I seem to be obsessed with writing SoN fics. This is weird.

Anyway, this is slightly AU in the sense that everyone is much older. Like, Percy and Annabeth are…meh, I'll say 22 or something like that. But other than that the timeline is the same; Percy vanished six months prior to the beginning of this fic.

Oh, and I'm going to *attempt* writing in Percy's POV, first person. Wish me luck.

Unfortunately, no, I don't own PJO or anything else that may pop up in here requiring a copyright sign. Read on, brave warriors!

O-o-O

"…picking up the pieces, now where to begin? The hardest part of ending is starting again…"

–Waiting For the End, Linkin Park

My first thought of the blond woman wasthe word beautiful.

At first, I couldn't see anyone on the ship clearly, even when four warriors—at least, that's what I assumed them to be—leaped over the side and landed expertly in the sand, not waiting for a plank or ladder to be lowered.

Lupa had ordered us to line up according to legion, weapons drawn. "Show them the might of Rome!" she had growled at us, not bothering to tell anybody who them might be. I supposed she had known about this visit for quite some time, because she hadn't been at all surprised when a giant Greek warship—don't ask how I knew it was Greek, because I really don't know how I did—anyway, she wasn't surprised or even worried when a giant warship appeared on our horizon. Maybe it was her mystical wolf senses, or maybe she was just keeping stuff from us. She'd ordered Reyna and me to the front, set maybe a yard in front of the front line, like emissaries, even though I thought her choice of representatives was a little strange. I wasn't exactly known for my diplomatic skill, and Reyna was just another Aphrodite—sorry, Venus—girl, even if she was head of her cabin.

Anyway, back to the blond woman. The four warriors jumped ship and lingered in the shadows for a moment, heads bent together like they were discussing something. Two of them were obviously girls, one taller than the other, and it seemed to me like the tall girl was in charge. One of the others—a guy who was pretty muscular—put a hand on her arm, and the woman rubbed her forehead like she'd had a long day and wanted to go to bed. Then she raised her head, turned, and led the others into the sunlight.

I was dazzled. The tall woman's hair was honey blond, and curled around her face, falling over her shoulders in a wild tangle, like she hadn't brushed it in a few days. Her eyes were gray, swirling like storm clouds, hypnotic. She was staring at me, sparing one glance for Reyna and then raking her gaze over my face, like she was trying to memorize my features. I registered the other three behind her; noticing the muscular man, also a blond, and the girl who looked like a Cherokee Barbie, along with the Latino boy whose hands couldn't stay still. But the beautiful blond woman was sizing me up, like she was preparing to take me down in battle, but something in her expression was soft. If I didn't know better, I would think we had once been friends. Maybe we had been; it wasn't like I remembered anything.

Then I noticed her clothes. She was wearing an orange shirt, exactly like the one I had been wearing when I arrived here. She had a necklace, too, like the one I kept in my pocket at all times, though she had more beads than I did. All of them were dressed like her, except for the blond boy—he was wearing a purple shirt like me and everyone around me, which was causing quite a buzz, but I couldn't look away from the woman. She was too beautiful, and strangely familiar—I felt like I knew her, or at the very least I wanted to know her. And then she reached up to brush a strand of hair out of her face, and I saw it.

There, on her left hand. A ring.

This woman was engaged.

Gods damn it.

I felt like my heart had fallen into my stomach, which made no sense at all; I didn't even know this woman. Still, something about that ring made me feel like I had been punched in the gut.

My little internal pity party was brought to a screeching halt when a horse leaped over the side and pounded into the sand, nodding at Lupa, who had appeared at my side at some point. Then I realized that the horse was a man from the waist up. He was a centaur.

The centaur trotted to the blond woman's side and placed a hand on her shoulder, which made her tear her gaze from me and look at him. He said in a slow, reassuring voice, "My dear, I think you should go with Percy and…" he looked at Reyna questioningly.

"Reyna," the blond dude said, nodding at her. There was a general murmur of shock, and somewhere in the voices I heard the name Jason. So this was the infamous missing camper.

"Reyna," the centaur repeated. "Go with Percy and Reyna, and try to explain the…situation."

She nodded, and I turned my attention to Lupa, who gestured with her paw to a dirt path leading into the woods. Reyna and I nodded in understanding, then gestured to the little group across from us. "Follow me," I commanded, and saw a strange expression flit across the woman's face—hurt? In any case, it was gone in less than a second. "We're going for a little hike," I said, then took off running down the path.

It wasn't the ideal hiking trail. There were invisible twists and turns, roots hiding under a blanket of leaves, dips and low hanging branches. I was running it at a dead sprint, leaving Reyna to fend for herself as she fell behind. The blond woman was right behind me, though, pounding along and almost overtaking me. Her breathing wasn't even heavy.

After maybe ten minutes of running at top speed, the trail ended suddenly at the base of a cliff. I turned around and saw the woman behind me, breathing slow and deep, eying the cliff with dull interest. There was sweat on her brow and her cheeks were flushed, but she didn't seem too exhausted. Her legs weren't even shaking. That was when I noticed that her legs were long and tan, built like a runner. She looked very athletic, which wasn't that uncommon with demigods.

It sort of dawned on me that we were alone in the middle of nowhere. Like, alone, because we'd left the others in the dust. I wasn't worried because Reyna knew the way, but I was starting to feel seriously awkward. I mean, what do you say when you're alone in the middle of the woods with an engaged woman you don't know but feel like you might really like?

So you see my situation.

The woman walked past me and put her hands on the rock, pulling herself up. "What are you doing?" I asked.

She turned around and smiled, just a little, and I could feel my heart do a little tap-dance. How pathetic was I? Then she said, "I'm assuming that lovely little jog was not the hike you were talking about, and there's nowhere to go but up, so…" She continued climbing. I sighed and started after her, even though I sort of wished she would keep talking; her voice was pleasant despite the glares she constantly seemed to be giving everyone.

The woman was a fast climber. She was already halfway up the cliff, with me several feet behind, when I heard footsteps below us and Reyna saying, "There's a little place at the top—hey, where'd they go?"

"I think they started up without us."

"Thanks for waiting, Percy!"

"No problem, Reyna," I yelled down.

At this point, the woman had already pulled herself over the ledge and I was right behind her, digging my feet into the rock and pulling on the ground until I scrambled onto a little cliff top oasis. There was a great view of the ocean, with trees on all sides and a few plastic lawn chairs that I guess some Hermes (Mercury, whatever) kids had hauled up here at some point. Normally I would have gone and checked out the view, but my usual spot was taken by the blond woman. The sun was shining through her hair, and…

I really needed to stop doing that.

There was a grunt and a few Latin swear words from just below the ledge, and the blond girl turned back and hauled Jason up, leaving him to catch his breath while she assisted the dark-haired Barbie girl and the Latino boy. Jason leaned over the side and yelled, "You coming, Rey?"

"Hey, you try climbing a cliff in sandals!"

I couldn't help but laugh; climbing was about the only thing Reyna couldn't do in sandals. She ran, fought, and pretty much did everything in those strappy little nightmares of a shoe.

Finally she made it up and rubbed her toes, which had started bleeding at some point during the climb, and moved to stand by me. Jason got to his feet and put his hand on the blond woman's shoulder, which made my stomach clench, and he said, "We should probably explain everything to Percy and Reyna."

She nodded and turned around, and I think I might have choked a little because I was a pathetic lovesick puppy. Then she gestured at Jason, saying, "Introductions? You start."

He nodded and said, "I'm Jason Grace, son of—"

"Jupiter," Reyna finished. "Long time no see."

The Barbie girl took Jason's hand, which made me feel slightly better, and said, "Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

"Leo Valdez," the Latino dude said, "son of Hephaestus."

"And I'm Annabeth Chase," the blond woman said, and I almost missed the rest of her sentence because I knew that name. It was the one name I knew when I got here, and I had been a little obsessed with finding out who Annabeth was, because I just knew I had to find her. And then, of course, she finished with "daughter of Athena."

Well, I was royally screwed. I was crushing—hard—on a girl who was engaged and beyond out of my league. Oh, not to mention she was the daughter of my dad's worst enemy.

As I said, royally screwed.

My expression at the moment must have been something, because Annabeth scrunched her eyebrows together—gods, she looked cute when she did that—and said, "Are you alright?"

No. Not at all. But I managed to swallow the baseball-sized lump in my throat and say, "I'm Percy—"

"We know who you are," Annabeth said.

"You do?"

"Of course. That's why we're here."

"I'm lost."

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, like I was giving her a headache. Was I really that bad?

…probably.

So I listened as Annabeth and her friends explained the whole mess with Hera and the giants and how Jason and I had traded places, and how Jason had eventually regained his memory—obviously, I wasn't so lucky. They told me that I was a Greek, and that I belonged with them, which kind of made my heart flip when Annabeth said it.

Why did Aphrodite hate me so much?

I nodded when they finished their story, saying, "So…you need our help."

Annabeth nodded.

"We're in."

Reyna gave me a look. "Percy, we need to talk to Lupa first."

"That's what Chiron is doing right now," Annabeth said. "And if Lupa has a speck of sense, she'll agree with us."

"We'll see about that," Reyna grumbled. "Let's go."

After another horrifying climb and a sweaty run, we got back to the forum, where the Greeks had filed off the ship and were currently having a silent stand-off with the Romans. I personally thought the effect when all heads turned to us was kind of cool, but Piper blushed and hid behind Jason. A daughter of Aphrodite who didn't want to be looked at? News to me.

"We're in, if that's okay with Lupa," I announced. All eyes immediately went to the she-wolf, who glared at Chiron and nodded slowly.

"That's that, then," I said, and when nobody moved I continued, "Run along. No need to be giving each other death glares."

The group of demigods broke up, with the Romans wandering off to various parts of the camp and the Greeks milling around on the beach, both groups muttering darkly. Reyna grabbed Piper's hand and pulled her away, saying, "You have to tell me what the Venus cabin is like at your camp!" Jason trailed after them, and Leo wandered over to a dark-haired Greek girl and threw an arm around her shoulders.

Annabeth started walking, and I kept pace with her for lack of anything better to do. She seemed slightly annoyed by this but didn't bother to say anything. Finally I said, "So…what's camp like?"

"Fine," she said with a little shrug. "Better than this place."

Well, that cleared a lot up.

"Am I annoying you?" I asked her without thinking.

She stopped and looked at me like I had grown a third arm. "Annoying me?"

"Well, you don't really seem like you want to have a friendly chat…"

"You always annoy me, Percy. Mildly. I just…have a lot on my mind," she sighed, rubbing her temples. It was that same expression as before, like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in ages. Maybe she'd been having nightmares. For some reason, it made me mad, that there was something plaguing her I couldn't fight.

Then Annabeth stiffened, and she said, "Hi, Malcolm," even as another blond guy materialized at her shoulder. Before she even turned around to face him, her expression was transformed back into an emotionless mask. Malcolm looked at me sideways before leading Annabeth toward Chiron the centaur, talking in her ear. She glanced back and flashed a half smile in my general direction—at least, I think it was my direction, but it was hard to tell since she was running across the beach to a command tent.

Reyna appeared at my shoulder, glancing between me and Annabeth's form, which was ducking into the tent at the other end of the beach. Then she planted herself in front of me and said, "You are one lovesick puppy."

"I know. Aren't you supposed to be bothering Piper?"

"I was going to, but I got the sense she just wanted to make out with Jason."

"She doesn't strike me as much of the 'making-out' type."

"And you don't strike me as a daughter of the love goddess."

I flicked her on the head, a little harder than intended, because in return she kicked me in the shin.

She shook her head and said, "I don't get it, Perce. You could have any girl at this camp—I can tell you firsthand that a good chunk of them are drooling over you—and you pick her. Do you enjoy punishing yourself?"

"You know me."

"I know you're absolutely hopeless."

I sighed. "Maybe you're right."

*#*#*

"Good morning, sleepy head," Jason smirked at me as I sank onto my bench in the dining pavilion. Lupa had decided that, since we were essentially the emissaries for our camps, we should sit together for meals; I suspected it had more to do with the fact that all the tables were overflowing with demigods. So Reyna, Jason, Piper, Leo, and Annabeth were sharing a table with me.

"Shut up," I muttered, attempting to murder my pancakes with a fork. I knew my appearance was probably tease-worthy, with my amazing bed-head and wrinkled clothes, but I'd overslept.

Apparently I wasn't the only one having a bad morning. Annabeth was sitting directly across from me, with her head on her arms and her half-eaten breakfast shoved to the side. She was wearing a hoodie, with the hood flipped up, and if I couldn't see her breathing I would've thought she was dead.

"Bad night?" I asked her, and she groaned and looked up. That was when I noticed we had the same clothes: gray hoodie, green T-shirt. She growled something under her breath and stomped away.

"What did you do, stab her with a butter knife?" Reyna asked as she fell onto the seat next to Piper. "She's pissed."

"I…don't know," I said, and got up to follow Annabeth.

I found her in the Legion's training hall, but she wasn't fighting. I thought she was taking a nap, at first, but then I saw that she was laughing and squirming, screaming, "Stop! Stop it!"

One of the Minerva girls—the youngest, who was only three—was sitting on Annabeth's stomach, tickling her into submission with her stubby little fingers. The girl—I thought her name was Maggie—was shrieking just as loudly as Annabeth, her face alight with pleasure as Annabeth picked her up and carried her to the stands. Maggie beamed at her older sister and held up a book—I couldn't see the title from here, but it was a pretty darn big book—and said, "Will you read to me, Annie?"

"I'm dyslexic," Annabeth reminded her. "I can't read very well."

"Please?"

"No. And I think you need to go get some breakfast; that stomach of yours is growling louder than the monsters!" She finished with tickling Maggie, who ran screaming from the hall.

Annabeth smiled and returned to the stands, where she picked up a knife that was vaguely familiar and whirled to gut the nearest dummy before she spotted me.

"Hi," I said, and she scowled and began hacking a training dummy to bits.

"Lovely to see you too. How's your morning been? Mine's great, thanks for asking," I continued, striding to the stands and taking a seat, and I could swear I saw the corner of her mouth twitch.

"You're annoying me again," she said, and she walked over and sat beside me.

"I thought I always annoy you. What's so different this time?"

"I'm not used to it. You haven't annoyed me much the past few days."

"Because you won't talk to me."

"Right. Sorry about that," she said, grimacing and rubbing her forehead, like she had a headache again. "It's a bit complicated."

"Care to explain?"

"Not really."

Okay, so I'd asked for that one. I shifted sideways so that I was facing her, still being careful not to touch her. As kick-ass as she seemed to be (and probably was), she still seemed sort of fragile, or maybe it was just the fact of my own invulnerability that made her seem that way.

Annabeth reclined on the risers behind her and crossed her arms, which was when I noticed she'd taken off her jacket, even though it was pretty chilly for high summer. There was a light sheen of sweat on her skin, and I knew from experience that the only thing worse than going jacketless on a chilly day was being sweaty on a chilly day, sans jacket. "You cold?" I asked her, and she shook her head even though her arms were covered in goose bumps.

"Do you remember anything?" she asked me suddenly. "Anything at all?"

"No," I said slowly, and she sighed and closed her eyes.

I was suddenly very, very aware of the fact that her arm was about an inch and a half from my hand, and a stray lock of hair had blown across her face, and I needed to snap out of it before I gave in to the temptation that was nagging me to tuck it behind her ear.

Damn it, you idiot, she's engaged. Stop.

But the temptation was still there, so I decided my brain needed a more forceful reminder. Which was why my big mouth decided to blurt, "So, who's the lucky guy?"

"What?" She opened her eyes and sat up.

"Your ring. I'm assuming it's not just for show," I clarified, nodding to her hand, which was currently clenched into a fist.

"It's not important," she said, and I was getting the early I don't want to talk about this feel, which of course I had to ignore.

"Come on, tell me," I pleaded.

"It's really not important."

I started guessing, assuming that her fiancée was here and she would give some signal if I got it right. "Leo?"

"He has a girlfriend. Ashley, remember?"

"Right." I didn't tell her that I was basically listing off any of the Greek guys that popped into my head. "Jason?"

"Do you think Piper would let me live if that was the case?"

"Malcolm?"

I thought she might puke. "Malcolm is my brother."

I blushed. "Okay, forget I ever said that. Connor?"

She glared at me with irritation and said, "No."

"At least give me a hint."

She jumped to her feet, and for a second I thought she might stab me, because her expression was murderous—at least, it was before tears started running down her cheeks. "I told you to leave it alone," she hissed. "It's not like it matters anymore." She started wrestling the ring off her finger.

"Annabeth—"

"Don't!" she yelled, her whole body trembling. "Don't bother. Just leave me alone. And since you really wanted to know—" she paused and tossed the ring in my lap as she backed away, "you were the lucky guy, Percy. It was always you." She turned and stomped out of the hall, straight past Jason and Piper, leaving me with a ring in my lap and a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach.

Way to fuck that up, Percy.

Jason stared at me questioningly as I picked up the ring and held it in my palm, feeling the blood drain from my face. It was always you. Me.

Gods, I had screwed that up. Big time.

Jason walked over to me, saying, "What happened? Did you and Annabeth fight?" Then he spotted my hands, his eyes grew roughly to the size of a dinner plate, and he yelled, "Annabeth!" before chasing after her, grabbing Piper's hand as he dashed away.

O-o-O

So I decided I'll have to break this up, because it is turning out to be a lot longer than I thought. Oh well.

And I would've had this up a lot earlier, but my computer crashed :( So I just got it fixed today, and decided to let my lovely fans know that I'm not dead.

Review? For the children…