CHAPTER 1 – PERCY

New Rome was awesome.

Not because of the sun. Not because of the shops, and the town itself. Not even because that he could spend every day with the girl he loved.

It was because for the first time in his life, Percy Jackson actually felt safe.

No crazy Titan king attempting to destroy the world, no crazy Earth goddess attempting to destroy the world, just life, simple and safe life. No monsters, no gods, just him and his friends.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain!"

Percy was sitting on a bench by a fountain and turned his head to see Annabeth walk back over to him with ice cream. She was wearing a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and denim shorts. Her hair was out behind her, blowing in the summer breeze. Gods, she was beautiful.

"I got the blueberry one for you!" She said, handing the blue ice cream over to him.

"Thanks." He said, quickly kissing her on the cheek. Blueberry was his favourite. "Did they have the blue napkins?"

Annabeth sighed. "No, Percy, not today."

"Aw, but those are my favourite napkins!"

"Percy, it's pretty sad that you have a favourite napkin colour," she took a quick lick of her vanilla ice cream, "and besides, I'm sure you'll cope. You've had worse."

That was all too true. Percy and Annabeth had had far too many 'worse' moments than others would care to imagine. They had both suffered terrible losses, they'd been played with by the Gods and by the Fates, they'd been separated for six months, almost driving each other crazy, and they'd been through hell and back together - literally.

They walked down the city centre, and quickly finished their ice creams. They held each other's hands and headed towards their place. They had finished college about a year ago, and were both 25 years old. It still marvelled Percy to this day how they had survived to their age.

Their place wasn't huge. It had two floors - A kitchen and a living room downstairs, and a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. They also had a small garden out front, with an assortment of flowers on the grass and even a small pine tree, which reminded Annabeth of Thalia.

When they got inside, they were very surprised to find their friends inside.

Jason and Frank were on the couch, with Piper and Hazel at their feet. Reyna was also present, sitting on the floor alongside Nico and Will Solace.

Everyone got up and started yelling their greetings. Hugs were exchanged, fists were bumped. Jason practically gave Percy another bear hug; he hadn't seen him in so long.

He said hi to Frank, Hazel, Piper, Reyna, and then he got to Nico.

Percy and Nico hadn't talked much since Nico revealed that he used to have a crush on him. He knew that he was now going out with Will Solace, and he had visited New Rome once or twice. They had definitely bonded much more than they had in previous years. Percy was so glad that they were finally really good friends. And secretly, down beneath all that emo-ness, he thought that Nico was too.

"How are you, Percy?" he asked, with a smile on his face. It was one of those small smiles, but it was the biggest smile that Nico could get.

"Good, thanks." Percy hugged Nico, grinning. He felt the son of Hades cringe slightly. He hated physical contact, unless it was with Will.

After that, the demigods all sat down and talked to each other about the past few months. They all lived in New Rome now, but still hadn't been able to see each other much because they all had different jobs between camps, which meant that they sometimes had to stay away for some periods of time.

Piper and Jason worked together, what with his title of Pontifex Maximus. Hazel and Frank worked together in Camp Jupiter, Hazel as a Centurion and Frank as Praetor with Reyna. Nico was a combat instructor and Will a medic, both working between each Camp.

They all sat down together. Annabeth began conversing. "Reyna, Frank, what's the latest?"

"All good." Reyna replied. "We've had new demigods coming in more than ever, but thankfully, not too much."

"Everything at Camp Half Blood seems fine too." Frank said, "At least, from what we've heard."

"It is." Jason spoke, "Nothing huge has happened, but it's good. Chiron and Rachael are alright, and so is Grover."

"Oh!" Piper had spoken up. "You don't know yet do you?"

Percy and Annabeth exchanged puzzled glances. Percy asked her, "What haven't we heard?"

Piper was bouncing up and down excitedly, "Juniper is pregnant!"

"What?!" Percy and Annabeth exclaimed in unison.

"Grover's gonna be a father!" Jason said.

This was news to everyone in the room. They all started asking questions.

"When did this happen?"

"Is it gonna be a boy or a girl? Do they know?"

"What're they gonna call it?"

Percy sat on the floor with a grin like no other on his face. Grover, his best friend, was actually going to be a father, an actual father. It was crazy. It felt only yesterday that Percy had known Grover as a satyr that had found Pan, but now he was Grover the satyr that had found Pan and is going to be a dad.

It was then that Percy realised that, everyone here, all of his friends…. They were adults. They were old enough to start families and to grow old together. He looked over at Annabeth and thought….

Will spoke up, gesturing towards the TV, "Shall we see what's on?"

In every house in New Rome and every cabin in Camp Half Blood, there was now a celestial bronze or an imperial gold TV, which could connect to any channel possible on the planet. Usually, demigods couldn't have TVs, because the electronic waves could attract monsters, but Leo Valdez solved that problem.

It made Percy sad even now to think of it. Leo was still dead after the Gaia war. After his remembrance service, the Hephaestus kids went into Bunker 9 to see what they could find. It was still their bunker, after all. But they found plans for demigod TVs, phones and computers that could connect to Wi-Fi and Network TV all without attracting any monsters. The Hephaestus kids went straight to work, and within a year, all demigods had them.

Thanks to Leo, demigods' lives could be just a bit brighter.

Percy and his friends turned on the TV.

TO BE CONTINUED