Don't Forget Me

It's been eleven months. Eleven months that Gaea tricked them. Eleven months that she got away with everything and erased their memories completely. Eleven months that fake relationships have started and have been established, while the old ones have been long forgotten, along with any oaths that have ever been made. Eleven months that the gods believe they're humans, living their normal, tiring lives; that the demigods, Greeks or Romans, have forgotten about the camps and live as ordinary people; that the dead have come back and have no clue that their deaths ever existed. But the Fates, oh the Fates. Those sneaky old ladies created a way for the balance to return, called dreams. These dreams are the only way of remembering. The only way of knowing the truth behind Gaea's mind tricks. The only way of uniting the demigods again and giving them one more chance to defeat her for good.

Rated T/M. Contains a few OCs to help the storyline.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own PJO/HOO. Rick Riordan does.

Story's Theme Song: Way Out West – Don't Forget Me

Chapter 1

"Here in these deep city lights
Girl could get lost tonight
I'm finding every reason to be gone
There's nothing here to hold on to
Could I hold you?"

Annabeth

Finally, some alone time, Annabeth thought while she managed to escape up to her room. With the whole engagement party raging downstairs, she was really craving for a couple of minutes without any other handshakes or kisses or congratulations. It was such a tiring nightmare, she'd rather fight with the Terminator. In a cage.

The long sparkling silver dress with the matching high heels that weren't actually as comfortable as they appeared to be, the unbearable heat that existed downstairs due to the huge amount of people that had come to praise her mother for her successful and promising business, let along her daughter's engagement, and the lousy music that the band played, made the whole atmosphere too asphyxiating and a break absolutely necessary.

She stopped in front of her mirror and stared at her reflection, specifically at that little sparkling diamond ring David had bought her. That tiny thing showed she was not single any more. That she was gonna get married before she even graduates from High School. Ah, Thalia would kill her when she found out about this. Plus, most of the girls would think she was pregnant or something, so poor little David, caring and thoughtful as he was, had been forced to take care of her. No matter what happened from now on, of course David would appear to be the innocent idiot that got manipulated by her. When in reality, they both knew this was happening because her mother wanted to expand her business even more, so a marriage was necessary to charm Mr. Brown, David's father and one of the biggest investors in the country. Not that Annabeth wasn't fond of David. The poor little British baby just cheated on her the first month they went out. So even pretending to be happy about being engaged to him, was kind of causing her the need to vomit. In the first chance she'd get before she signs the marriage contract, she'd call the whole thing off and ran to Bahamas with her best friend. She was no quitter, but neither was her mother. So, she'd fight her by making her believe she had quit, and then, ruin her mother's entire plan. She'd find a way. She always did.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and she turned only to see her younger sister, Brook. "Annie, mom asked me to tell you that it's time you came downstairs again. There's someone you need to see." the seven-year-old blonde haired girl informed her smiling.

Annabeth smiled warmly at her and turned back to her mirror. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Are you okay? You look sad." Brook said worried and stepped closer to her sister.

Annabeth's look dropped to a box of jewelries before it travels back to Brook's face. She lowered herself to reach Brook's height and stroked tenderly her sister's cheek. "Don't worry, princess. I'm just fine. Tell mom I'm on my way, would you?"

"Okay. But if something is wrong, you'll tell me, right?"

A couple of seconds had passed before Annabeth answered with a huge grin drawn all over her face. "Of course I will. You're the only person in here that I trust." She kissed Brook's cheek and got up. "Now go, I'll be right behind you."

And with that, Brook smiled and walked out of the room, leaving Annabeth alone again. The soon-to-be Mrs. Brown dropped her look on the box with the jewelries again, only this time her eye caught a colorful necklace with a lot of clay beads and a golden ring on it. She picked it up and observed the beads; they were simply colored, each and every one of them differently. She searched it further and she thought she saw a blurred trident forming in one of them, right before it disappears again. She blinked and looked at it again. Nothing. She placed it back on the box and exited the room. This was something she couldn't deal with right now.

She reached the top of the stairs and looked at the massive crowd below her laughing, eating, drinking, all-dressed up in formal clothes. However, her eye caught one dark haired guy on the counter with the food that stood out from the formal-dressed crowd. That guy wore a black hat that looked like one of the many Michael Jackson used to put on stage, dark jeans, white V-neck t-shirt that had the Nirvana sign on it and a dark denim jacket that matched his jeans. He had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the people in there, which made her raise her eyebrow at him, even if he wasn't looking. Unfortunately, both her mother and David were looking, so she let out a low sigh and started climbing down the stairs.

Once she made it to the end of it, the oh-so-gentle David joined her and kissed her cheek, posing as the perfect fiancé every girl would dream of having, while all she wanted to do was throw up. She forced a wide fake smile here and there to the guests and he held her by her waist as they walked up to her mother, not exchanging any words between them. "Mother," Annabeth started, unable to keep her ironic tone down as she continued, "I heard you wanted to introduce me to another possible client of yours. Oh, I forgot. We call them people that are here to congratulate me for the amazing fiancé I have, right?" she said smiling and Athena glared at her, while David looked everywhere else but the two women.

"To your information, my beloved daughter," her mother replied calmly, not wanting to make a scene in front of such a crowd, "yes, I actually do want to introduce you to someone, only he's not a client of mine. He's here for you and David." she explained and beckoned at someone.

"For me and D-" Annabeth started confused, before she was cut off by the guy she had seen before, the unmatchable one.

"Sorry Mrs. Chase, I was checking something and got a little-" he paused and raised his head, looking straight into Annabeth's eyes. "-distracted." That's when he was at a total loss of words and he was just gazing at her with those sea-green eyes. Ah, those sea-green eyes… They had such depth in them that provoked you to come closer and closer, until you saw the end of them, but when you did, you'd realize there is no such thing as an end to these eyes. None of them had realized how long they were looking at each other, until they heard Athena's cough and woke up from their daydream. "Excuse me." he apologized immediately and smiled crookedly. "Um, it seems like my manners have gotten a little rusty. So rude of me not to introduce myself in such a beautiful woman and her husband."

Annabeth smiled, seeing the discomfort he had in adding the 'husband'. "Oh, it is not rude at all. I have to admit, I got distracted as well." she responded, completely ignoring David's jealous stares he shot at her. "I am Annabeth Chase. And you are…?"

"Percy Jackson. I'll be the…entertainer of the after party." he answered.

"Annabeth, Percy is here tonight to arrange with both of you what kind of music you want him to play at the reception. Since he's not one of the most famous in his field, but his work is remarkable, he's quite the perfect choice. Plus, this is his chance to become one of the famous." Athena explained and Annabeth eyed her.

"Mother, I do not need to know his biography to work with him. But thanks for not even letting me handle my own wedding's after party." she snapped and Athena eyed her back.

"I just thought that with the wedding and the whole return to your last year of High School, this would be just an extra weight to put on your shoulders. Let's not forget you missed half the year on your previous school because you felt like going out with Thalia on morning times and ditched your classes, in order to do it. You have no idea what I had to do to convince the principal solely not to fail you. Of course the man wouldn't be convinced in keeping you in his school for the next year as well, so I had to transfer you." she snapped back.

"I never asked you to do that mother. Nor arrange my own wedding behind my back, but you did it anyways, didn't you? You always do it your way, no matter who gets hurt in the process." Annabeth finished and let go of David's arm to walk away, but he grabbed it back before she could.

"Annabeth, darling-" he said in his British accent pleadingly, but of course, it meant nothing to her.

"Don't touch me." she said through gritted teeth and got her arm back. She glanced at Percy and nodded at him to follow her in the crowd.

"Where do you think you're going?" Athena snapped at Percy and he looked at her, unsure of what his following words would be.

"He's coming with me to plan my after party." Annabeth announced and saved him the trouble, while he agreed smiling.

-(::)-(::)-(::)-(::)-

"There's a whole other conversation going on
In a parallel universe
Where nothin' breaks and nothin' hurts
There's a waltz playin' frozen in time
Blades of grass on tiny bare feet
I look at you and you're lookin' at me
Could you beam me up?"

"I'm sorry you had to see that." Annabeth told Percy while pouring two glasses of wine, after they had made it to the secluded living room.

He smiled and shrugged next to her. "It's okay. I might have not grown up with a mother that would plan my own wedding before I even know about it, but I have a pretty good idea of how tough families can be." he said and took off his hat, giving her the perfect chance of admiring his black jet hair. Annabeth offered him the glass of wine, but he denied politely. "I don't drink."

"Oh, well, I do. What about a glass of water instead?" she asked and he nodded. "You know, you are pretty lucky that you don't have a mother that would ever think to plan your wedding like that."

"I'm sure that she had a pretty good reason to do it, and that was not to hurt you." he said and she handed him his water.

"Yeah, you're right. She did have a pretty good reason. She did it to become an even more successful businesswoman." She took a sip of her glass of wine and placed it back on the counter. "As about the hurting me part, I don't think she even bothered to think about it for a second."

He stepped forward and placed his hand near hers. "I know you're mad at her for going behind your back and making you marry a person that you don't even know you love, but in a weird way, I have a feeling that she's only making you do this for your own good. Not for the company, not for her, but for you." he told her and she looked up at him.

"How can you tell?" she asked. "You've known her for like five minutes or so."

He shrugged. "Call it a vibe, a sense, I don't know. But when you kept snapping at her, her expression did not seem like the ruthless person you think she is." That made Annabeth look away and she couldn't help but being affected by his words. Did he think she was a spoiled rich kid that did not appreciate her family? Just as if he was reading her mind, he added quickly, "I didn't mean to offend you, Annabeth. I-I… Ugh, it came out wrong." Pause. "All I'm saying is that I understand your anger and your pain, but you should at least try to think her real intentions behind those decisions. She's your mother after all." he finished and she smiled at him.

"See, now this is just as if you called me dumb to my face, only by using different words." she joked and he laughed.

"Well, in that case, I'm gonna be honest towards you and say, you're dumb." he extended the joke and she laughed for the very first time that day. The only odd thing is that a stranger caused her to feel more comfortable in five minutes than the whole party in hours.

"Why thank you Mr. Jackson. Your honesty will be highly appreciated." she finished it and he smirked. "Thank you." she told him, meaning it in more than one ways, and then met his eyes again. Those endless, dazzling eyes.

"Your welcome." he whispered and took a sip from his water, never leaving their eye contact. Whatever connection they seemed to share, it appeared to begin from their eyes. And judging by their unwillingness to break it, it should be a hell of a strong one. Unconsciously, his hand touched hers only for just a brief moment, before they get stroke by electricity and the lights start switching on and off repeatedly. He parted his hand from hers due to the pain the strike caused, and suddenly, everything returned back to normal. He looked confused at the ceiling, while she dropped her look on their hands. All of these because they touched? It was logically impossible and probably just a stupid random thought of hers. But still…"Static electricity?" he asked before he looks back at her. That made more sense.

"Yeah, probably." she agreed and shrugged, watching the little red mark forming on her pinky. She shook her head and chuckled. "Look, uhm, why don't we sit down and actually start planning something?" she suggested and he smiled.

"That could work, yeah." he joked and she smiled, before she takes her glass and head to the couch, with him following behind her.

-(::)-(::)-(::)-(::)-

"Put your lips close to mine
As long as they don't touch
Out of focus eye to eye
Till the gravity is too much."

After most of the guests' departure from the house, in which she had to participate in with goodbye handshakes and typical hugs, Annabeth had almost finished planning of the reception. Or at least, everything that included music. She discovered that Percy got her taste and with his own few rearrangements, they'd have an unforgettable after party. "Well, I believe that with these ,we, are done for today." he announced and smiled.

Annabeth gave him an idle and tired smile and got up. "So, I presume that since your work for today is over, you'll be going home now?" she asked and he got up chuckling.

"Too impatient to kick me out, huh?" he joked and she smiled.

"The exact opposite I'd say." she admitted and connected her eyes with him again. "Having you here means I have more time to refrain from the lousy party out there."

He smiled and picked up the papers he had kept his notes at. "I believe that a part of me hoped you genuinely enjoyed my company, not just using me to avoid saying goodbye to the guests." he confessed and she laughed.

"Oh, would I be a terrible person if I told you that I only planned the second, but turned out that I did both?"

He grinned and walked backwards to the door. "You would never be able to follow your original plan anyway, so no."

She raised her eyebrow and followed. "And how could you possibly be aware of that?"

His back met the door and since she continued moving, the distance between them slowly reduced. Slowly, but significantly. "Call it a vibe, a feeling, a sense." he answered low-voiced. "I just do."

She crossed her arms and stood in front of him, simply staring at him. She didn't say nor did anything to respond at him. She was just trying to figure him out, but, as she was soon to find out, he was a mystery. A mystery she would very much like to solve at some point. She had unconsciously moved much closer to him. Too close. But she didn't pull away. He had started leaning his head forward when she realized what they were about to do. But again, she didn't pull away. She couldn't pull back. Everything seemed so wrong, yet so right, she couldn't distinguish the one from the other. So she stayed in place, waiting for either the epic mistake or the epic moment to arrive. And she would have found out which of the two would eventually be, had he not tried to touch the skin of her shoulder. Because when he did, the same electricity hit them again, the lights started switching on and off again, and all of it ended when he pulled his hand back.

She looked at him wide-eyed and stepped backwards shocked. She knew that once was a coincidence, but two… It had to be something else. It could be her logic, reminding her she was getting married. Forced, to but still, she was gonna get married.

There was an awkward silence between them before Annabeth decided to end it. "We shouldn't touch that much." she said and Percy burst out laughing, dragging her along for some time.

"Yeah, indeed." he agreed and opened the door. "I guess… I'll see you the next time I'll come to present you an informal plan about the reception?" he said and she nodded.

"Do you, um, want me to escort you out?" she offered, currently hoping the answer was negative.

He shook his head. "I'll find my way out. Goodnight Annabeth."

"Goodnight." she said, pretty relieved that she had escaped the extra amount of awkwardness between them. She sat on the couch and took a long sip of her half-finished wine. She had almost kissed him. Like actually kissed him. And she couldn't explain it. He was a total stranger to her, yet when they looked at each other, it felt like they've known for years. He was someone she just met and yet, it was like he was the person who knew her better than everyone. No, she thought. She never believed in the soulmates crap, but what if she was unlucky enough to meet hers the time she was supposed to get married? Of course this kind of stuff happens only in fairytales and movies and books, but she couldn't help but think what if… Of course, on the other hand, maybe this was just one desperate move she did in order to escape from the world she was currently living in. The one she's getting married to someone she detests and her mother is the one forcing her to do it. Maybe she thought she needed it. Maybe she saw Percy as her only chance of ruining everything. She didn't know. She had absolutely no idea.

She finished her wine with a long gulp and shook her head. She had one more day before the school officially started. She'd figure everything tomorrow. She was too exhausted for one day. She climbed up to her room, said goodnight to Brook and fell to sleep, hoping she'll find some peace and serenity in her dreams.

Oh, how wrong was she…

-(::)-(::)-(::)-(::)-

"Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something. [Marilyn Manson]"

It all started when she dreamed about a camp. It was one of those summer camps that children attended during the summer, only this one couldn't have been any stranger. Instead of having wooden cabins for the campers to spend the nights at, it had all those weird buildings that looked like they had jumped out of the Immortals. They seemed ancient, but unlike what she expected, they were all well-preserved and looked relatively new.

Annabeth was standing at the top of a hill that gave her a full view of the place, but before she could memorize it, she found herself inside a room. Most of the beds were empty and untouched, like no man had ever used them. But a single one of them had a few square stuff in the wall above it, stuff she figured that were photos, once she took a couple of steps towards them.

When she looked at them, she saw a man. His body told her he was either at his early twenties or he hadn't even reached them. Maybe eighteen, nineteen years old. When her eyes drifted to check his facial features, she realized she couldn't see his face. It was all covered up with blurred squares, like the ones that cover the celebrities' faces on TV. And the harder she tried to remove this blur, the more intense it became.

She sighed and gave up, dropping the photo on the bed. When she looked back up on the wall, she almost jumped back from her surprise. Almost. The blue trident she thought she had seen on a bead of her necklace earlier that night, had been magnified and was glowing on the wall above that bed. She looked at it wide-eyed and tried hesitantly to touch it.

But before she could, she found herself again in an entirely different room. Anywhere you could possibly look at, you saw nothing but darkness. Her feet didn't touch the ground, but she didn't feel like falling. More like levitating. She looked at her right and saw a grey shape of a human forming, extending his hand out to her.

'You're not getting away from me. Never again.' the shape said and got swallowed by the darkness. Its voice seemed so familiar, but no matter how hard she tried to remember its owner, she was unable to.

Then, she looked to her left and the form reappeared. This time though, it wasn't that big. 'If I was going to pick one person in the world to reattach my head, I'd pick you.' it said and disappeared again.

She struggled to remember and looked straight ahead, thinking this would prevent the form of reappearing. But it didn't. Right then, it barely showed itself, but its voice echoed through the blank space of darkness. 'New Rome…For us…'

'I missed you, too.' another said behind her after leaving a loud booming laugh. She gasped and turned around, but never managed to see that one.

'I believe in you.' She turned only to see the form inches away from her. It took her hand, making her feel the soft texture of whatever it was supposed to be made of. It raised its head and its white glowing eyes looked at her, before it dissolves in front of her like smoke.

She felt one more behind her back but she didn't turn. 'You too, Wise Girl.' it said in a kid's voice. She lowered her head, dropping her look on the dark emptiness below her and closed her ears with her palms, not wanting to hear that familiar voice again. Suddenly, someone lifted her head and she closed her eyes, unwilling to see the grey human. 'Wake up, Wise Girl. Wake up.' he whispered and she slowly removed her hands from her ears, since it clearly didn't work. 'Wake up.' She tried to open her eyes but they wouldn't. 'Wake. Up. Wake up!' it yelled and she opened them, consequently waking up from her dream, sweating and panting.

She looked around the room; no darkness, no grey forms that disappeared, nothing. She closed her eyes and breathed relieved, thinking it was just a really weird dream. She opened them and got up from her bed, walking towards her makeup stand after she turned on the lights. She opened her box of jewelries and found that beaded necklace. She laughed sarcastically at it and took the first lighter she found, preparing to destroy it for good.

Just when she was about to light it up, she observed a specific bead; the bead she had seen the trident. It had looked exactly the same as it always did, until her pinky touched it. Because when it did, the bead started sparkling; a bright blue sparkle. She looked at it wide-eyed, like she couldn't believe what she was witnessing. "No." she whispered under her breath, as the exact same trident she had dreamed of formed in the bead. "No." she repeated and lit up the lighter, trying to burn the necklace. But instead of burning, the necklace put out the fire and smoke came off. She widened her eyes and gasped, throwing the necklace in the jewelry box and locking it.

She ran back to her bed and stared at the box's direction. Maybe it was just her mind playing games at her from the tiredness and nothing more. But the trident formed in front of her eyes. She was either start making up stuff, aka going crazy, or she was already crazy enough to think of starting to believe them. She couldn't explain this and it scared the crap out of her for two reasons; the first, because she was unable to also deal with this the specific period of time, and the second, because if that necklace somehow connected to the strange stuff that happened when Percy touched her skin… She didn't even want to complete her thought. She fell back to her pillow, unsure of whether she wanted to sleep again or stay awake.

One thing was for sure though; if the thought she didn't want to finish was the real one, this was only the beginning of a lot more upcoming strange events. And being genuinely unable to ignore it, she had to at least try to figure out what the heck was going on, before it was too late.

Well, I can only hope you like it. I changed the concept a little bit. It will have many similarities to the previous story (for those who had read it), but a lot of differences as well, such as the length of the first chapters, the romance and drama evolving around the characters, and of course, the end, which will be entirely different from the one that I was planning to give. And this time, I will end it. Anyway, just tell me if you like it and if you don't know any of the songs above, just review and I'll write their names in the next chapter. :)

Peace out.

-TWDoP23