he attempted to look at the rest of her face. It took him by surprise, because how could she trust someone like him so wholeheartedly? He’d nearly gotten her killed too many times—at some points he had almost been the one to do it.

“How can you do that?” he asked, looking out to the waves crashing on shore and breaking the trance that was Annabeth.

She had been leaning in just slightly, but jerked back just as much once he wasn’t looking at her anymore. Blinking slowly, Annabeth narrowed her eyes. “What d’you mean?”

He sighed almost exasperatedly, but it was too halfhearted to get anywhere. The next set of waves crashed a little harder than before. “I mean, how can you look at me like I’ll never do anything to hurt you? Like I’m not—not about to decide the fate of the world? Not about to destroy everything just by existing? St. Helen wasn’t even me trying, Annabeth. What else am I capable of?”

There was silence. As silent as it could get with a heavily breathing boy on a beach with a girl looking at him with that kind of look so full of something that everything has to be quiet, just for the time being.

“Percy...” Annabeth started, quieter than the now-swirling sea, “Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

His eyes found hers again, both of their eyebrows knit together like the sweaters they’d wished they brought. Again, Percy was so aware of her warmth seeping into him, keeping him present. “Why wouldn’t you be?” His soft voice carried itself to span the few inches between them, once more holding the weight of the world in their midst.

For a second, Annabeth looked as though she was going to laugh, but decided against it. At first, it could be brushed off as a ridiculous thought, but she knew what Percy was capable of right now—what about when he grew more fully into his powers? She shook her head, No, not even then.

“Percy.” She said his name more resolutely this time, placing her hand on his shoulder to turn him towards her. “You may have power none of us will ever know, but...you’re you. It’s not like you’re some evil mastermind plotting against us.”

A single, unsaid name hung in the air.

“How do you know, though? You’ve heard the prophecy.” Percy’s eyes were searching her own again, looking for some hint of doubt.

Annabeth sighed sadly, letting go of his shoulder and pulling him into her arms. “Because—‘Cause the Percy I know wouldn’t destroy a world with his mom in it. The Percy I know wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose.” She took a cold breath, smoothing her hand on his back. “And the Percy I know wouldn’t let some stupid prophecy try to stop him from protecting the people he loves.”

Percy stayed still, frozen, but not from the midnight air. “How do you know I’m that Percy still?” The whisper was slightly muffled from Annabeth’s curly hair, but she’d heard him all the same, as signaled by her hand stopping in the middle of its up and down motion.

“I just know.” And it was said with the finality only a daughter of Athena could possess, could hold within her, and could throw back at someone whenever they questioned her.

It was no use for Percy to fight it anymore, so he finally, finally, finally relaxed into her arms, pulling his own around her. The waves slowed on the beach, taking to being pulled by the moon once again. And, for once, they simply sat there, surrounded by a now-sandy blanket that he’d probably have to wash the next morning and an unrelenting breeze that hardly bothered them. Sure, in two weeks time Percy would most likely be dying at the foot of a crumbled Olympus, but he couldn’t worry about that with the cool sea air filling his lungs and Annabeth’s calloused hand rubbing circles into his back. No, that could wait with the blanket.

#asks #fic prompts #percy #annabeth #percabeth #ok this prompt is from...quite a while ago #but! i did it 😌#i hope it’s good??#i know it doesn’t exactly capitalize a lot on the chilly summer evenings #but i made sure to mention it more than once LMAO #pjo #mine

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typicalmidnightsoul · 4 years

Note

Hi! I was wondering if you are planning to update True Essence of Beauty and the Crown Princess any time soon? They are my favourite fics and I've been rereading them almost daily.

Ah... I owe you guys an explanation on that.

Quarantine is draining, just the thought of anything makes me want to sleep. I do get motivated to write Don’t blink or you’ll miss me and Prythian Valley ( links here if you want to check it out...Prythian Valley: Prologue here, chap. 1; Don’t blink or you’ll miss me: chap. 1, 2)

See there is a 70% chance I update either this week or early next week but here are some sneak peeks that have been confirmed.

The Crown Princess: Chapter 11 sneak peek

Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4 5, 6 7 8 9 10<- here

Annabeth needed answers. She sat on her prayer mat. The room she was in was made and used only for prayers and readings of the holy book, there roof was able to disappear on command so it could be used to talk to the owner of the skies. Annabeth looked up at the night sky filled with stars and whispered. "Oh Lord of the skies, you see all, you are omniscient, please only you can provide answers to a grandmother wanting to protect her grandchild. Only you." She picked up the dagger Nesta had gotten from Cassian. A dagger she had kept all these years, she had taken it from Nesta's armoire. This was the first gift between two mates. The first offering, albeit it was unknown to the both of them but it held a significant meaning. She touched it and instantly went into a trance.

Devlon stood in front of Cassian. "Don't lie to her Cassian." "You saw the threat, Devlon." Cassian's voice broke. "She is in love with you," Devlon's voice was disbelieving. "I know...I know." "You are going to hand her over to that-to that monster?!" "I don't own her... she'd never forgive me if I didn't" his final whisper rang out the vision.

Annabeth was pushed out as a voice said, "Let it be, Momma." Annabeth let out a cry, "Addie!! Adelaide...are you here?!!" A figure made of some light stood in front of her. It was Adelaide Archeron's ghost.

True Essence of Beauty : Chapter 5

Chapter 1 2 3 4<- here

"You don't know anything about her!" Eris shouted. Cassian gave him a bored look, "Jealous, Eris? Maybe that's the reason why you demand Nesta stays away from me." "He does no such thing." The 4th son of Beron Vanserra, Nikolas said. "Since when are you anything other than pure evil," he sniped back. Eris rolled his eyes, "You really think out of all 7 of the brothers Lucien is the only moderately good one?" Cassian nodded. Nikolas chuckled, "Nesta does whatever she wants, but she knows the feud between you, Azriel, Morrigan and my brother. And she has chosen her side. The fact that you knocked her down to second place, replacing her with Morrigan didn't help. She chooses to stay away from you. And Eris is right, you don't know her. When you look at her all you see is an alcoholic, a girl who used sex as a coping mechanism. Eris never saw her like that, never let her feel anything than first priority. I should know, I wasn't keen of her when I saw her make my brother laugh for the first time in 500 years." Eris smiled at him, "Admit it you were jealous." Cassian stood up, "I always wanted her to let her walls down, she always pushed me away... I don't know what else to do." Nikolas looked up, "Nesta hasn't been herself since..." He considered, "Nesta is a part of our family, we need to know you're good for her, we need to know that you deserve her. Cress sent us to you because you're incapable of doing shit. So I have a proposition, you prove us you are capable to paying Nesta her worth and Eris will... convince Nesta to go to the Equonix ball with you." "NO-" Eris started until Nikolas pushed him back, "Eris, she hasn't fully healed and as much as we love her it is not enough..." he dropped her voice, "She left a piece of herself with him. For Nesta." Eris stayed silent for a long time, thinking. Finally he said, "For Nesta."

#nessian fanfic #nessian #nesta archeron #cassian #acotar #acomaf #acowar

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jasmine2042003 · 5 years

Text

Nico di Angelo x reader (soulmate AU)

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My first Tumblr post of Nico di Angelo, a soulmate AU, specifically pain. I read an avengers x reader soulmate AU similar, all scars and pain (including emotional) is felt by the soulmate. Depending on how this does, I might make this into a series, as for now, it will be a two or three part one shot basically. Enjoy the chapter xxx

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Nico pov

Finding my soulmate seemed to be an impossible task. On top of the fact that I was generally unlikable, I pushed away anybody who could possibly care for me and finally, the nail in the coffin (non-intended death puns), whilst my body was sixteen, my brain was seventy! Anyone who could have possibly been my soulmate probably died during World War Two, like I should have. I looked around at my friends, all of them in a couple, already having found their other halves. Percy had Annabeth, Jason had Piper, Frank had my sister, which I still wasn’t massively happy about. Everyone had someone, but me.

At least, unlike Percy, I would be able to tell who my soulmate is. I mean come on, Percy knew Annabeth for years before he got it through his seaweed brain who she was. Before anyone asks anything, yes I had a crush on Percy, that is definitely over now, you didn’t get in the way of soulmates, that was like giving the three fates the middle finger. Anyway, I sat there in my natural gloom, making little skeletal things, partially because it was kind of comforting, but mostly because it freaked Leo out and that little elf had pissed me off for the last time.

“Dude, come on!” Leo shouted, alerting some of the nearby campers, “You can’t still be angry at me,” I chuckled menacingly and raised an eyebrow at him. “You wanna bet?” I asked with an evil smirk, a trademark of my dad’s that I had perfected. I touched the point of my inky sword to the patch of dead grass near Leo’s feet, a skeletal hand reaching out to grab his ankle, causing him to screech like a five year old girl and run away. I carried on my evil laugh, my sister shaking her head at me, “Neeks, you need to stop that, he doesn’t mean it, he wanted to make you smile, something other than that creepy smirk that you’re doing right now.” Hazel had a point, I guess. That doesn’t mean I was going to listen.

I shrugged my shoulders lightly, my smirk falling off my face when I saw, yet another pair of campers, discovering their soulmate. Hazel followed my gaze and looked at me, “Hey Neeks, can I talk to you?” She asked, I nodded and followed my little sister to some shade under Thalia’s Tree. I sighed and looked into Hazel’s golden eyes confused, “You’re not about to tell me that you and Beast Boy are getting married right?” I joked, letting a small smile slip through my blank facade. She giggled and shook her head, her face lit up when she laughed, I loved when I could make my sister smile, it made me feel like I wasn’t a completely useless big bro.

Her face slipped into a more serious note, “I know you think you aren’t going to find them Nico,” Oh here we go, ‘Nico you’ll find her, it just takes some time,’ I didn’t need to hear this again. “If I was able to find Frank in a world that I shouldn’t have even been alive in, I’m sure the great Nico di Angelo can find someone from the twenties who was in the same boat as you,” She continued, wrapping her arm around my shoulders. I sighed and nodded along, the truth is, I was fine without a soulmate. I mean, I haven’t even felt anything from my soulmate, not since I was eight years old. I got a scrape on my knee from absolutely nothing, Bianca then decided to tell me about soulmates.

Flashback~

I felt the tears cascading down my face, my cheeks red and my hands clutching my bleeding knee. Mom and dad were talking quietly in the corner, their hands moving as they spoke, a trait my sister and I had picked up. Bianca ran over to me once she realised that I was hurt and upset, she lifted my pants leg to the knee and had a look. She gave me the classic mother look, “Aww *povero bambino,” She muttered under her breath, “Looks like your little partner in crime is playing rough,” She tried explaining, only for me to look on confused. She sighed, picked me up, brushed me off and sat me on the sofa next to her, kids running around the hotel, laughing and cheering.

“Nico, when you were born, there were special people who chose the perfect person for you,” She started, now I was even more confused, like, someone who can beat me at mythomagic? Someone I can play games with? Bianca continued, “This perfect person is the person you will eventually fall in love with,” I must have made a face because Bianca chuckled, “Come on squirt, you’ll get used to it,” I highly doubt that. “Anyways, when your soulmate gets hurt, their pain and their injury, will reflect on you,” She said, patting my knee. So whatever my soulmate feels, I feel it too. I have so many questions, does emotional pain count? Bianca had to leave for school, so I had to save my questions for later.

Bianca gave me a kiss on the forehead and left me with mom and dad. I sat around for a while before getting a great idea. “Hey mom, can I borrow a marker?” I asked her sweetly, she smiled and gave me a bright red, washable marker. I went into the corner and sat down, crossed my legs and took the cap off of the pen, holding it between my teeth. I rolled up my sleeve and thought about what I would write. Might as well go simple, “Hi, my name’s Nico!” I waited and waited for a response. It was days before they finally responded, “Hello, I’m (y/n),” I smiled, (y/n), what a beautiful name.

Flashback over~

I smiled at Hazel and gave her a quick peck on the forehead, “Look at my little sister giving me life advice,” I cooed. She giggled a bit and pushed me away. “Shut up, I can be adult if I want to be, I’m only four years younger than you technically!” I smiled, a small smile, but she was one of the only people to have achieved that feat in six years. I chuckled and pulled her close to my chest again, the only human contact I’ve had in a while, most people would get freaked out by me hugging someone, but I’d already lost one sister, I refuse to lose a second. Hazel hugged me back, her head hardly came up to my chin, she pulled back and pushed me towards big house, “You need to go, Chiron said he was looking for you,” I nodded and headed for the big house.

Before I had made it past the cabins, I felt pinching on my arms, like needles, it didn’t really hurt but I was kind of confused. I’m not sure what I did, I hadn’t hurt myself and I hadn’t felt anything from my soulmate in decades. I lifted my hoodie sleeves, there were little specks of blood, I stopped in my tracks. Okay, I know I don’t have scurvy, so the only thing left is my soulmate, (y/n). It might seem weird that I remembered her name, we barely spoke, I knew her name and that she was my age, or at least she was when I was eight. I stared at the spots of red on my arms for while, until one was grabbed by a large hand. I looked up startled, meeting Chiron’s worried face. “Nico my boy, you’ll want to see this,” He muttered before leading me away from the big house and towards the infirmary, passing my friends as we rushed over.

Stepping into the infirmary, the entire place was in chaos. Apollo campers were running around, grabbing things, bandages, medication, bottles and needles. What the Hades was going on? That’s when I heard it. Screaming. Crying. A girl. For some reason it hurt me, all of a sudden, my chest tightened and my breathe became heavier and more laboured. Why was I suddenly feeling this way? I was in Camp, there is nothing to be frightened of. I tried to calm myself down, the feeling going away and being replaced with pure confusion. “Chiron what’s going on?” I looked over at the centaur, he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, tension and stress radiating off the millennia old man. “We found someone a few years ago that we think might have something to do with you,” He said quietly.

Why would this person have something to do with me? I followed Chiron into a back room of the infirmary. I saw Apollo cabin’s best healers working around a single person on a cot in the centre of the room. There was the girl, I’m assuming she was the one that was screaming, she was gorgeous. (h/c) hair, (e/c) eyes, the most innocent and adorable confused expression on her sweet face. What was I saying? I had no idea who this person was. “Nico,” Chiron started, “When we first found her, she had writing on her arm, this is a long shot, there are many people with your name, but we wanted to be sure.” Will Solace from the Apollo cabin, and a genuinely good friend of mine brought an accurately drawn painting that looked like a photograph of the girl’s arm.

There were two lines of words, one in red marker and the other in black. “Hi, my name’s Nico!” and “Hello, I’m (y/n),” Holy shit. It was her. “(y/n),” I whispered quietly. Chiron looked at me inquisitively, “You know her?” He asked, I nodded in response. “She’s my soulmate,” I muttered, even more quietly, causing Chiron’s eyes to widen. As if in a trance I walked over to her side, grabbing a pen on my way to her. I sat in a chair next to her, looking her in the eyes. Her beautiful (e/c) eyes, they sparkled as if containing ground diamonds. Dam it Nico, focus! Her eyes seemed to be stuck to mine as mine were on hers, I took the cap off the pen and held it between my teeth, just as I had all those years ago. I gently grasped her left forearm, watching her face in concern as I wrote a few words, before gesturing for her to look down.

(y/n) pov

I gasped as I awoke. Panic filling my body as I looked around the unfamiliar room. A white cot sat in a room with wooden floors and walls, flowers and medical supplies were sat on the tables around me and sunshine flooded through the open curtains. I looked down at my arms, needles and tubes poking out of my skin. In my panic, a few of them had been pulled out, causing spots of blood to begin forming on the surface of my skin. I suddenly looked up when I heard the door open. A girl carrying fresh flowers walked in, meeting my eyes and gasping at my consciousness. How long had I been asleep for? All I remember is running through the woods before seeing an archway, some writing I couldn’t see, before passing out.

Before I knew it, half a dozen more people had entered the room, trying desperately to calm me down. I shook my head erratically and moved away from the groping hands. They were all teenagers, ranging from maybe fourteen to nineteen, that made me think. How old was I? That was the moment I had felt intense waves of serenity wash over, it felt strange though, as if they weren’t my own feelings. I had no time to rationalise that thought as the door opened once more, revealing a man, or at least his upper half was man, his lower half however had a horse’s figure and legs. A centaur, a voice told me reassuringly, I knew I could trust this man. Behind him, walked a boy and he was beautiful. Dark, messy hair that was long but not unkempt, onyx eyes that were intense and full of an emotion that I couldn’t read, as if there were many emotions rolled into one.

He looked up at me and locked my eyes with his, surprise etched into the linings of his pale face. I couldn’t bear to pull my eyes away from his own as he walked over to me slowly, picking up something I couldn’t see. He sat in a chair next to my bed, his handsome features even more defined up close, I noticed the object he had grabbed was a pen. He took the cap off and held it in his teeth, a very hot move if you ask me. He looked at me in concern as he took my left forearm, writing a few words down, all the while looking me in the eyes to make sure I was alright. After he had finished, he leaned back and gestured for me to look at my arm, biting his lower lip gently. I looked down and gasped, ‘Hello (y/n), its me, Nico’. I looked up at him, a laugh of relief escaping the smile I had on my face. Looking at his arm as he pulled up his sleeve, the writing reflected perfectly of his porcelain skin.

________________________

Let me know if this is something I should continue. Leave a comment or a like if you want and feel free to find me on Wattpad (Crazy-Otaku-demigod). Thanks for reading this you guys xxx

Final Word Count: 2393

#nico di angelo #x reader #soulmate #au #nico di angelo x reader #fanfiction #cute #fluff #jealousy #pjo #percy jackson

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flightfoot · 5 years

Text

Memories of Godly Selfishness Ch. 3

So this took awhile, what with the carpal tunnel (which I still have. It sucks. But I couldn’t resist writing this any longer).

It got pretty crazy long, (13000+ words) so I am actually using a Read More this time. At least if something happens to my blog at any point, it’s still on AO3 and FFN.

Hope you guys like this! I worked hard on it!

When the world cleared, we were in the center of a large room, with giant thrones circling us. I recognized the place immediately, even with my failing memory. The Olympian throne room. I glanced at my golden throne. I wanted to stare at it for longer and wallow in self-pity at what I used to have, but something tore my attention away from the gleaming golden seat.

Kronos has a way of doing that.

“Finally!” he bellowed. I heard Annabeth breathe in sharply. She stared at him, looking confused and shocked. Meg was decidedly less surprised, looking somewhat bored as she looked over at the Titan. I really shouldn’t be surprised. Unless she’s already familiar with a threat, Meg’s rarely intimidated by them.

The titan continued. I wished he had been nice enough to pause so that people in the future rewatching a memory of the event could talk and look around more. “The Olympian Council - so proud and mighty. Which seat of power shall I destroy first?”

“This is a flashback, isn’t it?” Annabeth asked quietly, refusing to tear her gaze from the body of the young man Kronos was inhabiting. I felt like I should know why she looked like she’d been sucker-punched, but as usual, the memories refused to surface. “Percy told me about the one he and you two went into.”

I frowned. Percy had stepped out of our tent to go eat, but he’d be back soon. I hoped he didn’t panic when he found the three of us in this weird trance. I marshalled my thoughts. Worrying about Percy’s reactions wouldn’t change anything. I needed to stick with the here and now. Or there and then, I supposed.

“It looks that w-” I cut off, as a young man stepped forward from beside Kronos. My eyes had been drawn so thoroughly to the Titan, that I had somehow overlooked him. “My lord,” he said warningly. I looked around, trying to find who he was warning Kronos of. I spotted younger versions of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, looking scared, but determined.

Ah. This must be when the final battle with Kronos had taken place. I recalled now how we gods had raced here after defeating Typhon, determined to defend our thrones, hoping that we weren’t too late... only to find a satyr, two injured demigods, and one dead child of Hermes instead. We never were able to find out the details. Zeus didn’t care much for a full report. I’d love to attribute that to him recognizing how much Percy, Annabeth, and Grover needed to grieve quietly and not wanting to press them, but I knew the truth. He didn’t want to dwell on how mortals had had to defend our thrones, our very existence. Even worse, they had defeated an enemy that we had struggled with. Sometimes it seemed like every decision that my father made either tied back to his inability to stop himself from chasing every pretty girl that crossed his path, or his desire to avoid looking weak.

I was curious on how exactly those three had managed to defeat Kronos, but even as I looked forwards to seeing exactly what happened, a knot formed in my stomach. My last two ventures into memories - first my own, then Percy’s - had resulted in me learning some uncomfortable truths, or in some cases, accepting some uncomfortable truths I had always known, but had tried to push down. I did not regret learning those truths - I REFUSED to ignore other’s pain anymore - but it made me wary of what I’d be forced to face this time. I doubted that whatever force decided when and what flashbacks to present would give me a break. I only hoped that my companions were spared any more pain. The first flashback into my memories had shaken Meg deeply. I wished to be the only one negatively affected by these experiences.

Looking over at our Annabeth, still staring at Kronos, barely breathing, I doubted that the universe would fulfill my wish.

“Shall I destroy you first, Jackson?” Kronos asked. He sounded mocking, almost bored. “Is that the choice you will make - to fight me and die instead of bowing down? Prophecies never end well, you know.”

“Hey!” I interjected. I knew how painful prophecies could be, but I couldn’t let this stand. I was the god of prophecy, after all. “A lot of prophecies sound worse than they-”

“Shh!” Meg exclaimed, clapping a hand over my mouth while glaring at me fiercely. Percy was talking. I’d missed the first part due to my interruption. “-you don’t have his skill.”

I may have missed the first portion of that statement, but I knew a challenge when I heard it. Kronos sneered, morphing his scythe into a sword. Ah. Percy had been clever. Get Kronos to use a weapon that Percy had more experience with, rather than one where he didn’t have a clue what fighting style to expect.

past!Annabeth gasped. “Percy, the blade!” she called. “The hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap.” I wasn’t sure what she had figured out about the prophecy. I liked to pretend that I understood more about what prophecies meant than I actually did. This had the unfortunate side effect of meaning that I couldn’t just ask around about how a prophecy was fulfilled exactly, for fear of looking dumb. I’d never found out what exactly every part of the Great Prophecy referred to, nor the Prophecy of Seven. I made a mental note to ask about the Prophecy of Seven later. I had a guess as to how it was fulfilled, but it would be nice to have confirmation.

“Wait!” past!Annabeth yelled as Kronos raised his new sword. I had no idea why she thought Kronos would obey her, but considering all that she had accomplished, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had had a trick up her sleeve. Alas, she didn’t. Kronos whirled, a maelstrom of steel and Celestial bronze. Percy managed to fend him off, though I didn’t know for how long he could keep that up. Meanwhile, the young man who accompanied Kronos engaged Annabeth. I wished I could remember his name, but as much as I wracked my brain, nothing came up.

Kronos backed Percy up against Hephaestus’s throne. As Kronos slashed at Percy, determined to cut him in two, Percy leaped upwards onto the seat. “Get off there!” I yelled, forgetting for a moment that this was a memory. I heard the tell-tale whirring and clicking of the throne’s defenses being engaged. Luckily, Percy heard them too. He leaped off of the throne and over Kronos’s head, clearing the seat just before it let out a blast of electricity. Kronos wasn’t so lucky. One hit him in the face, causing him to fall to his knees and drop his sword.

I didn’t cheer. No way it was this easy.

past!Annabeth kicked her own opponent out of the way and ran towards Kronos. “Luke, listen!”

Luke. That was the name of the man whose body Kronos had stolen. I remembered now. He had helped start up the Second Titan War, recruiting demigods and lowering the Camp’s defenses by poisoning Thalia’s tree. More importantly, he was the one who had dragged my sister over to Annabeth as she struggled under the weight of the sky, forcing her to either take up the burden, or leave a maiden to die. I waited for the surge of anger that usually accompanied that memory. It never came. I was still unhappy with him for all the pain he had put my sister and the demigods through, but I appreciated his reasons better now.

But Luke was gone. Only Kronos remained. He flicked his hand, sending past!Annabeth flying across the room. She hit her mother’s throne and crumpled to the ground.

“Annabeth!” Percy screamed.

Annabeth’s former opponent got to his feet, standing in Percy’s path. Percy would have to go through him to get to Annabeth. I almost felt sorry for his opponent.

Grover played his music for all it was worth. Grass sprang up in the throne room, roots creeping up the marble. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to accomplish, but I hope he’d finish it soon. I doubted that he would get much time.

Kronos got up off the floor, though he still couldn’t stand. Instead he kneeled, attempting to call his sword to him. It didn’t move.

“Nakamura!” he groaned (ah, so THAT’S what his ally’s name was! ... I still didn’t remember him.) “Time to prove yourself. You know Jackson’s secret weakness. Kill him, and you will have rewards beyond measure.”

His secret weakness? I was about to ask, though I felt like I SHOULD know what it was, when Meg beat me to it. “What secret weakness?”

Annabeth dropped her gaze to Meg, looking relieved to think about something besides whatever had been bothering her for the last few minutes. “Percy had the Achilles’ curse. He was invulnerable everywhere except for one spot, but a strike at that spot would kill him.”

She finished speaking just in time. Percy started reasoning with Nakamura. If I’d been a god, I would’ve said it was a lost cause, that he was wasting his breath trying to talk out the situation with someone who had already sided with the baby-god-swallower Kronos. Since I’d been human, though, I’d tried that approach myself. Sometimes it had even worked. I hoped that Percy had the same luck.

“Look around you, Ethan. The end of the world. Is this the reward you want? DO you really want everything destroyed - the good with the bad? Everything?”

That wasn’t ENTIRELY accurate. Kronos wanted to destroy Western civilization as we know it, putting himself as ruler. But he didn’t want to destroy the world, or even humanity. In that respect, he was better than Gaea. Barely. But I didn’t think that Percy cared for semantics. It would be the end of the world as HE knew it at least. Especially since he, his friends, and most especially, Annabeth and his mother would almost certainly not live to see the sun rise on Kronos’s world.

While Percy was talking, Grover had inched his way to Annabeth, the roots growing thicker, until they were nearly a foot tall. Ethan seemed distracted, mulling over what Percy had said.

“There is not throne to Nemesis,” Ethan muttered. “No throne to my mother.”

“That’s right!” Kronos called, attempting to stoke the flames of Ethan’s vengeance. “Strike them down! They deserve to suffer.”

Not that Percy was giving up that easily. “You said your mom is the goddess of balance. The minor gods deserve better, Ethan, but total destruction isn’t balance. Kronos doesn’t build. He only destroys.”

Ethan looked around, taking in the destruction that had ALREADY been wrought. I held my breath. The next minute would determine where this conflict went. Ethan swayed a little to Grover’s song, and then blinked.

He charged... but not at Percy. He charged at Kronos, swinging his sword at Kronos’s neck. I wanted to cheer, but I knew it couldn’t be THAT easy. Sure enough, his sword broke, a shard of it piercing his own armor.

Kronos stood up, his face a mask of fury. “Treason,” he snarled.

Grover kept right on playing, covering Ethan with grass. I presumed that he was either trying to hide Ethan, or trying to give him some protection. There was no way it would work - ultimately it was just grass, and Kronos was a Titan - but I knew he had to try. I knew a thing or two about trying to save people, even though it was hopeless. Even though I had already failed.

“Deserve better,” Ethan gasped, trying to impart a last message to Percy. I went very, very still, reminded of another demigod who had tried to drill in a message in his last moments. ““If they just... had thrones-”

Kronos stomped his foot down beside Ethan, shattering the floor. I watched numbly as the son of Nemesis tumbled through the open air down to Olympus. My mind replayed his last message. He wanted thrones for the minor gods. Recognition. Respect. That was all. We could have done that earlier, way, WAY earlier. But we chose not to. While some of us had campaigned for certain gods to be given thrones - especially our own children, or ones we’d imbued with divinity in the first place - few of us cared about giving recognition beyond our own chosen ones. We were proud and selfish like that. It had taken Percy strong-arming the gods to agree to even that small a concession, that small a recognition that they were gods too, and deserved to be treated as such.

Kronos smiled while looking at the hole he had created, amused by Ethan’s impending death. “So much for him.” He raised his head, resting his gaze on Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. His smile widened. “And now for the rest of you.”

Grover had made his way over to Annabeth while Kronos was busy disposing of Ethan, and was currently feeding her ambrosia. It was helping, but she was clearly not going to be back to full fighting shape for several more hours at least.

The roots Grover had summoned wrapped around Kronos’s feet, but he ignored them. They would have to be a lot stronger to even inconvenience Kronos to a notable degree.

Kronos and Percy fought through Hestia’s hearth, kicking up coals. Only small sparks remained in the Hearth, not enough to hurt either Kronos or Percy. We came so, SO close to disappearing, to the flame of Olympus being snuffed out forever. Kronos lopped off the armrest of Ares’ throne (I cringed slightly at that, imagining my own glorious throne being abused that way) and backed Percy up against his dad’s throne. “Oh, yes,” Kronos cried, savoring his impending victory. “This one will make fine kindling for my new hearth!”

They fought, blades clashing wildly. Percy got in one good hit, cutting a gash through Kronos’s armor, but not piercing his skin. Percy was a truly EXCELLENT fighter. I feared that it wouldn’t be enough.

Kronos stamped his foot, slowing time to a crawl. Percy moved in slow motion, vulnerable. Kronos could have killed him right then, but luckily for Percy, he was the type to brag and monologue. If he had been Caligula or Nero, the fight would already have been over. The more powerful someone is, the stronger their power over their opponent, the more stupid and careless they tended to be. They refused to take their weaker opponents seriously. Gods, Titans, Giants, Monsters - we were just as susceptible to arrogance and hubris as any mortal. And when it catches up to us, we fall just as hard.

“It’s too late, Percy Jackson. Behold.”

He pointed towards the hearth, the coals glowing at his command. I hated to see my aunt’s, HIS DAUGHTER’S hearth under his control. It was a violation of who she is, of what is. This was her home, the home of all us Olympians. He had no right to control the flame.

Nevertheless, white smoke erupted from the coals, forming into images. Nico, Sally Jackson, and a man I didn’t recognize fought off enemies together, though from their numbers, I doubted they could keep it up much longer. Hades fought behind them, summoning zombies, fighting Kronos’s army with his own. Even with his efforts, Kronos’s army kept pressing forwards, inch by inch. Manhattan fared badly, mortals running in a panic, cars smashing into one another. While no one was specifically targeting them, Kronos’s forces weren’t trying to avoid them either. I heard many humans screaming in pain and fear. Some were too far gone for that, simply laying limply on the ground as they were tread over by dozens of feet. If they weren’t dead before, they were now.

Such sights were not new to me. I’d watched scenes like this, and many scenes even bloodier, from this very hearth. But after all I’d witnessed and experienced, it made my stomach churn. How could I have once ENJOYED this carnage, this suffering?

The scene shifted, showing a different scene of destruction. This one more familiar. After all, I had been part of it.

A pillar of storm approached Hudson Bay. Gleaming chariots encircled it, tiny figures letting loose flashes of light. I spotted the tell-tale streaks of my golden arrows and my sister’s silver arrows, firing into the vortex and exploding. Slowly the cloud parted. Panic coursed through me as I looked into Typhon’s hideous face, his horrible visage morphing constantly. Once I caught a glimpse of amber snake eyes flecked with gold.

“The Olympians are giving their final effort,” Kronos laughed derisively, sneering at the image. “How pathetic.”

Zeus threw a thunderbolt at Typhon, sending a blinding light throughout the world. I shuddered. When he had thrown that bolt during the fight, I had panicked and thought it was meant for me, for just a moment. I had known that Zeus wouldn’t be so stupid as to punish me during such a fight, not while so much was at stake, but fear isn’t always rational. Even now I flinched at the sight, fearing a shock I knew in my head wouldn’t come. That didn’t stop my heart from hammering.

Meg seemed to notice my distress. She took my hand and squeezed slightly. I took several shaky breaths. Everything was fine. Or would be fine. This had already happened. Zeus was fighting an enemy, not searing my essence.

The smoke cleared. Typhon staggered slightly, but remained standing. That had been Zeus’s strongest attack, the strongest of any of us. We were doomed.

Yet we had survived. How?

Someone had come. Someone had helped. I squinted at image, trying to discern each of the combatants. Someone was missing. Someone who came later...

Typhon stepped into the Hudson River, the water not even coming up to his knees.

A conch horn blew. Not my favorite instrument, but now it was music to my ears.

The Hudson River erupted around Typhon, churning out massive waves. Poseidon burst out of the water on his chariot, his aura glowing a brilliant blue. He swung his trident, ordering the water to form into a massive funnel around Typhon.

“No, NO!” Kronos yelled in shock and horror. I savored his expression.

“NOW, MY BRETHREN! STRIKE FOR OLYMPUS!” Poseidon bellowed, his sea-green eyes gleaming, his raven hair shimmering with water droplets. I looked back at Percy’s own, oh-so-similar features. Seeing Percy’s relieved and proud expression, a suspicion niggled at the back of my mind. He had been hoping for this.

“Annabeth,” I asked slowly, a smirk spreading across my face. “What convinced Poseidon to finally help?”

“Percy climbed onto his father’s throne a few hours before this in the hope that he could talk to his father that way and ask him to help fight Typhon. The Seaweed Brain had started smoking by the time he got down.

I was surprised that Poseidon hadn’t instinctively incinerated Percy the instant his butt touched the seat. If Thalia had tried that trick, I doubted that Zeus would have shown the same restraint.

Percy had been partially responsible for even our victory over Typhon. Of course he’d helped out by doing something that could easily have gotten him killed, and then argued with a god, an act that could ALSO have gotten him killed if his father had been touchier. He was just as suicidally brave as Jason had been, for daring to argue with Zeus.

Poseidon’s army burst out of the water, surrounding Typhon. Leading the charge was a large Cyclops that looked vaguely familiar. “Tyson!” Percy yelled. I blinked. Percy’s younger brother? He was about five times taller than he normally was and covered in battle armor. I may normally have hated Cyclopes, but I was glad to see Tyson and his brethren.

The Cyclopes ensnared Typhon with the long black chains they wielded. He roared and struggled, but eventually he fell. Poseidon threw his trident, impaling him in the throat. Ichor spewed from his neck, a geyser of gold.

All us gods struck at Typhon while he was down. This had been the first real opening we’d had. We had doubted that we’d get another. I grinned like a loon as I stared at Artemis. She shot him in the eye with a dozen silver arrows, blinding him. I was just happy to get a good view of my sister again.

Meg let out a loud guffaw. I followed her gaze to where she was looking. I began laughing too. I’d forgotten that I’d managed to set Typhon’s loincloth on fire.

Finally, Poseidon opened up a portal to Tartarus, sending Typhon down into the depths of the abyss.

“BAH!” Kronos screamed. He slashed his sword through the smoke, dismissing the image.

“They’re on their way,” Percy taunted. “You’ve lost.”

“I haven’t even started,” Kronos replied, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

He ran at Percy. Grover threw himself into his path in an effort to protect Percy, but Kronos simply tossed him to the side. Grover was a GREAT protector. I silently promised myself to give him something nice when all this was over, if I became a god again.

Kronos and Percy continued dueling. Less than a minute in, and Kronos disarmed Percy, sending Riptide clattering across the floor and into one of the fissures of the floor.

I knew that Riptide would reappear in Percy’s pocket in a minute or so. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like he HAD a minute. Not for the first time, I wondered how Percy had survived this.

“STOP!” past!Annabeth yelled again. I hoped that she had a better plan this time. I certainly had no ideas on what those three could’ve done to even survive the next few minutes, much less defeat Kronos.

Wait... those three defeat Kronos? That didn’t sound quite right. Someone else had intervened.

Kronos whirled around, slashing at Annabeth with his sword. Annabeth caught the strike on her dagger hilt. I whistled in admiration. That was a TRICKY move to pull off.

She stepped closer to the Titan, blades locked together. “Luke. I understand now. You have to trust me.” She said through gritted teeth.

Was she really relying on Luke breaking free from Kronos’s control? That seemed like a shaky proposition. Even if he did, what if he decided not to help them? He’d tried to kill them before.

Kronos roared back at her. “Luke Castellan is dead! His body will burn away as I assume my true form!” I thought I detected an undercurrent of fear in his voice. And his expression... he was lying.

HE WAS LYING

Annabeth’s plan might work!

Kronos pushed back on their locked blades. Inch by inch, his blade came closer to Annabeth’s neck.

“Your mother,” Annabeth grunted, straining to hold him back. “She saw your fate.”

“Service to Kronos! This is my fate.”

I caught the change immediately. This is MY fate. This wasn’t Kronos talking, not entirely. Luke was there! She was reaching him!

“No!” Annabeth’s past self cried, tears filling her eyes. I heard a quiet sob from beside me. I looked at our Annabeth. Tear tracks stained her cheeks as she stared at the scene, not daring to miss a moment. I wanted to comfort her, but I had a feeling that this scene would have to finish first.

past!Annabeth continued talking to Luke, trying to draw him out. “That’s not the end, Luke. The prophecy: she saw what you would do. It applies to you!”

What was she talking about? I turned the Great Prophecy over in my head.

A half-blood of the eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen against all odds

And see the world in endless sleep

The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap

A single choice shall end his days

Olympus to preserve or raze

I nearly smacked myself over the head. The prophecy didn’t SAY that the half-blood of the eldest gods was the hero! It could be anyone! Though Annabeth seemed convinced it was Luke.

I frowned. it definitely LOOKED like Luke had chosen to raze Olympus. Yet it still stood.

Then again, it said that ‘a single choice shall end his days’. Perhaps his choice would come just before he was set to die?

And a third question... what was the cursed blade?

“I will crush you, child!” Kronos roared.

“You won’t,” Annabeth replied, resolving sounding through her voice. “You promised. You’re holding back Kronos even now.”

Promised what? I glanced at our Annabeth again. She barely seemed to be stopping herself from sinking to the floor. I resolved to ask her later, delicately. I had a feeling that she would NEED to talk about all this, even if she didn’t WANT to.

“LIES!” Kronos screamed, pushing her harder. Annabeth lost her balance. Seizing the opening, Kronos struck her across the face, sending her skidding backwards. Images of Piper being struck by Incinatus’s hoof flooded my mind. I rushed over to past!Annabeth, checking her for breathing. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found it, and then felt very silly. Annabeth had obviously survived, because she was in here with us. Somehow, I couldn’t make myself quite believe that.

Kronos loomed over Annabeth, sword raised. As blood trickled out of her mouth, she found the strength to croak, “Family, Luke. You promised.”

Kronos staggered, staring at the knife Annabeth was holding, then at the blood dripping from her face. “Promise,” he murmured. It wasn’t Kronos’s voice.

He started gasping for air, as if he had just surfaced from a long stint underwater. “Annabeth...” Luke continued, stumbling forwards, as if he didn’t quite have control over his own limbs. “You’re bleeding...”

“My knife,” Annabeth attempted to raise her dagger, though I wasn’t sure why. She was in no shape to take on the Titan. The knife clattered out of her hand and onto the floor. She looked over at Percy imploringly. “Percy, please...”

Per y rushed forwards, picking up the knife as he went. He knocked Luke’s sword out his hands. He barely seemed to notice, much less care. He stepped closer to Annabeth, but Percy intervened.

“Don’t touch her.”

Kronos’s voice growled. “Jackson...” Then he gasped, and his voice turned back to Luke’s. “He’s changing. Help. He’s... he’s almost ready. He won’t need my body anymore. Please-”

“NO!” Kronos bellowed. He looked around for his sword, spotting it in the hearth. Percy tried to stop him, but Kronos knocked him roughly to the side, causing his head to clang against Athena’s throne. I winced. He’d probably have a concussion after that, and with both him AND Annabeth in such bad shape, I didn’t know how they could possibly defeat him, unless Grover pulled off a miracle.

“The knife, Percy,” Annabeth muttered, barely clinging to consciousness. “Hero... cursed blade...”

Then it clicked. Luke was the hero. The cursed blade was Annabeth’s knife, though I didn’t know HOW it was cursed. And as for the choice...

Suddenly I heard a scream of pain. Looking at Kronos, I saw that he had attempted to pull his sword from the hearth. I say ‘attempted’ because somehow the barely-lit flame in the hearth had started burning vigorously, heating up the sword and the coals until they glowed red. Judging by his burnt and blistered hands, he had foolishly attempted to pick it up.

An image of Hestia flickered in the ashes, frowning at Kronos disapprovingly. I grinned. Just because Hestia wasn’t a fighter, didn’t mean she couldn’t help out.

Luke turned away from the hearth and collapsed to floor. “Please, Percy...” he begged.

Percy struggled to his feet, still carrying Annabeth’s knife. He advanced towards Luke, killing intent filling his eyes.

Luke read his expression. “You can’t... can’t do it yourself. He’ll break my control. He’ll defend himself. Only my hand. I know where. I can... can keep him controlled.

Luke glowed, similarly to how I tended to whenever I was getting emotional. There wasn’t much time. Kronos would assume his divine form soon. Whatever decision Percy made, he’d have to make it quickly.

Percy raised the knife, ignoring Luke’s words. Then he glanced over at Annabeth, realization stealing over his face.

“Please,” Luke groaned. “No time.”

Percy hesitated, then turned the knife around, presenting the hilt to Luke. He took it carefully.

Grover yelped. “Percy? Are you... um...”

I filled in the rest myself. Are you really listening to this guy? If he betrays you again, the world’s doomed.

Luke unstrapped the armor on his side, exposing his left armpit.

His hand shaking as he did his best to maintain control, Luke stabbed himself. He howled in pain, his eyes glowing, his skin shining brighter and brighter. For a heartbeat I thought it was too late. Then the light died down. Luke remained on the floor, dying, but fully himself.

A loud sob echoed from behind me. Our Annabeth furiously wiped her tears, but they just kept pouring down. I gingerly put my arm around her, wanting to offer some degree of comfort, but unsure how she’d take the gesture. She didn’t acknowledge my existence, continuing to watch Luke with bloodshot, puffy eyes. These were his last moments. As painful as they were, I could understand why she didn’t want to miss any of them.

Luke’s eyes cracked open, revealing a brilliant blue. For an instant I was catapulted back to Caligula’s ships, seeing another blond-haired, blue eyed young man dying in front of me.

“Good... blade,” he croaked.

Luke stared at Annabeth. “You knew. I almost killed you, but you knew...

“Shh. You were a hero at the end, Luke. You’ll go to Elysium.”

He did. Normally he probably wouldn’t have made it that far - heroic last deeds are great and all, but they DO judge the rest of the person’s life - but Hermes insisted, and Hades was in a good enough mood to agree to his request.

Hermes... something niggled at me. A lump of guilt swelled in my chest, though I didn’t know why. There was something I’d overlooked, something I’d ignored. I couldn’t quite place it though. No matter. If it made me feel this bad, then it would almost certainly come up later in this flashback.

Luke shook his head at Annabeth. “Think... rebirth. Try for three times. Isles of the Blest.”

He wasn’t being greedy. He wanted to prove that he was a good person and right the mistakes of his past. I could empathize with that.

Annabeth sniffled. “You always pushed yourself too hard.”

“Did you... did you love me?”

“There was a time I thought... well I thought...”

She looked around, as if realizing that she was still here, still alive. “You were like a brother to me, Luke,” she said softly. “But I didn’t love you.”

He nodded, looking unsurprised, then winced in pain.

“We can get ambrosia,” Grover chimed in. “We can-”

I knew the truth, as did Luke. “Grover. You’re the bravest satyr I ever knew. But no. There’s no healing...”

He coughed again. I could sense his life coming to a close. He only had a couple minutes left.

He gripped Percy’s sleeve, desperate. “Ethan. Me. All the unclaimed. Don’t let it... don’t let it happen again.”

Percy looked down at Luke, sad, but resolved. “I won’t. I promise.”

I promise.

Another promise made to a dying man, a plea to the living to try and make the world a better place, to continue the work that they could not. This was why Percy had made his wish - no, his demands. He was trying to fulfill Luke’s dying wish, to keep his promise. Luke and Jason... they may have been different in many ways, but both of them had attempted to change how demigods and gods acted for the better. Both had passed the torch on to someone else to complete what they had started. Percy had fulfilled his promise to the best of his ability. I would have to fulfill mine.

Luke nodded. His face went slack. He died quietly, the air punctuated with quiet sobs.

Minutes later, all of us Olympians came bursting into the throne room, ready for a fight. Instead we found three grieving teenagers and one dead demigod, sprawled out on the ground.

Poseidon was the first to speak. “Percy... What... what is this?”

Percy stood up, turning to face all the gods. “We need a shroud,” he declared, his voice cracking. “A shroud for the son of Hermes.”

I remembered how I had felt the first time bursting into the room. I’d been afraid it was too late, and I had almost imagined that I could feel myself weakening. Then we had actually arrived. I watched myself take in the scene, relief breaking across my godly self’s face. I didn’t know what had happened, and frankly, at that moment, I didn’t care. The conflict was over, the threat dealt with. It was in the past now, so there was no need to worry about it.

Others were more affected. As the Three Fates gathered up Luke’s body, summoning a shroud to cover him in, Hermes stepped forwards. “Wait,” he called. I heard George and Martha quietly murmuring, “Luke, poor Luke.”

Hermes slowly approached his fallen son, the hero who had made many, many bad choices, but who had chosen to save Olympus, to save his family, in the end. I was under no illusion that he cared for us gods, but the way he and Annabeth had looked at each other... they had chosen to be family. Almost killing her had been the final straw. As much as Luke hated us gods, his love for Annabeth, his desire to protect her, had overridden even Kronos’s control. As a god, when I’d first found out about Luke siding with Kronos and recruiting demigods to his cause, I had dismissed them as simply being bad people. Now I could see more nuance. There were reasons behind the rebellion, reasons I had refused to acknowledge for fear of upsetting my worldview. Now I was more open to listening. I also wished to uphold the promise Percy had made. This would NOT happen again.

Hermes knelt by Luke’s side, gently unwrapping his face and kissing his forehead, murmuring a final blessing to his beloved fallen son.

“Farewell,” he whispered. He stepped back, allowing the Three Fates to take Luke’s body to its final resting place.

past!Annabeth’s knees finally gave out, the stress, exhaustion, and pain of the day catching up with her. Percy caught her before she could hit the ground. Unfortunately, he’d grabbed her by her broken arm, causing her to scream in pain.

“Oh gods,” he said, his eyes wide. “Annabeth, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right,” she replied. Then she passed out. It reminded me of how I had passed out after the prophecy had been extracted from Meg back in Indiana. She could afford to pass out now, so her body had promptly done so.

“She needs help!” Percy cried, panicked.

“I got this,” I heard a familiar (and oh-so-handsome-sounding) voice replied. I watched my godly self step forwards, smiling brilliantly.

Ah, right - I’d forgotten that I had helped. I tensed. Last time I had remembered helping, I had forgotten what a jerk, what an utterly STUPID asshole I had been. I expected more of the same.

I was pleasantly surprised. “God of medicine, at your service.” My godly self passed his hand over Annabeth’s face, instantly healing both her smaller injuries, such as cuts and bruises, and her larger ones, such as the broken arm. Annabeth adjusted in her sleep, looking far more comfortable.

My past self grinned. “She’ll be fine in a few minutes. Just enough time for me to compose a poem about our victory. ‘Apollo and his friends save Olympus’. Good eh?”

I couldn’t help it. I snorted. Beside me, Meg started giggling.

“Thanks, Apollo,” Percy replied, clearly bemused. “I’ll, um, let you handle the poetry.”

At that, our quiet chortling grew into full-blown laughter. Even our Annabeth joined in the laughter, her eyes still watering with grief at what she had relived. It was just SUCH a mood whiplash, my future self cheerfully healing Annabeth, pretending that he had largely been responsible for saving Olympus, and declaring that he would write a victory poem. It was so silly, so far removed from the somber atmosphere of the room. It was exactly what we had needed after witnessing Kronos’s defeat and the deaths of Ethan and Luke.

For the first time in a while, I saw some value in the silly arrogant facade I had displayed to the world. Perhaps I didn’t need to throw away that side of myself entirely in order to be a good person and keep my promises to my fallen friends. Lightening spirits helps people cope with even the most miserable tragedies. I thought back to how Leo coped with stress by acting sillier than usual and cracking jokes, breaking people out of their misery and redirecting them from their worries. He had had the right idea.

But there was time for humor, and there was time for serious talk. Now, while the gods were milling about and Percy was looking after the unconscious past!Annabeth, was the best time to finally talk with her.

I looked at her carefully, trying to find the best way to broach the subject of what we had just witnessed. I didn’t wish to upset her, both because she’d been through enough, and because she could easily drop-kick me into next week if she so chose. There’s a reason why I referred to her as “the blond scary one.”

Turns out I didn’t need to. Perhaps Annabeth had sensed my questions, or simply needed to get things off her chest, because she started explaining.

“When I was seven, I ran away from home. My stepmother never liked me that much, and she never believed me about spiders crawling into my bed at night. I had only been on the run for a few days when I ran across Luke and Thalia.” She smiled fondly at the memory, chuckling. “I’d run across lots of monsters, but had managed to evade them. When I heard people moving around in the warehouse I was hiding in, I thought they were monsters. I hid until they got close and then leaped out, trying to bang whatever creature it was with the hammer I had found. I nearly took Luke’s head off. They said they were monster hunters. Luke gave me that dagger, saying that I could be a part of his and Thalia’s family, that they wouldn’t fail me like our families had failed us. That’s what cursed the knife. Luke broke that promise.”

I swallowed thickly, keenly aware of all the gods - myself and my brethren - milling about the room. We had failed Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth. We had failed our children as a whole. Annabeth didn’t even sound upset or judgmental. It was simply a statement of fact.

I steeled my resolve. I had to know.

“Why did Luke turn against the gods? Why did so many join him? Tell me how we failed. Tell me what we refused to see. Please.”

Annabeth was quiet for a moment, searching for words. Hesitantly she said, “I’m not sure of all the details on how and why Luke turned, and all the demigods had their own reasons. But they boiled down to this, as far as I know:

Luke blamed Hermes for not trying to help cure his mom’s insanity, for not helping to protect and comfort her when she flew into her insane fits. In short, for never BEING there. I’m not sure what caused him to shift his view of the gods from being negligent, to being flat-out evil. Maybe it was just seeing all of his friends and family at Camp being ignored. Luke was at Camp Half-Blood for five YEARS before he turned, Apollo, and he was camp counselor of the largest cabin for most of that. So many kids arrived who never got claimed. They arrived, hoping to have a parent, to at least be ACKNOWLEDGED. But most of them didn’t get that. Their divine parents didn’t CARE enough about them to even acknowledge their existence. That’s why so many half-bloods wanted to go on quests, even though it was dangerous. It wasn’t for ‘glory’ - well, not for most of them, at least. It was in the hope of finally having their divine parent acknowledge them and say they’re proud of them. The children of minor gods had it even worse. Very few of their parents even bothered to claim them, since they’d have to stay in the Hermes cabin anyway. For them, it wasn’t only THEMSELVES who were ignored, but their parents too. That’s why so many minor gods and demigods rebelled - they thought it was the only way to stop being ignored, to be treated like they MATTER, even if only as an enemy.”

So that was it. I couldn’t even pretend to be surprised. I’d been told this before, I KNEW this. It was part of why I was always prompt on claiming my kids (so long as I remembered that I’d had them), why I rarely gave them quests that were too terribly dangerous, and why I showed them I was there and that I cared about them, even if just by visiting in their dreams.

But it wasn’t enough. I had taken care of my own children, but had turned my eyes from all the other demigods’ plights. It took the demigods standing up for themselves and demanding better in order for change to be enacted.

I glanced over at Meg, who suddenly found her shoes utterly fascinating. I remembered her questions about her mother, asking why Demeter had never shown up, had never tried to help her or father. At the time I was only thinking of her case. But she wasn’t the only demigod who had lost their mortal parent, or had run away from them, had discovered that they had a godly parent, and yet that parent didn’t even care enough to claim them as their offspring. I thought back to when I had first met the small garbage waif, thinking that she might be a feral demigod, with no training, no parents, no friends, no family, no support network to speak of. At the time I pondered the idea in a detached kind of way. Now it seemed utterly horrifying. Had I really been so callous, not seeing how messed up it was that a twelve-year-old had no parents and no support, even while monsters hunted her due to who one of her parents was?

How many other ways had I closed my eyes to the world?

“I’m sorry,” I said at last. “I should have pushed for all the demigods’ parents to claim them sooner. I should have made sure that cabins were available for all the children of the gods, not just us Olympians. I should have taken a more proactive role in guiding all demigods to safety, instead of just concentrating on my own children. I know this isn’t worth much now, since Percy already took care of it pretty well, but I’ll try to hold the other gods to their promise, along with keeping it myself, of course. There will be no more Ethans or Lukes.”

Annabeth looked up at me and gave a small nod.

Meg broke the silence. “What promise?”

Ah yes. Meg wouldn’t know, would she? “Well you see-”

The world blurred around us, fast-forwarding. When it resolved, we were still in the throne room, but all the gods were sitting down, thrones fully repaired.

“It seems that you’ll get to see for yourself,” I told my young protector.

past!Annabeth was back to full health. She strode over to where Percy was standing. She leaned in close so she could whisper to him. Being the busybody I was, scooted over towards them so i could overhear.”Miss much?” she whispered into his ear.

“Nobody’s planning to kill us, so far,” he whispered back.

Why would he think we might plan to kill them? Why would we kill heroes who had helped save... oh. Right.

Several years ago, after sis was kidnapped and then rescued, we had the winter solstice summit. We debated killing Percy and Thalia to prevent the Great Prophecy from coming true. None of us actually voted FOR killing them thankfully, but it was still a serious consideration. I voted against killing them, but thought that Artemis was freaking out a bit too much when she yelled at the council for considering killing the demigods and saying that she would reward them. Now I saw why she reacted that way.

My eyes wandered over to my sister, sitting majesticly in her silver throne. I held back a sob. I’d seen her earlier when the gods first came bursting in, but had focused on the issues at hand. Now though I kept on staring at her. My wonderful, brilliant sister - she’d seen what I had refused to, understood what I had only started learning as a mortal. She understood the value in mortals, understood them AS PEOPLE, and not only as subjects.

As Zeus droned on, Meg approached me. She didn’t say anything, but her expression looked sad, and kind of nervous. Once she noticed me watching her, she turned her gaze towards the thrones, searching. It finally rested on a throne made of apple-tree branches, and the goddess in it. She looked over at me. I answered her unspoken question.

“That’s your mother, Demeter.”

She stared at her mother quietly while Zeus declared the rewards that the various mortals and monsters would receive for their service in the Second Titan War.

After a couple minutes, she spoke, though I wasn’t sure whether it was intentional. She murmured to herself, “Mom... why didn’t you come for me? Dad loved you so much, but you didn’t help him. You didn’t help me. Everyone says you love me, but if you love me so much, why won’t you see me?”

Seeing her so downcast, my heart clenched. I wanted to give her some measure of comfort, so I did the only thing I could think of. Slowly, giving her plenty of room and time to pull away if she wished to, I wrapped her in a hug. She stiffened for a moment then relaxed. I thought I felt a small droplet of water on my side, where Meg was pressing her head. I didn’t comment, only pressing her more tightly to me. We stayed like that for several minutes, me offering what small amount of comfort I could.

At last she pulled away, surreptitiously wiping her face. I pretended not to notice, only giving her a small smile.

“PERCY JACKSON!” Poseidon bellowed. All of us jumped at that, directing our attention back to the Olympian Council.

Percy walked over to his father, kneeling at his feet.

“Rise, my son,” Poseidon declared. Looking around at the assembled council, he asked, “A great hero must be rewarded. Is there anyone who would deny that my son is deserving?”

Of course there were no dissenters.

“The council agrees,” Zeus confirmed. “Percy Jackson, you will have one gift from the gods.”

“Any gift?” he asked.

At the time when this had first happened, I didn’t scrutinize his expression closely. I thought I knew what he was going to ask for, so why bother?

This time I looked more closely. He seemed slightly confused, not understanding what was going on.

Zeus, naturally, made the same assumption that the rest of us did. "I know what you will ask. The greatest gift of all. Yes, if you want it, it shall be yours. The gods have not bestowed this gift on a mortal hero in many centuries, but, Perseus Jackson—if you wish it—you shall be made a god. Immortal. Undying. You shall serve as your father's lieutenant for all time."

Percy just stared at him, uncomprehending. "Um . . . a god?"

Zeus rolled his eyes. "A dimwitted god, apparently. But yes. With the consensus of the entire Council, I can make you immortal. Then I will have to put up with you forever."

Ares seemed rather happy at that. "Hmm," he mused. "That means I can smash him to a pulp as often as I want, and he'll just keep coming back for more. I like this idea."

I snorted. Of COURSE that was the first thing he’d think of. Though I thought he was being overly optimistic. Percy bested him as a child with only a few weeks training. He was more likely to get smashed than Percy.

"I approve as well," Athena added. I noticed that she was looking at Annabeth while she spoke, not Percy. I snorted. I had a distinct feeling that her agreement had less to do with her feeling that Percy was deserving, and more from her wanting to keep him away from her daughter. Well THAT had been successful.

Our Annabeth walked towards Percy, taking in his expression. He glanced back at past!Annabeth. Only then did I notice how devastated she looked. I could read that expression well enough, the expression of knowing you were about to lose someone close to you. I had worn it many times.

She’d really thought there was a chance she would lose him, that he would become a god and leave her forever. Power, immortality, eternal youth - who could deny an offer like that?

But I understood now. I still wanted to become a god, don’t get me wrong. But it was a RESPONSIBILITY now, rather than simply wishing to rid myself of the discomforts and terrors of mortality. I understood why Percy had made his choice.

I smirked slightly, knowing what was coming. This would be EPIC.

Percy looked Zeus right in the eyes. “No.”

Everyone fell silent, unable to believe what they were hearing. At last Zeus spoke, a dangerous edge to his voice. "No? You are . . . turning down our generous gift?"

I flinched at his tone. It usually meant pain for whoever it was directed at. But Percy didn’t seem overly intimidated.

"I'm honored and everything," he said. "Don't get me wrong. It's just . . . I've got a lot of life left to live. I'd hate to peak in my sophomore year. I do want a gift, though. Do you promise to grant my wish?"

Zeus pondered for a moment. I don’t know what he THOUGHT Percy was going to ask for, but he certainly didn’t anticipate the truth. "If it is within our power," he replied.

"It is," Percy said. "And it's not even difficult. But I need your promise on the River Styx."

I was still AMAZED that Zeus agreed to Percy’s wish BEFORE finding out what it was.

"What?" Dionysus cried. "You don't trust us?" He sounded indignant. I laughed at that. Like MOST of us trusted each other. I could reasonably count on Hestia, Artemis, and Hermes when it counted. The rest of the Olympians? Not so much.

"Someone once told me," Percy said, looking at Hades, "you should always get a solemn oath."

“Guilty,” he replied, shrugging. I had a feeling that there was a story behind that one. Maybe I’d get that later, but for now I focused on the scene in front of me.

"Very well!" Zeus growled. "In the name of the Council, we swear by the River Styx to grant your reasonable request as long as it is within our power."

At least he put in that stipulation. Though I had to wonder who decided what was reasonable.

Thunder boomed, sealing the oath.

Percy finally asked for his reward, now that it was guaranteed that the council would have to grant it, so long as it was not unreasonable. "From now on, I want to you properly recognize the children of the gods," he said. "All the children . . . of all the gods."

All the Olympians shifted uncomfortably at that, including my own godly self. We didn’t like being confronted with how much we had messed up, and it looked like Percy was doing just that.

"Percy," Poseidon asked, "what exactly do you mean?"

"Kronos couldn't have risen if it hadn't been for a lot of demigods who felt abandoned by their parents," Percy replied. "They felt angry, resentful, and unloved, and they had a good reason."

Zeus grew angry, his nostrils flaring. I was still amazed Percy got through this without some sort of punishment for his insolence. "You dare accuse—"

Percy cut him off. I had thought that Jason defending me to Father was the most insane defiance a demigod had shown to Father in the past several millennia, but rewatching this, I was quickly reassessing that opinion. "No more undetermined children. I want you to promise to claim your children—all your demigod children—by the time they turn thirteen. They won't be left out in the world on their own at the mercy of monsters. I want them claimed and brought to camp so they can be trained right, and survive."

"Now, wait just a moment," my godly self interjected. I felt a brief stab of shame. I had objected to Percy telling us what to do. The fact that he was RIGHT only made things worse. Even then, I’d known that Percy’s request was a good one. I just didn’t want to acknowledge how BADLY we’d messed up for the past several thousand years, and that one of our children knew better than we did, and was braver than we were. Than I was. Privately I agreed with him, but I would never have had the courage to do what Percy was doing.

Percy ignored my past self. A wise decision on his part. "And the minor gods," he said. "Nemesis, Hecate, Morpheus, Janus, Hebe-—they all deserve a general amnesty and a place at Camp Half-Blood. Their children shouldn't be ignored. Calypso and the other peaceful Titan-kind should be pardoned too. And Hades—"

"Are you calling me a minor god?" Hades bellowed. Honestly, he was SUCH a drama queen. Wouldn’t even wait for Percy to finish his sentence.

"No, my lord," he said hurriedly. "But your children should not be left out. They should have a cabin at camp. Nico has proven that. No unclaimed demigods will be crammed into the Hermes cabin anymore, wondering who their parents are. They'll have their own cabins, for all the gods. And no more pact of the Big Three. That didn't work anyway. You've got to stop trying to get rid of powerful demigods. We're going to train them and accept them instead. All children of the gods will be welcome and treated with respect. That is my wish."

It was a good request, one that should never have had to be made, and one which we STILL didn’t entirely follow through on. Calypso was never pardoned. None of us had pushed for it. It was on the bottom of the agenda, since her staying on her island was unlikely to cause us problems. I had a feeling that Artemis would have pushed for her release, but by the time we’d dealt with everything else Percy had asked for, Zeus was getting spooked by Gaea stirring, and Artemis didn’t want to upset him more than she had to. Watching over her Hunters was a higher priority than pushing for Calypso’s freedom.

Zeus snorted. "Is that all?"

"Percy," Poseidon warned, "you ask much. You presume much."

If he thought THAT would deter Percy, he CLEARLY hadn’t spent enough time watching his son.

"I hold you to your oath," he said. "All of you."

The world suddenly distorted. For a moment I thought we were going to be pushed forwards in time again. Then the world resolved itself. I looked around, puzzled. Nothing appeared to have changed... and then I came face-to-face with Percy. Not younger Percy, OUR Percy. I calmly took stock of the situation and greeted him with a calm nod. Anyone who says that I yelled and jumped a foot in the air is CLEARLY lying and is attempting to slander my good name.

“Wha-?” He looked around, confused. “What is- ANNABETH?” He yelled, rushing towards her. “PERCY!” she cried. He gave her a fierce hug, separating from her a few moments later.

“This is a flashback, isn’t it?” He asked her. “When I walked in, I saw you, Apollo, and Meg sitting next to each other. When I called your name and you didn’t respond, I panicked and ran over to check on you. I must’ve gotten sucked in when I touched you.”

She nodded, “Yes, it is. It started when... when we faced down Kronos in the throne room.” Her voice cracked. Percy looked at her, understanding spreading across his face. “Annabeth...”

Suddenly all of us were jerked towards the front of the throne room. It soon became apparent why. Annabeth, Percy, and all the other mortals were filing out of the throne room. We were forced to keep within a certain radius of the memory-holder it seemed. We followed them out of the palace.

Hermes stood in a sideyard, a melancholy expression on his face as he examined an iris message. past!Percy looked over at past!Annabeth. "I'll meet you at the elevator."

A wave of disappointment washed over me. I’d wanted to see more of my little brother, but it seemed that we would be forced to go the other way.

past!Annabeth studied his expression. "You sure?" she studied his face. "Yeah, you're sure."

As Annabeth walked off, I followed her, sighing. Then I was jerked to a stop by an invisible leash. Confused, I looked back towards my brother and past!Percy. They had stayed put, along with Meg and the present Percy and Annabeth.

Ah. When Percy entered the memory, control must have transferred over to him. I walked back over to Percy and Hermes, curious about what Percy would talk to him about. ‘Sorry I gave your son the means to commit suicide,’ is always an awkward conversation starter.

For a moment, I didn’t think Hermes had noticed Percy. Then he started talking.

"Amazing," my brother said, turning towards Percy. "Three thousand years, and I will never get over the power of the Mist . . . and mortal ignorance."

"Thanks, I guess,” Percy replied, not seeming to know how to feel about that.

"Oh, not you. Although, I suppose I should wonder, turning down immortality."

"It was the right choice."

For him, it HAD been the right choice. He wanted to stay a part of the mortal world, to be with his friends and family... and his girlfriend, of course. As a god, there were so many rules and limits on what you could and could not do with mortals, so many expectations, that it would be difficult for him to be part of his loved ones’ lives the way he wanted to be, to BE there for them.

But it didn’t have to be. The only rules that prevented us from mingling with mortals, becoming part of their world, becoming close friends instead of simply having short affairs with mortals, were expectations from other gods, and rules handed down by Zeus. He didn’t like it when we became too close to mortals, ESPECIALLY if we treated them like equals. I always suspected that he didn’t want mortals to begin seeing us as equals, and by extension, seeing himself as being just a person, rather than a divine ruler who must be unquestioningly obeyed. Now I thought there was an additional angle. Keeping us from becoming too close to mortals, from becoming great friends with them, also limited our support networks to other gods, keeping it restricted mostly to our family. Zeus was able to keep a closer eye on us that way, than if we all had our own circles of mortal friends.

Maybe I was getting conspiratorial. Still, anything that increased Zeus’s level of control over us and his power overall had to be considered.

My brother looked over at Percy questioningly, but not unbelievingly. I was getting the feeling that he actually understood what Percy was talking about. I should have paid more attention to my little brother in recent decades. It seemed like he had started figuring things out that I had only begun to learn after being sent down as a mortal. "Look at them. They've already decided Typhon was a freak series of storms. Don't I wish. They haven't figured out how all the statues in Lower Manhattan got removed from their pedestals and hacked to pieces. They keep showing a shot of Susan B. Anthony strangling Frederick Douglass. But I imagine they'll even come up with a logical explanation for that."

"How bad is the city?"

Hermes shrugged. "Surprisingly, not too bad. The mortals are shaken, of course. But this is New York. I've never seen such a resilient bunch of humans. I imagine they'll be back to normal in a few weeks; and of course I'll be helping."

I had always been amazed at mortals’ ability to carry on with daily activities even something catastrophic had occurred, or was about to happen. As I lived as a mortal, however, I was beginning to understand. Those things were still worrying, but most mortals couldn’t afford to simply run off and mope and wail about how horrible and terrifying everything was. So instead they coped as best they could, continuing to act like normal. It made a weird amount of sense. Daily life carried on regardless.

Hermes WAS helpful in helping mortals make sense of the divine sorts of catastrophies though.

“You?” Percy asked. I suppose no one had informed him of Hermes role in this sort of thing.

"I'm the messenger of the gods. It's my job to monitor what the mortals are saying, and if necessary, help them make sense of what's happened. I'll reassure them. Trust me, they'll put this down to a freak earthquake or a solar flare. Anything but the truth."

I was startled by the bitterness in his voice. I hadn’t really paid much attention to how Hermes handled this aspect of his duties. Now I wished I had. I wanted to understand why he sounded like this. I had a sinking feeling that I had let down another brother, my most beloved little brother.

Percy had more to say. "I owe you an apology."

An apology? I didn’t even know that Hermes and Percy had talked before.

Hermes seemed to know what Percy was talking about, but didn’t trust his apology. He gave Percy a cautious look. "And why is that?"

"I thought you were a bad father. I thought you abandoned Luke because you knew his future and didn't do anything to stop it."

Knew his future? How did he...?

Then I remembered. A woman Hermes had a fling with had attempted to become the Oracle. I had been happy that someone else had attempted it, hoping to finally have a new host. My old Oracle had already been dead for twenty years at that point. I had been disappointed when it did not take properly, but was not overly concerned beyond that.

I should have paid attention. I should have gone to him, comforted him. I knew how much it hurt to have someone you love be broken, be killed.

But I hadn’t.

I’d failed him too.

May would have still gotten glimpses of the future. I surmised that Hermes had put together the pieces based on the pieces of her insane ramblings. He’d known what would befall his beloved child, and had kept the burden to himself. Who would he share it with? Who could he trust that much?

We really were one screwed-up family.

"I did know his future," Hermes said miserably.

I knew that tone of voice, that look on his face. It was the same one I wore whenever I thought of my role in Daphne’s and Hyacinthus’ deaths.

"But you knew more than just the bad stuff—that he'd turn evil. You understood what he would do in the end. You knew he'd make the right choice. But you couldn't tell him, could you?"

Hermes stared at the fountain. "No one can tamper with fate, Percy, not even a god. If I had warned him what was to come, or tried to influence his choices, I would've made things even worse. Staying silent, staying away from him . . . that was the hardest thing I've ever done."

I knew better than anyone that you can’t change fate, that trying was folly. I’d had to watch horrible things happen to people I cared about. Even if you did somehow succeed, the consequences would be...

Some sort of mental block slammed down. A cold trickle of dread and guilt filled my stomach. There was something there. Something I didn’t want to remember. I knew I should try to break through it, try to break through the barrier, but I couldn’t bring myself to try. If even as a god I had blocked this out, how bad WAS it?

“Apollo?” Meg asked, her, Percy, and Annabeth giving me worried looks. I suddenly became aware of the sweat dripping down my face, of my ragged breathing. I composed myself, giving them a shaky smile. No point in worrying them. Besides, I needed to focus on Hermes. I needed to understand what my little brother had gone through.

"You had to let him find his own path and play his part in saving Olympus."

Hermes sighed. "I should not have gotten mad at Annabeth. When Luke visited her in San Francisco . . . well, I knew she would have a part to play in his fate. I foresaw that much. I thought perhaps she could do what I could not and save him. When she refused to go with him, I could barely contain my rage. I should have known better. I was really angry with myself."

I knew that feeling. It was easy to lash out when angry and scared. I had contemplated murdering the Seven when they came to visit me and Artemis on Delos, even though they weren’t at fault for the situation and were actively trying to fix it. Lashing out at others felt better in the moment than accepting that you are powerless to change the situation, to give up hope of someone being able to create a better ending.

"Annabeth did save him. Luke died a hero. He sacrificed himself to kill Kronos." Percy was doing more to try to help Hermes, to support him than I had in the past several decades.

"I appreciate your words, Percy. But Kronos isn't dead. You can't kill a Titan."

"Then—"

"I don't know," Hermes grumbled. "None of us do. Blown to dust. Scattered to the wind. With luck, he's spread so thin that he'll never be able to form a consciousness again, much less a body. But don't mistake him for dead, Percy."

I hoped that he, Gaea, and the Giants stayed gone for a REALLY long time. These kids had already lived through two wars, and were living through a thrid one. Please, let them have a break.

"What about the other Titans?"

"In hiding," Hermes said. "Prometheus sent Zeus a message with a bunch of excuses for supporting Kronos. 'I was just trying to minimize the damage,' blah, blah. He'll keep his head low for a few centuries if he's smart. Krios has fled, and Mount Othrys has crumbled into ruins. Oceanus slipped back into the deep ocean when it was clear Kronos had lost. Meanwhile, my son Luke is dead. He died believing I didn't care about him. I will never forgive myself."

Self-loathing coated his every word.

We were the same, and I had refused to see it. I had thought I was the only one suffering from such guilt and heartbreak, the only one who hated himself for his failures. I thought there was something fundamentally wrong with me. Something broken.

But it wasn’t just me. Hermes was going through the same thing, and I hadn’t seen it. Hadn’t known. I hardly saw him in recent centuries, and when I did, it had barely even occurred to me that Hermes could be going through similar problems.

Both of us his the true depths of our pain, our shame, our guilt. Neither of us opening up to each other, sharing the burden. He at least seemed to be facing his guilt and sadness, rather than just pretending it wasn’t there. I had hidden behind a facade my whole life, trying to fool everyone into thinking I was fine... including myself.

How many of us had hidden our pain from each other, from ourselves?

At least Percy was still trying to help. "A long time ago," he said, "you told me the hardest thing about being a god was not being able to help your children. You also told me that you couldn't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they made it."

I smiled. We really were alike. Both of us had learned that lesson.

"And now you know I'm a hypocrite?"

"No, you were right, Luke loved you. At the end, he realized his fate. I think he realized why you couldn't help him. He remembered what was important."

I wasn’t entirely sure where Percy got that from. As far as I could tell, Luke didn’t mention his father at all. I guess he was trying to make Hermes feel better.

"Too late for him and me."

"You have other children. Honor Luke by recognizing them. All the gods can do that."

That I agreed with. It was his dying wish, his dying plea. To make things better for his siblings, for all the children of the gods.

Hermes's shoulders sagged. "They'll try, Percy. Oh, we'll all try to keep our promise. And maybe for a while things will get better. But we gods have never been good at keeping oaths. You were born because of a broken promise, eh? Eventually we'll become forgetful. We always do."

He sounded so defeated. I couldn’t blame him. Sometimes it seemed like things never changed.

Yet I knew that Hermes was wrong. We didn’t always forget. I had never forgotten Daphne or Hyacinthus, forgotten my roles in their deaths. I had never wanted to, despite the pain it caused me. I refused to forget my great loves.

That was it. We immortals were not so inherently different from mortals. We could learn, change, grow. We just rarely saw the need to. We convinced ourselves that we were perfect and infallible, knowing in our hearts that it was untrue, but thinking that we were the only ones who were like that, who were broken. We told ourselves and each other that we couldn’t change, that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Until someone disrupts the status quo.

Someone like Percy Jackson.

Someone like Jason Grace.

Someone like myself.

The demigods had taken their turn. It was time a god tried to change things, to make things better.

"You can change."

Hermes laughed. "After three thousand years, you think the gods can change their nature?"

"Yeah," Percy said. "I do."

So he’d been doing this for awhile. It wasn’t just me he believed could change, HAD changed. He believed in all the gods’ ability to change. He believed in us more than we believed in ourselves.

I wondered where he got such faith, considering everything he’d been through at the hands of the gods.

Hermes seemed surprised by that. "You think . . . Luke actually loved me? After all that happened?"

"I'm sure of it."

Hermes stared at the fountain. "I'll give you a list of my children. There's a boy in Wisconsin. Two girls in Los Angeles. A few others. Will you see that they get to camp?"

I smiled. It was a long road to make things better, but Hermes had taken the first step. He was willing to try. He wanted to try.

"I promise," Percy said. "And I won't forget."

"Percy Jackson," Hermes said thoughtfully, "you might just teach us a thing or two."

“You already have,” I whispered.

The world blurred again. I blinked, and we were back in the tent at Camp Jupiter. Percy, Annabeth, and Meg had also started stirring, getting up from where they had been sitting.

Percy pulled Annabeth into a hug.

A minute later, they separated. I asked the question that had started burning in my mind during Percy and Hermes conversation. “Percy... why did you believe that gods could change. WE didn’t believe that, so why did you?”

“Because you’re people. Mortal or immortal, god or human, you’re still a person. And people can change, even if you don’t believe you can.”

He paused for a moment, sadness flickering in his expression. “I knew another immortal once. He didn’t think that he could change either.”

Percy let out a laugh. It sounded almost like a choked sob. “He was a Titan. We called him Bob, but you’d know him as Iapetus.”

“Iapetus?” I asked, searching for the name. “Wait... one of Kronos’s brothers. You BEFRIENDED him?!”

“Not at first. First time I met him he’d just broken out of Tartarus. We were in the Underworld when we met. I was badly injured and couldn’t defeat him. So I dragged both of us into the River Lethe. I kept myself dry, but Iapetus’s mind was wiped clean. When we straggled onshore, He asked me who he was. I told him he was my friend Bob. He was nice and friendly. He even noticed I had a wound and healed it. We left him in Hades palace, to do what he wanted with him.” Percy’s voice sounded like Hermes’ now, bitter and self-loathing. “I’d told him we were friends. But I didn’t think about him after that. I never asked how he was doing. Turns out, Hades’ made him a janitor. As far as I know, the only one who looked after him, who cared about him, was Nico.”

Percy drew a shaky breath, steeling himself for the rest of his story. “Nico asked him to help me, if he could. When Annabeth and I fell into Tartarus.”

My jaw dropped. “Wait, WHAT?!” I screamed. “I had to have heard you wrong. Did you say you and Annabeth were in TARTARUS?! As in, the prison for evil immortals? The place monsters spawn from? The place where GODS fear to tread? THAT Tartarus?”

“Yep,” Percy sighed, looking very, very tired. “That’s the one.”

“HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!”

“Because of Bob,” he said simply. “I mentioned Bob to Annabeth as we were walking through Tartarus. He heard me say his name, and jumped into Tartarus without a second thought. He wanted to help us, because he thought we were friends.”

“I used him,” Percy continued, his voice taking on a guilty tone. “I said we were friends, and used that to manipulate him into helping us. I even convinced him to kill his own brother, just by asking him if we were friends, and then telling him that he was a good titan, but that Krios was a bad one. I asked him to decide what to do. He killed Krios, so he wouldn’t hurt his friends. So he wouldn’t hurt us.”

Percy’s voice grew lower, shame dripping from every word. “We met up with arai. They told Bob what I did. That I destroyed his memory. That I had stolen his life, left him to scrub floors. I couldn’t deny that. I still tried to say I was his friend. But I knew I was lying. I’d only convinced myself we were friends, just because I needed him. I only cared about him when I could use him to get what I wanted. Just like Hercules. Just like the gods.”

He inhaled a shaky breath, exhaled, and continued. “He left us. He didn’t attack us for tricking him. He just left. I fought off the arai as best I could, but it wasn’t enough. As I was dying, I begged Bob for his forgiveness, and to help Annabeth at least. I didn’t expect him to help. I didn’t deserve it. But I needed to say it at least.”

“And he came back.”

“He remembered the truth, but he still helped us, KNOWING that I had lied. Because he wanted to keep his promise to Nico. He guided us through Tartarus, to a good giant. Damasen. Damasen healed Percy, but was too afraid to try to leave. He thought it was a fool’s errand. Still, he helped us with supplies, gave us shelter for the night, and only asked for stories and company in return.

“He took us all the way to the Doors of Death. He ran into some of his brothers there. They thought he was on their side still. They would have welcomed him with open arms if he had turned us over to them. Instead he bluffed and got us safely past them. We talked afterwards. He said that he had remembered what his brother was talking about, when he talked about Bob’s past. But he wasn’t sure whether he wanted the memory. I told him that he could choose what to keep of Iapetus, and what he wanted to maintain as Bob. That his future was what mattered. He told me that “the future” was a mortal concept, that he wasn’t meant to change, even as he called me his friend. But if he had been the same, then we would never have become friends. Annabeth and I would have died already.”

He closed his eyes for a moment. I sensed that whatever came next would be especially painful. He opened them and continued the story. “We had to ascend the elevator through the Doors of Death. In order to do that, someone had to press the button for the elevator down for twelve minutes, all while fighting off Tartarus and his forces.”

“Wait...” I interjected, hoping that he misspoke, even as the sinking feeling in my gut said that he hadn’t. “You meant Tartarus’s forces, right?”

Percy let out a wild, hopeless laugh. “Nope. Tartarus made himself a physical body and tried to kill us personally.”

WHAT.

“HOW ARE YOU STILL HERE,” I screamed. I thought being stranded in Tartarus was bad, but facing down Tartarus himself while WITHIN Tartarus? That was a new level of suck.

He gave me that bitter, self-loathing look again. “Because of Bob and Damasen. Oh, and a skeleton kitten Bob found and named Small Bob.”

At this point, I didn’t have the energy to be surprised at them finding a skele-kitten. It was the least weird part of this story.

“I wanted to press down the button to let Annabeth, Bob, Damasen, and Small Bob escape. But he insisted on pressing the button. Those three sacrificed themselves so that we would escape, knowing that they’d be absorbed by Tartarus in the end. He asked me to tell the suns and stars hello.”

Tears shone in Percy’s eyes. “I guess I didn’t know for sure whether immortals could change, back when I told Hermes I believed they could. But I do now. If a Titan like Bob could change, then other immortals can too. Even ones you never thought were capable of it. Ones who thought that THEY weren’t capable of it.”

I stared at him and slowly nodded. If even Titans could change, then we gods had no excuse. And if any of the gods protested that change was impossible, I’d tell them Bob’s story, along with my own.

We would be better.

We had to be.

#trials of apollo #the trials of apollo #lester papadopoulos #percy jackson #annabeth chase #meg mccaffrey #toa #the last olympian #fanfiction #apollo

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alien-rainbow · 3 years

Text

By Your Side Until My Death (7/?)

Chapter 7: Deep In The Meadow

Available on AO3

Princess Artemis, the eldest daughter of the kingdom of Olympus is to be married to her childhood nightmare. In a land where anything remotely magical is banned, Zoë fears for her and Ladon's life but knows that she could never leave the princess's side if she tried. Magical beings, a forbidden romance, family secrets, and safety for magic all wait beyond the kingdom's borders.

- 3rd person, will be completed eventually, teen, not completed, Zartemis

Artemis woke to the sound of Zoë's voice ordering the others on the dragon that this is where they needed to land. The princess sat up and gazed across the grounds that were still covered in moonlight. The forest was green and lush, and surprisingly quiet.

The large dragon landed on the ground with an ungraceful thunk that rattled the surrounding area. Zoë then slid quickly off the back of the dragon and called into the forest. Soon after their names were called. The to woman stepped into the clearing. Both Reyna and Thalia looked shocked to see the golden dragon but made no comment about it and chose instead to interrogate Zoë for information. While they were doing that Artemis sat up and followed Zoë's lead and slipped from the dragon's back while not waking her sister.

On the ground, she could see her surroundings more clearly. Everything seemed to glow with magic and seemed to alive. Like if you really wanted to you could touch it and use it. Artemis ran her hand along with the bark of one of the tree's closets to her. The bark was soft underneath her fingertips and seemed to glow more when she touched them. The grass had the same effect and seemed to glow the more pressure you put on it.

Armies could not have fathomed its beauty, she had heard tales, read books, and seen quick sketches but nothing more. People always described the forest as alive and ready to kill you but this felt calm and free. Like you would never be alone because the magic that flowed through this place was real and held the place together in warm arms.

"Your highness?" Artemis heard Zoë's voice behind her snapping her out of her trance.

"We are no longer in the palace Zoë, you need not call me that," Artemis said turning to smile at her friends. Thalia and Reyna stood behind Zoë with their hands positioned on their swords. Seeing Thalia with a sword was uncommon, to say the least. Thalia favored her spear and shield over all else. She still had the two items strapped to her back in an awkward position. Reyna used just a sward but was terrifying to come face to face with.

"Then Artemis, are you feeling alright?" Artemis nodded and locked back into the deep forest in the opposite direction of her friends. They were in a small clearing that was bearly big enough to hold the golden dragon. Artemis was about to turn away when she something racing towards them.

When the creature arrived in the clearing Artemis could see it was a horse. The caramel-colored stallion shook out its charcoal mane letting out a proud winy as he trotted fearlessly up to the dragon. The dark girl, Hazle slid from the dragon and over to the hours before taking a lump of... gold? Out of her pocket and feeding it to the horse.

"Did you miss me?" The horse shook its head gratefully and took a step back from the short girl snorting at the question. "I'll get a ride back with Arion, does anyone want to come with?" At the question all the people still seated on the dragon quickly shook their heads, a few turned a little green.

"Be careful," the one with glasses said as Hazle lifted herself onto the beings bareback. She nodded to him the spoke to the horse and they were off. Artemis could now tell why some of them looked sick. The horse ran faster than anything the princess had seen before.

"What was that?" Thalia asked still looking in the forest which had now swallowed up the girl and horse.

"An Assero creature," Annabeth stated, and after seeing the blank looks on their faces she continued. "assero in Latin means to claim, to defend, to appropriate, to attach, or to join too. The animals are like spirit or soul guides. Or platonic soulmates. Everyone has one but it's the creature's decision to make themselves known to you. They also chose when and if ever to tell you their name. They are different for each person, and usually, come when you need them most." Annabeth then smiled before continuing. "Mine found me when I ran away from home."

"So everyone in the world has one?" Reyna asked astonished.

"Yes, everyone with magic is born with one. And technically, we are all magic, some just have close to none or chose to hate and ignore it. An Assero pair is made up of an Assero mortal and Assero creature"

"What is your animal?" a new voice chimed in. All eyes turned to see that Athena had finally woken up. The girl started intensely at Annabeth expecting an answer. "Do you know their name?"

"Yes I have met mine, I do not know his real name but everyone calls him Bobbito, meaning small Bob. He looks like a small saber tooth tiger, but is quite nice to everyone." Annabeth said smiling even more at the thought of the small cat.

"But how did you know?" Athena asked leaning towards the blond girl with suspicions eyes.

"They always talk to you the first time, you have a connection with them and they may talk to you again, and well, you, ah-, you just know, " She said shrugging. Athena tilted her head to the side giving the taller girl a look hoping that she would continue. But before Annabeth could continue, a loud hissy snarl filled the surrounding air.

One of the teens let out a curse before yelling to them to get on the dragon if they wanted to live.

"What is that?" Anthea demanded.

"One of the oldest and powerful dragons that still live around here, and he does not like visitors," Nico said as he reached out a hand to help pull the three on. But Zoë hadn't moved from where she was standing.

"Zoë, we should go," Artemis said grabbing her friend's hand pulling her towards the smaller dragon.

"He won't hurt us, he won't hurt me ," Zoë said quietly turning to look at Artemis. "I promise Ladon won't hurt us."

"Are you sure that the thing trampling through the forest is Ladon?"

"Yes, I know him, he won't hurt us, please don't leave, trust me," Zoë said turning to look deeply into the younger girl's eyes.

"Okay, I trust you," Artemis said turning to the sound of the dragon tramping through the words keeping her hand intertwined with Zoë's. Neith seemed to want to pull away.

"What are you guys doing! Your gonna get melted into a pile of sizzling mush!" Leo shouted. Seconds later the dragon broke through the top of the trees flatting some of the greenery in the process. The dragon's serpentine body was thicker than a booster rocket, and his bright scales shimmer like hot copper. He smelled of acid most likely because of the poisonous gas that streamed from his mouth and nostrils. But the actual liquid that the dragon was capable of spiting was worse. Artemis had seen first had the burns that the poison could cause.

But the worst part was the huge dragon's heads, where about sixty necks should have been, There were only angry read scards and seeped the top of the lumps. The huge dragon let out another shriek that caused Festus to back up flapping wildly. Ladon could sit on the golden dragon and crunch him if he so pleased.

"Ladon," Zoë said letting go of Artemis's hand and stepping forward towards the dragon causing the people behind her to start screaming at her to come back. "We won't hurt you," Zoë said softly. The dragon seemed to calm down at hearing and seeing Zoë. He brought his head down to her and breathed in her scent. After confirming it was her, he brought a few of his heads down to wrap around the girl and pull her away from the others.

Zoë laughed and said something else to the dragon that caused him to look up and stare at the group with unblinking eyes. After a minute of staring at the group, Lando pulled away and allowed Zoë to walk back to Artemis.

"He doesn't like people getting too close," Zoë said looking past Artemis as the group on top of the dragon whose all wore shocked expressions. "He wants them to leave him alone but he won't hurt anyone."

"How did you do that?" Percy asked breaking the two out of their world.

"I've known Ladon almost my whole life, he would never hurt me. I just had to explain the situation."

"You, talked to him?" Will said shocked, "Just like, walked up to him and asked him not to kill us, and he listened?"

"Yes? Why is that so shocking?" Zoë asked though not letting the others see how confused and uncomfortable with the attention she was. But Artemis grew up with her and could read her like a book.

"Dragons will only ever listen to their Assero mortal, and even then... they don't back down easily," Annabeth stated not moving from her spot beside Percy.

"Ladon's my Assero..." Zoë mumbled turning to look back at the huge dragon. He responded by bringing a few of the remaining heads up to Zoë to nuzzle her. After a few minutes of stunned silence, a voice broke the trance.

"So, do you want to camp with up and learn more about who you are?" Artemis saw that it was the tiny pale kid that had spoken. He appeared to be sixteen, the same as Will, though the ravenett was significantly shorter.

"Who we are ?" Reyna asked slowly turning to look at Thalia who stood next to her with her spear still out.

He looked at the women still on the ground then shrugged and said simply, "Magic."

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Okay so let me clarify, Assero creatures are animals or mythical beings that are platonic soulmates/familiar/BFF/Spirt guides for mortal creatures which are called Assero Mortals.

Example (Annabeth): "My Assero is a cat I named Bobbito because he has yet to talk to me." They are magic and could be 1,000 years old or 7. Assero pairs share a connection/bond and can tell when the other needs them, though it's like 90% of the time the Assero creature popping up and being like "You good my dude?" Some are more friendly and interactive like Bobbito and Pipers. Some are more mysterious and antisocial like Bianca's and Artemis's

#zartemis #zoë nightshade #artemis #fantasy #fantasy AU #fanfic #fanfiction #royalty au #magic #lots of words #notes ao3 #read on ao3 #ao3 fanfic

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fireandseaweed · 6 years

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Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat || Annabeth, Celia, Caspian, Leo, Maia, Percy, Wally and Wes

Eight demigods get a mysterious invitation to a rave that doesn’t exactly go according to plan. [ @thrillofthechase, @ofastrcls, @sonoftriton, @abrakaravadra, @centurionmaiacruz, @spellbindingbeefcake, @deathkid-dropout ]

Percy had received the invitation. It had come in a thick parchment envelope, his first name written in full in neat cursive on the front of it, and inside was a single scrap of parchment with an address and a time. 1920, Second Street, 23:45. He wasn’t quite sure what it had meant, but he had slipped out of the city before curfew and driven across to the warehouse. Riptide was tucked into his back pocket and his watch that Tyson had given to him was strapped to his wrist just incase everything happened. But as his jeep slid to a halt in front of the warehouse, he couldn’t help but notice that there were a lot of other demigods here too, not exactly what he had expected. Holding his parchment between his fingers, he shrugged. “You guys all get one too?”

Celia had been quite surprised when the invitation arrived. Not only was the card completely in braille and on fancy paper, but so was the envelope, meaning she was probably not supposed to tell anyone about the affair. How she was supposed to get to the venue had been a little bit of a problem, but when Wes had seen her with her invitation, they’d approached her and offered to be her guide, which she’d gladly accepted. She’d buy them a drink as thanks later. A short while before the party (if that was what it even was) was supposed to start, they found themselves standing outside the venue waiting for some others they knew. “Did the rest bail-” she started to say, but she soon heard hurried footsteps and a familiar voice, so she cut herself off. “Percy! We did. Any idea what this is?”

Wes hadn't known what to make of their invitation. All that it read was their name, a time, and an address. Wes had become disinterested in parties a few years ago, but after having missed the Open Hearth and subsequent raid, they felt obligated to attend this mysterious event-- a sort of penance for not having been there for their best friend in a time of chaos. Of course, they had no idea whether or not Blossom had gotten a similar invitation, but they were still intent on going regardless. Thank the gods Celia had received a similar invite. Wes hated going alone to these things, and they would be lying if they weren't at least slightly cautious due to the mysterious nature of the invitations. When they arrived and the others they had known were (theoretically) coming weren't around, Celia's voice mirrored their thoughts. They were prepared to answer until she was interrupted by the approach of a stranger -- in Wes' experience -- whose name was apparently Percy. Offhandedly they wondered if he was the Percy everyone had always chattered about at Camp Half-Blood like he was some massive celebrity. Not that Wes cared either way. They didn't want to interject, however, content to listen to the pair's conversation and thankful that Celia had answered for them already.

Caspian had received the invitation that morning when he opened the front door. It lay there, mysteriously, his name written neatly on the front. His mind raced, trying to figure out who it would be from, was it from New Rome? Or was it maybe from home. He tore the package open and revealed an invitation. It took him a short while to decipher the piece of paper, but when he did, it intrigued him. Was he already well known enough to be invited to parties? The next question that crossed his mind was how he’d get to the venue. His instinct was to ask Percy if he had been invited and ask for a lift, but after being used to doing things alone for so long, Caspian felt that perhaps he should figure this one out by himself. In the past week that he’d been at camp, exploring, he’d come across the stables. Perhaps he could ask a pegasus to escort him to the venue and return without anyone knowing. This is exactly what he did. Although it wasn’t exactly legal, it felt exhilarating and he enjoyed every second of it. He arrived at the venue only to see that Percy had been invited, along with a few other demigods. He walked up to a group that seemed to be forming, “Hello.” A bright smile on his face, speaking in english so that everyone would understand.

Nodding gently, Percy smiled at Caspian, Wes and Celia. “Hey guys, Celia, Cas, and” he nodded at Wes before flipping his note over in his hands and shrugging, “I don’t know a thing about this,” he said looking at it thoughtfully, “in fact I almost didn’t come, but then again after everything that I’ve been through and done, well I realise that when you get something like this it isn’t always a good idea to ignore it.” He paused and shrugged once more, the bass rattling through the walls of the warehouse and laser blaring out of the door whenever it was opened. “I guess we should go inside maybe?”

Wally saw the invitation slipped under his apartment door. With everything that was going on, he had raced to the door, wondering who had just sent him the anonymous invite. But whoever had sent it was gone by the time he got to opening the door. Wally read over the piece of paper, realizing it was meant for him and not Z. It seemed the invite was only for himself. Wally took a good half hour wondering what to do, but decided on going. Bringing along a sword and his spellbook, the demigod wasn’t about to take any chances. He arrived at the Warehouse a while later, seeing a few other people outside what was the warehouse he was to come to. It was seeing Percy there that made him feel safe to forward. “Percy, hey!” He nodded to Caspian too, smiling. “Hey there, dude. What’s going on here?”

Celia figured if it was a party, it was a hell of a great distraction from the crap the Senate was throwing at all of them recently. She still hadn’t gone to talk to them about her status, which she knew was just delaying the inevitable, so this would certainly take her mind off the whole ordeal, even though she felt guilty for not dragging Puck along. “I have to admit it was a bit scary when all I got was a time and place. It’s like the movies, you know? ‘Show up or die!’” She cracked a grin, but it hid a whole lot of confusion and uncertainty. She felt around for Wes’ arm awkwardly, so she wouldn’t trip on any stairs or poke people in their calves with her cane when they walked in. “Hello!” she quipped at the new voices in the group, most of which she hadn’t heard before. The music in the background was loud, but she decided to ignore it and hopefully even lose herself in it for the night.

Caspian had been to a few parties before, but that was a story for another time. Besides, he had a few good party tricks up his sleeve. Parties normally consisted of dancing and substances that put you into a trance somehow. He felt constrained by his language and didn’t feel like talking, so instead, he agreed with Percy’s prompt, “Maybe there are more people we know inside?” He only cared if one person was there really, but at the same time, he was willing to meet new people, maybe get lost in himself. Excitement filled his body and without waiting, he boldly headed towards the door, an almost-skip in his step. He had dressed well, copying outfits he had seen off the internet and reality programmes. As he entered, the strobe lights stunned him for a second, his eyes adapting to the brightness and flashing. The venue didn’t seem too dark to him, but that could have something to do with his advanced eyesight. The music hit him and he couldn’t help but move to the beat. “Are we going to dance?” He asked to whoever had followed him in.

Caspian led the group of them inside and Percy followed after, there wasn’t even anyone on the door checking for ID and judging by the state of the warehouse, the graffiti and what looked like a bar that was selling pills, he surmised that this wasn’t the most legal rave. The music was somehow even louder in here and he could barely hear a thing that Caspian had said, shaking his head at his young relative he pointed towards the bar and ordered a beer. They handed him a bottle and he took a sip. “I wonder who it was that invited us all,” he said quietly, more to himself than to anyone else, his bottle hanging loosely from his left hand, Riptide anxiously spinning through his fingers on his right, still as a pen. “I haven’t been to anything like this in years,” he said finally, having gravitated back towards the group of them from New Rome, “hell it has been a long time since I’ve even visited Club Olympus.”

As soon as she stepped inside, Celia felt a rush of - well, something. Something good. The music blared in her ears, some thick smoke, combined with the scent of not-too-legal substances filled her nostrils and she was immediately overwhelmed, clinging onto Wes’ arm for stability, even as she felt some the bodies of the other people who entered with them slip away. Everything screamed ‘this is illegal, the Senate will skin you alive!’ at her, but Celia was enchanted by it all. She wanted to dance, but she had no idea if other people were dancing, so she just followed wherever Wes led her, which she assumed was the bar, because she was put on a chair. “Someone order me anything, I’ll pay you back,” she half-yelled at the group to make herself understood through the music. “I have no idea who, but I thank them. I think we all needed this.”

Wally walked in with the group, staying close by Percy and Caspian’s side. The blasts of music made everything feel like it was vibrating. The art on the walls told him this was the more wild side of California, something he didn’t really believe existed. “How many people know about this place?” It was more of a general question. But when he entered the building, Wally couldn’t help but smile. Thoughts of danger - a more extreme and monstrous danger, not the kind of danger that dealt with drinking and drugs, left his mind. “Well . . . where do we get drinks?” He looked over to a bar and moved. “Caspian, you ever have alcohol?”

Leo needed a distraction, the last few weeks had been a lot for him. He’d always been a pretty sensitive person and these situations were not easy for those who had a lot of emotions. To say that his curiosity was piqued when he received the invitation was an understatement. It, also, served as the perfect distraction for the night. He’d go into the rave pretty comfortably, this was certainly not his first time around an event like this. He spotted the big group of demigods after he ordered a ridiculously fruity drink and waved. So he wasn’t the only one invited, that made sense. “Hey!” He said with big grin. He came over with a joint behind his ear, his eyes a bit bloodshot. “Looks like this is a bit of a New Rome reunion, what’s up dudes?”

Caspian was half expecting Percy to pull off to the side, he didn’t seem like that sort of guy anyway. Reluctantly he changed direction too and headed towards the bar where he saw Percy order a bottle of something and considered getting something, but he had no idea what. “I don’t know.” He replied honestly, he had no idea if the stuff back home could be considered alcohol or not. “But get me something good and I’ll be able to answer that for you.” A smirk across his face, speaking in ancient Greek to Wally. “Get one for her too.” He motioned towards Celia, now speaking in english to whomever could hear him. “Hello. I am Caspian. How are you?” He held out his hand for her to shake it, not knowing that she was unable to see him.

Percy ordered several more drinks and handed them to Leo, Celia, Wes, Caspian and Wally. Taking a long drink from his beer, he did his best to stay alert, trying to enjoy the music (although it was not really his music and was much too loud) and just trying his very best to blow off some steam. Swallowing his mouthful of beer, he turned to the group and did his best to have a good time. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves and Percy couldn’t help but feel bothered about everything that was happening back home. The Bill was making their lives almost impossible and he could only see things getting worse, but right now was not the time to tackle that. “I can’t believe we all got invites,” he shouted though he doubted that anyone would have been able to properly hear them, “doesn’t anyone else think that that is a little weird?” he frowned. “Almost like they wanted us here for a reason.”

Wally looked around, relaxing against the bar. He looked over to Percy, thanking him for the drink, though his gratitude was drowned out by the music. His eyes scanned the area, his head leaning to the side to hear what Percy had said. He took a sip of whatever it was Percy had ordered him. Not bad, he thought, tipping more back down his throat. “I don’t know, seems like it could be a monster trap. But if it is, they got their work cut out for them, dude.” Wally was wondering if he should have brought Z along. If they were about to face some monsters, Z’s powers would have come in handy.

Maia had been startled when she’d found the embossed letter with her name, time, and an address, slipped underneath her door when she’d returned to her room for the night. There was nothing else on the paper, only that. Given the current… situation, Maia thought it would be best to go straight to the Praetors and see what they wanted to do. But, since it was outside of the city, they’d believed it best if she went to go check it out on the down-low. Which was why she was now at a weird, definitely illegal rave-thing. The knife she kept holstered in her boot rubbed against her ankle as she made her way through the crowd, doing her best not to get elbowed in the face or dragged into some drug-fueled dance circle. As she walked, Maia noticed a small cluster of familiar faces. What were they doing here? Hrm. Walking over, she waved awkwardly. “Sooo… you guys got one of these things too?” She said, holding up the invitation. “I think they made a mistake with me.” Maia mumbled, gesturing to the very apparent alcohol and drug use that was going on around her.

When a drink was pushed into her hand, Celia shouted a ‘thank you’ towards the general direction of the bartender, then flashed a smile at where she assumed her friends were sitting. She had no idea who ordered it for her, but she was grateful. When there was a momentary silence ━ well, no one spoke, but the music blared on ━ she realized the introduction was directed towards her. “Nice to meet you, Caspian! I’m Celia. Little confused, but it’s alright.” She stuck out her hand, unaware that his was already hanging in the air somewhere. “Okay, but why would they bring only a few of us here? Monsters wouldn’t go all out like this, would they? Doesn’t make any sense.” At least the monsters Celia had faced were just gross, stupid and out for demigod blood. “Hey, Maia? Is that you?”

Annabeth had arrived alongside Percy though thus far— she’d kept quiet in favor of taking in the surroundings and trying to figure out exactly what is was she was getting into. At the same time, she was very much on the same wavelength as Percy, wondering exactly why they’d all gotten the same anonymous invitation to the same place. It all seemed rather strange. She’d already decided to keep herself to only a couple of drinks until she was certain there was nothing wrong with what was happening here. Perhaps she was over-paranoid, but one didn’t make it this far in the demigod world without being relatively cautious. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have some fun. Of course, Percy had already gotten her drink, knowing by now what it was she liked, and as she took a sip of it she smiled her thanks over the top of the glass at him. “At least now I know exactly who in Camp is willing to accept an entirely random invitation to the middle of nowhere,” she said to no one in particular.

It was actually starting to become a bit of fun, with Annabeth and Caspian and everyone else here, Percy found himself relax just slightly. He still didn’t trust the invitations and he couldn’t help but feel on edge. Smirking gently at Annabeth’s remark, Percy grunted with laughter and shrugged. “We’re demigods, doing reckless and impulsive things is what we are biologically programmed to do,” he smirked brightly and shrugged, “we can’t help it.” It was tragically good timing, because as soon as he finished speaking he heard the doors crash open. As monsters began to swarm the rave, screams were taken up by the other people in the rave. “Well,” Percy said with a sad sigh as he counted a manticore and two cyclops, “that was fun, knew that this was too good to be true though.” There were more monsters than Percy could count. This wasn’t going to go very well was it?

The sigh that came from Annabeth as the monsters stormed the rave was rather loud. Of course any hope of having an easy evening was over...though if she was being honest— fighting monsters wasn’t the least fun thing she could do with her time. Taking a mental note of who was present, she was fairly certain most of them, if not all, were quite able to hold their own. She hadn’t brought her drakon sword to the rave, as it was rather bulky and flashy...even for a rave. But if she hadn’t brought along a few daggers and a garrote wire….she wouldn’t be Annabeth Chase. Already she was drawing one of them, looking to the others with a good-natured challenging glance. “First one to kill five monsters gets coffee on me.”

Maia was about to reply to Celia when she heard screams. As she glanced around Maia’s eyes fell on two cyclopes and her blood froze. Oh gods. No, no, no. Angling herself in front of Celis, she drew a knife from her boot, and grasped the crystal she wore around her neck. “Celia monsters! We have a group of 3 at our 9 o’clock, 200 feet away. Manticore, 2 o’clock, far off. Maia said, her eyes flitting across the room as she grasped her knife, doing her best to figure out the best strategy for such close combat.

As the monsters stormed into the rave, Percy found himself wondering what it was exactly that the mortals were seeing right now. He wasn’t sure that it would’ve been any better than seeing all of those monsters. Pulling the lid off of Riptide, he watched as the blade sprung into existence. A second later his shield was revolving outwards from his watch, just in time because as it sprang outwards he heard a volley of spikes ricochet off of his shield. Springing in front of Celia, Maia and Annabeth. “Three cyclops, a manticore, make that five cyclops,” he lost count again. Springing forward at a cyclops, he hacked its left hand off in a shower of ichor before catching a blow with his shield. “That’s one, four to go…” he smirked brightly, feeling alive in the moment as the battle raged around him.

There has always been a desire in Leo that they would be able to stop fighting and live in peace. This desire made many people question his capabilities, especially when paired with their knowledge of him as an artist. He found it funny that so many people often forget that he was in the first cohort and has been for sixteen years. He knew that they could handle this. The amount of monsters surrounding them was concerning, but Leo pushed down any anxiety he held in his chest. He smiled at the chaos, letting it wash over him and fuel his little known powers. He visualized a circle forming around the group of demigods, its energy pushing outward away from them. His power created almost ring of distraction for the monsters; lights blinding them, extremely loud noises, anything that could disorient them. While those inside the circle could still see and hear the lights, it was far less, giving them an upper hand. Using his power like this was a game of true concentration, but Leo still took out a hidden dagger, he couldn’t let himself stand there unarmed. Even if it wasn’t likely he’d be able to control this and actually fight.

Annabeth heard Maia’s suggestion of a formation, and though she admired the Roman Legion’s organization, she didn’t quite think this the best place for them. Though the Greeks present had spent time in the Legion, she was fairly certain at least Caspian would be entirely foreign to such things, not even having been placed in a Cohort yet. Annabeth had sat down and memorized them one day, highly intrigued by the tactics of the Legion, but it was most likely she was the exception rather than the rule. Maia, of course, was an amazing Centurion, but this wasn’t a Cohort. “Not everyone knows that, Maia!” she said over the din that Leo had caused. It was rather awe inspiring to behold, and though some might think it not useful, disorientating the enemy was always a plus. Such a plus, that as Annabeth darted forwards, a dagger flashing in each hand, it was easy to stab a cyclops through the chest as it clung stupidly to its eyes— trying to block the light flooding it’s eyes that Leo had caused. A few moments later, the cyclops burst into golden dust. She moved onto the next, her movements fluid and fast, as if battle was where she belonged. Shooting Percy a little smirk before saying, “Tied for first!” Then she was calling back to her comrades once more. “Pair up! Leo, keep Celia in the center of your circle!” She didn’t want to discredit the daughter of Asteria, but in honesty— she wasn’t familiar with how comfortable the girl was with fighting after her accident years ago. Better to be safe than sorry. Annabeth could apologize for any stepped on toes or hurt feelings later.

Caspian hadn’t been worried about monsters showing up, so when they burst through the door, he wasn’t expecting it at all. As the volley of spikes came towards them, he lifted himself over the bar counter and took shelter there. The effort to get over the counter was not what he had expected, and the only thing he could blame was gravity. He wasn’t used to fighting on land but he had a few experiences. His eyes flicked over the scene in front of him, wondering what he should do. He was probably the least experienced here, but he wasn’t going to let that get to him. His eyes fell upon a sink that was behind the bar, he concentrated really hard, imagining the water erupting from them, not nothing happened. In fact, his gut didn’t feel the presence of water at all. The water must have been turned off for some reason, and now Caspian became anxious. “Percy, I don’t have a weapon!” He called out, using his hand to shield his eyes from the bright light. He turned around, looking for bottles of water instead, but alas, nothing. “We’re also kinda land-locked here. I can’t find any water!” He then started to rummage through the bars things, looking for anything that he could use to his advantage.

After a brief, very brief moment of shock, Celia sprang to her feet and took out her sword, which she was suddenly very grateful to have brought along. As Maia steadied her and gave her very precise directions, and as Annabeth yelled to keep her in the middle, she was suddenly filled with a great urge to prove herself. This was the perfect opportunity to show how much she’d learned, to show them exactly why the fifth was right to have taken her back. The music made it very, very hard to focus, especially since she mostly depended on her hearing, but the thud of the steps of the monsters (probably the cyclopes) resonated through the ground to her feet. She gritted her teeth and advanced. “I’m fine,” she shouted at Annabeth, keeping her sword close to her body like she was taught. Then when the roar of a single monster became louder than the others, his step almost right in front of her, she stabbed once - straight through its gut. After a very satisfying grunt, the familiar dust descended on her, a feeling that she probably shouldn’t have enjoyed as much as she did.

Percy whirled around Riptide flashing left and right as he parried a strike from a manticores tail before leaping over a punch that hurtled towards him from a cyclops. He heard Caspian’s shouts but he was a little busy with problems of his own. As the manticore’s tail lashed out and the spikes bounced off of his shield (Tyson had made some upgrades) Percy watched Celia dispatch a cyclops and decided to follow suit. Stepping inside of the guard of one of them, he leaped, slapped it in the face with his shield and drove the tip of Riptide into its neck, a shower of ichor covered him, but he was already back on the floor, rolling away from the manticore. “We need to move out of the middle of the warehouse,” he shouted, “we’re going to get surrounded if we’re not careful.” Pushing the monster’s back with his shield, he slowly made his way towards the door.

Maia’s cheeks warmed in embarrassment when Annabeth called her out-- right. Greeks, different cohorts, and Leo. Mierda. Maia ducked and rolled as the monsters charged towards them, dodging the wild attacks with ease as she focused on a different plan. Analyzing the room, she saw the beady eye of a Cyclops glaring at her and fear swelled inside the pit of her stomach. Percy was right though, they needed to get out of here. “I can distract them!” She shouted. Biting her cheek, Maia grasped her crystal and focused on the anxiety and cold that bubbled inside her. It was easier to feel her powers than all the times she’d practiced, the adrenaline and fear aiding her abilities. In an instant, she vanished. Without missing a beat, Maia sprinted through the crowd and jumped up on a table, launching herself into the air and slammed her knife into that disgusting eye. The monster disintegrated into dust and she found herself falling. Letting her momentum carry her, Maia tucked and rolled when she hit the ground before popping up. “Any bright ideas on that manticore?” She shouted, hoping that the others could figure out she was talking to them.

With Percy, and everyone actually, already occupied, Caspian decided that he couldn’t wait for someone to hand him a weapon, he had to take action, by himself. Behind the bar, he had established a temporary ‘safe space’, but he wasn’t exactly being on the offence. He finally came across a copper pipe under the bar, using all his strength, the managed to break it off from it’s other connections. He was used to working with the resistance of water, making him just that much stronger when it came to being on land. Aiming at a nearby serpentine monster, he threw the pipe through the air, like a javelin, and it struck the monster in the head, leave a cloud of dust where it stood. He needed something more useful, something that had more than one use. He jumped the counter and rejoined the group, not sure what to do as he didn’t have much experience with land monsters, but ready to help when needed.

Wes couldn’t say they were surprised when a hoard of monsters burst through the doors. Okay-- maybe a bit startled, but if they had learned anything about the demigod world since they’d run straight into it, you’d best be ready for the unexpected. They had been hesitant at first to leave Celia’s side -- they’d volunteered as her guide, after all. But once Leo’s circle had been cast, they felt more confident breaking away to join the offensive. In the chaos, Wes had chosen to use their gladius rather than going immediately for their weapon of choice. With everyone dashing around, the risk was simply too great. They helped despatch a cyclops, a harpy (or at least it looked like a harpy but they hadn’t encountered one before), and another one of the serpentine monsters Caspian had impressively speared in the head. They were all moving back towards the door, but Maia was right; they had to do something about that manticore. With the way it was throwing spikes everywhere, someone was bound to get seriously injured. “I might have one,” they called out over the noise. “Cover me!” It must have looked unbelievably stupid when Wes stashed their gladius and started weaving their way through the crowd of monsters toward the manticore, but they wanted to be sure they were distanced enough from everyone else to avoid causing collateral damage. As soon as they had a clear shot, they unclasped their necklace -- the black crescent moon one that was everpresent no matter their attire -- and whipped the chain out as if they intended to throw the pendant across the room. But as soon as it hit the end of the chain, the entire item transformed into a solid black scythe of Stygian iron. “Hey fugly!” The child of Thanatos whistled to get the beast’s attention, still sprinting towards it. As soon as it rounded on them, bounding forward like they hoped it would, Wes waited to the last possible second, barely missing a fatal bite to the head, to drop and slide underneath its body like they’d done a million times in those dreaded grade school baseball games. All it took then was a long swipe of the scythe’s blade as they sprung to their feet, spilling ichor from the manticore’s underbelly like a burst balloon. The nice thing about Stygian iron was that there wouldn’t be a cloud of dust to deal with. Wes could feel their weapon absorbing the monster’s essence, hopefully preventing its regeneration for good, but who really knew for sure with these things? They were dripping ichor once the deed was done, yet didn’t seem to care as they shook out their hair and called over to the others again with a cautious half-grin on their face. “That was good, right?”

The protective circle seemed to do a lot of good, because Celia had not been caught in the crossfire of manticore spikes just yet. She was unable to find out the precise location of another monster, the music and shouts and battle sounds still messing with her ears, but she knew a lot more had joined the small group of others that were attacking them. The circle wasn’t moving, she was aware of that because she’d stabbed through it when she attacked the cyclops and felt the energy ripple, so staying inside it was probably the best option. “Cover me,” Wes shouted, and Celia recognized that opportunity for what it was: she placed her gladius back in its sheath and closed her eyes; however stupid that must’ve seemed, it was a reflex. Her fingers started tingling, and soon, the smell of smoke, combined with something like welding fumes and hot metal, the aromas of space, filled her nose, telling her that the smokescreen started to pour out from between her fingers. She knew from experience that it was black and filled with something that looked like stardust, most of which was supposed to settle in the eyes of the monsters, but it was probably going to affect all of her friends more or less ━ she hadn’t practised that enough just yet. The manticore screeched (had someone killed the bitch, finally?) and the cyclopes grunted: now every one of the monsters was supposedly equal to her, which meant she had an advantage. She unsheathed her gladius again, focused on the sounds of battle, and slowly backed away, hoping it was the right direction to get away from the center like Percy had said.

Maia had managed to regroup with the others and watched in surprise when Wes whipped out a scythe from nowhere. ¿Qué mierda? Shaking it off, she focused on holding onto her power as she scanned the area. Aside from the panic and terror, something caught her eye—a group of people who seemed to be… making out in the corner? Startled, she faded back into the visible spectrum as she looked confused. As Maia squinted in confusion, she realized that one of the women had a very hairy looking leg? “¿Qué es estos?” She swore as she realized that a group of three empousai had taken advantage of the chaos to prey on some of the unfortunate ravers. “Empousai, 11 o clock, sucking face. Where did these monsters even come from?” She yelled as she looked around, trying to find something that might be a better weapon than her knife. Gods, she wished she’d brought her bow. Spotting a barstool next to her, she picked it up and smashed it against the side of the bar. One of the metal legs broke free and she grasped it one hand, her knife in the other.

Wes was thankful for Celia’s smokescreen. It had been the perfect cover to get them safely to the their target -- at least as safely as dashing through a throng of monsters could be. And thank the gods their father had given them the advantage of sight in the darkness. They weren’t sure if they would have been able to complete their attack without it. A few moments after they’d cleared their hair and face of ichor as best they could, they heard someone else’s words shouting about empousai. Now that was a monster Wes was familiar with. They jogged over to where the shouting woman stood. “The Underworld,” they smirked vaguely, reasoning that a bit of humor might lessen the stress. Or maybe not. It varied between listeners. Regardless, they switched back to a serious attitude the second after. “But someone had to have given them an entrance. Monsters don’t burst free like this of their own accord. And here,” they had seen the broken piece of stool she was intending to use, but Wes had their scythe now and didn’t mind offering up their gladius to the other for the fight. They knew she was a Centurion from their training drills, but her name escaped them. “You go left, I take right and meet in the middle?” They spun their scythe throughout the suggestion, loosening up their wrist for the brawl ahead.

“Keep going! We’ll try and pull them away so you can get out.” Percy shouted to Maia and the rest of the demigods. With Annabeth at his back, Percy couldn’t help but feel more comfortable then usual. They’d been fighting together for so long that it was basic instinct now. As they moved together, they cut a path through the monsters. Heading for a fire exit on the other side of the room in a hope that they could draw some away. As Wes dispatched the manticore and Celia dropped the smoke, Percy darted left and right. Using his shield as a weapon almost as much as Riptide, he slammed it into an Empousai’s front teeth and then dismembered her. As she dissolved into dust he slipped away from her and cut through a harpy’s left wing and then darted forward to knock her to the floor with his shield. In the commotion a cyclops lumbered their way. Crouching down, Percy motioned at the cyclops and held out his shield.

Taking the gladius, Maia nodded in thanks. She hadn’t expected that, but gods would a gladius do a lot more than a busted bar stool. “Sounds like a plan to me.” Maia nodded and ran towards the left. Percy seemed to have things on lock and honestly, she didn’t want to get in his way. As she ran, she focused on the crystal, now wrapped around her wrist. “Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo, por favor dame la fuerza…” She mumbled under her breath and did her best to kick her invisibility back into gear. But, she was already tired from her first use and her second attempt had mixed effects. She flickered in and out of the visible spectrum. Whatever, it would be good enough. As Maia ran towards the empousa, she watched as the demon tossed aside the blood-drained man and began to swirl the Mist around her. “I don’t know what she’s doing, but I don’t like it.” Maia yelled towards Wes, hoping that they were seeing what she was.

Wes bolted right as they'd said they would. Now that they'd been fighting for awhile, it seemed like everyone had finally gotten a grip on things -- at least in their mode of fighting. Wes had opted for a similar approach to Maia, slipping into an invisible cover. But the saw the flickering of her form to their left and frowned in silent worry. They didn't know what that crystal was for exactly, but they knew that invisibility had its limits and it was best not to push them. "Yeah, me neither," Wes called back, fading into sight. They weren't close enough to stop her yet, but they could stall her. Wes had let go of their invisibility completely in exchange for another power. They hadn't exercised this one very often, but now seemed like the appropriate situation. Drawing on the energy of the recent kill housed in their scythe, Wes focused on the corpse of the empousa's victim. Though it took a second or two, the result was no less effective when the man suddenly reached out and clamped a hand around the demon's ankle. The unexpected revival of her victim was enough of a shock that whatever she'd been doing with the Mist was temporarily ignored. Hopefully it would give Wes and Maia enough time to make their move.

Wally had, for lack of better wording, been put out for a spell. When the monsters first attacked, one of the beasts knocked themselves right over Wally, causing his forehead to meet the countertop of the bar. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that he had regained consciousness, only to see the demigods fighting off multiple different breeds of creatures. He was glad now that he’d brought his sword; pissed too for not having been able to finish his drink. Wally felt his head as he stood up, trying to be as alert as possible. From the corner of his eye, Wally saw a blurred figure heading towards him. On instinct his hand reached out, creating a solid wall of force between the two. He looked over and as his vision cleared, he could see that it was a cyclops who’d come for him. Wally exhaled shakily, running for cover with the other demigods. His eyes went alight, glowing violet as he ran through incantations in his head.

Annabeth didn’t need to ask to know that the shield was meant for her. In fact, she didn’t even wonder for the slightest second as to what Percy might be doing— she’d realized what was happening from the second he’d begun to lower himself towards the ground, and started picking up speed as she sprinted towards him. Soon she was upon Percy, and without hesitation she launched herself onto his proffered shield, using it as a means of catapulting herself even further into the air than any normal jump would have carried her. For a moment it seemed as if time had slowed, and the vital points of the monsters closest to her became glaringly obvious to her trained eye. With all the commotion on the floor, they wouldn’t be expecting death from above. Many seemed to forget that in addition to being a daughter of wisdom, she was also a daughter of battle. The sentiment was proven as she landed on the shoulders of a cyclops, stabbing it directly in the eye with one of her daggers. Before the monster could disintegrate into golden dust, she launched herself into the air once more, flipping off of his shoulders to once again take to the skies. As she righted out of the manuvoer, she let a dagger fly, and it found it’s mark in the jugular of a harpy, as if a magnet had drawn it there. As she drew closer to the floor, she unraveled the garrote wire from her wrist where it had been disguised as a stylish bracelet, hooking it across the neck of an empousa directly below her. Gravity did the rest of the work as Annabeth landed effortlessly back on the floor, though the fire-breathing goat lady was dragged to the ground by the neck, strangled until she too burst into golden dust. With a smirk towards Percy she chimed out, “I think it’s only fair that you get something like a third of the credit for those kills. But there’s still time for someone to win a coffee from me.”

Ducking underneath a swipe from a harpy that had swooped low at him, Percy’s sword cut through it like it was little more than butter and it soon dissolved into nothing more than a pile of golden dust. Weaving through monsters, Percy noticed a puddle in the corner of the warehouse and pulled the water from it towards him, hardening it into a hundred spikes that cut through three monsters as they weren’t there. “Even without your meager bonus points, I think that just put me ahead by one,” he replied with a bright smirk. The water now diluted heavily with monster ichor, Percy hurled the puddle towards Caspian, hoping that he’d be able to use it to protect himself. He’d been keeping half an eye on his nephew, he didn’t want anything to happen to the kid. But he knew that he could handle himself. Dodging backwards, Percy and Annabeth cut their way towards the fire exit, as Annabeth garotted the empousai, Percy kicked off of the wall of the warehouse and brought his shield slamming down into the front teeth of a hellhound, which probably hurt him more than the monster. Killing anything that looked like Mrs O’Leary had never been harder but he knew that the more of them he was able to take care of, the less of them his team would have to look out for and right now he was determined to show the Romans exactly what it was that they were missing out on. “That’s two now, you’ve got to catch up Annabeth!” he was all but crowing now as he ducked, weaved and rolled between the monsters. Fighting like a demon as he sliced through whatever crossed his path, the fire exit almost in sight now. The group were moving towards the exit which was good as they could plan their escape soon, or deal with what was left of the monsters.

Leo had seen many fights in his life, especially growing up as he did. It took quite a bit to impress him at this point. And yet, Percy and Annabeth did. He wasn’t exactly surprised, considering they did save the world… A few times. Still the grace and trust they showed was something that Leo didn’t see often. They would be a good example of trust for the Legion, he thought, then grimaced. He wasn’t apart of the Legion anymore, the Greeks had been barred from it. The Legion didn’t deserve to see or understand the way those two fought together. Leo attempted to stay in the middle of the group, hoping to lend his powers to them still. He kept the ring up, the lights were proving to blind the monsters relatively well, but added another element to the chaos. Barstools and other large objects began to move, slowly at first, into a position that would end up tripping those who weren’t looking down. Leo was rather thankful that he had endlessly practiced his powers when he was younger, as he was able to direct the objects to certain monsters, rather than randomly.

Maia continued on her pursuit of the empousa, gladius poised at the ready to slice through the monster. But, she faltered as she took in what appeared out of the Mist that swirled around the empousa. No, no, no. What the actual… How in the name of all that was holy did a hydra get in here? “No mames… ¿Qué chingados?” She swore loudly. If it was a figment of the Mist, she had to get to the empousa. But, in the few seconds that she’d taken her eyes off the weird succubus thing, it had darted away. “Is this really there? Anyone?” She asked, backing away as the hydra’s heads began to hiss and snarl.

Celia was vaguely aware of the fact that the room had grown a bit hotter when Maia screamed about empousai entering the building. Great. Her smokescreen was already dispatched, and it would take some time before she gained enough power to do it again, just in case it had faded, so she was back to hand-to-hand combat, with fiery vampire goat ladies this time. She seemed to be left alone, the sounds of combat distant through the weird circle of protection, but she couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. There was a distinct hissing noise to her left, multiple ones, in fact, and all her demigod senses screamed ‘hydra’. But she hadn’t heard its footsteps, and hydras weren’t supposed to just materialize in front of her. She was aware of Maia swearing pretty close to her, so she shouted. “Maia! I think it’s fake! I didn’t hear it coming! If it’s a hydra, it can’t just materialize!” Yeah, Celia probably looked like an idiot just standing there with her sword, like she was in the eye of a hurricane of monsters, but she was going to help in any way she could, even if it wasn’t much.

Caspian stayed with the crowd, not sure what to do. He could throw a few punches but that wouldn’t do anything against a monster. He considered summoning a storm, but being so far from the ocean, he had no idea what kind of impact it would have or if it would help his friends or rather just harm them. At the mention of a hydra, his mind was thrown back to when he had been surfing with Percy. He was filled with hope and knew that they’d be able to get out of this somehow. “If we could get outside, I may be able to help!” He called out to whomever was listening, although he was certain everyone was too busy to hear him and who was he to suggest anything anyway, he had just got to camp. He brushed the sweat from his brow, and that’s when he had the idea. It was gross, it was unhygienic, but hey, it was a matter of life and death. He concentrated on all the water that was around him in the form of sweat and imagined it forming into a spear-like icicle. He had power when it came to shaping and control small amounts of water, but don’t ask him to pull a hydra backwards through the ocean. Once the icicle had formed, he sent it flying through the air and through monsters, striking them in their weak spots and turning them into dust. It wasn’t long though before the icicle would be useless and he’d no longer have a weapon.

As Cas sent the icicle spinning through the monsters, it eventually boomeranged towards Percy and Annabeth. Catching the strangely smelling water with his mind, Percy wrapped it round him for a moment as he used it to dispatch of a telekhine that snapped and growled at him. As it dissolved into a patch of golden dust, Percy watched as the majority of the monsters followed them towards the fire exit. Leaping through it, he pulled Annabeth through it and slammed it shut. Holding it there for a moment. He was almost thrown off of the door as the monsters slammed into it after them, but he was able to drive a spare pipe through the handle to prevent it from opening again before running to the main doors with Annabeth, grasping either side he drove it open and shouted to the main group. “Come on, everybody out!”

To be honest, Annabeth was somewhat miffed when Percy had pulled her from the fray. There was little place the daughter of Athena felt more at home and more alive than on a battlefield, even if it was meant to be a rave. “Hey! I was still killing things!” she said in protest. Though before she’d even said the words, she knew Percy had made the right choice. They needed to get everyone out of her safely. After her and Percy’s combo move, she’d gone off into the thick of the monsters, slashing through more flesh and bone than she could keep track of. But now after following Percy around to the main doors, she cupped her hands around her mouth as she yelled in a way that would easily carry across the din of everything. “To me! Come on! Let’s move!” The monsters still seemed rather preoccupied with getting through the fire escape door, not yet realizing that the majority of their prey were escaping a different way.

This situation was one of the worst Caspian had ever been in. His sweat-cicle had finally shattered and with no weapon, he was forced to stand there, dodging monster attacks. He watched at Percy and Annabeth left the building, his heart dropping for a moment, wondering if they’d come back. Surely they would? He moved closer to the centre of the circle that the demigods had formed and kept an open eye, scanning for a weapon and trying to think of a way out. It wasn’t until Percy opened the main doors that Caspian felt some hope of truly making it out alive. With Annabeth and Percy calling to them, he urged the group to move towards the door. “Friends! Let us go to the doors!” His english broken but clear, hoping that everyone would understand him.

Wes and Maia had slain the empousai and their Mist-made hydra just as they had set out to do. The lives of a few unfortunate ravers were spared; however, it looked like the monsters were still coming, and they couldn’t fight the beasts off all night. Multiple shouts urging them to exit had made it through the sounds of battle. Wes missed the first call, but the second caught their ear from across the room. After finishing off the hellhound in their path, the child of Thanatos retracted their weapon to its dormant form and clasped the chain around their neck. They darted toward the others, utilizing their invisibility once more to avoid conflict along the way. But before they arrived at the door, they made one last stop in the circle to fulfill the duty they had offered earlier that night. “If I wound your pride at all, sorry in advance.” Without room for question or comment, the Wes swept Celia up into their arms princess-style and extended their power to her until they reached the doors and they set her back down again. The exertion was starting to hit hard, leaving them a little dizzy where they stood, but there was surely enough strength in them to make an escape with the group. They just hoped the others would catch up before the monsters did.

Having been in his own fight against a shadow cat, Wally had just a nice place for the blade of his sword: right along the belly of the feline monster. A low hiss escaped it’s maw as it made one last attempt to bite off Wally’s face. The purple cat slumped down onto him, leaving him stuck under the African cat. Wally rubbed the sweat off his brow and tried to steady his breathing. Slowly, Wally was able to push the deceased off of him and go to his feet. He snapped his fingers, putting the sword away into his back pocket. “Fuck, this is getting old, ya know?” Speaking to nobody in particular, Wally made his way out of the warehouse, sliding his back against a wall and resting.

Stepping through the door, Percy raised his shield and drove monsters away from the remaining escaping demigods. Holding the line until the last moment, he did everything in his power to drive off the monsters that were coming in from the direction that they’d locked them out of. “Everyone out!” he shouted before shattering the pipes filled with water around him. As he and the remaining monsters were drenched, he wiped up a slight storm to drive the monsters back, forcing the water to spiral and shards of ice to cut into anything that came near, as he stepped out of the warehouse, he slammed the door shut and froze the water in place, giving them time to escape. “Well, everyone needs to get back to the city now before more of those monsters show up, we can work out who invited us all to this death trap later on.”

#f&gwriting #para #eat sleep rave repeat #P; wally #p: wes #p: annabeth #p: celia #p: caspian #p: leo #p: maia #chatzy para

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nicolewrites · 7 years

Text

on life, living, and home

Because PJO angst seems to help with writing slumps and I love Piper McLean a little too much

Rating: T Genre: Romance, Angst, Hurt/Comfort Characters: [Piper McLean and Jason Grace], Annabeth Chase, Leo Valdez Words: 6,290

Post war, things change. People grow apart and back together and Piper plants her roots. An ode to Piper McLean / post hoo, ignores toa / jasiper / angst/fluff/and a whole mess of things

AO3 | FFN

The first time Jason makes the trip across the country to New Rome, he pulls her close and kisses her fiercely. They stay tangled in each other as long as they can, until Nyssa calls for Jason because the ship is leaving and he needs to go. Still, he pulls away and kisses her forehead before sliding out of her grasp.

"See you in two weeks," he says. He's smiling as he boards the ship behind the others.

Annabeth is at her side as they watch the Argo III lift into the air. She can see Jason on the upper deck and she waves. He waves back and she smiles. He's only going to be gone two weeks anyways, and then he'll be back.

He calls her when he lands in New Rome and they talk for hours about the littlest things and Piper feels good. They're good.

It's only two weeks.

The second time is more difficult. There is some real construction starting on temples both in New Rome and in Camp Half-Blood, but the larger ones are being built in California, due to space constraints in the Greek Camp. This means that Jason, the Pontifex Maximus, will be gone for longer. He'd been working mostly out of Camp Half-Blood, but Camp Jupiter needs him for a while.

She kisses his cheek and he kisses her forehead and squeezes her hand. "See you in a month," she says and he nods.

Annabeth's in school again now, so Piper sees him off on her own, but he still waves down at her from the deck and she smiles. Piper watches the ship disappear into the clouds and pushes away the creeping sense of loneliness. A month isn't even that long if she really thinks about it.

Jason calls her when he lands, again, and they talk for about an hour before duty calls to steal him away. Piper bites her lip and lets him go.

It's only a month.

He stays in New Rome for almost two months. He keeps her updated, as he should, and they still talk almost every night. She still misses him and sometimes they IM so she can see his face. He looks good and when they disconnect she almost wishes she didn't see him. The ache becomes almost physical, but he comes back.

He steps off the ship and she leaps at him. He catches her and they kiss. Everything still feels right and she uncoils in his arms. She missed him. His hand holds hers tightly and his arms tuck around her whenever he can.

He missed her.

They're good, and they stay good for three months. Everything is still quiet and natural between them, but Piper is scared he'll leave again.

She knows she can't be like Annabeth. Annabeth and Percy don't go anywhere without each other anymore. They're each other's support system and rightfully so. Piper knows she can't cling to Jason because duty calls. She wasn't the one who went through hell, and he's not the one who followed her down.

Piper comforts Annabeth when she has nightmares and sings her to sleep using just enough Charmspeak to keep away the bad dreams. Then she goes back to her own cabin and lies awake at night because she's gotten really good at making other people's nightmares go away, but hers are here to stay.

At least this way, she thinks, her makeup skills are improving. Jason can't even pick up on the bags under her eyes as he kisses her good morning every day.

It's a win, she thinks.

Three months is nothing new, she tries to convince herself.

Jason and her hands are linked and swinging between them as they walk to the launch point. Piper's feet drag to a stop as she reaches the place where she stops. Jason looks down at her and his blue eyes are twinkling affectionately.

"I love you," she says. It's the truth and the words feel as natural as breathing.

"You too," he says softly. He kisses her and then pulls away, brushing some of her hair back as he does.

He flies straight to the top of the ship this time and salutes her. Piper laughs and blows him a kiss. It still feels good. He waves again as they take off and she shuffles her weight between her feet.

She knows exactly how long the flight should take, and she gives him thirty minutes after his supposed arrival, but he doesn't call her. She dials him first and he picks up on the second ring.

"Hey," he greets. He sounds tired, but content. "I was about to call you."

She chasing away her sinking doubt and cradles the phone to her ear. "Slow landing today?" she asks patiently.

They're okay.

It's just three months.

Piper leaves the ceramics class she was taking early and walks back to her cabin alone. There's something pressing on her chest and she doesn't know what it is. Her first instinct is to ask Annabeth, but this doesn't seem appropriate for a phone call, and with the distance between her and her best friend, it's not plausible for a face-to-face chat.

Annabeth and, subsequently, Percy aren't at Camp Half-Blood anymore. They're full timing it in Manhattan now because Annabeth's in her dream school and Percy's following her and he's figuring it out. Piper misses them both.

She sits down on her bunk and tucks her feet underneath her. The weight on her chest lifts and she feels grief hit her like a truck.

She's lonely.

It feels like someone is suffocating her and she gasps feebly as tears well in her eyes. Annabeth and Percy aren't at camp anymore. Reyna, Frank and Hazel are permanently at Camp Jupiter. Jason is currently across the country and almost too busy to talk to her. And Leo is dead.

And then she's crying because she misses him and because it hasn't even been a year and how does everyone else seem so okay with the fact that her partner in crime is dead and the fact nobody else is struggling this hard with getting their lives back together.

She breaks down almost completely, but as soon as she hears someone coming, she dries her eyes and swallows roughly.

She's fine.

Jason will be home in a month.

He's home almost two months late, as seems to be expected, but he tells her he's staying for a while.

Things get better when he's here. He works a lot, but at the end of the day, he's there for her so she doesn't feel as much of the cripplingly loneliness and grief she has been feeling. He holds her hand as they stroll along the edge of the lake and watch the new campers have canoe races. They make an alliance that actually lets Cabin 10 capture the flag for almost the first time ever.

Piper feels better. Her nightmares aren't as bad when Jason's at camp, but she still feels like there's something he's not telling her. She tries to convince herself it's nothing, but when Jason disappears to talk to Chiron for an hour and says nothing about it to her, she doubts herself. It certainly doesn't make her feel better about anything.

Two weeks before Jason's scheduled to go back to New Rome, Piper has another nightmare. She wakes up hopelessly tangled in her bedsheets and hears the gentle rattle of the window screens. Her chest is covered in a thin sheen of sweat and she can't forget the absolute terror she had been feeling.

First was Leo, disappearing in a ball of fire, and then Annabeth and Percy dropping over a dark, horrible cliff. Frank and Hazel are swallowed by the earth. Piper's drowning. She's had this nightmare many times. It's the memories of being the in the Nymphaeum. Except in her dreams, she's alone.

This is the worst one she's had. The water is sucking her downwards and she can see Jason standing on a ledge above her. He is looking down at her and he looks regal and impartial. She reaches for him, but he steps back and the water swallows Piper whole.

She knows it wasn't real, but the chilling thought of Jason leaving her to drown sends shivers down her spine. He would never. Even if he didn't know her, he would have tried to save her. That's who he is, and she knows that her dream is just a nightmare that will never come true.

Their farewell is short. Jason's lips barely brush against hers before he's dashing towards the ship. Piper rubs her hands together and watches him go. Her chest aches. It was going to be okay. In six hours, Jason will have landed in Camp Jupiter and he'll call her. They'll talk on the phone for a bit and then he'll get some work done and she'll go to bed.

Only, an unsettling feeling nestles in her stomach, he didn't say he'd call her. In fact, his only goodbye had been a simple 'bye' before he darted away. Piper exhales slowly and watches the ship lift off. She scans the upper deck for him, but she doesn't see him. She's upset. He always waves goodbye.

She waits the six hours the journey is supposed to take in some sort of a trance. She's staring at a map for the next week's Capture the Flag strategy, but she can't focus. She keeps glancing at the Monster-Proof phone that the Hephaestus cabin developed and she sighs. She leaves her siblings with the plan and steps out of the cabin, looking for privacy.

She's dialling Jason's number before she really knows what she's doing. It rings once. Then again. And again. Piper feels sick. It rings again. And then finally:

"Hey, it's Jason," his voice cuts in.

Piper lets out a shuddering sigh of relief. "Hey," she starts, but is cut off.

"Sorry I couldn't take your call," he continues. "Leave a message." The voice disappears and Piper feels pain wrench through her heart. He's never let her go to his voicemail before.

The tone chimes and she pauses. "Hey Jase," she says slowly. "Just wanted to make sure everything went okay on the trip over. Call me." She ends the call and sinks to the ground, sitting on the steps of her cabin.

It's highly likely that her siblings are spying on her from inside, but she can't bring herself to care. She's still so lost. Jason has never not answered the phone when she called him, even if it's way too early in the morning because the time change screwed her up. Something is wrong.

Piper feels her sadness slide to the back of her mind as frustration and anger spring forth. She knows he's been keeping something from her, but this is something else entirely. He's supposed to be the charming, romantic one, and that usually means answering his phone with a silly romantic joke.

Piper feels sick again.

She wakes up in the morning and checks her phone. She has a missed call. She tiredly fumbles with her phone and pulls up the call log. It's from Jason.

The time of the call is 2:03 AM. Or 11:03 PM in California.

He knew she wouldn't be up. She doesn't even know why he bothered to call her if he knew she would be asleep. Angry, Piper realises it's because he didn't want her to be awake. He didn't want to actually talk to her. She deletes his voicemail without listening to it and drops her phone onto her bed.

She'll deal with it later. She has a Capture the Flag game to strategize.

Annabeth comes by to visit later that week. She glances curiously at Piper's phone as it buzzes with a text from Jason. Piper ignores it and focuses on the slim gold band on Annabeth's finger. It isn't an engagement ring, but it's a promise and from Percy Jackson, it's the same thing.

"Okay, Piper, enough of this," Annabeth finally says. "Something is wrong. You're not talking to Jason, so he's taken to texting me," she holds up her phone as proof and Piper looks away, "and you're actually doing work for your GED, so something is wrong."

"It's probably stupid," she mumbles. "He didn't really say goodbye before he left and he's not even trying to talk to me about it. All of his texts are updates about Camp Jupiter, or about Hazel, Frank, and Reyna, but none of them are actually about us. And yeah, it's Jason, so he's a little oblivious, but he's always been romantic and caring even when he is oblivious."

"Piper," Annabeth sooths. "That's not stupid at all. Just call him. Tell him how you're feeling."

Piper shakes her head. "That's the first thing I tried."

He brings her flowers. Piper blinks at the beautiful boy holding the beautiful lilies on her cabin doorstep. He looks sorry and Piper pushes the flowers away and hugs him.

"I'm so sorry," he murmurs.

"Me too."

They're okay.

Something is wrong.

They're out of sync. They can't tell what the other is trying to say or do, and it's frustrating. They argue, for real, and Piper doesn't talk to him for two days. He apologises, but the argument had been her fault and she's frustrated he's always trying to coddle her and make himself the bad guy.

The Thursday before he leaves again ends in a screaming match. Piper throws her hands up and turns to walk away, but Jason catches her.

"Piper," he starts. His voice is much gentler than it had been. She turns. "What are we doing?" he asks.

Piper feels panic swell around her. "I thought we were having an argument, as couples do."

Jason shakes his head. "Pipes, we've been fighting a lot more than we used to. We never used to yell at each other and lately, that's all we can do."

A cold stone lodges itself in her throat. "You want to take a break, don't you?"

"I just," he starts, stepping towards her, "I feel like we need some time apart to figure this whole thing out. And we're both off to university soon and this just doesn't feel like it's supposed to, right now."

Her voice is small and she feels defeated. "Okay." She wants to scream at him that she loves him and that she doesn't want to be apart and that they just need to work this thing out, but he looks relieved she has agreed and she bites away her protests. Her heart breaks feebly in her chest. She loves him, but she'll give him space.

"Okay," he replies, calmly.

It's just a break, she tells herself as her heart cries out in opposition.

Everyone walks on eggshells around her and Piper hates it. It's a break, she repeats to herself. He just wants a break, and they'll be back together soon. She's tired of the sympathetic glances thrown her way because they don't know the whole truth and she does. She loves Jason and he loves her.

It's a break.

After two weeks, she misses him. She wakes up lonely in the middle of the night and misses the smell of rain that lingers when she's around him. She wants to kiss him and be wrapped up in his arms. She's in her car on the way back from the college she's been attending part-time when her resolve breaks.

She pulls over and dials his number.

"Hey, it's Jason. Sorry I couldn't take your call. Leave a message."

She exhales. "It's me. Call me when you get this."

She hangs up.

Percy and Annabeth are waiting for her on the crest of the hill. Their hands are joined, but as she gets out of her car, worry knots in her stomach. They should both be in school, but they're here. She strides towards them and Annabeth pulls away from Percy, stepping closer to her.

"Piper," her friend starts.

Dread sets in.

Piper looks at Percy because he's a terrible liar. "He's gone again, isn't he?" Percy evades her gaze. Everything hurts. He left her without even saying goodbye. It was supposed to be a break. He was supposed to return her call and they were supposed to agree they wanted to get back together and Jason would say that he wasn't going back to Camp Jupiter.

She feels alone.

"He's going to school in New Rome. He said he's been trying to tell you, but the time was never right," Annabeth says gently, but the words cut like knives. She and Jason have barely talked since they separated. Everything they said to each other just seemed to grate and they couldn't get along.

As if the fates are shining a cruel spotlight on her, her phone buzzes with a text. It's from Jason. He's apologising for leaving without saying goodbye, but that he needs to do this and that maybe space will be good for them and that they should probably try seeing other people too. Some cruel part of Piper says it's because of Reyna, but she knows the praetor would never dream of it, so this is all Jason.

She tries to tell herself that she would have told him, if she had been in his position. But, as hard as she wishes she could believe that, with how far apart they'd grown and how many secrets there were between them, Piper can't blame him for leaving.

She hates herself for it.

Percy and Annabeth are looking at her like she's made of glass. She passes them and heads straight to her cabin, keeping her head up and her eyes dry. She closes the door behind her and takes two steps forward before everything hits her and she just melts into a puddle on the floor.

She's alone now. Just her and the nightmares that won't leave her alone.

Annabeth leaves her the name of a demigod psychiatrist that she and Percy are going to. Apparently, she's very good with almost everything quest-related, but they're still not talking about Tartarus. Annabeth says that Piper should see her. She says it will help with the nightmares.

Piper shakes her head. She bears her nightmares like a badge of honour.

Hero of Olympus. One of the Seven. Daughter of Aphrodite.

Haunted by death.

The next month sucks. It sucks more than anything in her life has ever sucked. Everything hurts all the time and she finds she has no energy to do anything. She wallows in self-pity and loathes others when they try to pity her.

Mitchell sits down on her bunk next to her one day and looks at her. "You're going to die like this," he says simply. "You're letting this consume you and ruin your life. You beat a Primordial and this is how you're going to spend the rest of your life. This isn't living, Piper, this is existing. There's a difference."

She looks at him. She thinks she might understand, at least a little.

Piper goes to her ceramics class. She hates ceramics, she really does, but she goes. She sits with Lacey and Mitchell and they talk about frivolous things and it feels almost normal. Piper is awful at the actual creating part, but she likes to watch the others do it. Their hands are delicate as they mold the clay and Piper imagines Zeus and the other gods molding mortals in their image.

She smiles again.

Pottery is useless to her because hers always cracks and breaks, but she's talking to people again. It's not Jason, but it's better than no one.

She's working on her Bachelor's now too. Bachelor's of Arts in Psychology, because it's the study of people and human behaviour and Piper, as a daughter of Aphrodite, gets people. It makes sense and it's something that feels good in this world of hers that is so darkened by nightmares.

She writes down her dreams and, slowly, they don't petrify her as much as they used to. She offers advice to her siblings and to younger campers. She even leads a campfire one night. The best nights are the ones where she sits on her bunk with her youngest half-siblings and hums calming melodies that let the whole cabin sleep without dreams of the battle with Gaea.

She has a purpose now. She's a mother hen, and she's looking after people. In three years she'll have her psychology degree and as she treats the nightmares of her peers, she realises that Annabeth was onto something when she recommended Piper see a demigod psychiatrist. She wants to do medical school and she knows that she'll have to work her ass off, but maybe it will be worth it.

Almost a year after their break started and Jason drifted across the country, Piper still misses him. It hurts.

Piper studies. She practically disappears into her books, but she passes. With A's across the board in first year, the future seems limitless.

Except, she still wants to hold Jason's hand.

In second year, Piper decides to stay on campus. She goes back to Camp on weekends, but she's mostly on campus. She feels almost normal amongst the mortals because they haven't yet figured out who her dad is. Returning to Camp is a constant reminder of why she's doing this, and each week she buries herself in her studies.

She sees the young frightened demigods arriving on Half-Blood Hill with their satyr guides and remembers how confused and messed up she was when she was fifteen. This is worth it, she tells herself as she drives back to school.

Still, she knows she's growing up and she won't be able to keep going back to Camp forever. Some people talk about moving to New Rome, but Piper won't think of it. It took her most of her life to finally put down roots somewhere, but now she has a home in New York and she doesn't plan on leaving it so soon.

Annabeth announces plans to build New Athens when she graduates. Piper cries in relief because it's everything she's ever wanted. She wishes Jason could see it, but he's still across the country, studying hard, as always.

It's a Saturday in November when Piper's world is once again completely thrown for a loop because of a boy. Most of the Aphrodite campers are off training, so Piper has the cabin almost exclusively to herself, except for a napping Mitchell. She's writing about one of her dreams when someone knocks on the cabin door.

Piper opens the door and her brain dies.

Leo is standing there, looking older and the same all at once. His clothes are smudged with dirt and there's a streak of oil across her cheek. But he's here and he's very much alive. A tiny, mischievous smile starts to curl up his lips, but Piper's brain restarts and she slams the door in his face.

Neither of them really expects her to react as she does, so a few seconds later, Leo raps on the door again lightly. Piper bites her tongue. This is real. He's alive.

She opens the door again and this time, Leo's not alone. There's a girl standing just behind him. She has cinnamon hair and freckles and golden eyes. She's the living version of the sketches Hazel had drawn and as the image of Leo and Calypso sinks into her brain, she sees Jason too. He's standing next to Leo, hand planted on his shoulder like an older brother, and he's smiling like he used to.

She blinks and Jason is gone. Leo and Calypso are alone on the porch of Cabin Ten. Piper slams the door again.

Leo's hair catches fire during dinner and Piper watches as the flames jump between curly strands of hair. Calypso isn't even bothered and she punches Leo in the arm. The flames extinguish and he grins.

The three of them are sitting alone at a table and Piper can't remember saying a word since they sat down. Calypso has done most of the talking. She's still a bit confused by everything, but Piper likes her. She's warm and genuine and Leo's obviously in love with her.

Piper just doesn't understand how he's here.

She is so happy he's back. He is her best friend and every day he was gone hurt. She had just gotten so good at accepting the pain that the raw anger that had filled her when she realized he was alive had startled her. She had yelled at him until she ran out of breath and she was crying and he was hugging her.

Percy and Annabeth are on their way over to see Leo. They're as disbelieving as Piper was. Hazel and Frank IMed him earlier in the day and Piper had gotten to enjoy some tears on everyone's behalf.

Jason was flying back to see Leo.

Calypso touches Piper hand tentatively and Piper glances at the titaness. "I'm sorry we took so long to get home. I told him you all would miss him," she says.

Piper blinks.

Leo's lips twitch and he takes another bite of his food. "I knew you'd all be fine." He swallows nothing and looks Piper square in the eye. "But," he starts, "what the hell happened between you and Jason? You two are soulmates."

"We grew apart and agreed to take a break," Piper answers honestly. The words hurt and she realises that she has resented herself for agreeing to the break since it happened. "He moved over there to do school. I stayed here."

She takes a bite of her food and swallows it. It burns dryly down her throat. Piper says nothing for the rest of the meal.

She watches from the Big House as Jason flies down from the deck of the Argo III, unable to wait for it to land, and pulls Leo into a bearhug. Her lips twitch as she watches her best friend and whatever Jason was to her break down.

Piper turns away and goes inside. Jason leaves three days later without a word exchanged between them.

Leo fits back into her life neatly, but Piper hates the fact that Leo keeps looking at her and asking where Jason went wrong. She always changes the subject.

One night, she finishes studying much later than she intends to and doesn't have the energy to drive back to her school. She sits on the couch in the living room of the Big House and looks around at the cheap Christmas decorations that Chiron has put up.

She's dialling a number she has memorized before she really knows what she's doing.

"Tristan McLean speaking," her father answers. It's his business voice and PIper knows that's because she's never called him on this phone before.

"Hey Dad," she says quietly.

"Piper?" he asks, shock heavy in his voice.

She smiles and looks around the living room of the Big House. Percy and Annabeth have a picture on the mantle, and there are a few others of demigods she doesn't know. She feels home, and for the first time in a while, she feels safe.

"Merry Christmas, Dad."

In February, Piper is making a weekend trip to Camp because Mitchell and Lacey apparently have someone new to the Aphrodite cabin to introduce to her. She drives along the twisting road to Half-Blood Hill and sees a terrible sight before her.

A group of monsters are trying to set fire to Thalia's tree. Peleus is restrained and there are several demigods fighting a losing battle. Reinforcements have to be on the way from the camp, but there's a chance they won't get there in time. She accelerates towards the fight, pulling to a stop just before it and jumping out of her car.

"Everybody stop!" she yells. Her words have the intended meaning and everyone, monsters and campers, freeze in place. "Lower your weapons," she commands. Her charmspeak is rusty, but it does the trick as weapons clatter to the dirt around here.

Piper looks down at the circle of cabins and the strawberry fields and the lake. Anger swells in her chest and she stares down the monsters. "You will leave here. You will never come back here. You will not harm another demigod in your life. This is my home. They are my family. I will destroy you if you ever forget my words."

The message is delivered so forcefully that the eyes of the monsters glaze over and they release Peleus immediately. The dragon proceeds to eat the few nearest to him, but most turn and simply walk away. The unarmed demigods clustered around the tree are staring at her in amazement.

Piper straightens. "This is my home. It should be yours too."

She gets her degree. Annabeth creates the initial plans for New Athens. Piper gets into medical school. Percy proposes. Leo and Calypso go travelling again.

Piper becomes a legend at camp. She's the most reachable of the Seven and people approach her with everything. She becomes known as 'Camp Mom' and she embraces it. These kids are everything that she loves. This place is her home, and if her destiny is to be a pillar of support for them, she's more than willing to be.

She tells stories at campfires and gives advice and teaches makeup tips. She teaches knife fighting and tells people not to stress too much about prophecies because life is worth living without wondering where the fates are pulling you. Life is worth deciding your own path in.

Aphrodite gives her a blessing again, in front of the entire camp, but physically changes nothing and Piper has never felt more love for her mother. It's a message from the goddess of love that Piper is perfect that way she is, and she feels it.

When she watches a young son of Hermes with blonde hair and blue eyes pick up a sword for the first time, she turns away.

She's living. She's home. She feels free.

But she still misses him.

She's borrowing Chiron's office again to study. A light knock on the doorframe echoes through the otherwise silent room. She keeps typing on her report. She just needs to finish this sentence and then she'll deal with whatever this camper needs.

"One second," she says.

"Take your time," the reply comes. Piper freezes. As much as she wishes she could forget it, she'll never forget that voice and she looks up.

Jason's just like she remembers him: well groomed and beautiful and looking adorably bashful. She gapes at him.

"Sorry to drop in on you," he begins.

Piper tugs at her ponytail and waits for him to continue.

"I've heard about the work you're doing around here. You're probably the coolest adult in these kids' lives."

"They need someone," Piper admits. "If the gods won't be parents to their kids, someone needs to be."

"Piper, you don't need to mother all of them," Jason points out. He's teasing her, the light tone of voice indicates, and she smiles against her will.

"What are you doing here, Jason?" she asks finally.

He steps into the office. "I'm here to work with Annabeth on New Athens." He's not here for her. Of course not. "At least," he continues and she narrows her eyes, "that's what I want to say." Jason rubs his brow. "I'm here because I handled everything so badly between us. We fought. Everyone does and I still blew it out of proportion and asked you for a break and then moved halfway across the country without hardly any warning. I thought it was what I wanted, but every day, all I could think about was how much happier I'd be if you were there with me."

Piper is sure she's dreaming. Just as her life is finally going in the direction she wants it to, and now Jason's here, saying the things she had wished he would have said four years ago. "No," she interrupts. "You don't get to do this." She closes her eyes. "Jason, I'm building my life here! You left me five years ago, so you don't get to apologise now and say you've been thinking about me since then because you never came back."

She stands up from the desk and stares him down. "Do you know how badly I was hurting? Every day for four months after you left, I had nightmares. I thought it was going to kill me. I hated everything and I just wanted to be alone all the time even though much more alone time and I probably would have killed myself."

Jason remains quiet, but he looks pained.

"I moved on with my life," she continues. "I went to classes and I talked to people and it sucked because all I wanted was to talk to you, but I couldn't. I helped people with their nightmares and I talked to a psychiatrist and I saw how much good she could do for me and I just wanted to be that for someone else. So I worked my ass off in school so that I could go to medical school. I'm still in school now, but I'm helping people. I'm helping these kids have the childhood and teenage years that I wanted and I'm teaching them to live."

She shakes her head at Jason. "This is my home now. You don't get to come here and tell me you love me and make everything all sunshine and rainbows. Leo got a door to the face, and you're lucky you haven't received the same treatment."

Jason dips his head. "I'm sorry, Piper," he says. "I know when I'm not welcome, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry." He gives her one last heartbreaking smiling before he walks out and leaves her alone.

Piper sinks back into her chair and it takes every fibre of her being not to break into tears because she still loves him and she doesn't want him to leave again if he's finally ready to try. But, she tells herself, he has to earn it. He needs to prove that he's being serious about all of this.

A tear slips down her cheek. She loves him so much it hurts.

Piper shows up to dinner late as she usually does and heads towards the table that she's been sharing with Annabeth and Percy while they're at Camp because of New Athens. The pair is missing and Piper shakes her head. She sits down and is prepared to summon some food when someone pulls the chair out across from her.

She stares at Jason. He holds his hands up.

"I know you don't want me here, but I just want to show something to you. Annabeth and I finally finished the final drafts of New Athens and the first part is under construction right now. I think you're going to love it."

She purses her lips. He looks as excited as a little kid and Piper glances down at her empty plate before she stands. "Alright, show me," she orders.

The temple has white columns and spotless, shiny greek architecture that makes it look like it was brought in from the past. Jason invites her inside with a jerk of his head. Piper follows him warily.

The inside is unfinished, as the scaffolding around the interior indicates, but in the centre of it is a finished marble carving of a giant tree. It's a beautiful centrepiece and there's a plaque next to it that Jason stops in front of.

"Read it," he urges.

Piper reads it aloud. "New Athens: a place to call home. A place of peace and creativity and ingenuity. A haven for those who need it, and a family for those who desire it. A place to live, to learn to truly live, and to feel safe and loved." She smiles despite herself. "Jason, it's perfect."

He nods gently. "Annabeth drew up the temple, obviously, but I made this part," he says, gesturing to the plaque and the tree.

"Why now?" she asks. She wonders if he'll understand the sudden change, and to her pleasure, he does.

"Because I was so tired of feeling like the biggest idiot in the world every time you did something amazing. Because I was a stupid kid who didn't realise he was giving up the best thing he ever had. Because I knew that I needed something to prove to you that I was actually serious about all of this. Because the last five years have been a mistake and I didn't know how to say it, so I wanted to show you."

"And what makes now any different? I could have fought for you back then."

"And you didn't, because I didn't want you to. I wanted to protect you and I wanted you to have better than some son of the Big Three who would bring trouble anywhere that I went. I never gave up on you, Piper. I only ever gave up on myself."

Her chest is singing because she loves him and he loves her and she can feel it. Leo is right, and he always has been. Jason is the only one she'll ever love and maybe it's not perfect, not even good, but it could be. And home is a safe place full of possibility.

Piper turns to him.

"Welcome home."

Jason kisses her like he's never kissed her before and this time Piper knows there's no goodbye coming after.

She feels alive.

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dotshiiki · 7 years

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CoL, chpt 14

WARNING! This chapter is rated R for references to self-harm and allusions to mental illness and post-traumatic stress. Although the details are not explicit, I would still like to stress that if any of these issues are triggers for you, it might be better to skip this chapter!

XIV: NICO

Nico couldn't stop shivering.

He'd always avoided small spaces since he'd been trapped in Otis and Ephialtes' bronze jar, and Arachne's spider silk prison was a considerably tighter fit than the jar. Even after he was freed, he couldn't shake off the claustrophobic way the fibres had closed in on him, wrapping him progressively tighter in their iron grip.

And then there were their new companions. Percy and Annabeth were clearly overjoyed at Bob and Damasen's appearance. Nico knew he should be, too—Bob had been a long-time friend, one of the few he'd had in those lonely years between losing Bianca and finding Hazel—but the 'welcome back' he offered the Titan tasted like bile in his mouth.

Twice, now, Bob had come when someone had needed him. But why had he never come for Nico?

'Nico, friend,' Bob said in his rumbling voice, 'you are not good?'

'I'm fine.' Nico pushed the bitterness down. Stop being petty, he told himself.

Oh, but you always knew how to bear even the most trifling grudges! How many people have you blamed for things they couldn't control? The wailing souls in the Acheron gleefully supplied him with examples of all the times he'd lashed out with anger. At Percy. At Annabeth. At Jason. The list went on. Your heart is full of hatred. You're no better than us.

Shut up, Nico told them silently.

Will looked at him sharply. Obviously he didn't believe for a second Nico was fine, but he didn't push it.

'How did you and Damasen make it out of Chaos?' Annabeth asked. 'We hoped you would, but we didn't really know if it was actually possible.'

'Hm,' said Bob. He scratched his scruffy silver beard. 'Stars called our names.'

Damasen held out a twisted bundle of rope wound with a few silver arrows: the lines they'd left dangling into the pit of Chaos after pulling Percy and Annabeth up.

'You called for us in the dark of Night, Annabeth Chase,' he said. 'You called us back to who we were. Who we chose to be.'

'We chose us,' Bob said.

'You chose your own fate,' Annabeth translated.

'When we chose to fight by your side, it gave us an identity that was foreign to Tartarus. It gave us an identity to hold on to even in Chaos.'

Bob nodded. 'Tartarus could not collect our souls for his armour after all.'

Annabeth looked like there was more she wanted to ask about this, but she just said, 'Will you come with us now, then?'

'You picked a dangerous path, demigods,' Damasen said solemnly. 'The Caves of Night are not meant to be traversed by mortals.'

'We didn't have a choice,' Thalia said. 'And we're stronger than you think.'

'Perhaps. But what lies in these caves are not things that can be defeated by physical strength alone.' His eyes fell on Nico. 'I think you know this, young son of Hades.'

Nico looked away.

'Do you know another way, then?' Annabeth said hopefully. 'We have to get to the heart of Tartarus. The sooner the better.'

Bob and Damasen looked at each other.

'Caves are fastest,' Bob said. 'But full of spirits. They do not disturb Titans. I do not know if your minds can withstand it.'

'I've made it past them,' Nico said. 'Mimas brought me through these caves.'

Six pairs of eyes fixed on him curiously. Nico wanted to sink back into the shadows. He'd never spoken of this before. Not to Reyna, not to Will, not even to Hazel, to whom he'd outlined the essentials of his experience right after he'd gotten out of Tartarus the previous time.

No one knew how he'd been tricked by the crafty giant Mimas into thinking he'd found the Doors, only to tumble down a black chute, straight into the bowels of Tartarus. Or how Mimas and his band of gigantes had bound him and marched him through these caves before handing him over to the twin giants and their bronze jar.

He'd managed for years to suppress the visions that the cruel deities in the Caves of Night had presented him. But now he was back on the doorstep of those spirits, with the nightmares so close, they took no effort to recall.

'The spawn of Nyx make their homes in these caves,' Nico explained. 'We've only scratched the surface of it. She birthed all the primordial spirits that personify the darkest evils. Pandora's pithos, the jar that released those evils into the world—it was filled here.'

'Just more demons to fight, then,' Thalia said.

Nico wanted to smack the confidence off her freckled face. 'You don't understand,' he said flatly. 'They make you see—see things.'

They weren't things he could find words for. How could he possibly explain how the spirits of Nyx had turned him inside out and put his innermost feelings shamefully on display?

Once, he'd hoped that he could have shared his story with Percy and Annabeth. Then he'd realised their experience was different. No one who had never encountered the Caves of Night could possibly understand how it felt to come through them. They way they shattered you into a million pieces of your own shame.

You will always be alone, Nico di Angelo. Who would ever love you?

He remembered begging for mercy while Mimas howled with glee. In the end, Otis and Ephialtes hadn't needed to stuff him in the bronze jar. He'd crawled in by himself, broken and desperate to escape the horrors. The soundproof jar had given him a brief respite from Mimas's horror show, before he'd realised that in his weakness, he'd been enticed into another trap.

He'd never admitted it to anyone, but he hadn't turned to his pomegranate seeds as a ploy to survive. By the time he'd remembered he had them, he'd simply been grateful for the escape the death trance allowed him, even if it was into a mindless coma.

None of the other demigods on the Argo had even suspected during his time with them that he'd used the seeds occasionally to forget. To meditate until he was completely numb to his feelings. They'd barely noticed when he'd holed himself up, silent and still.

A hand fell on his shoulder. Expecting Will and not wanting his pity, he tried to shrug it away. But Annabeth's grip was firm.

'I remember Mimas. How he plays on your emotions,' she said. 'It's awful. I hated it, too. But he's not here now. And you are. You were strong enough to survive it once, and that's why you knew you could get us through again. You led us this far, Nico. We trust you. And we're in this together.'

You will always be alone.

Nico shook the voice out of his head again. He put his hand on top of Annabeth's. She smiled and squeezed his shoulder once, then let go.

'We will help to keep the spirits from attacking physically,' Damasen said. 'But their powers are beyond our control. Many have been driven mad by what they show—even the lesser monsters dare not venture here.'

'Take them spirally,' Bob suggested.

Damasen's rust-coloured eyes blinked slowly. 'Yes, that is a possibility.'

'Where are we going?' Annabeth asked. 'Will it still get us to the heart of Tartarus?'

'A small detour,' Bob promised. 'A rest stop.'

'With luck,' Damasen added, 'it will give some peace after…'

'Rest stop sounds good,' said Percy.

With Bob and Damasen in the lead, they plunged forward into the red-tinged darkness of the caves. The Acheron followed them at first, in a crescendo of wailing souls that soon reached a frenetic pitch of agony.

Suffer with us, Nico di Angelo! they screamed in his mind. Why should you escape punishment for your crimes?

Bianca sizzled up in a storm of electricity, clutching the tiny figurine of their father. Percy and Annabeth slipped from his hand and fell away into endless darkness. Bryce Lawrence faded into black obscurity. Octavian exploded in a firestorm.

Nico gritted his teeth until the insistent cries of 'Your fault! All your fault!' finally dulled to an accusing murmur when their path split from the river. The others wore varied expressions of relief at the reprieve, but Nico knew the Acheron's torments were child's play compared to what lay ahead of them.

They didn't have to wait long. A loud clang greeted them at an otherwise innocuous junction. Sprouting from an outcrop of rock was the upper body of a girl with ashen skin and cymbals in place of hands. Her hair grew in two plaited bundles that ended in thick, grey bobs. These beat against the cave walls in time with her clashing cymbal hands to create a booming rhythm that reverberated through Nico's whole body.

Her lips stretched into a wicked smile. Although she didn't speak, a dull whisper rose out of the darkness: 'What have we here?'

The last word echoed down the tunnels like a doorbell alerting the cave dwellers to their arrival. As it grew louder, the speaker fluttered down from the ceiling. She landed in front of Nico, her bat wings curving back around a golden trumpet that hung over her shoulder.

'I thought I heard visitors,' she hissed. Across her body, dozens of wagging tongues took up the chant: Visitors, visitors, VISITORS. Purple eyes dotted her feathery skin, running along her arms and torso. She had more ears than Nico could count: at least three pairs on her head alone, and more sprouting from her sides.

'All the better to hear you with,' one of her tongues told Nico.

Bob stepped in front of her. 'They're with us, Pheme,' he said.

Pheme laughed. 'I don't touch, Titan. I merely spread the news—all the news.' Her mouth curved viciously. 'And my siblings don't need to touch your…friends—' the word dripped with innuendo—'to devour them.'

'Keep moving,' Damasen ordered. 'Pheme spreads hearsay—her words travel like wildfire. The others will descend shortly. Bob and I will guard you, but we cannot carry you through if you stop.'

Passing Pheme was like walking through a high school hallway under the judgemental eyes of the entire student body. Gossip spewed from her numerous tongues, a flurry of speculation and recrimination.

That's the new kid. The weird one with the foreign accent.

He's not one of us.

The rumours grew more pointed, turning into barbed accusations about his personal life. It was just as Nico remembered from his first passage through this place—his secrets tossed around and dissected in persistent whispers that grew louder by the second.

I heard he's got a crush on a boy.

I heard it was Percy Jackson—like he'd ever have a chance! Jackson's no poof.

Did you hear what he got up to with that Solace kid? Bloody fag.

It had been bad enough the first time, with Pheme whispering his own shameful feelings into his ears. Now his old fears about coming out were on display again, only this time four other people—six if you counted Bob and Damasen—were privy to them, too. Even though it was no longer a big secret that he was gay, the torments he had endured while coming to terms with it were his. It was just like when Eros had laid him bare before Jason, forcing confessions from him that he hadn't been ready to give.

Even if his friends accepted him, it didn't mean he was comfortable having his intimate feelings on display. And the spirit of gossip and rumour was only the tip of the iceberg. The spirits who had been waiting in the wings burst forth, alerted by Pheme's herald. The personification of each of the seven sins gathered, projecting a movie of damnation onto the cave walls. Starring Nico in the leading role, it featured his darkest thoughts and his most lurid daydreams.

In a mad fury, he raised a skeleton army that slashed its way through Camp Half-Blood, leaving every camper dead at his feet.

He sat on an obsidian throne before a fire that grew from a pile of bones—souls he had sacrificed on the pyre—while the spirit of Bianca rose from the earth. Her lips were stained with blood and she cursed him for calling her back this way.

His body and Will's entwined, their hands wandering in a way that made Nico's cheeks burn with the knowledge that everyone could see this, too. And then the Will in the picture pushed him away and melted into a crowd of faces that were all contorted in identical disgust.

Nico wanted to curl into a ball and block everything out.

More spirits joined the fray: Apate, goddess of deceit, catalogued every lie he'd ever told—who could ever trust you after that? Momus, god of mockery, started up a litany of criticism against him—creepy, antisocial, a freak of nature. Oizys, goddess of depression, prophesied a hopeless future for him.

You're despicable. Worthless. Unlovable. You will always be alone, Nico di Angelo.

How many times had he hidden himself away, believing those very words? Even before he'd ever encountered Oizys and the others, loneliness had practically been part of his identity—Nico di Angelo, the different one, the rejected one. It had been all too easy for the spirits of Night to turn his mind to despair. He'd already been halfway there.

'He's not alone!' Will's voice was weak and shaky, but it pierced the cloak of anguish that Oizys drew over Nico.

Something stirred in Nico's memory.

'That's the problem with you,' Will scolded. 'You leave because you believe everyone is gonna reject you, even if they haven't. Maybe if you stayed, you'd find out that you're not alone.'

His eyes flew open.

'Nico, you were never alone. You—'

Will was cut off by a harsh whisper, although this one was softer, and Nico didn't understand the accusation: 'You flit from one handsome boy to another. Who can trust your pretty words when you speak them to everyone?'

Will made a choking noise and raised his hands to cover his ears. Nico understood then: it was Will the spirits were targeting. And maybe it was true, to some extent—his boyfriend was annoyingly prone to 'appreciating the scenery'—but Nico was surprised that Will secretly despised his own flirtatious nature. Not when it was essentially harmless—when it was so obvious that at his core lay a loyal heart.

Nico's eyes and ears were now open to all the painful secrets that were playing on the caves' cinema of shame. Percy and Annabeth in a violent fight. Thalia wrapped around a certain Roman ex-Praetor. Will ran the tip of a scalpel down his arm, not even flinching as blood blossomed on his light skin. Whether the images were real or imagined, Nico wasn't sure. It didn't matter—they were devised to strike where it cut the deepest.

And just as he'd been overwhelmed by the intensity of his own shame, his friends were each stuck in the quagmire of theirs.

Confronted with the image of himself standing on a blood-soaked battlefield strewn with mutilated bodies, Will trembled even harder than Nico had when he'd emerged from his spider prison. Percy stared in horror at a picture of himself at the vortex of a hurricane that consumed the world. Tears ran down Annabeth's face as she watched herself fall from a glittering masterpiece of a monument, dragging her friends with her as she tumbled from the spires towards a pit of fire. Thalia's fingernails dug into her cheeks at the sight of a car smashing into a tree, the driver—who had spiky black hair like hers—slumped against the steering wheel with blood trickling down her face.

Playing across this was a soundtrack of assassinations. Oizys called Will a coward and a weakling. Momus mocked Annabeth's ambitions. Pheme teased Thalia about her forbidden crush.

'I'm not alone,' Nico whispered. And he wasn't. They all had things to be ashamed of. They all had parts of themselves they wanted to bury where they would never see daylight—in the Caves of Night.

And watching some of his friends' twisted nightmares brought to life, he realised many of those things weren't unique to him after all.

'Nico, friend!' Bob urged. 'You must keep moving.'

Bob held his broom in front of him, crossed with Damasen's large stick to form an 'X' that kept the spirits physically at bay, like they'd promised. The sabre-tooth tiger prowled at Bob's heels, baring its teeth and snapping whenever a spirit got too close. But as Damasen had warned, they could not ward away the dark emotions the spirits had unleashed. Nor could they carry the demigods through the cave.

They had to pull themselves out of this.

'Will.' Nico placed his hands firmly on his boyfriend's shoulder. 'Remember how you ran into a Roman camp—into a whole freaking legion trained for war—with only two kids as back-up? That took guts.'

'I—'

'I don't care if you appreciate a decent hottie. Maybe you can even tell me who you find cute at Camp Jupiter and we'll compare notes when we get out of here. But we have to get out first. So snap out of it.'

Will raised his head. Tears clung to his eyelashes. Nico wanted to kiss them away. Instead, he lifted Will's arm and pressed his lips to the scar that ran from his elbow to his wrist—a scar Nico had always assumed he'd sustained in battle. 'We're gonna talk about this,' he said, wanting to reassure Will that he knew its true origin now, but wasn't condemning him for it, 'and it's gonna be okay.'

'I think that's my line,' Will said. It was a weak attempt at a joke and the laugh that accompanied it was thin and forced. Still, it was there. Will grimaced at the images still playing on the cave walls. 'I told you you weren't alone.'

'You were right.'

Will went to help Annabeth, who was curled up in a ball of misery. Nico moved on to Thalia.

Her eyes were fixed on a parade of people Apate accused her of abandoning—You led them to believe you cared, and what did you do?—while Pheme cackled for everyone to hear, You've been fantasising about a girl, an outsider, haven't you? Just wait till this gets back to your Hunters! Oizys foretold misery in her dolorous voice: It will never work; no one shall heal your immortal heart.

Nico wasn't sure where to start. It wasn't like he knew Thalia all that well.

He did know Reyna, though, and he was reasonably sure that was who Thalia secretly liked. He decided to start there.

'I got to know Reyna a lot when we were travelling together. I think you'd match, like Percy and Annabeth do. You guys could work.'

Thalia glowered at Nico. 'You don't know anything,' she snapped. 'Butt out! I don't need advice on my love life. Which I don't have.'

Her rebuttal sounded extremely familiar. Nico wondered where he'd come across the sentiment before. Then he remembered.

Diocletian's Palace.

Nico had pushed Jason's acceptance away when he'd first offered it. When you were convinced that something you felt was wrong, it was hard to believe that someone else might be willing to embrace it.

'Did you know your brother was the first person I came out to?' Well, he'd actually been forced to come out to Jason by a bully of a love god, but that wasn't really the point now. 'He was really decent about it. He let me decide when I wanted to tell anyone else. Even told me I was brave, though I sure as Hades didn't think so. We didn't talk about it, but having him know my secret and not judge it—I started thinking maybe it'd be okay to tell people after that.'

'Jason's a good kid,' Thalia said. Her eyes darted back to the cave wall. A blond two-year-old with electric blue eyes—the only feature the Grace siblings shared—reached out for her as she walked away. 'I left him behind. I thought he was dead, but I shouldn't have believed my mom. I should have found him. I left her behind, too. I left so many people.' She turned back to Nico. 'I left Bianca in the junkyard of the gods.'

Nico swallowed hard. 'Maybe you did, but that wasn't your fault. And Bianca—she didn't blame you.'

Thalia was silent. Nico didn't know if he had gotten through to her, but at least she was no longer clawing at her cheeks. Meanwhile, Will had spoken to Annabeth and together, they had lifted Percy out of his nightmares.

'We need to keep moving,' Nico said to all of them.

Slowly, painfully, they did. The taunting of the spirits didn't get any easier to bear, but Nico urged the others on every time they flagged, beaten down by the whispers and visions. Damasen led them along a wet and boggy path that ran uphill, such that they were practically crawling away from the spirits that trailed behind them.

Finally, they entered a wide cavern that was covered in swampy marshland and lit by a bright blue flame on a central altar. The spirits hissed and fled back down the path they'd come. For the first time since entering the Caves of Night, everything was blissfully silent.

'Are we—out?' Annabeth's voice was thick with exhaustion.

Bob shook his head. 'Not yet. But this is a rest stop.'

'The shrine of Eleos,' Damasen announced. 'Goddess of compassion.'

The puddles beneath their feet stung when they splashed through. Nico could tell from the faint, woeful hum that the marsh was fed by the River of Acheron, but the waters that pooled here sounded more remorseful than tormented.

The shrine sat on a circle of hard rock, rising several inches above the marsh. Behind the altar was a temple with an entrance so low that Nico, who was the smallest of the group, would have to crouch to enter it.

'Is the goddess here?' Will asked as they approached. 'Should we, um, make a sacrifice?'

'She won't appear,' said a soft voice. A tiny girl dressed in peacock blue emerged from the temple. A thin veil obscured her face. 'She has rarely stirred since the days of Athens.' The girl placed her palm on the altar. 'The world is somewhat lacking in compassion these days.'

'Is that why her shrine fell to Tartarus?' Thalia asked. Maybe she was thinking of Geras, ousted and banished when old age became reviled.

'It has always been here,' Damasen said. 'Eleos is a child of Nyx. A disappointment, rather like myself. I chose peace instead of war. She gives respite to the weary instead of suffering.'

'Yes,' said the girl in blue. 'I am her attendant. Eons ago, I was brought here on the Acheron. I have tended the shrine ever since.' She inclined her head towards Nico. 'Do you remember me, Nico di Angelo?'

'Er, no. Sorry. I don't think I've been here before.'

'No,' sighed the girl. 'No, you have not. But I touched your mind. I gave you peace.'

With her palms facing up, she spread her fingers towards the cavern ceiling. A sprinkle of water fell out of nowhere. Tiny droplets landed on their heads, as cool and refreshing as summer rain.

Nico remembered then the same touch during his first, despairing crawl through the Caves of Night. A brief respite, not enough to undo the damage of the spirits, but just enough to hold his mind together. It was a baptism of mercy, descending when he had needed it most.

This was the true nepenthe, a more powerful restorative than any potion they could ever manage to brew.

This girl had given it to him and he hadn't even known.

'Why?' he asked her. 'Why did you help me?'

'Perhaps because I, too, am a child of the Underworld. Perhaps as a child with two fathers, I empathised with your pain. Or perhaps it was because we share a name.'

She lifted her veil.

Her eyes burned with the same bright blue flame that lit the altar. In their flicker, Nico could sense the mark of their father—a half-crazed spark that hinted at wild ideas and intense emotion. 'I am the daemon Angelos.'

'Wait,' said Percy, scratching his head. 'What do you mean two fathers?'

Annabeth elbowed him. 'Isn't it obvious?'

'Well, yeah, I get that she’s got two dads. I was just wondering, if Hades is one of them, who's the other?'

Nico nearly rolled his eyes—Percy's blunt nature became less appealing the older Nico got—but he found he was actually curious about the answer. He knew by now that the gods weren’t as straight-laced as the 1930s society in which he'd grown up (or even certain communities in the twenty-first century), but he'd never suspected his father of having a fluid sexual orientation. Apollo, sure—there couldn't be any immortal more flamboyantly bi than Will's dad. Hades, on the other hand, always struck Nico as old-fashioned, both in his tastes and his morals.

Then again, if ancient Greece had accepted alternative sexuality, that would make the attitudes of the current millennia new rather than old.

'Hermes,' Angelos said carelessly, ignoring the stunned expressions around her. 'I have also been called Angelia—daemon of messages and tidings. It's been a while since I've had anyone to proclaim to, though. And on that note—hang on for a second.'

She disappeared into her temple and came back out with a bowl in one hand and a looking glass in the other. She placed the bowl on the altar and motioned for them to gather around her.

'Your friends on the surface await you,' she said, pointing into the mirror. The reflective glass shimmered and resolved into a pretty, tanned face with kaleidoscope eyes.

'Piper!' said Annabeth.

'Annabeth?' Oh my gods, you can hear me? Are you okay? Is everyone there? No, wait, I can see them, too—what's happening?'

'We're fine—well, maybe not fine, we're still in Tartarus, but we're all here and we're alive, and we're headed for—'

The serious, square jaw of Jason Grace pushed into the frame. 'Is everyone okay? Did you save Percy?'

'Hey bro,' said Percy.

'Thank the gods—wait, you remember me?'

'I even remember our last bet about where Nico would spend the year. You owe me fifty bucks, dude.'

'Excuse me?' Nico interrupted.

'Damn, if there was one good thing about you losing your memory—'

Annabeth cleared her throat. 'Can we talk about how we're getting out of here first?'

A sheepish grin spread across Jason's face. 'I'll go get the others,' he said. He disappeared, but they could hear him shouting, 'Guys! Piper's got Percy and the others in her dagger!'

'The others,' huffed Thalia. 'Good to see you, too, little bro.'

'We've found Thanatos,' Piper said. 'Leo and Reyna got us transport and we're on our way. We'll get the Doors of Death to you by tomorrow, we promise!'

'That's good,' Annabeth said. 'We're headed to the heart—well, where we're pretty sure the Doors will show up, anyway.'

'So, say, twenty-four hours?'

Annabeth looked at Bob. 'Can we do it?'

'Time is difficult in Tartarus,' Bob admitted. 'But I think yes.'

'Twenty-four hours,' Annabeth told Piper.

'I'll keep looking in Katoptris, anyway,' Piper said. 'It's been showing me—well, I was really worried for a while. But it's so good to see that you're okay. I really—'

Her image froze like a bad FaceTime connection. The mirror went black. Angelos tapped at it, then shrugged. 'I may have forgotten to charge it. Like I said, it's been a while.'

'It's fine,' Annabeth said. 'We know we have twenty-four hours to get to the heart of Tartarus.'

Angelos considered this. 'You are close,' she said. 'Do not rush to your destination. More challenges await you. You will need to rest to face them. For a sacrifice, you may rest here at the shrine.'

'What sort of sacrifice?' Percy asked warily.

'Cloth and hair, Angelos said. She smiled at the surprise on their faces. 'It is how Eleos has always been honoured.'

She indicated the bowl she had laid upon the altar. Nico, Percy, and Annabeth drew their swords. They each sliced off a section of their hair, along with some cloth from their shirt sleeves. Angelos emptied their offerings into the blue flame, which shone white for a few seconds. Another light sprinkle of cleansing rain showered down, returning the fire to its original blue.

'Eleos accepts your offering,' Angelos announced. Five sleeping bags popped out of the swamp. They were only standard-issue camping gear, but right now they looked as inviting as a luxury hotel bed.

Angelos looked apologetically at Bob and Damasen. 'I'm afraid we aren't set up for Titans and such.'

Damasen shrugged. 'We will keep watch,' he said.

'I will leave you to your rest,' Angelos said. 'But first, I shall bear you each a tiding.'

She turned first to Bob and Damasen. 'When it comes to a choice between choosing who you are and letting the world dictate your identity, remember that archetypes may survive indefinitely, but immortality has its drawbacks.'

Angelos looked at Thalia next. 'Moving on is not the same as leaving someone behind. If you do not wish to remain motionless, you must accept what is in your heart.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Thalia demanded.

'I bear the messages,' Angelos said impassively. 'I do not interpret them. That's up to you.'

She inclined her head towards Annabeth. 'Many a prophecy has hinged upon you. Now your ingenuity will be called upon yet again. It will be up to you to ensure the pattern no longer repeats.'

Annabeth's eyes widened. Percy's hand tightened around hers.

'And you have changed much in your time here,' Angelos continued, addressing Percy. 'It has shaped you, and you will shape the journey—what you have been seeking will be at the heart of it.'

From the blank look on his face, this was as much a mystery to Percy as it was to Nico.

To Will, Angelos said, 'The light shines brighter when it emerges from darkness. Do not be afraid to embrace the darkness within you.'

Finally, she held Nico's gaze. 'Your struggles are a gift. You understand compassion because you understand pain. Don't bury it away again, little brother.'

Angelos looked nothing like his sister, but at that moment it was Bianca's ghostly face he saw, shining with fierce, determined pride.

Don't hide from the world, little brother. Live. Make me proud.

It had taken him a long time to internalise Bianca's parting words. Even now he wasn't sure he'd managed to live as she'd asked him to.

Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia settled into their sleeping bags and fell asleep right away. Nico thought of the charge Angelos had laid on him. He remembered the promise he'd made just hours ago. He didn't know if this was the most appropriate time to keep it, but he decided to try anyway.

'Hey,' Will said when Nico pulled his sleeping bag over to him. 'Some trek, huh?'

Nico ran a finger along the scar on Will's arm. 'Do you want to tell me about it?'

Will stiffened. When he spoke, it was in a careful, brittle tone so unlike his usual sunny self. 'I wasn't trying to kill myself or anything, if that's what you're thinking.'

'I wasn't thinking that.'

'Just after the Battle of the Labyrinth—do you remember that? Well, it was the first time I'd ever seen so much death. All those friends I couldn't save…we buried them and we were supposed to go back to our regular activities after that. I was supposed to help everyone go back to normal.' Will started slowly, but now the words came spilling out in a babbling rush. 'Apollo cabin always leads the singalong, you know. And we'd just lost our head counsellor in the battle. I, um, had a bit of a crush on him. I was alone in the infirmary, and I—well, I don't even remember what I was thinking. Maybe I wanted to stop thinking about it. Or I just needed to feel something other than sad. The scalpel was just there.' Will hung his head. 'It was stupid, I know.'

'It's not stupid.' Nico took a deep breath. 'I never told anyone this, but… I used to take pomegranate seeds and go into a death trance just to get away from my memories of Tartarus.'

'I can understand that. Especially now.' Will gave a shaky laugh. 'I'm an idiot, Nico. I actually thought coming back down here would help you. I thought you needed to face it again. I guess I did it again—and this time I ended up cutting us both because I thought it would help.' He traced his scar sadly. 'I tried to force you to deal with things my way. I'm sorry.'

'No, it's not the same. Facing Tartarus isn’t really like hurting yourself. I think—I think the reason why Tartarus is so awful is because it's made of our own darkness. Like—gods, I don't know how to explain this properly. I always zone out when Chiron talks about it.'

'Like how the gods are part of the collective unconscious?' Will suggested. 'They embody what we believe.'

'Exactly. It's all the worst stuff we believe about ourselves.'

'I don't know how anyone wouldn't go crazy confronting that,' Will mused.

'Unless they knew they weren't the only ones with problems.' Nico twisted the skull ring on his finger. 'I wish I'd known you had stuff you couldn't talk about, too.'

'I didn't tell you before because—well, you've got so much sadness already. I didn't want to add to it. I didn't think anyone would ever find out.

'And I didn't tell you about the pomegranate seeds because I didn't want you to worry.'

Their eyes met and they started to laugh.

'I guess we should've depended on each other more,' Will said.

'If I've learned anything from passing through the Caves of Night twice, it's that it's easier to be strong for someone else than for yourself.'

Will touched his cheek. 'You are incredibly strong, Nico di Angelo.'

Nico kissed him. 'We can be strong together.'

Nico imagined the goddess Eleos drawing a gentle blanket of mercy over them while Angelos tucked them into a bed of compassion. With his head nestled against his boyfriend's shoulder, he finally fell asleep.

A/N: So, a few notes on this one. First, I know I’ve touched on some really difficult issues in this chapter and I really hope I’ve treated them sensitively. It is not my intention to hurt anyone with my portrayal of mental trauma, bullying, or self-harm. This is probably the most personal piece of fictional writing I’ve ever written and while a lot of my own experience made its way into writing the chapter, I am aware that everyone’s experience of mental trauma is different, and I don’t wish to belittle anyone else’s. If you’ve felt that I dealt unfairly or insultingly with anything here, I hope you’ll feel comfortable enough to tell me why and I am happy to discuss our different experiences. I also hope my readers have exercised their judgement in choosing whether to continue reading and I haven’t caused anyone undue harm with triggers and whatnot. May I offer you all a big hug after all that angst? *hugs*

And on a lighter note ... I went all out with the spirits in this chapter! I figured, why not make use of the insanely many that Greek mythology has to offer? Of course, I embellished a lot, but hey, RR gave us a great example of how to make up stories for the Greek myths, right? You can read more about each of them here:

- The unnamed cymbal-hand girl who guards the Caves of Night; - Pheme; - Apate; - Momus; - Oizys; - Eleos; - Angelos (who incidentally is recorded as Zeus and Hera’s daughter—but hated by Hera, but also called Angelia, who is named as a daughter of Hermes … I think you can probably understand why I integrated both myths!)

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percyjacksonfan3 · 7 years

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Finding Home (Part Eight)

Part One: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home

Part Two: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-two

Part Three: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-three

Part Four: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-four

Part Five: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-fiive

Part Six: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-six

Part Seven: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-seven

Hazel’s a light sleeper. She has been for months now. Years of expecting monster attacks, fighting wars and sudden cohort drills have left her quick to wake up.

Tonight she wakes up to the sound of Leo muttering to himself and pacing the campsite.

“Come on, Festus, let’s go.”

She opens her eyes and lets them focus. The fire’s low, almost going out, and she dimly sees the shapes of the others spread around it in a loose circle, all asleep.

After they’d all rejoined each other in the clearing (having found nothing in their search) they’d started cooking food and waited for Frank to come back. None of them had realized just how far away he’d flown and when he arrived they’d just been starting to eat.

Of course all the food was practically forgotten when he told them about what he found. Annabeth had immediately grabbed a map and made Frank point out exactly where he’d been.

They’d all talked it over and, after Leo pointing out it was getting dark, they’d decided to all go to the cave at first light. A few of them had protested, saying they should go tonight, but Leo had again pointed out that going into strange territory at night against a monster they knew nothing about and another monster that almost killed Percy when he was 12 was a really bad idea.

No one had wanted to risk the others, so none of them had protested.

Which made it strange that Leo was getting up to go somewhere, since he’d been the one who said it was too dangerous in the first place.

Hazel opened her mouth and started to get up but then remembered what Frank had told her earlier. Leo and Chiron, the demigod trainer from Camp Half-Blood, were being controlled at random moments by their enemy.

Hazel put her head back down and pretended to sleep, leaving her eyes open only a bit, enough to see Leo but not enough for him to be able to tell she was awake if he looked over at her.

The worry that had filled her at the news of Percy’s disappearance grew as she listened to what Leo was saying.

“Toothbrush, toothpaste, clothing, food, toilet paper and anything else he might need. How good do you think the security is around the nearest convenience store, big guy? Think I can disable all of the alarms and cameras?”

Hazel felt fear grip her. It was Leo was speaking, but he sounded weird. The tone of his voice sounded nothing like the demigod she knew.

When Hazel realized what was happening it was too late to stop her friend.

Hearing him speak had disoriented her long enough for Leo to jump on the automaton’s back and Hazel only barely managed to stand up and start saying his name before they took off, neither Leo nor Festus hearing her.

“Leo!” She yelled. “Come back!”

The others started stirring at the volume of her voice and she turned to all of them. “Get up! We need to go after him!”

She went to kneel by Frank and shook his shoulder, forcing his eyes to open and look at her blurrily in the dying light of the fire. “What is it-”

“In a second,” she said, before moving to Jason, seeing Piper already up and looking around.

“Hazel?” Jason asked her as he sat up. “What happened?”

“Leo’s gone.”

“What?” Piper asked sharply. “Where? When?”

Hazel stood her ground at the look on Piper’s face. “Just now, he left with Festus and they-”

“And Annabeth?” Jason asked her, making Hazel falter and look at him.

“What?”

“Annabeth must be with him.” Jason said, watching Hazel curiously. “Since she’s not here.”

Hazel gasped and looked around. She was met with three blank stares.

“No.” She said, shaking her head. “Annabeth wasn’t with him.”

There was a moment of silence before Piper cursed. Jason moved over to her as Hazel looked at Frank helplessly.

“She’s been taken by the monster too?” She asked, not expecting any of them to be able to answer her.

“Annabeth wanted to go and find Percy tonight.” Frank said finally after looking around quickly. Hazel saw him frown in thought. “Remember, she made me show her exactly where the cave was on that map? Annabeth’s gone. The map’s gone. Her pack’s gone. I bet she’s not captured, she’s just gone to go and find Percy.”

Piper broke away from Jason. “She waited until we were asleep to leave so none of us would stop her.” The daughter of Aphrodite shook her head angrily. “Stupid.”

“Who was on watch?” Jason asked. “Wouldn’t they have noticed?”

“Annabeth was on watch before Leo. She must have left sometime after waking him up, and maybe if Leo was already being controlled he didn’t notice her leaving.” Hazel said, putting the pieces together. It must have been Leo’s watch when Leo left too, otherwise one of the others would have been awake to stop him.

“We have to get them back.”

Frank nodded at Jason’s words. “Annabeth’s on foot so she’ll be easier to catch than Leo-”

“She might have over an hour’s head start on us.” Piper interrupted. “And she has a map. We have to navigate through the woods in the dark with no idea if we’re going the right way.

While they were talking each of them had been strapping on their weapons, rolling up their packs and packing the food away. Hazel called Arion over to her. “Frank will probably be able to catch Leo the fastest. I have Arion, but all of the trees will slow him down. Jason you can fly but only short distances. How do we want to do this?”

“Frank’s the only one out of us who knows where the cave is, we need him to be able to follow Annabeth.” Jason points out. “The rest of us were never able to find it.”

“And when we catch Leo I’m the best bet of breaking him out of whatever trance he’s in.” Piper says. “My charmspeak can get through to him, I know it can.”

Both couples glance at one another. “So the girls together go after Leo and we go after Annabeth?” Frank says finally.

Piper nods and makes sure Katoptris is firmly on her waist before walking over to Hazel. “Makes the most sense, yeah?”

Hazel glances at Frank, seeing the worry she feels reflected in his eyes. “Yeah.” She says finally.

She notices Jason walk over to Piper and them starting a hurried but hushed conversation so she moves to Frank. “Be careful. We don’t want anymore girlfriends looking for their kidnapped boys.”

Surprise crosses Frank’s face and Hazel curses internally.

They weren’t dating anymore. Not really. The others didn’t know anything about it, but Hazel had told Frank that she was too young and wanted to wait a bit.

Which basically meant they acted the exact same as always, just without the kissing and stuff. Which kind of sucked because Hazel liked the kissing. She just didn’t think she should tie Frank down when she was so inexperienced.

He was free to be with someone… more appropriate? She guessed.

Not noticing the mini war she was having in her head, Frank cups her face, stroking his thumb across her cheek. “You be careful too. Who knows what Leo might do.”

Hazel covers his hand with her own. “I will. Piper will get through to him, I know it.”

Frank nods and Hazel steps back, their hands falling between them as she backs away. He squeezes once, quickly, before letting go and Hazel turns around to meet Jason who’s coming over to Frank. “Watch out for him.” She says quickly, accepting his nod. “And for yourself. We’re all surviving to make it to New Rome, alright?”

Jason almost smiles at that. “Be careful, Hazel.”

Hazel meets Piper’s eyes as she walks up to her and Arion. She sees Piper take a deep breath before forcing a smile. “Ready?”

Hazel walks to Arion’s side and hoists herself up onto his back, reaching down to help pull Piper up behind her. “As I’ll ever be.”

With one last worried look at Frank Hazel sees him smile at her before she nudges Arion’s sides and they’re off to find their friends.

oooOOOooo

Leo’s screaming.

He’s screaming and screaming with all he has, but nothing is coming out of his mouth. His mouth doesn’t even open. The cool brush of the night air against his face jolts him to reality and blows his hair back before it bites at his lips, but they don’t part. They stay firmly closed as he sits astride Festus who has no idea that it isn’t Leo guiding him to the nearest town.

It isn’t Leo’s hands that quickly disable the store security cameras once they touch down. It’s not his feet that walk him past each shelf, looking for each item the voice had told him to get. He grabs toothpaste, a toothbrush and deodorant from the personal hygiene aisle. He finds toilet paper one row over and on the other side of the shop there’s cold cuts, bread buns and packaged ready-made potato salad. He throws that in for food. He catches sight of a package of chocolate chip cookies and throws those in there too for some reason. Then he adds an armful of water bottles

The entire time he does this Leo tries to stop himself. He uses every bit of willpower he possesses to make his hands stop moving. He tries to make his fingers release the basket full of items. He wants to go out and reset the cameras and alarm system but his body doesn’t listen.

When he gets out of the store Festus cocks his head at him, eyeing the basket full of things warily, but Leo’s face stretches into a reassuring smile and he says to the automaton, “Don’t worry buddy. One more thing to do before we go check out this cave.”

Leo screams louder, trying to give Festus some sort of sign, some kind of warning, but the dragon only lowers himself for Leo to climb up onto.

Then they’re off, flying through the air once again and Leo loses self-awareness once more.

oooOOOooo

“So how do you want to do this?” Jason asks Frank, eyeing the son of Mars a little warily. He doesn’t want to end up having Frank change into an animal Jason will have to cling onto for dear life. He also doesn’t want to end up dangling from a claw in midair or something.

Frank glances over at the trees around them. “The leaves are probably too thick for me to see through if we fly,” he points out. “We’d never be able to see Annabeth through them. It’ll have to be on foot.”

Jason looks at him. “We’ll never catch up to Annabeth just walking.”

Frank grins and shakes his head. “That’s not the kind of foot I meant.”

Before Jason could ask what he had meant Frank disappears and instead of a teenage boy in front of him there’s a sleek black panther in his place. A very large, very intimidating black panther.

“Woah.” Jason says, not even pretending to hide the awe in his voice. “Yeah, this works.”

He turns to look in one of the panther’s eyes, a wild grin spilling across his lips because this is so cool, and Frank stretches out his right front leg, lowering one shoulder.

With a whoop Jason climbs on, using the winds to make sure he settles down at least a little gracefully.

With a snarl from Frank and a yell of excitement from Jason, the son of Jupiter feels muscles shift beneath him and has time to dig his hands the best he can into Frank’s fur before they leap forward and set off to find Annabeth.

oooOOOooo

“Hazel, look!”

Piper points up at the sky towards the dark shape coming towards them. Both girls look up and catch a brief glimpse of Leo sitting on Festus’ back, flying overhead back the way they’d just come from. It’s only a second they catch a glimpse, Festus is flying so fast above them, blocking out the stars, but it’s enough for the girls to see who it is and where they’re going.

“He’s going back!” Hazel shouts.

“No!” Piper watches Festus and notices he’s not going back straight the way the girls had just come on Arion, he’s going slightly to the left. Piper’s mind races before she realizes. “He’s going to the cave!”

Hazel brings Arion to an abrupt halt, making the horse rear up and causing Piper to shriek grab for her friend frantically to stop herself from falling off.

“Warn a girl next time!” Piper says breathlessly and Hazel just laughs.

Arion wheels around quickly and then they’re off again, following the automaton’s wingbeats, leaving a steaming trail in their wake.

oooOOOooo

Annabeth is walking forward and trying really hard not to think about food.

Specifically cheeseburgers.

Despite the mess her life can be at times (read: all the time) Annabeth has more than a few good memories. Meeting Luke and Thalia, going on her first quest with Grover and Percy, kissing Percy for the first time after the Titan War.

One of those good memories is a lunch she spent after the Titan War eating cheeseburgers and fries with Thalia and Percy at the hotel on West 57th. They’d been comparing stories of what they’d been up to when the three of them had been apart and Annabeth had sat back and watched as Percy and Thalia had worked themselves up trying to come up with stories to outdo one another.

(Percy had lost, of course, and both Annabeth and Thalia had gotten a free meal that day.)

Annabeth keeps thinking about how back then they’d all thought that was it. No more quests, no more battles or wars and no more ancient immortal deities trying to kill them and end the world. There’d been the weight of grief hanging over them all, but at least they’d been hopeful for the future. At least they’d thought the war was worth fighting because they’d saved everybody.

Since then Annabeth’s learned not to let hope cloud her judgement.

Hope didn’t help her when Percy was taken (the first time). It didn’t help her find where he was or design and build the Argo II faster. Hope failed her when she followed the Mark of Athena and ended up falling into Tartarus and dragging her boyfriend down there with her. Hope didn’t stop Gaea from rising and killing Leo, leaving her to grieve for her friend for months.

To Annabeth, hope is starting to be a very useless emotion.

Yet she can’t stop hoping right now, as she pushes her way through the dark and the trees, that she’ll be able to find Percy tonight and the two of them will get out of here.

She’s not being rash or emotional. Annabeth rarely acts without thinking first (usually Percy is involved when she does) and now is not one of those times. Hades, she waited six months to see her boyfriend after he’d been kidnapped by the Queen of Cows, Hera, and if that doesn’t show restraint she doesn’t know what does.

Annabeth’s not being rash. She’s being smart. Pragmatic. Somebody dies on this quest and she’s not going to let any of her and Percy’s friends put their lives in danger like that.

(She’s trying to ignore the fact that her and Percy being the only two involved really narrows down the list of who the death could be. Maybe Annabeth hopes more than she’s willing to admit. The two of them had beaten worse odds before.)

Annabeth looks at the map again and then stops to look up. It’s hard to see the stars through the trees and their branches covered with leaves but she’s sure she’s going the right way. She’s been walking for close to an hour now, if her wristwatch can be believed, and if she’d calculated correctly earlier the cave should be just a few more minutes ahead.

With renewed energy she keeps moving, making sure to step carefully so she’s quiet, fingering the pommel of her sword in case she has to use it unexpectedly.

That’s when she hears it.

Wing beats.

Annabeth uses the sound to cover her footsteps as she moves faster and then suddenly she’s standing being the last line of trees. Beyond them is a clearing in the shape of a rough circle. It’s dotted with stray rocks and grass, which is all Annabeth can really see in the dark, but it’s definitely empty of trees.

At the opposite edge of the clearing is the mouth of a cave.

Pride sweeps through her and she would have started edging around the clearing, using the trees for cover, to get to the cave and check it out if it’s hadn’t been for the sight of Festus circling overhead and then landing.

If that shocked her, the sight of Leo sliding from the automaton’s back carrying a pack and an unconscious body rooted her feet to the ground.

Leo was supposed to be on watch back with the others, what was he…?

Her mind raced and eventually put the pieces together. Of course.

She looked closer, trying to see who the person Leo was dragging to the cave could be, but she couldn’t recognize them. It was a woman, dark hair and skin close to the same shade as Hazel’s. If Annabeth had to guess she would say the woman was around mid-twenties.

Her heart beats faster. Without getting closer it’s impossible to tell if the woman is alive, but Annabeth hopes, for both the woman and Leo’s sake, that she is.

Festus is shifting anxiously and sniffing the air and for a second Annabeth swears his head lifts and he meets her eyes from where he’s standing. She feels fear grip her and for a second she’s scared Festus is going to give away her position and Leo will discover her. Then the dragon turns from her and opens his mouth, making a creaking noise.

Leo stops from where he’s panting slightly, hunched over from the weight of the body he’s holding/dragging. “Don’t worry Festus, I told you, this is all to help us get Percy back.”

Festus makes another noise and Leo looks up, irritation plain on his face. “Don’t worry, I said. Just stand there and wait until I get back, then we’ll go to the others. Now be quiet, or else I’ll put you into suitcase mode.”

A low growl sounded from the gold dragon’s throat before cutting off abruptly as he moved to nudge Leo gently with his snout.

Leo didn’t seem to notice.

“I’m coming!” He yelled into the cave, even though Annabeth couldn’t see or hear who he could be talking to. Leo made it to the edge of the cave. “Hey, Percy.”

That was the last thing Annabeth heard him say as her mouth parted in surprise and she started to move, loosening her sword in its sheath.

Percy. Percy was in there. And he was alive. Leo had talked to him.

But it was too late to get her friend’s attention, because Leo and the woman he was dragging crossed the entrance of the cave and disappeared from sight.

oooOOOooo

Hazel ties her hair into a messy bun at the nape of her neck before she bends over to speak in Arion’s ear, urging him on. “Faster, Arion, come on!”

She’s gripping the base of his mane tightly with one hand, clapping the side of his neck with the other to encourage him further, and behind her Piper keeps muttering to herself.

“You’re not going to die, Arion’s a nice horse, he loves Hazel, Hazel won’t let you die.”

Hazel grins and leans back a bit. Piper’s arms are wound around her so tight there’s not much maneuverability between them, so when Hazel turns her head to look at her friend Piper’s chest is pressing against her back and her face is only inches away.

“We’re okay,” she says to her friend. Sometimes Hazel wished she had Piper’s charmspeaking abilities. It would certainly come in handy in stressful situations like this.

Piper’s multi-coloured eyes meet hers and Hazel feels her relax a bit. “We’re okay.”

“We’re going to find Annabeth and we’re going to find Percy. We’ll get through to Leo,” Hazel says, speaking loud enough to be heard over Arion’s footfalls and heavy breathing. She glances ahead every few seconds to make sure there aren’t any low-hanging branches that will knock them off. “I promise.”

Piper’s grip tightens around her. “Don’t promise things like that.”

Hazel stops patting Arion long enough to put her hand over Piper’s that are clasped together at Hazel’s midsection. She knows how dangerous a promise can be but Hazel knows how Piper’s feeling and right now she thinks they both just need some comfort and reassurance. “I promise. We’ll all be fine.”

Piper’s breath ghosts across the back of Hazel’s neck. Her hands are warm under Hazel’s and one of them turns up so Piper can link their fingers together.

Neither of them speak but they don’t have to. They’re both just there, holding hands tightly, watching out for branches. Two teenage girls on the back of a horse looking for their friends who want nothing more than for everybody to be okay.

The silence between them is broken when they reach Jason on the black of a huge black panther.

“Woah!” Hazel calls, stopping Arion as they pull up alongside Jason and… “Frank?”

The panther stops moving when Arion appears beside him and looks up at her. It gives a yowl and Arion whinnied nervously but Hazel pats him once more and makes soothing shushing noises.

“What are you guys doing here? Where’s Leo?” Jason asked anxiously. His hair was a bit ruffled and there was a twig with a few leaves still attached caught in the collar of his shirt.

“Leo and Festus flew back overhead and we realized they were going to the cave.” Piper explained. Frank makes a low noise in the back of his throat that nobody tries to decipher as anything except a growl. Hazel shoots him a look and he immediately quiets. “We’re following them there.”

“It should be just ahead, I think.” Jason said.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Hazel says. “Let’s go.”

Frank leaps forward and Hazel has to admit that Jason riding the back of the huge, sleek cat looks pretty intimidating.

She nudges Arion and he takes one last bite of the gold nugget she’d brought up for him to nibble at during their brief rest.

The four of them move on, weaving between the trees as close together as possible, going to save their friends.

oooOOOooo

Seconds after Leo disappears Festus roars, Arion jolts to a stop with Hazel and Piper on his back right in front of Annabeth and a black panther that Jason’s riding slinks up beside them.

Annabeth would have shrieked- no, yelled, she’s a war veteran, gods dammit, she does not shriek- in surprise if it hadn’t been for Piper sliding from Arion’s back and covering her mouth with a hand.

“What were you thinking!” Piper whispers furiously and Annabeth can’t help but look into her friend’s eyes. “How could you just disappear in the middle of the night like that? We had a plan Annabeth, we were scared something had happened to you-”

Annabeth pulls away from Piper’s hand, noticing Jason slide off the panther right before Frank suddenly stood in it’s place. “I’m sorry-”

“What if we hadn’t reached you in time?” Piper goes on. “What if you were hurt, or- or killed and we came here to find your body-”

“Pipes-”

“No, Jason!” Piper’s voice is climbing and Annabeth winces. “You can’t do that, Annabeth, you should know better than anyone that you can’t just leave!”

Piper heaved in a deep breath before pulling Annabeth into a sudden hug. “I was worried sick!”

“We all were.” Hazel says, a bit more considerately thank Piper, but pointed all the same.

“I know, I’m sorry, but I need you to leave!” Annabeth says, bringing out her sword. “All of you have to go back.”

Jaws dropped. “You’re kidding, right?”

Annabeth shakes her head at Frank. “I shouldn’t have let you guys come on this quest to begin with. Earlier today, when I went to see Rachel… she gave me a prophecy.”

Annabeth recites it, seeing their faces grow grim.

She also sees their expressions turn determined and she gets desperate. “Don’t you see? Someone’s going to die if we do this. I need to make sure it’s none of you. Go back before anything happens to you guys. I’ll get Percy and Leo and we’ll get out of here. If the three of us aren’t back by morning then go to Camp and get more help. But I need to get them out. Percy’s in there right now and he needs me.”

Piper’s shaking her head before Annabeth’s even done talking. Jason reaches behind him to unsheathe the gladius strapped to his back as Hazel brings out her spatha and Frank moves forward.

“You should have told us about the prophecy,” Frank says, and the others nod.

“But there’s no way we’re letting you do this without us.” Hazel finishes, and the others nod again.

“Together.” Piper says. “Like we always do.

We’re staying together. You’re not getting away from me. Never again, rings out through Annabeth’s head. As long as we’re together.

“Leo and Percy are our friends too.” Jason says. “We’re getting them out with you.”

Annabeth looks at them all, meeting each of their eyes. “Someone’s going to die.”

Piper turned Katoptris in her hand. “If we left, someone would still die. You can’t stop a prophecy.” She looks up to meet Annabeth’s eyes. “We’re not leaving you guys.”

Annabeth opens her mouth but closes it again, knowing protesting is futile and would only waste time. Several minutes have passed already and she’s itching to go and find her boyfriend. “Fine. But guys, right now Leo is in that cave behind Festus with Percy and we have bigger things to worry about.”

Four pairs of eyes look past Annabeth.

“The cave looks empty.” Jason points out.

“It’s not.” Hazel says frowning, looking forward. “It’s just very heavily guarded. The Mist around it… it’s so strong, can’t you feel it?”

Frank nods but the Annabeth, Piper and Jason look at her blankly.

Hazel looks towards the cave before nudging Arion forward. “I can break through it, but I need to get closer-”

“We don’t know what’s in there!” Frank says. “What if something comes out that we can’t see and attacks you?”

Hazel looked down at him. “That’s what you guys are for.”

Annabeth turns around to look at the cave again. “It’s not much of a plan.”

“We have Festus.” Piper points out.

“Do we?” Jason retorts. “He went along with Leo when he was doing… whatever he was doing.”

“There’s a mortal in there.” Annabeth says, remembering the lifeless body Leo had dragged in. “We have to help them. And Percy. I’m not leaving him. Hazel, I’m with you.”

There was assent from the other three as Hazel moved forward, Arion trotting out to lead the group in the clearing.

Festus gave them a look and Annabeth could have sworn the dragon was saying, Well it’s about time.

“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered. Right now was really not the time to nag her about how long she’d taken to come and find Percy, she was feeling sick at the amount of time that had passed already.

“Can you get through it, Hazel?” Jason asked.

Hazel was looking at the mouth of the cave intensely. “There’s something… something’s fighting me-”

“Guys?”

Leo appeared in front of them, stumbling as if he’d been pushed. He sounded confused and when he looked at each of their faces he paled. “What are we doing here?”

“Leo,” Annabeth and Piper spoke simultaneously. Annabeth pulled back for Piper to speak. “Leo, is it- are you really you?”

“Of course.” His tone spoke as if it should be obvious. There was a beat of silence before Leo’s expression clouded in realization. “What did I do?”

Piper opened her mouth but Hazel shouted out before she could say anything. “I did it! Hurry, the giant’s fighting me!”

“Giant?” Frank squeaked and Annabeth turned to the cave and gasped.

Standing just behind Leo was a green scaled son of Gaea, wearing nothing but a skirt of leather strips. His dark hair hung down to his shoulders, his fingertips ended in claws and his toes in talons. He towered over Leo and his eyes glowed emerald green as he smiled predatorily down at them.

Clutched in one of his hands was a figure. He was wide eyed and his jaw was clamped so tightly shut that tendons stood out on his neck. The strain was obvious in his face and Annabeth got the feeling that he was trying desperately to speak but couldn’t.

She met Percy’s eyes as the giant spoke.

“Demigods, we’ve been waiting for you!” The giant’s smile widened. “Are you all ready to die?”

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