Connections of Consciouness

by Mystic25

Post The Lost Hero early The Son of Neptune.How I see certain things play out with Percy Jackson, and those he knows. Sequel to my other fic: "The Missing Pieces"

"Connections of Consciousness"

Mystic25

SUMMARY: Post The Lost Hero early The Son of Neptune.How I see certain things play out with Percy Jackson, and those he knows.

RATING: T for some violence and a bit of language.

A/N #1: This is a sequel to my other fic: "The Missing Pieces" This is also an extension on the snippet two chapters that I read from The Son of Neptune. It was awesome. It is AU from there, because, obviously I haven't read the book yet. But, I wanted to get this out before it came out, so my ideas in here aren't dramatically wrongish…ha wrongish, new word.

A/N: #2: This will be a one shot, not a full version of this book. I do not care to manipulate Rick Rordian's entire story, I just want to play with his world for a bit.

---

xxxxxXxxxx

"Do you dream, that the world will know your name, so tell me your name…"

-Thriving Ivory "Angels on the Moon"

"If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself."
- "Percy Jackson" The Lightning Thief

xxxxXxxxx

---

Stall-ack-fights?

No, that wasn't it.

Stall-ache-mights?

Still wrong.

Sta- Forget it, my head hurts too much for this game.

The cave was seemingly endless, being swallowed up at one end by a gray twilight-like haze that obscured the rest of the earth and rock covered walls from visibility. By a low outcropping of tiny stones stood a figure. A boy, thin, but built, with a mess of black hair and eyes the color of the sea.

Percy stared up at the huge piece of rock that seemed to grow out like a thorn from the ceiling of the cave he was squatting in.

The Hippy Lady was no help at all. After carrying her for twenty minutes, she had gestured that she wanted to get down.

And Percy was too wary to not be a gentlemen to a mysterious tye dyed clad woman that smelled like a dumpster who had pointed him towards this Camp where all his memories were supposed to be. She seemed as fragile as a poorly constructed piece of Kindergarten art- she even smelled liked glue and bad cookies when Percy was carrying her. But, as soon as he set her down, she began walking, as if in a trance, towards a whole lot of nothing at the other end of the road. Percy jogged to keep up with her, but for a million year old smelly hippie lady, she moved like a marathon runner. He called out to her, and towards the end the names were kind of not gentlemanly, but nothing stopped her. It was like she was following a homing signal like a pigeon.

And, just when Percy thought he was catching up to her, she vanished behind some scraggly shrubs beside an old condemned looking farm house, where someone had painted: 'Jerry moved' in day glo spray paint across the door. Percy had stared at this writing for too long, debating why he thought it said: 'Jerry Moos' and wondering if Jerry had too much of a connection to his cows. When he finally looked up, the hippie lady was gone. He checked all over the side of the road for her, even beating the brush like he was flushing out rabbits, but she was just gone.

By that time, the sun was scorching, Percy could feel it on his neck, and heat waves were rolling off the asphalt making it feel like he was cooking. There were no trees for what seemed like miles, and the condemned house smelled too much like dead skunk and a moldy refrigerator of expired yogurts. So Percy searched around for some other place of shade, vowing to find the hippie lady after he found a place to unbake himself. A glance off in the distance, found him viewing another set of hills, what looked to be only about half a mile away, not too far of a walk.

So he shouldered his pack, taking one last look for the hippie lady, and began walking towards them.

And, he found this cave next to a huge 'Palace of Versailles sized balcony' rock ledge. Nothing had been chasing him; but Percy felt too exposed, and he needed a minute to think; so he ducked inside the hole that look like it had be scooped out of the cave by a huge hand.

An incessant 'drip drip drip' came from over head – from the –

[Stalactites] A soft, know-it-all sounding female voce spoke in his ear. Percy knew that voice; because it was the only one that he could remember.

Was it Annabeth?

Percy wished that his memory had reception like a TV antenna, so he could adjust the fuzzy parts. He kept seeing brief, unclear visions of a girl. From what he could tell, she looked beautiful, and wicked, because she was holding a bronze knife in all his distorted memories.

Percy wondered if she were his girlfriend. He wondered, if she were; how the heck he managed to get a girl like that to notice him, let alone date him.

The stalactites dripped cold, mildew smelling water on his head. The wavering image of the girl vanished with each 'pattering' drop. And, Percy actually felt a physical pain at loosing even that flimsy connection. He pressed a hand into his chest, where the pain hurt the most. It was a dull ache, bit still noticeable, like trying to breathe deeply in frigid air.

He rubbed at his sternum with his knuckles and wiped the next dirty water drop that fell into his dark hair with his other hand.

The hand in his hair felt oddly sticky. He pulled it back and saw a small dotting of blood staining his fingers. His vision tilted.

Okay, he knew what this was: "Hemophilia" a fear of blood. The vocabulary word came to him in that soft wise sounding voice from before. So Percy now knew three things for sure: 'Hemophilia' 'Stalactites' and 'Annabeth.' He was every teacher's dream.

He shook his head to clear the repulsion induced dizziness away. He had a fear about seeing the blood. But, not for the obvious reasons. Lupa and the Medusas' had all thrown the word: 'invincible' when they talked about him.

And Percy didn't think that invincible people bled.

Another drop fell from his head. But, when Percy went to wipe it away, he discovered more sticky redness on his first two fingers. Braving a glance upwards, he saw something, something hanging, from in-between two stalactites.

Something that dripped blood.

Percy didn't even have time to be relieved that it wasn't his blood – he was too busy being grossed out by the sight of a huge joint of what looked like some flayed animal. At least he hoped to gods -Gods? yeah, gods – that it was an animal.

Torn chunks of shredded flesh hung down off the two interlocking long bones like disgusting flags. How it got up there in the first place, he didn't want to know. It was from this that the blood was leaking from, dropping on him like the nastiest rain he had ever been in.

A piece of the animal's flesh hit him in the eye. Percy threw it off him with a curse, in Ancient Greek. Though how he knew Ancient Greek and not anything else except his first name, and 'Annabeth' was a bit of an embarrassing mystery.

A piece of flesh then fell into his mouth. It tasted like rotten meat going in, but it tasted like vomit coming out as Percy flung himself over the moss covered rocks to throw up all over the cave floor.

Great. Magic Wolf Claws, Evil snake women, 10,000 mile an hour toboggan rides I can handle. But apparently being invincible doesn't affect 'not hurling all over myself' That's useful.

Percy spat once the last bit of sick from his mouth; then wiped his mouth with the hem of his torn orange shirt. The shirt was filthy, and smelled as great as the puddle he had just made. So, this action didn't give him as 'cleanly' of a feeling as he would have liked.

His mouth- aside from feeling like he had just eaten from a dumpster – was also dry. Like 'just eaten a whole sandbox' dry. He wondered if this cave had a vending machine.

But, he actually found something better then that delusional wish. He could smell water bubbling underneath the cave floor. Don't ask him how he knew there was water underneath that neat looking pile of rocks less than two feet from where he was standing. All he knew was that he was thirsty, and may remember only three things – and counting now- about himself. But, he wasn't about to pass up free water.

He uncapped the pen –sword- pe- whatever, it was a sword now. Anaklusmos–"Riptide" 12 inches of deadly sharp glowing bronze with a leather wrapped hilt.

He wasn't sure exactly what he was about to do – but, there was some instinct that sprang into him. And he let it take over his muscles as he brought Riptide over his head, and plunged the blade into the rock floor beside those stones.

The sword met with a screeching resistance when it hit the hard stone. But, Percy persisted, his biceps screaming in fire, but he kept the sword going in a downward movement.

The blade went down four inches into the solid rock, then five, six, seven. Percy was covered in sweat, and the blade was wailing horribly, like it would shatter any second. But, finally, something cold and wet splashed him in the face.

Percy yanked out the sword, and water began gushing out from the hole that he made like a severed pipeline. He dropped the sword and stepped into the upward spray.

He cupped mouthfuls of it to his lips drinking greedily. He closed his eyes and stuck his whole head under the stream, shaking it like a dog after a bath. The water was from an underground spring, that stood virgin and untapped for almost 50 years, and it smelled slightly of algae. But, it was cool, and clean, and felt refreshing.

He threw off his tattered orange shirt and mud caked jeans, and scrubbed at his skin with his fingers, cleaning as much dirt off himself as he could.

When he was as clean as he figured he was going to get, he stepped out of the spray. The stalactites were glaring down at him like teeth from some overgrown animal. It was the weirdest shower that he he'd ever taken – at least that he could remember taking.

He picked up his discarded blue boxer shorts, squeezing the water out of them, and slid them back, damp on his body. His jeans and orange shirt looked even rattier lying there on the cave floor then when he had been wearing them.

But, they were the only clothes that he had, and he didn't want to run around completely naked. So, he rinsed them out and laid them out over a rock where a shaft of late afternoon sun peaking in through a hole in the roof of the cave cold hopefully dry them.

He climbed up on the rock beside his clothes. The rock was actually a boulder, as large as a recliner and mostly flat on top. He stretched out like he was sun bathing at the beach, splaying his legs out and leaning back on his hands. The small bit of sunlight that shone though warmed his skin, because the cave was cold and shadowy, and Percy didn't risk going outside and being spotted, he just had this feeling that those snake women weren't just about to let him go just because he "platter boggened" away from them. He had abandoned the platter on the Cliffside, never minding how weird it must look to have a large silver serving platter with remnants of cheese stuck too it lying in the middle of nowhere.

Percy sat up and brought his hands up to undo the brown leather cord from around his neck, palming the necklace in his hand. There were five clay beads strung on it, each with an intricate design carved on its surface. One had writing on it so tiny that the dozens of things – they looked like names – were written all around the circumference of the bead.

Percy fingered the beads individually. Were they from this Camp? They all must mean something to him, otherwise why would he be wearing them around his neck?

The fact that he couldn't remember something so closely connected to him made him angry. It was like trying to see an image through a fog. He could see bits and pieces of it; but never the whole image, so he never really knew what he was looking at.

He closed his hand around the beads, half ready to hurl the necklace into the still flowing stream of water that he had created. But instead, he sighed, and simply tied the cord back around his neck.

When he felt warmed up enough he grabbed his clothes from the other side of the rock. The jeans and shirt were still damp when he put them back on – but, he'd rather have damp clothes on his body, then no clothes at all. If the makeshift meat locker above his head were any indication – something lived in this cave. And Percy wasn't about to be caught naked to fight some monster.

The shirt was really nothing but tatters now. And, Percy felt ridiculously like one of those 80's heavy metal front men. All he needed was a base key-tar and bad lyrics about leopard clad screeching girls.

He felt into the pocket of his jeans, and his hand closed around the cool plastic of the pen inside, but he didn't uncap it because it would be a pretty lame move to have his own bronze sword shred his leg.

His stomach growled. Despite his mouth still having the lingering taste of rancid meat; he was outrageously hungry. He had last eaten two days ago – some hot dogs from a convenience store that tasted like they had been revolving on the grease stained metal spit too long. But it was food, so he didn't complain.

He hadn't passed a human inhabitation in days, and all he had left in his battered blue backpack, besides all his survival equipment he had "bough"t at that store, was a canteen of nectar, a baggie of crumbling Ambrosia Squares and a 48 ounce bottle of some soda called: 'Diet Orange Plus with Vitamins' - which tasted as bad as it sounded.

Soda wasn't food though, and Percy had already eaten two of his Ambrosia squares already—oddly they tasted like an over cooked cupcake with a load of colored frosting. Lupa warned him that he'd internally combust if he ingested too much. Same with the Nectar. And, Percy liked not combusting; so he heeded the wolf's warning.

His stomach growled like Lupa's voice, and just as hungry. 5 feet tall, 150 pound 1,000 year-old She Timberwolves tended to eat meals in herds of deer and elk at a time.

Percy walked to where the geyser he had created bubbled into a dip in the rocks, looking for some form of sustenance. There was a growth of neon green lichen growing on some of the rocks around the water, but it looked like radioactive barf, so he passed on it.

There was also some light green plants with bundles of circular leaves – some kind of greens. He had seen it growing enough in between the stones of the crumbling amphitheatre where Lupa and her pack of Spring Cubs would sit and watch him spar with her mate. The cubs liked to chew the plant as they watched their father 'spar. ' Even, invincible demi gods were no match for Rorin – Lupa's mate. 200 pounds of jet black wolf with obsidian eyes and paws the size of dinner plates. Rorin liked to call Percy 'tasty cub' when he circled him, dodging all Percy's blows with the sword laughingly easy.

It hadn't exactly given Percy a confidence boost.

But, at least that memory proved useful – Percy plucked a finger sized amount of the green plants and brought it to his mouth, hoping to gods that it was actually what he thought it was.

He chewed the plant like he was chewing a live bomb; he wasn't sure if being invincible protected him from death, or just prevented it. He knew that claws and weapons deflected off his skin. But maybe poisonous plants were different because they attacked from the inside.

Percy swallowed – the plant was bitter like a radish, and tangy on the aftertaste, but nothing seemed to be trying to shrivel him or 'suck out his essence' or anything, so he assumed it was safe.

He plucked a handful more of the greens from the ground and shoved it into his mouth. It wasn't a Five Guys Burger, but it made his stomach feel less hollow. He swallowed the stingily tangy mouthful – nope definably not a Five Guys Burger - but he felt better after it went down.

He cupped a mouthful of water to wash down his meager dinner. The spring he had created rippled, sending tiny waves across its surface. Then it rippled this way again.

Percy's dark eyebrows knit together – this cave was too well buffered by a naturally formed rock wall surrounding the ledge outside its mouth, there was no way wind could enter it.

A low, deep, weird sounding chortle reached his ears – coming from about a foot away from him.

The hairs along his neck stood up.

His sword seemed to be immediately in his hand and he stood back up, gripping the hilt tightly, ready.

Oh our gods-

Standing there, less than a foot away was a creature. It had to be at least 10 feet tall, with a body covered in armor looking gray scales, and it had long tail with wicked five inch pitch black spikes along it's ending length, flowing between two massive scale clad feet with hooked claws on each of the five toes. Arched along it's back was a mount of scaly black wings. But, it's head and front were that of a giant rooster with bright yellow feathers. It's eyes were blood red with tiny black pinpoints for pupils, and it's huge beak was curved and scale lined.

It was Coronel Sander's nightmare.

The thing shifted its massive glance towards Percy.

"You!" The creature's voice was a hiss, a nightmarish sound that seemed to suck out all the light from the cave. "How DARE you come into my cave and wake me!"

"Sorry-"Percy offered, gripping his sword tighter, and bringing it up in a blocking stance.

An enormous red crest rose on the creature's head, and it's spread its wings wide in malice, it's taloned front roster front feet smashing up the rock beneath them. It's wings had over a 5 foot span and a stream of jet black beetles and the shelled husks of other dead insects fell from its feathers that lined the inside of those horrible wings.

The chicken-dragon-thing lowered its huge head towards Percy. Percy backed away, but the creature followed, splashing a foot into the water. The rooster head looked at its foot upside down from its stomach, it shook off the water then whipped back around to Percy, and sniffed the air by his head, blowing at his hair with flaring nostrils.

The creature backed away in an outraged roar. "Son of Poseidon! How DARE you bring dormant waters here!" It's wings flapped once, and a putrid, decaying stink wafted from its feathers.

Son of Poseidon? What? Percy fought hard not to throw up again. "You might want to try some deodorant buddy," He gripped his sword tighter still. "And your hole needed a little spring cleaning."

The creature roared and strutted forward just like a rooster, one step closer to him. It's blood red eyes stared directly into him. "Do no MOCK me, demigod!" A forked black tongue hissed like a snake from its beak. "For I am ALL your nightmares; ALL your fears!"

Percy found himself unable to move – for terrifying seconds he felt a cold grabbing at his heart- like his life was a candle about to be blown out by this monster.

But, just like that, it ended. Like walking out of a heated part of the ocean. He stared back into the half bird's horrific eyes. "I can't even remember all my fears, you undercooked drumstick!" He slashed a side blow at the creature, but it pulled back from the swipe with a wail so loud and shrill and resonating that it shook the cave.

Percy covered his ears with his hands. A stalactite fell to the cave earth on his right, showering him with tiny pebbled fragments.

The creature flapped it's rancid wings again. "Impossible! How are you still ALIVE?"

"Extended Warranty Package!" Percy slashed again with Riptide. He hit the feathered crest of the bird part of the monster; but it felt like hitting armored plating. The sword shook, reverberating all down the length of the blade, traveling up Percy's arm.

"Fool!" The thing spat, circling Percy like they were in the biggest cock fight in history. "I cannot be slain by Celestial Bronze! Did no one teach you about my history?" It lunged its beak at Percy like it was about to nip him in half.

Percy had no shield, so he deflected the attack with his free arm. The creature's razor sharp beak sunk deep into the flesh of his forearm. It sent a pain like a shock wave up his body that shook his teeth, but the skin remained intact.

The creature tossed Percy about by this arm, like it was trying to sever it from his body. Percy had no questions anymore about where that animal joint had come from on the cave's ceiling. And, there was no way he was about to become another meal for a giant, overgrown yellow Peep.

He yanked his arm free from that monstrous beak and the force of it threw him to the ground. He rolled before he hit the rock, and came back up in a fighting stance, completely unscathed.

The bird thing screamed it's horrible, screeching wail. "You stupid STUPID boy! You've bathed in the Styx!"

"So I've been told," Percy retorted, backing up at the bird drew nearer to him. He climbed backwards over the uneven floor of the cave littered with fallen rocks. But, he was lithe on his feet, and never once lost his footing.

"Your invincibility will be your downfall demigod!"

Percy slashed, left, right, he knew the creature couldn't die from his sword, but he wasn't about to go down passively. "I think that's called an oxycodone!"

"It's 'OxyMORON, you neurotic imbecile!" The thing flapped it's wings and glided over to Percy. Like a real rooster, it lacked ability to actually fly. But, it still landed mere centimeters away from Percy, it's reptilian tail hammering an earthquake behind it. "You are too stupid to be given the title of 'hero!'"

It lashed at Percy with its tail, making him jump back onto the flat rock he had been sun bathing at earlier. The creature slashed its heavy tail into the rock cleaving it in half.

Percy jumped off the rock and into a back flip and landed heavily onto the soles of his dirty white cross trainers. "You know, you'd think for an 50 foot ugly ass rooster; you'd be better at this!"

The creature snapped its scaled beak at him again. "You're what? – SIXTEEN, boy?" It's forked tongue waved a hissing dance at him. "Do not use such foul language on me!"

Percy dodged the snapping beak. "You're already using fowl language!" He slashed downward with his sword at the monster's chest. "That's called a homophone by the way-"

The monster roared and snatched Riptide's blade up into its beak, unfazed by the razor sharpness of the sword in its mouth. It lifted Percy - still holding tightly to the hilt of Riptide- into the air and flung him 15 feet away into the hard packed rock of the cave wall.

There was a rock in this part of the cave wall that had been fissured in crooked over 100 years ago when the cave was form. It jutted out three inches from the rest of the others. And, when Percy was thrown against this rock wall, he hit it hard on his back, and this small piece of jutted out rock slammed directly into the flesh of his back, at the dip of his spine.

Stars exploded in his eyes and a white hot pain gripped all the way up his body. He slid down to the cave floor and crashed there in a heap, unable to move. Riptide fell in a clatter beside him.

There was a heavy, booming thudding that rattled the cave floor. Hideously curved, coal black talons pounced on his chest, and the blow was a crushing one, knocking all the wind out of him.

Percy felt like he had been suddenly sucked dry of all his energy. His vision was blurry from the blow, like looking at things without glasses on. He found himself gasping for air as the creature's distorted image, too weak to even try and roll out of the way.

"And this is called your mortality Peruses Jackson!" The creature's head lowered. And Percy felt that cold grabbing at his heart again; only this time it wasn't letting up, as those nightmarish blood red eyes began to come into focus.

"Get off him feather brain!"

A voice shouted, echoing around the cave.

The creature roared in anger at the interruption of its maiming and meal preparation and turned its massive head "Who dares-!"

And it met with a large circular shield sized reflection of itself.

Then came a scream like none other it had made before, it's head was flung back with the force of it, and it exploded into a million fragments of multi colored lights, like a supernova. The explosion rocked the cave to the it's volcanic obsidian stone foundations, crashing stalactites to the ground.

The light was blinding, and Percy heard a scream of: "Everybody down!" before a wall of blackness slammed into him.

xxxxxXxxxx

---

"Percy, PERCY!"

Something was shaking him hard by the shoulders; but, he couldn't open his eyes. He was floating in a gray area between consciousness and oblivion and he couldn't find the energy to rise from that place.

There was a round of coughing followed by a boy's voice: "Piper! Leo! You guys okay?" Jason Grace stood near the mouth of the cave where an avalanche of rocks had almost sealed it up. He tried to step over them, but they were too loose, and slid in a small landslide under his feet. He called out again for his friends, climbing again, sliding every few inches, but he kept moving, desperate to reach them. The explosion had almost thrown him out of the cave, but he had dug his electric spear into the rock like a grappling hook and had managed to hold on.

"I'm good!" Leo's voice came back, echoing around the rocks. He clamored to his feet on the other side of the rock wall, coughing in the heavy dust.

Jason's face emerged from the rocks a few minutes later, and there was the hugest look of relief on it when he could see Leo standing there next to their friend Piper McClean. Both were covered in dust, and were coughing madly. But, they were alive.

"Piper threw herself on me when those rocks started falling." Leo said when Jason slapped him hard on the back, to clear the dust from his clothes, but also to say 'so glad you didn't die man' "I always knew she wanted me."

"Leo, don't make me regret saving you," Piper said, coughing a coating of dust from her mouth.

Jason eyed her critically. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay," Piper said. She felt the sting of scrapes on her elbows, but nothing was too painful, or seemed broken.

"I'm good too man, thanks for asking," Leo said to Jason. He took one step forward, but then almost crumpled.

"Leo!" Piper grabbed him by the arm and hauled him up again. "Are you okay?"

Leo looked down at his pants and saw a huge torn gash oozing blood from the newly acquired hole in his jeans. "Guess I'm not as good as I thought," He touched the cut and hissed. "Anyone remember to pack, like, a 100 Band-Aids?"

Piper tore off the sleeve of her gray sweatshirt and tied it around Leo's knee to staunch the blood.

Leo hissed harder through her ministrations. "Not so rough McClean!"

"Don't be a baby Valdez, I have to dress it!" Piper said, but there wasn't any anger in her voice, only concern.

Jason looked around the cave frantically for someone else. "Where's Annabeth?"

Leo looked with Jason. Annabeth had entered the cave first. "I don't know dude-I- there!" he pointed ten feet in front of him, where a snaking fissure had opened up in the rock. On the other side of it; a blonde headed girl was leaning over a fallen figure.

"Annabeth!" Leo limped over to her, Jason threw friend's arm over his shoulder to help him maneuver.

The chasm that had opened up in the rock between Annabeth and the others was the size of a small stream, so they had to jump, including Leo, who swore a whole lot when he landed on his bad leg.

Leo's eyes widened when he saw Annabeth lying over the still form of a boy with black hair, wearing a battered orange Camp Half Blood shirt. The guy wasn't bleeding anywhere, he had no cuts or scrapes, but he was completely still.

Annabeth heard the others approach, but she didn't raise her head from what she was doing. "Percy! Open your eyes!" Annabeth shook Percy harder when he didn't respond, but he remained still. She cursed n Ancient Greek. She turned frantically, eyes finding Leo: "Leo, there's nectar and Ambrosia in my bag! Hurry!"

Leo looked all around for Annabeth's pack, but it had been flung out of sight when the creature exploded.

"I got it!" Jason ran over to the pool of water Percy had created, to where Annabeth's pack had landed in the aftershock of the explosion. The blue pack was made of a lightweight waterproof material so it floated on the surface of the water. He tore into the pack and fished out the aluminum canteen filled with nectar and the plastic baggie with the Ambrosia squares.

"Leo, catch!" Jason threw both items.

Leo caught the Ambrosia, but missed the canteen.

Luckily, it landed near Annabeth's feet.

"Ambrosia first Leo, NOW!" Annabeth barked out orders like a surgeon in the OR. She snatched the Ambrosia square when Leo held it out to her. "Where are Will and Jake?" She parted Percy's lips with her fingers and shoved the clay colored Ambrosia square inside his mouth.

"Outside," Piper answered. "Keeping watch, they had to have heard the explosion though-" she stared at all remnants of scales and yellow feathers next to a charred black shallow crater, as wide has half a basketball court."What was that THING?"

"A Basilisk," Jason answered her, knowing this for a fact as well as he knew how to speak Ancient Roman. Only he didn't know how.

"Basilisk?" Piper repeated, dumfounded. "Like from Harry Potter? But, I thought I was supposed to be a giant snake-"

"It's a Cockatrice," Annabeth said. She lifted Percy's head into her lap so that he wouldn't choke on the Ambrosia she had just fed him. Nectar would've been a better choice since it was a liquid; but Ambrosia worked faster. "It's eyes turn people to stone like a Medusa. But it's so rare that the legends of it had gotten lost over the years. People saw its tail, and thought it was a snake, and those that saw its eyes, never thought anything again. "

Annabeth rambled when she was scared. She cradled the still form of Percy and rambled about what had attacked him.

"So what killed it then?" Leo asked, crouching down by Annabeth, hands out, trying to find some way to help her.

"It's so hideous that it can't survive the sight of its own reflection." Annabeth said, she was running her fingers through Percy's filthy hair. " It sleeps during the day, but Percy must've woken it, and it doesn't appreciate it. And gives off this smell when it's awake, like rotten eggs, I could smell it when I came in sight of the cave."

"So it's like Drew," Leo offered. His hands retreated when he couldn't find anything useful to do with them. Annabeth was gripping Percy so fiercely he didn't think that she would let any touch him.

"ANNABETH! LEO! PIPER! JASON!"

Will Solace's voice echoed ahead of him as he burst into the entrance of the cave. He came through it, climbing over the piles of loose rocks and fallen debris, Jake Mason right behind him.

Will had an intricately carved bow strings in his hands, and a full quiver of arrows strapped his back. Jake was a little slower climbing over the rocks, he was still a bit weak from the explosion that had left him bed bound, but he wanted to come on this trip. A heavy iron masonry anvil bounced around at the tool belt on his waist as he made his way over the rocks.

Will spotted the small group first. "Is everyone okay?" He saw the charred feathers and the black crater, eyes widening in complete shock. "Oh my gods! Annabeth- I, was it really-"

"A Cockatrice Will," Annabeth answered.

"WHAT?" Jake shouted. He stepped around the charred hole in shock of his own. "The last one of those things spotted was in Rome in 64 AD, what in Hades?"

"It's Gaea. She's awakening all these ancient creatures." Jason said this like the horrible fact that it was.

"Oh my gods, Percy!" Jake knelt down next to Annabeth."Is he, I mean, he's not-"

"He's breathing Jake, I just gave him some Ambrosia" Annabeth said this like she was trying to convince herself that they were good things.

"I thought he couldn't be hurt with that Achilles Curse." Leo said, from where he was standing on Percy's left side.

"He must've grazed it," Will Solace said, pushing his way in between Jake and Leo to crouch down beside Percy. "Check his Achilles Spot Annabeth, and tell me what it looks like."

Jake and Will both looked away when Annabeth did this, and seeing this, Jason, Leo and Piper followed suit. It wasn't just out of modesty for Percy's sake. Only Annabeth knew the exact location of Percy's anchor to the mortal world.

And, they had to keep it that way, because too many people knowing Percy's weakness would only put him in more danger.

Annabeth laid Percy back down on his side and pulled up his tattered shirt. His back was unmarred except for a deep purple bruise in the dip created by his spine. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Is the skin intact?" Will asked.

"Yeah," Annabeth's voice had gone with her breath. "Will, what-"

"If the Achilles Spot is hit with direct force it can do damage. But, as long as the skin remains unbroken at the Spot, then the invincibility stays intact." He glanced back at Annabeth when he saw that she had lowered Percy back into her hold.

"Chrion told me about this Curse," Will went on. "Achilles wasn't the first to bathe in the Styx. There was a man, born 50 years before Achilles, son of Ares, who bargained his way down to the Underworld, and bathed in the River. But he wasn't the brightest or most coordinated, and the idiot got into a fight and the other man grazed his Achilles Spot-"

"Where was it?" Piper asked.

"Let's just say, he got kicked in it," Will said.

Piper's eyebrows rose "Oh, - I- what?"

Leo was staring hard at Will too. "He made his spot his ba-"

"Like I said he was an idiot," Will said.

"With a voice an octave higher after that." Leo added.

"The point was, he was still intact at his uh - spot. He was weak for about two days, but then the Curse came back full force after that. But Zeus was outraged at the embarrassment and removed the curse and made him mortal again. And after Achilles came, and became the Hero of Troy, the name of the curse was given to him instead."

Annabeth's eyes widened, not at all the parts of gross idiocy, but at what Will said afterwards. "If that's true, does that mean Percy-"

"Percy will live Annabeth," Will answered her. "He'll be down like a flu epidemic for about a day or two, but he'll be fine."

Relief flooded through Annabeth like water, she looked down at the boy in her lap. Percy would live. None of the rest of it, not even the horrible reality that Percy wouldn't even remember her mattered at that moment.

Her hand worked its way down to his back, and her fingers, lightly skimmed the flesh of his Achilles Spot.

Percy's breath sucked in at the contact. "Annabeth?" his voice was just above a rough whisper.

Annabeth felt her heart stop. "Percy?"

Percy's eyes flew open, green the color of the ocean. "Annabeth?" that green locked on her.

"Percy, it's me!" Annabeth's fingers carded through his hair, while the other still skimmed his back. "I came, I'm here." Her eyes were wet.

Percy's eyes lost focus, like he was looking through her. Annabeth's touch on his skin became a conduit of pure energy. Memories crashed into him like an avalanche.

[A 12-year-old blonde showing him around Camp Half Blood. Their search for Zeus's Master Bolt. Annabeth in the Sea of Monsters, holding her under while she cried after the Siren's Song, fighting a huge Cyclops, a Golden Fleece, a rickety suspension bridge, Annabeth's tortured cries as she held up the sky.]

More memories came – faster and faster – like a runaway freight train. Too fast for his mind to process.

[A dance in a school gym, a slower one on Olympus, identical gray streaks in blonde and black hair, a blur of a labyrinth, a kiss, and explosion, a bone locking hug. Annabeth falling on a bridge, her touching his back on a terrace that overlooked Central Park, her plea for her knife lying bloody and broken and the base of Athena's throne, a kiss under water. More kisses, hand holds, lying on the banks of the lake. A night with snow, a ring-

"I love you Annabeth."

"Me too."]

"ANNABETH!"Percy's back arched like he was seizing.

"Percy!" Annabeth watched in horror as Percy screamed and thrashed. It lasted for only seconds. Horrified, painful seconds where Annabeth didn't even have time to do anything before Percy went completely boneless against her.

"Percy? PERCY!" Annabeth shook his face in her hands, but he didn't move. "Gods!"

Will pulled Annabeth away and both Piper and Jason had to physically restrain her while Will knelt down by Percy's nose and felt a hand on his chest. He looked up to the struggling girl. "He's alive."

Annabeth yanked herself free from Jason and Piper and dropped to her knees beside Percy. She touched her hand to his chest like Will was doing. But, her reason was for no other than wanting to touch him. "He said my name."

"He's in shock," Will told her. "We need to get him warm," he turned to the others. "Leo, get a fire going outside! We can't stay in here; this cave needs to be cleansed. Cockatrices are born from the dust of Tartarus, it needs to be purified. Jason!" Will was taking command, and no one questioned it. He was the oldest camper there. "Pray to your dad, ask him to cloak our fire's smoke, and you and I, we're going to carry Percy outta here, okay? Annabeth- Annabeth!" Will had to shout her name to get her to look at him because her focus was on Percy. "You need to go outside with Piper and Jake and lay out smelting pots to throw off our scent. There's some blessed Cypress ash my dad gave me in a jar in my pack. Annabeth, you with me? Can you do that?"

"He said my name Will," Annabeth's voice was shaky, like she was afraid to say this out loud, like it would all fall away. "He remembers me." She looked like someone had given a fragment of her life back.

Will laid a hand on her shoulder. "After you help Jake and Piper, you stay with Percy, okay? He needs you."

Annabeth bit her lip so hard she felt it bleed. She pressed a palm to Percy's face, caressing it with warm fingers.

Jason came over to Percy's feet, waiting for a signal from Will.

Will grabbed Percy's shoulders, not missing Annabeth's protective hovering: "We got him girl."

Jason grabbed Percy's legs, and together they hauled his still form up over loose debris and shifting rocks.

Annabeth lost her dazed look and helped them maneuver Percy over the shaky landscape. "Watch his head Will! Jason, not so fast! If you drop him I will end you!"

It took almost fifteen minutes to get Percy outside to a 20 foot ledge that overlooked a wide bay with a wooded valley on its nearest shoreline. On it's other side it was buffered by a sheer rock wall that towered over their heads. The sky had been clear and sunny when they had entered the cave; but now it was overcast, and lined with a haze of gray clouds.

"Dad says he doesn't like being bossed around by a son of Apollo; but he supposes that 'idiot Jackson' deserves a chance." Jason said this under a grunt as they hauled Percy out onto the ledge where Leo stood throwing sticks into a large roaring fire. He made a tiny flame erupt from his hand, and ignited a stick of greenwood, before adding it to the fire.

"Jake and I set up the smelting pots already," Leo pointed out to small clay pots that burned a white hot smoke that smelt heady and thick. "10 foot perimeter; we can't Electric Slide, but, it's enough room to avoid embarrassing moments."

"Thanks Leo," Will said. He and Jason walked Percy over near the fire, laying him down on the ground as carefully as they could.

The minute Percy was on the ground Annabeth dropped to her knees beside him. The day had been hot, but the overcast of clouds had dropped the temperature at least 20 degrees, and a cold light rain had started to fall. She turned up to Jason. "Give me your hoodie." It wasn't a request.

Jason unzipped the black cotton, double lined jacket, and handed it to her without any protest

Annabeth draped it over Percy like a blanket, setting his head gently on her backpack. Her fingers traced the edges of his face by her ear.

She then scooted closer to him, lying right next to his still form.

Jason and Leo's eyes widened as Annabeth draped her arms across Percy and pressed herself into his back.

"Uh Annabeth-" Leo said awkwardly. "You want us to leave?"

"Body heat is the best way to regenerate warmth Leo," Annabeth said this like spooning her boyfriend on a cliffside in front of gods and everybody was a perfectly normal occurrence.

"Oh yeah," Leo said, pretending to blow it off. "Guess I missed that part of Wilderness Camp."

Piper came over to Annabeth and Percy, draping something woolen and pink over them. It was a knitted afghan, embroidered with an over abundant amount of Technicolor pink hearts and pink daisies.

"Drew gave this to me as a joke when she found out I was coming along on this lead for Percy. She told me, it might make me a real girl." Piper practically bit out the last words. "But, I think this will serve you better."

The afghan was so girly that Annabeth had the urge to burn it. But, it served its purpose, so she pulled Percy closer to her body and burrowed into the baby wool knit thing that smelled like the Snuggle Bear exploded on it.

"Thanks Piper," Annabeth said, feeling weird to look like she was taking a nap outside a Cockatrice Lair. But, then Percy pulled closer to her in his unconsciousness, and her thoughts fell silent.

"You're welcome," Piper returned, shivering a bit in the cool evening air. Zeus was going all out with the 'cloaking their smoke' thing.

Jason had given up his hoodie, but he drew an arm over Piper's shoulders to try and warm her, because he had seen her shivering.

"We got watch Annabeth," Jake said, removing a celestial bronze dagger from his tool belt, and sharpening it on a flat iron stone packed on the other side. "Just take care of our boy."

Annabeth couldn't see Jake Mason from her place on the ground. But, she knew his face was still pink and healing from the horrible burns he sustained in the explosion, and he still walked with a bit of a limp. He wasn't near 100 percent yet, but here he was keeping watch over Percy. She was very proud to be his friend.

"Hands above the covers," Leo said to Annabeth jokingly.

Annabeth's arm came over top of the afghan, along with her three and a half inch Celestial Bronze knife in its brown leather scabbard. She locked an arm over Percy shoulders, holding tightly to the handle of her knife.

Leo smiled at her, impressed. "You're awesome chica." Gods, this girl was like his hero.

Will notched an arrow in his bow. It was 5 feet long, made from the branch of a Cypress Tree, beautifully carved with his name in Ancient Greek at its center, and a sonnet of protection along the rest of its length. – a gift for his 18th birthday from his father.

Will stole a glance at two of his closest friends, lying huddled together on the ground. One unconscious, and the other scanning the cloudiness with piercing gray eyes.

"Sleep Annabeth, we got this."

It was only around six in the evening. But, the adrenaline of earlier was wearing off, and Annabeth suddenly felt bone achingly exhausted.

She burrowed into Percy's back, drinking in the fact that he was alive and right there next to her. Her eyes closed, and she joined him into unconsciousness.

xxxxxXxxxx

---

Percy's eyes felt like they were glued shut with maple syrup.

They refused to open the first time, but he tried again – and met with the most bizarre image.

A bunch of lacey looking pink flowers, on a pink blanket.

Am I dead? Is being tortured by pink blankets the punishment for killing a giant Chicken when you die?

Something shifted beside him, something warm. It smelled like lemon soap.

Percy rolled over on a - backpack? – and was met with a mound of curly blonde hair – all of it attached to a girl with long lashes, and skin that smelled like that lemon soap, and sweat, and dirt.

"Annabeth." Percy's whisper of her name assaulted him with another torrent of memories – so blurry and fast that he felt instantly dizzy. He shook his head to clear them away, because he had already passed out once today, and once was enough.

He focused on this moment, on the sleeping girl next to him. He brushed the hair that had fallen in her face with his fingers. It was covered with flecks of shiny dust, and her bottom lip was bleeding.

Gods, she was beautiful.

He traced her lower lip with his thumb, pressing the softest, lightest of kisses to it.

"Percy! Thank the gods you're awake!-"

Percy was grabbing the hair of a tall guy, and had him pinned to the ground with Riptide at his throat before he was fully aware of anything. The guy had ear length blonde hair and dark eyes, with a quiver of arrows strapped to his back that Percy was currently crushing.

"PERCY!" The guy screamed, trying to pull himself out from under him.

"Who are you!" Percy pressed his blade closer to the guy's throat, once centimeter away from drawing blood.

"Dude it's me, WILL!" Will Solace managed to squirm out from under Percy's grip because the latter demi god was still weakened from the Cockatrice attack. Percy's eyes were wild on Will's, fearful, defensive.

Percy raised his blade again before Will could get fully stand up. "I don't know you!" Riptide was lunged forward.

The blade was deflected by the handle of a leather wrapped knife, and a forceful weight knocked into him, and threw him to the ground, sending Riptide clattering away from him. Percy fought to regain control.

"Percy! Percy – STOP!"

A halo of blonde curls hung above his face. Storm gray eyes stared down at him, above a heaving chest.

"It's Will Percy! He's your friend!"

Those eyes, those eyes, so heart stoppingly gray, full of the world."Annabeth-"

Annabeth was straddling Percy's waist, her arms pinning him down by the shoulders. "We're here Percy. We're all he-"

Her words were cut off when Percy shot forward and pressed his mouth to hers, pushing her back until they were both sitting up. Annabeth dropped her knife in shock, feeling Percy's hands on the back of her head.

Annabeth pulled back, breathless. "Percy?-"

Percy took her face in his hands, his green eyes looking right into her grey ones. "I missed you Wise Girl."

Hearing her nickname spoken from Percy's mouth, after fearing the worst, fearing everything. Fearing that she would find him with no memories, or gods, his body – hearing it again, it was, it was –

Annabeth shot forward this time, kissing him so hard it burned. Percy's hands were in her hair, fingers tangling themselves up in the blonde curls, and hers were pressed into his neck.

"Uh guys," Jake tried clearing his throat after 15 seconds had gone by and Annabeth and Percy's 'reunion' was still going on. "Guys!"

Percy suddenly snapped his head up, and when he saw the unrecognizable face of Jake Mason, he snatched up Annabeth's knife from the ground.

"No!-" Annabeth grabbed his arm and wrenched it behind his back, making him drop the blade. "He's a friend! – Percy, look at me!"

Percy remembered her. No one else. He didn't remember Will, or Jake, or any of the other campers, or oh gods, his mom. Annabeth had to swallow that horrible feeling, and focus on Percy. She grabbed his face her hands. "You're safe."

"That steroid chicken-"

"It's called a Cockatrice Percy, and I killed it." The smallest of smiles came to her face. Gods, she missed his on the fly naming of things.

Annabeth found her forehead pressed against Percy's. Her eyes closed. "Don't you ever do that to me again." her voice shook.

Percy's thumbs traced the edges of her skin by her ear, and he breathed in the smell of her. Lemon soap, and something that was just her. She was his only memory, but he wasn't complaining.

"Percy-" Will's voice was tentative. When the head of black hair raised up to him Will held his hands up as if in surrender. "You really don't remember me do you?"

There was a hint of sadness in Will's voice. He had taught Percy how to shoot straight, they had fought in numerous battles together, had played two-on-two half court with Grover and the other Satyrs. Will was glad Percy remembered Annabeth – but seeing, such a vacant look on Percy's face when he looked at him – it hurt, because they were friends.

"I'm Will, Will Solace," Will took a step closer to Percy. "I taught you how to use your first bow. Well me and Michael Yew," a small smile managed to creep on Will's face "You used to shoot the Wood Nymphs trees too much, and they would come out weaving vines at your legs, and throwing sticks."

"Will," Percy said Will's name like was trying on new clothes. He climbed slowly on his feet, Annabeth's hand steadying and hovering near his elbow. "I'm sorry man – I can't, I mean we sound pretty close – I just can't remember you." Percy's head felt like a foggy night where only Annabeth's face was clear, and the rest were all lost to blurs.

Percy turned to face Jason. "And, you're Michael Yew?"

An echoing silence fell over the group.

Annabeth's eyes flew from Jason, to Will, to Percy. "No, Percy-"

"Michael Yew was a member of my cabin," Will interrupted her. "My half brother. Senior Camper of Apollo. He – he was killed last summer in the Titan War. Kronos blasted the Williamsburg Bridge. You were there, Percy – you tried to help him, but-"

Percy felt a rush of nausea. This guy had been a friend, had died right in front of him – and Percy couldn't even remember knowing him.

"It wasn't your fault," Annabeth said softly, but forcefully.

Percy looked to her, his eyes full of sad frustration. "It's not like I would remember if it was right?" He felt like an outsider among his own friends, and that wasn't exactly a happy feeling. Eyes that he should remember, voices he had heard a thousand times before, all meant nothing. Only Annabeth's eyes and voice and everything he remembered. And he was pretty sure – like 99 percent with all those trailing nines – that he was in love with this girl. But, how many other friends were lost that were also lost to his memory?

It was overwhelming.

Percy pulled away from Annabeth when tried to reach for his hand. He walked to the border created by the smelting pots; the smoke from the burning Cypress ash stinging his eyes.

"Hey," Annabeth's hand was the back of his right arm. She wasn't one to back down from wanting to get her point across. She turned him around.

"How many others?" Percy's eyes were fierce on her, the green in them like a raging sea storm. "How many more did I see die that I don't even remember?"

"Percy-"

"They were my friends, Annabeth! They died!" Percy ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "And I don't even know their names anymore!" He felt like he been slipped a Mickey, and had woken up to find out that everyone he had ever known had been slaughtered, and he had no idea how.

"Hey!" Annabeth grabbed his shoulders. "I mean it Seaweed Brain, this isn't your fault! It's not like you screamed to Hera: 'Please kidnap me and wipe out all my memories; it'll be fun!"

Percy's eyebrows knit in confusion. "Hera? You mean Jupiter? War Goddess? She took away my memories? But why? I thought-" Percy tried to remember something about his past. But, all he could see were memories of Annabeth. There were other people in those memories too, but it was like they were out of focus. "I mean, Those Snake Women, they called me the Son of Poseidon-" Percy scanned the cloudy sky looking for any signs of the Medusas, but they were too ugly to miss so he assumed that they hadn't followed him here.

Annabeth's eyes widened. "Snake Women? Medusas? They attacked you?" She gripped her knife tighter, like she wanted to go maim something with snakes for hair that dared touch her boyfriend.

"I'm talking about Hera Annabeth," Percy said. She looked both concerned and angry at him interrupting her question. "Why would she take my memories? Isn't she supposed to be, like my cousin or something?"

"Your aunt," Annabeth said this like she was chewing rancid milk. "But Hera is also Zeus and Poseidon's sister," so the whole thing's kinda-"

"Complicated?" Percy offered. He gave her the shortest of laughs, high and tight, trying to process so many new facts that weren't really new at all. He ran a hand again through his disarray of black hair, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I think I just got my first migraine; at least I think it's my first."

Annabeth pulled his hand away from his face. "You need some more Ambrosia. I – you need to sit down." She started pulling on his arm to get him to come back closer to the fire that flickered and glowed in the blue grey light of early dawn.

"Annabeth," Percy pulled his arm free, and grabbed her shoulder, halting her tugging. He looked out over the sea of other face that he wished he remembered. "Guys." Okay, that sounded totally lame. Guess I can scratch off 'I'm a good public speaker' on my 'Memory List'. "I'm good. I've had enough Ambrosia to be kindling on the next round. What I really need is some better threads." He tugged on the hem of his shirt, and some actual orange threads came away in his hand.

"I brought some of your stuff," Annabeth gestured to her blue insulated hiker's back lying in the dirt beside the fire. "I figured when-" she forced out this when from all that wanted to take its place. –"we found you, you might need a change of clothes." While she spoke, she walked over to the pack, and pulled something out of it. She came back over to him, and held out a bundle consisting of a clean pair of his jeans, a change of boxer shorts, a storm gray insulated hooded jacket, some socks, a pair of sneakers, and a dark blue shirt.

Percy gave her a 'raised eyebrow' look. Only Annabeth Chase would bother to pack extra clothing of his in case she came across him and he needed a change of wardrobe after fighting a monster. "Gods, you're such a nerd."

The clothes hit him in the face first, but he managed to duck on the shoes.

"Bad timing dude," Leo said to Percy from where he was crouched by the fire cooking something in a large cast iron skillet that smelled vaguely of chicken eggs, but more gamey. "I'm Leo by the way. Leo Valdez, Son of Hephaestus," Leo wiped the pan with the bottom of a stick of butter. He had found the eggs from an abandoned nest he discovered clinging to the cliffside on the way up the hills. They were wild chicken eggs, his mother had cooked them once on a long ago camping trip when she had a day off of work at the factory. He remembered what they looked like. They weren't like omelets from Denny's, but they had a unique flavor once you got used to them.

"That's Piper McClean, from Aphrodite, and Jason Grace, son of Zeus," Leo pointed to his friends with a black rubber spatula. "You don't know us, so please don't try to kill us."

Percy actually looked at the group sheepishly. "Sorry."

"You've been through a lot," Piper said sympathetically. She couldn't help it; Percy had the deepest green eyes. He looked like a scruffy puppy come back from a fight, and she had this need to care for scruffy puppies.

"Don't worry about it," Jason offered over all the nose of Leo cooking. All the hype about Percy Jackson – well Jason had seen how he had thrown Will to the rock with his sword at slitting range in like half a second - so it was true hype. But, standing there, in tattered clothes, covered in monster dust, he just looked like a 16-year-old guy, a kid, like all of them.

"Believe me, after everything I've seen, watching some guy trying to ram his friends through – it's kinda routine stuff." Jason winced at his attempt to try and make Percy fell better. He was Percy on the opposite side of the coin. A kid from a Roman demigod Camp, thrown into Camp Half Blood; while Percy was from Camp Half Blood, thrown into the Roman Camp. "I'm actually living your life Percy. I – ah, came from that camp you left, but I can't remember anything about it."

Piper felt the strongest urge to take Jason's hand. And, she did, in the flickering firelight, not caring who saw it. The sun was trying feebly to break through the cloud cover, but Zeus was still true to his son's prayer, and kept the clouds low and thick, and cold over all of them.

Jason glanced down at their joined hands, but he didn't pull away, he gripped tighter.

Percy looked astonished at Jason's confession, what were the odds of two screwed up demigods running into each other? Guess that makes us special with a capital 'S'. "You don't remember anything either?"

Jason shook his head. "Nothing that wasn't a trick of the Mist, at least nothing clear. There's this girl's name Reyna. But, it's like when I try to see her, it's-"

"Like you're trying to watch snowy cable?" Percy finished, knowing exactly how that felt.

"Yeah," Jason said, feeling like the beginning to a really bad joke: 'Two amnesiac demigods walk into a bar..' "I don't even know who this girl is, she might even be my girlfriend-" Jason glanced guiltily at Piper before he could stop himself. But, she still held tight to his hand. "But I haven't had this 'earthquake moment' with her, not like you did with Annabeth."

Percy felt an involuntary shudder at remembering that feeling. It was almost seven years worth of memories crashing him all at once, and it felt like being electrocuted in boiling water. He looked over to Annabeth, her gray eyes full of torrent and feeling.

She had seen the shudder; and she didn't hold his hand like Piper did to Jason, she simply stared back at him, a look that dug deep into what connected them, what had been reawakened when she had touched his Achilles spot, her spot.

Percy shook his head with a low laugh so fake sounding that it was like a bad high school play performance to throw popcorn at. "Gods, I love being special." He turned without another remark with his bundle of clothes to a part of the Cockatrice's cave that had crumbled into three large boulder sized rocks.

It was outside of the smelting circle's protection, and Annabeth grabbed one of the clay pots and ran off after Percy.

"We set up a perimeter Seaweed Brain! You have to stay inside - Percy!"

"What did you think I would look like changing clothes Annabeth?"

"I -" Annabeth's voice sounded unusually squeaky. "Just hurry up!" She returned to the others – all of them giving her raised eyebrow looks.

A blush crept on her face, that she tried to mask by clearing her throat. "He's changing."

"I'll take your word on it," Will said, biting the smile off his face so hard he was sure he was going to sever his bottom lip.

Annabeth's blush mocked her by coming out again, making her cheeks burn. She cleared her throat a second time, she played with the ring on her finger. Basically, she tried to regain her cool.

The fire popped; the smell of wild chicken eggs and a savory smelling chunk of meat that Leo had just thrown into the skillet, wafted into the air, rising into one "breakfast smell", but a "camp breakfast" smell, that seemed to smell like food and open skies at the same time.

Leo was dishing out the food onto tin plates he called up from his tool belt with Jake and Piper's help when Percy remerged to the fire.

Piper watched him come back into the firelight. He wasn't a male model, but he was a good looking guy, but really her first thought was 'He looks CLEAN' But, if she were being honest with herself, her second thought was: He looks NICE when he's clean.' She kept her second thought to herself, because Annabeth had deadly accurate aim with her knife.

Percy fingered the fabric of the blue NYPD shirt he was wearing underneath his gray jacket as he approached Annabeth. "This smells like lemon soap." He tilted his head down to her. At 16, he was now 2 inches taller than her. "Care to explain, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth felt a blush about to come out, but then just as quickly as it died, a haunted look took its place, settling over her eyes. "You were gone Percy, for three weeks. Everyone started thinking you were –that you weren't coming back – I was starting to think it too-" Two tears fell so quickly down each of her gray eyes that not even her blink could stop them.

The joking accusing look on Percy's face fell away when he saw the pain on her face. He didn't say anything, he sucked at saying comforting things. So, he grabbed her up into a hug instead.

Annabeth snaked her arms around his back and pressed her face into his shirt. It was his favorite non camp shirt. The one that she only didn't wear every night since he disappeared because it would have erased his scent from the fabric. But, even on those nights, she still slept with it at her side, in his bed, whichshe did sleep in every night.

But, this time, he was wearing his shirt, she could feel his warmth, his heartbeat against her.

Percy pressed a kiss to the side of her face, and they remained that way until Leo braved an interruption.

"Sorry guys," Leo apologized. "But Jackalope sausages taste even funkier cold."

Percy and Annabeth pulled apart, but remained linked by their hands. They walked like that over to the fire where everyone was either sitting on rocks, or cross legged on the ground.

"Thanks for cooking Leo," Annabeth said, eyeing the tin plate Leo placed in front of her.

"Thank me by not dying Annabeth," Leo said. "I've never cooked Jackalope meat before. But this belt seems to want exotic meats. I actually asked for plain 'regular people' sausage. It's temperamental, my ball and chain."

Annabeth was now also sitting cross legged on the ground, and Percy settled beside her. He picked up the fork on her plate without asking, and speared a piece of sausage. He chewed and made a face of contemplation that, vocalized, would have made him go 'huh'.

"It's unique Leo," Percy offered, swallowing. "But unique in a good way dude." Percy didn't want to hurt Leo's feelings, since he had already tried to maim his other friends earlier. Basically his track record sucked at the moment.

"Thanks man, 'preciate it,"Leo said, spooning some of the eggs into his mouth.

Jake fingered the dark brown roll of sausage on his plate. It made a 'squelching' sound. "I don't know if we can trust Percy's Intel on Leo's cooking. He can't die."

"Shut up and eat your Jackalope, Mason." Leo threw back, but he wasn't angry. It felt good to joke after everything that had just occurred.

Percy leaned over and took some more of Annabeth's sausage.

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you done eating my food?"

He smiled at her, talking through his chewing. "Boyfriend privilege."

Annabeth grabbed an entire sausage link off his plate.

"Hey!" Percy said.

"Girlfriend privilege," Annabeth said, biting into the sausage.

"Gods you two are a riot," Leo said, giving Piper some more of her ultra veggie omelet. He wasn't sure exactly what made it "ultra veggie." The peppers maybe? The name just sounded cool to him. That and the fact that she had just told him that Oreo's were a vegan food. He might have to skip vegetarianism all together and go for the hard core veganism with those kinds of diet perks.

Percy felt oddly offended by that for some reason. He leaned over to Annabeth: "And these are our friends?"

"Yeah," she told him. Hearing the words she had thought in her mind to him at that campfire, what seemed like a lifetime ago made a heavy shiver run through her.

And Percy noticed it. "Are you cold?" Annabeth was already wearing a light blue ski jacket. So he looked around for something else to help her get warm. He spotted the afghan bundled on the ground.

"Piper?" Percy tested out the other girl's name. She was very pretty, with dark brown hair and tanned skin. "Can you toss me that ugly, girly blanket?-" He looked at her guiltily at his over use of adjectives. "Sorry."

"Percy I'm fine," Annabeth spoke up. She pressed herself into his side, warming herself against his body. And, Percy didn't complain, he just raised an arm across her shoulders and pulled her closer. "If I have to lie on Drew's disgusting fru fru throw again, I'm going to burn it. "

"No, Annabeth-" Piper bundled up the blanket and stood up with it. "You really should have it, here-" she threw the blanket over to Annabeth, but her aim was "off" and she "accidentally" threw the afghan into the fire.

The flames burned hot pink, and the smell of Burberry perfume smoked into the air.

"You missed." Annabeth didn't sound too upset, or upset at all as she watched the blanket burn into hot pink ashes.

"Yeah, oops," Piper sounded as upset as Annabeth.

Percy looked between the two girls in clueless confusion. "Drew's-"

"You don't need to remember her right now," Annabeth told him.

"Or at all," Piper added, using a fallen branch to poke the afghan into the heart of the flame where it would burn the fastest.

"Okay," Percy decided not to touch that particular issue. He looked back to the mouth of the cave, which stood open with a yawning blackness in the places that weren't covered by rocks.

"That Cockadoodle-"

"Cockatrice," Annabeth corrected him, but not harshly, her breath tickling his shoulder because of where she was lying. She sat up and met his eyes. "It's a very ancient monster Percy. The legends on it say it's only born when the dust of Tartarus settles over a five-year-old Cockerel, allowing it to lay one egg. And that egg attracts a snake to steal it. But instead of eating it, it incubates it, and it hatches into that monster. But Tartarus dust blowing out openly over the mortal world isn't a common thing. The last time one of these things was born was in Rome in 64 A.D.-"

"When Rome burned," Jason got the biggest chill ever finishing her sentence. He didn't know how he knew this, like how he knew how to speak Latin. He just did.

Annabeth met his eyes warily. "There was a farming village outside of Carthage, all the people and animals perished, except for one, a five-year-old cockerel. And it's happening again."

"It's not coincidence either that Percy was the one to find it." Jake said, suddenly standing up, making the mason's hammer jangle against his tool belt. "A Cockatrice has to reach full maturity before it can petrify it's victims," He pulled out a small glass vial from his tool belt. It was filled with a dark wine colored ash.

Annabeth pulled forward in curiosity. "Jake, what is that?"

"Ash from the Cockatrice. I scooped up some last night when you and Percy were sleeping tog- when you were asleep." Jake corrected his slip at the last minute, but everyone still gave each other looks, especially Annabeth and Leo.

"When we leave here," Jake went on. "I have to mix it with Apollo's blessed ash and burn this whole mountain face around the cave. It's the only way to keep another creature like this from being born here. You can tell how old a Cockatrice is from what color the ash is when it dies," Jake tapped the glass with one finger. "This color red, means this thing was 6-months-old-"

"It was a baby?" Piper asked, she didn't feel any remorse for killing a baby monster, it was just an odd revelation.

"It wasn't no baby Piper," Jake corrected. "A Cockatrice reaches full maturity at exactly 6-months-old."

Percy didn't know why, but the hairs on the back of his neck rose. And that feeling intensified when Jake turned his hazel brown eyes to him. "This," his eyes glanced over to the empty cave that still reeked of rotten eggs. "You being here Percy, all of this, it was planned."

Annabeth's eyes widened, her face going somewhere deep in calculations. She pulled away from Percy and clamored to her feet. "Jake-" what her mind was processing; it wasn't good.

"Gaea has control of a Roman Oracle. All the gods have Roman identities, and the same is true for the spirit of Delphi, the original Oracle. Rachel is still at Camp Half Blood, I've been checking in with Chiron, because too many of us have gone missing lately. But-" Jake's words had become like telling a ghost story, the timbre sending all the eyes of the demigods to each other in shock, and no matter how they tried to hide it, fear. "Whoever Delphi's Roman identity is inhabiting, Gaea knows it, and she's tapping into her prophetic powers."

"Wait, I thought Oracles only gave out Prophecies," Leo said. "I mean the kind that say: 'Leo Valdez, you will be smited by one who holds the keys to the golden room of Dawn.' I didn't think you could get play by plays like that-"

"You can't Leo," Annabeth said, the light from the flame was catching on her hair, making it look like her curls were radiating fire. She encompassed Jake in her words when she said this. "It's impossible!"

"Gaea is the original Mother Earth of the Titans Annabeth, " Jake said. " She kidnapped the Queen of the Gods, I don't think getting Delphi's spirit to forsee days instead of Prophecies, is a stretch for her!"

"I still say it's impossible Jake!" Annabeth argued, and her voice had a hard edge to it when she argued. "When Rachel tried to tap too much into Delphi's powers, she was shut out for gods sake! Gaea or not, Dephi would protect herself from that kind of attack!"

" Gaea is freakin' old, the bad ass of evil, she can do what she wants! And things don't have to be possible Annabeth for them to be real!" Jake said.

"You have no credible evidence to back yourself on this!" Jake was Annabeth's friend. But what he was telling her, it was terrifying, and she wanted him to take it back, because she didn't want to draw it more into reality by talking about it.

"I didn't believe you about that Cockatrice! And look how wrong I was about that! You want to make that same kind of mistake Annabeth?"

"Hey!" Percy jumped up from the ground, kicking his tin plate of Jackalope sausage with his foot in his hurried movement.

Annabeth and Jake stood mere inches from each other, Jake was only an inch taller than her, but years of working in the camp forges had left him built, with ropey muscles, that didn't even diminish during his convalescence. But, Annabeth wasn't letting that stop her full on 'You just crossed the line pal' look from seeping through her eyes and onto every inch of Jakes face.

Percy's grabbed Annabeth's shoulders and pulled her back, because she actually looked like wanted to take a lead from Percy and draw her weapons against her own friends. "Stop Annabeth!" This time Percy was yanking her blade away.

Annabeth glared at him. "Percy! Let-"

"Not a chance," Percy actually blocked her path to Jake with his body, pushing her back with his shoulders. "You said these were our friends Annabeth! You really want to run them through over a stupid fight?"

"No one believed me Percy!" Annabeth shouted at him. "When we came up this hill I could smell the sulfur from the base! I knew it was a Cockatrice's Lair, but everyone told me that I was crazy! You could've been killed if I didn't have my shield up before-"

"This Mother God, Gaea, she's trying to divide us with all these dumb fights- Look at me Annabeth," Percy said. "I'm fine, no harm, no fowl – well except for the one that blew up."

Annabeth actually rolled her eyes at this. "You're an idiot Jackson."

Jackson? Percy had heard that surname thrown around him by Lupa and the others. He assumed that it was his last name. But, like everything else about himself, he could only assume. But, he kept that part to himself, because it was frustrating enough to not know your own last name, without scaring the only person you really did know.

Percy could sense that it was okay to release Annabeth's shoulders, that she wasn't about to make a demigod kabob out of Jake Mason. "But-" a smile managed to tugged at his lips, masking all his other thoughts beating like an entire club of dancers hammering against his skull.

"But, I love you." Annabeth almost whispered those last words. She hadn't repeated them back to Percy on that night at the bond fire before he disappeared. She had simply said "Me too" And, it took three, agonizing weeks of hearing that echo in her head, to realize that "me too" didn't count for something like that.

Percy's smile stuck, but it changed from a teasing one, into something else, something that he would only ever reserve for her. "I may only know four things about myself Wise Girl, but I know you, and I already knew that."

Annabeth was back in his arms, not caring how utterly 'girly teen movie' it was. But none of those over used plots involved reuniting with your literal soul mate after presuming him dead for three weeks, then finding him nearly dead from an ancient Cockatrice – so screw it.

"Sorry Jake," Annabeth's voice was muffled because her face was currently pressed into Percy's chest.

"Don't worry about it Annabeth," Jake said, letting the matter drop. Even when they fought with knives and curses, they were all still friends, and Jake knew how badly Percy's disappearance had affected Annabeth. "We'll just call it even for not telling you we were coming on this lead in the first place."

"What?" Percy looked to Jake in confusion. Then to Annabeth, who pulled herself up from him in order to meet his eyes.

"I stowed away," Annabeth admitted, but without any embarrassment. "Chrion, he's the head of Camp Half Blood Percy-" she spoke the last part sadly, wondering just how much she would have to tell him about his own life. "He wanted me back at camp to oversee construction on our Warship-"

"Warship?" Percy interrupted. "We do this for arts and crafts at this camp?"

"Not exactly Seaweed Brain," Annabeth returned. "But, I heard Jake and Leo talking to Chrion about a lead on your location, and them banding a small recon group to come here-"

"Here?" Percy was still a bit vague on where they exactly were. He was beginning to discover that his bearings were better in the water. He could tell exact Global Positioning, distance to the shore line, even the temperature of the water, but on land, his head felt blocked by cotton balls.

"San Francisco," Annabeth said, looking out over a bit of the Bay that had managed to peak itself in between Zeus' cloud cover.

To the right of the cave, past the rock wall, the rocks suddenly fell away into a sheer drop, an enormous stretch of water buffered against black-brown rocks, and a spray of white seagulls flew past these rocks, their culls echoing. The heavy cloud cover obscured any houses, but they were there in groupings, clinging to the far away shoreline on the opposite side of this water.

"This is where my family lives," Annabeth said, the wind blowing her blonde hair around like stray leaves. "My dad, and stepmom. I called them-" this time Annabeth actually looked a bit guilty before preceding. "Said I needed to get away from Camp for a while, because-" she didn't finish that sentence with words, but her eyes finished it for her. "But, I told Chrion that I had a family emergency, that my dad had gotten hurt at work-" her lie had been a huge one, especially since her father was a History Professor, and short of a stack of books falling on his head, his chance for accidents were very minimal.

"So Chrion let me go, and I-"

"She jumped our recon group," Leo finished Annabeth's words. "She caught up with us and Argus in the Van in New Jersey and threatened us with-" here Leo made air quotes: 'chopping up our bones and throwing us to Tartarus' if we didn't let her come along." Leo flexed his right shoulder, and looked pointedly at Annabeth. "My arm still hurts by the way Annabeth."

"The point is," Annabeth said, and there was a tone in her voice telling Leo that 'if you fought better than that, your arm wouldn't be that sore Leo' "I was the first one to reach this cave. And, it smelled like – garbage and an over abundance of rotten eggs – that's exactly how a Cockatrice's lair smells."

"I smelled it too," Will said. "But, no one has seen one these things for over 1,000 years, so I didn't think it was anything-" he looked guiltily at Annabeth, because his doubt had nearly cause Percy his life. "Annabeth used her video shield to project the Cockatrice's own image back to it. It's reflection is the only thing that can kill it. None of the rest of us had anything reflective. If she hadn't come along, Percy – you'd be dead." Will's look on Percy was pure guilt, like he had left him gutted somewhere to die.

"Annabeth's decision to come along was so last minute, that Delphi's Roman counterpart didn't have time to foresee it," Jake said. "Will's right, her coming along saved you're life Percy."

"Yeah; Gaea wasn't planning on your knife wielding crazy girlfriend stowing away when she made plans to end you dude," Leo said to Percy, but then looked at him apologetically for the slam on Annabeth. "Sorry."

"Hey don't apologize," Percy's mind was whirring, trying to process so many things at once. Now that his adrenaline from waking up was waning his legs felt shaky, he felt like he had a nasty case of the flu or something. But he willed himself to stand up straight, like it would dishonor Achilles if he fell while he wore his curse. "I happen to love my knife wielding crazy girlfriend-"

Annabeth reacted on pure instinct, and punched Percy in the shoulder, like she had done countless times before when he had said something to annoy her. And, normally all Percy did was fake wince, and pretend to whine.

But, this time, Percy's body reminded him that it wasn't up for such contact, by crumpling on him.

Annabeth eyes widened. "Percy! What-!" She took a hold of his arm, then a combination of guilt and fear came across her face. "Oh gods, I'm sorry! You're still hurt!" Percy was too heavy for her to haul up on her own, and his weight almost dragged her down with him.

Will rushed in to help, draping one of Percy's arms over his shoulder, and he and Annabeth lowered Percy down on a low, flat boulder.

"Think I'm gonna take a breather on these rocks for just a little while-" Percy wheezed out a joke, sitting down so heavily on the boulder that it made a noise.

Annabeth hovered over him, pressing the flat of her hand to his forehead.

"Hitting people doesn't normally cause fevers Wise Girl," Percy joked again, but his voice sounded terribly strained, like he was trying to talk from crushed under a boulder.

Annabeth's hand moved from his face to his neck, and she eyed him critically. "Does it hurt anywhere?"

"Define anywhere?" Percy joked, gods he felt like he really had the flu. Like he needed Tylenol from his mom, you know, the one he couldn't even remember.

Annabeth pulled closer. She never hovered, which meant that she was really worried about him. She crouched down so that they were at eye level, her hands checking over his body like any pain he had would manifest itself as something she could see on him.

Percy could smell the scent of her hair, and not just smell it, smell it like he could tell the brand of Lemon Soap she had washed it with. He could sense the shift when she turned her head to lean in closer. Ever since that rush of memories Percy had felt before he had blacked out, he seemed to have some – heightened- sense towards Annabeth.

It wasn't like those dumb black covered books with flowers on them about Vampire Love that Lupa actually read out loud, and flipped the pages of it with her teeth. Apparently, Ancient Roman Mythical Wolves got sucked in by teen trends too. Percy couldn't see an aura around Annabeth, or hear her voice like wind chimes – thank the gods, because that would seriously be creepy.

It was more like when they sparred, he knew Annabeth's moves so well that he could sense them before it happened. And now, even sword less, and without dirt stained battle gear, he still had that sense.

It made him a little nervous, like he would scratch her nose before she could do it, and she would break up with him or something.

"Percy!"

Annabeth was shaking his shoulders, he must've space out. He met her eyes, his feeling like someone had knocked an entire beachful of sand in them.

"I'm fine Annabeth," Percy cringed at the sound of his own voice, it sounded like someone had punched him the throat, not very 'I am completely invulnerable to pain' sounding.

"And you're also a bad liar Seaweed Brain," Annabeth argued. "I barely grazed you, you shouldn't have fallen over like that!"

Annabeth's hovering was still there in her tone, but so was a trace of her anger, and it actually made Percy smile a bit, because that was the voice he had heard in his memories. "You underestimate how good your right cross is Annabeth." He took her hand away from his face when she actually started to check his pupils. "I'm okay Wise Girl, nothing broken."

Annabeth huffed in defiance at his suggestion that he was 'okay', but she didn't vocalize any of it because Percy was climbing back onto his feet, and she helped him with that instead of arguing.

Will Solace stepped closer to Percy and Annabeth. "You alright now Percy?" The flickering fire, caught his concerned expression and danced it across the shadows and the gray clouds that surrounded them.

"I'm good Will, thanks." Percy said Will's name like he would to someone he had just met for the first time. "And, thanks, for you know, saving me in there."

"Annabeth did most of the leg work Percy, but you're welcome." Will returned. Will held out his hands, and he and Percy slapped palms. The way Percy had said his name, it was the tone of someone just starting to be your friend. Percy was like a younger brother to Will, he wanted to hug the kid. Because he had been almost as freaked out as Annabeth at his disappearance. But, he kept it like this, and as much as it still hurt, at least it wasn't nothing anymore.

Percy stared back over the people that he had remembered at some point. "So what's the plan? I mean that Hippie Lady I met a while ago told me that I would regain my memories back at Camp, and I'd really like to remember all of your names-" his voice was joking, but something in his eyes wasn't. This was affecting him harder than he would admit to.

Everyone looked at him in puzzlement when he said Hippie Lady, but Percy didn't elaborate. "We heading back to camp or what?"

Will looked at Jake, who looked at Leo, who looked at Piper, who looked at Jason, who looked at Annabeth. Percy wasn't her burden to bear, but she was closer to him than any of them, so they defaulted her to make this decision.

"Camp is 3,000 miles away-" She saw Percy's eyes widen, at the sheer distance he was away from this place where he was supposed to regain his memories. "But Percy's right, it's our best bet. Percy - I mean, we need to regroup, and let Chrion know what's going on with Gaea."

"I'm not disagreeing with you Annabeth," Leo said. "But Argus left with the Van in Pennsylvania, and this belt is good, but it can't create a luxury bus or anything. And, I can think of at least two of us, who aren't exactly up for traveling," he waved around his leg, bandaged with the sleeve of Piper's shirt, where blood had started to leak out of it. "I don't think we can piggy back mine and Percy's injured butts back to Long Island."

Percy looked offended at the term 'injured butt', but it didn't last for very long, because he basically felt like, well something Lupa had hunted, started to tear apart, and the changed her mind on. He didn't know just how long his Achilles Shield would be down, and he didn't think a trek across the continental U.S was Doctor Recommended for his type of injury.

"I'll Iris Message Chrion," Jason spoke up. "Maybe he can send some Pegasus for us, or get Apollo to lend us the chariot," He looked to Will when he said this, like maybe the son of Apollo, could cull some favors with his dad about borrowing his wheels.

Will shook his head at the silent suggestion. "Dad hates when people borrow his car. Ever since Thalia almost melted half of Rhode Island; he's a bit picky about who drives it."

Jason felt the need to look guilty at this remark. After all, even though he only knew of her existence for a few months, it was his sister who had made that mess.

"Maybe Chrion can work something out man," Jake argued. He picked up a heavy stone from the cliff floor and threw it into the fire, letting it burn until it was almost red hot, then pulled it out, bare handed.

Jake didn't flinch from maneuver, but everyone else did. He wasn't immune to fire or anything, he wasn't magic, but as a Son of Hephaestus he was used to burns like this. He set the stone down on the rocky ground, then doused it with his water canteen. A billowing of steam rose up from the rock, and Jake used Annabeth's video shield to create a rainbow in the steam.

Jake's hands were full, so Annabeth threw in a Drachma. "Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering." The coin was swallowed up by steam, vanishing like a magic trick.

Percy looked at her in puzzlement. "Uh Annabeth? What are you doing?"

"Shh!"Annabeth waved her hand in his face. "IMing-"

"Welcome to The Olympus Iris Messaging System!" A tinkling sounding female voice suddenly came from the steam made rainbow. "Please key in your selected location on your iDaldeus pad now; or - say it!"

Percy's eyes widened at the voice that just came out of nowhere. He felt the need to be six years old again, where fears of mysterious talking voices in rainbows could be rationalized with this phrase:"he's still just a LITTLE guy with a BIG imagination." "So, ah, jingle bell voices coming out of a rainbow-"

Did you say 'Angel?'" The Iris Message Voice asked with nauseating sweetness. "One moment while I connect you to the Olympus Mythology Department-"

"No," Annabeth said, cutting off the recording. "Chrion! at-"

"I'm sorry, Brian no longer works in the Olympic Mythology Department. Let me connect you to the next available representative in that department, or say 'Zero' to speak to one of our Operator Nymphs."

"Oh for the love of gods! CHRION, Camp Half Blood!" Annabeth growled into the steam. "Stupid new Iris Message Automated System!"

"Thank you," the sing song voice said, a little too happily. "I'll connect you now. While you are waiting, please enjoy this selection from Diddy's acclaimed album: 'Dirty Money.'"

"Acclaimed?" Piper said, hearing the sounds of "I'm Coming Home." coming from the rainbow. "I'm a Diddy fan, but, acclaimed?"

The rainbow blurred, and the song cut off, the steam waving away into the image of a tall man with a horse body, Chrion, standing outside the Big House at Camp Half Blood. He was dressed in a black shirt that said: 'Centaurs L.I.V.E Concert Festival 2000. His horse body was completely bare, and he had a quiver of arrows strapped to his back.

Chrion's eyes widened when he saw Annabeth. "Annabeth?"

"Hi Chrion," Annabeth's voice was low, like a guilty child calling home after running away.

There was the sounds of Chrion's hooves on the hardwood floor of the Big House's porch. His face was so close to the Iris Message that his head looked like it would poke through the steam to where they were at. "Where in gods name have you been girl! We were all worried!"

"Chrion-" Annabeth began, but the Centaur cut her off.

"No one has seen you for weeks, we thought you were-" Chrion shook his head angrily, running a hand through his beard, but his eyes softened into something else other than anger. "Are you alright child?"

"I'm fine," Annabeth's voice hadn't risen. Chrion was like a father too her. To have him feel that something had happened, like what she had felt when Percy had gone missing, how could she have done that? "I just had to come, I had to see if it was him-"

Chrion's gaze softened even more. "And what did you find out?"

In answer, Annabeth moved aside from the Iris Message, leaving Percy to stare bewildered, at the image of a half man, half horse staring just as bewildered at him, suspended in mid air.

Chrion's eyes widened in shock. "Percy?"

xxxxxxXxxxxx

---

Percy's head hummed with the strangeness of it all.

The horse man, Chrion, looked like he wanted to hug Percy through the Iris Message. Percy had to resist backing away, Chrion was supposed to be this mentor of his, Annabeth had said. So backing away in terror from the sight of him might hurt his feelings.

But, it was all so crazy? No, just strange, his original thought. After crying out how good it was to see Percy alive, Chrion listened to Annabeth's recanting of what had happened. Chiron brooded over the Cockatrice attack, eyeing the boy through the Iris Message like he wanted to come through it completely and check him over himself.

Percy had felt that off kilter buzzing going on inside his brain from earlier, the one that had him almost face planting into the fire. So he had backed away to sit on the same boulder he had been at earlier. Annabeth hadn't noticed, she was too busy conversing with this Chrion.

"Percy, duck!"

Percy hit the ground in an instant, landing on his palms in a crouch, his sword was out, gripped in his hand. He looked up to see a flaming arrow pierce through the grayness and disappear into the mouth of the cave. There was a puff of fire, then a 'hissing' sound as the flames began leaping up inside the cave. His heart hammered like a boxer against his ribs.

Will came jogging up to Percy, his bow still held in his hands. Like before, he held out his hands to Percy, to let him know that he wasn't a threat. "Sorry man, You were just in the way of my arrow." He offered his hand out to Percy. "It wasn't the best phrase to use."

Percy took Will's hand without any hesitation, he still didn't remember him. But, he was starting to trust him. And, right now, he needed that trust more then he needed his memories of Will Solace.

Once Will had successfully pulled him back onto his feet, Percy deactivated his sword into a ballpoint pen, and slid it in his pocket. His roll to the ground left him surprisingly winded, he obviously still had this "Achilles Down Flu" thing going on. He sat back on the boulder with a thud that made Will wince.

"Dude, you okay?" Will's hand was on Percy's shoulder.

"Awesome," Percy threw back once his breath had finally gotten back to normal. "All of this is super awesome."

Will didn't hold back this time, he squeezed the younger kid's shoulder. "Once we're back at Camp, Chrion will be able to help you."

Percy didn't remember one thing about Chrion or Camp, but he knew that Will's statement was just something to make him feel better.

There was the sound of hissing as Leo doused the flames of the fire with his water canteen. Smoke billowed in the clouds. There was a grunt in mid air.

"Sorry Chrion," Leo apologized at the Centaur trying to see around all of the sudden smoke that Leo had made.

Beside Leo, Piper and Jason were repacking all of their supplies, handing Jake Mason the smelting pots to pack away.

Annabeth finally finished talking to Chrion, the Centaur voiced an: "Be careful child." before his image vanished.

Annabeth turned and faced the others: "Chrion got in touch with Artemis, she's sending Thalia and some of her other best hunters down here to escort us back to camp."

"Thalia's coming?" Leo sprang up, sending his cooking pots crashing from his pack. Both Jason and Piper eyed him. Jason because Thalia was his sister, and Piper, because one of Leo's pots had landed on her foot.

"Leo!"

"Sorry!" Leo said, picking the cast iron skillet off of Piper's Converse."I mean," He cleared his throat, trying to sound 'manly' "Thalia's coming, that's great. She's er-um, I mean, she's hot- I mean hot on our trail, super." Leo coughed.

Annabeth shot him a look, but just shook her head in amusement. She liked Leo as much as he liked her. "She'll be here in an hour. It gives us enough time to make it down the base of the cliff." Annabeth eyed Percy and Leo when she said this, "Everyone up for that?"

"I'm golden," Leo said, placing his injured leg on the ground. He winced, and had to grope a second later for Jason's shoulder. "Well, maybe plated gold."

"C'mon," Jason slung Leo's arm up over his shoulder, as Piper took the other side. "One step at a time Valdez."

"I love you guys," Leo said.

"Then stop being so heavy," Piper joked as they stumbled Leo down the mountain. Will followed, Jason behind him, shouldering his pack.

Annabeth started walking right behind them, but then Percy's voice called out to her:

"Thalia's another friend right?"

"One of the best." Annabeth said this before she turned to Percy. But, when she did, she found him still sitting on the rock, looking vacantly to where the fire had once burned. His hand reached up to the Camp Necklace that he was still wearing.

"Percy?"

Percy removed the necklace and held it in his palm, fingering the last bead on it. "These scribble things, what do they say?"

Annabeth stopped walking , and stood there, looking at him. "They're names." She approached him slowly, watching him take in what she was saying. "Of the campers we lost in the Titan War."

Percy's eyes were squinting at the tiny writing there, his fingers tracing the equally tiny indentations of the names, over a dozen on the bead. "I knew them all didn't I?" His words were echoless, only reaching her.

Annabeth set her pack on the ground. She knelt in front of Percy seeing a frustrated look in his eyes. "They were very brave Percy; they died heroes." Her hands rested on his knees. "And yes, you knew them all."

Percy took this in, but it didn't lessen his frustration, he worried harder at the bead, almost crushing it under his fingers. Annabeth raised one of her hands to his wrist to stop him. But he grabbed her hand away, feeling the coldness of the ring on her finger that he remembered giving her. The bead was so small, but, felt so heavy in his hand. "What are their names?"

Annabeth felt something like a shock go through her at the piercing look on Percy's face. She took the leather necklace from him, holding the fifth small clay bead up to her line of sight. The writing was too tiny to see what was written there. But she didn't need to. She scooted closer to Percy, arms resting on his legs, forehead mere inches from his, and read the names:

"Charles Bekendorf, Michael Yew, Silena Beauregard, Lee Fletcher, Luke Castellian-" Annabeth read them off one by one, over a dozen names, every friend lost to them during the long, brutal battle with Kronos and his army, every face that she would no longer see again. Even Luke's was there, he had become Kronos, but had died realizing that all he really ever wanted to become, was himself.

Percy remained silent through all of the readings, but each time she ticked one off, Annabeth saw a flinch come across his face that he couldn't hide.

Percy heard all the names of friends, friends who had died beside him in a war, and now he couldn't remember. It felt like being sucker punched over and over again. He took the necklace back from Annabeth's hand, and she relinquished it without a fight.

"That name you called me- Jackson-" Percy raised his eyes up to her, and they were bottomless and green, and - "That's my last name right?"

And injured.

"Yeah," Annabeth suddenly didn't think she could do this, because, Percy suddenly looked so lost. "Perseus Aaron Jackson, Son of Poseidon, you're 16. You were named after the original Perseus from Greek Legend." She was telling Percy his own story, and it was hurting her heart, because it was hurting his, because he couldn't remember something so simple. "You like blue food, and basketball, and you're dyslexic, but you pretend to like it when I read to you anyway, you fight like a girl sometimes, but you're sword play is still amazing." She tried to smile, and it almost worked. "You live in New York City, with your step father Paul Bloffis, and your mom Sally Jackson-"

Hearing his mother's name made Percy's head tilt to her. "My mom?" Is she, is she okay, I mean, she's – is she pretty?" His last remark seemed so stupidly childish, but all it came out sounding, was sad. He couldn't even remember what his mother looked like.

"She's okay Percy," Annabeth's eyes became as cloudy as the skies. "And, she's very pretty. You look a lot like her." Her hand still on his leg began to stroke his knee under his jeans, fighting to keep the tears swimming in her eyes from falling. "And she's worried as Hades about you, because she doesn't know what happened to you-"

Percy dropped his head at her touch, drawing in such a deep breath he seemed to suck all the air from the world. When he raised it again, Annabeth bit her lip on a gasp.

There were two fast traveling tears moving down his face. In all the years she had known him, Annabeth had never seen Percy cry, never. Not even when he discovered his parents sleeping in their car under the spell of Morpheus. Percy was so stubborn and strong willed-

So, seeing them now, it made her see just how much he was really hurting. "Percy-"

"So my name's Percy Jackson?" Apparently, I can cross off 'things not sucking so badly it hurts this much' ,off on my Things My Achilles Curse Will Prevent' List. Another tear fell before he could stop it.

This one Annabeth wiped off with her thumb. "Yeah, it is." Her smile was slow, and sad, and aching for him. Without a word she drew herself up and into Percy's arms, hugging him fiercely.

Percy hugged her warm weight, all the things that he remembered, holding to it. And more tears fell, making him hiccup a cluster of them into her shoulder.

It all sucked so much.

"Annabeth, Percy!" Jake's voice came over the rocks before he did. "I thought you guys were following-" Jake stilled on the words when he saw Annabeth pull away from Percy. Not because he had startled them, but because they had both mutually agreed too.

"Is everything okay?" Jake eyed the pair in concern.

"Yeah," Percy scrubbed at his eyes with the edge of his arm, acting like he was just rubbing them. "Just ready to get out of here."

Jake could sense something deeper going on, Annabeth and Percy's body language screamed it. And he had seen the way Percy swiped at his eyes. But, he didn't call him out on it. Because, Percy had already lost everything else about himself; Jake owed it to him to make sure he didn't lose his dignity."Then let's get moving okay?"

Percy climbed to his feet, pulling Annabeth up with him.

Annabeth shouldered her pack, as Percy took her hand and squeezed it turning to her. "You ready Wise Girl?" he hoped the smile he gave her looked real, and not cheesy pretending to not be sad.

Annabeth's response was to grab his head in her hands and kiss him long and deeply between the eyes, telling him all the things he needed to hear, without any words. She pulled away and took his hand again. "Come on Seaweed Brain," her fingers tightened around his. "Let's get out of here."

They moved past Jake as one unit down the mountain side, leaving him to follow.

xxxxxXxxxx

---

End.

This is where it will end, and become The Son of Neptune chapter 3, or whatever. This story could've gone on and on, but, I didn't want that. I didn't want: "My own version of The Son of Neptune" I just wanted to write about something that could very well happen in the story.

The ending, a bit sad, but, I don't think Percy, would be invincible to realizing that he had no memories, especially concerning all those friends he lost, and his family.

The legend of the Cockatrice is a true legend. I did tweak it a bit for the story's sake. The original Legend does talk about a 5 year old Cockerel laying an egg, incubated by a snake, then becoming a half rooster, half snake monster. It has eyes with the ability to petrify it's victims, and it sleeps in caves, and the only way to kill it is with its own reflection. The part about Tartarus dust, I worked in, but it is a Greek mythical creature. And, I took a little liberties on the Achilles Legend, and I know it, so no correcting on that okay? And, anything I didn't get right, sorry, but I tried.

Hope you liked it.

Peace,

Mystic.