Note: Sorry for the long wait. This is supposed to be during the Lost Hero after Annabeth returns from the search for Percy after Jason, Piper, and Leo left on their quest.

Note: I don't own any of the characters. And I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus.

Chapter 3: Coping

Annabeth landed the black pegasus on the grounds of Camp Half-Blood. She sighed as the winged horse whinnied tiredly. Lowering herself to the ground, Annabeth turned and patted the pegasus's neck, "Sorry."

The pegasus turned his head toward her and Annabeth could have sworn he was giving her a depressed and frustrated expression through his dark eyes. Either Annabeth was imagining things or being the girlfriend to the camp's resident son of Poseidon was making his powers rub off on her.

Annabeth's shoulders drooped but she continued to stroke the winged horse's mane as she said quietly, "I know, Blackjack, I miss him too."

"Annabeth!" a voice behind her called.

She turned to see Butch and Will running towards her. They stopped in front of her and panted as they tried to catch their breaths. Annabeth gave them hard stares, as if daring them to ask about the search or the failure of said search. Seeing that she was clearly not in the mood for questions, and seeing that Percy was not currently at her side, they gave her sympathetic expressions at her failure. Annabeth hated sympathetic looks, so she began to glare at the two boys. They took the hint and simply gave her expression-less faces, the safest expression they could give without suffering Annabeth's stares or worse, her wrath. Annabeth's glare slipped and she sighed tiredly while Butch took the chance to take Blackjack to the stables and turned to Will, "Any news," she questioned without much hope.

Will shook his head and gave her a quick apologetic look, but then became excited, "Jason, Leo, and Piper returned from their quest and it went well."

Annabeth felt relieved that the three newest campers had returned safe and had completed their first quest successfully. She frowned and thought sourly that unfortunately Hera had managed to escape.

Seeing that Annabeth was still quiet as they made their way to the cabins, Will took this as a sign to continue, "Jason said he has some news about the prophecy of the seven and what he's learned from Hera."

Annabeth turned to him with an interested look and beckoned him to continue.

"Chiron's calling for a meeting with all the counselors this evening," Will added, "Rachel is coming; she should be here in an hour."

Annabeth nodded, at least she could vent her frustrations and worries to the red-haired oracle, and maybe Rachel had found some news about Percy's disappearance, "I'll see you then."

Will nodded. Before he turned, he hesitated but finally said, "And Annabeth, get some rest. You need to keep up your health. He wouldn't want you to wear yourself out."

Anger flared inside her briefly, she hated anyone interfering with her choices, but then she reprimanded herself and cooled down her anger. Will had only meant it out of kindness, not because he had wanted to interfere with her life. She really need to reign in that pride of hers sometimes. So instead she gave Will a quick, "Yeah," and then slipped into her cabin.

Stepping inside her cabin, Annabeth looked around the room. The cabin was empty; no doubt her siblings had already left to their morning classes. Annabeth crossed the cabin floor and stopped in front of her bunk. Slipping off her scarf, she plopped down on her bed and dropped her bag on the floor. Annabeth glanced over to her nightstand, and felt her heart clench at the picture on the wall above her nightstand. There she was smiling alongside Thalia and him. He was smiling widely with his arms around her and his sea green eyes giving the camera an amused look. After minutes of staring, Annabeth turned away and tried to ignore the hurt that threatened to come out in the open.

She remained in that position as she attempted to think of something that didn't involve him.

Needless to say, she didn't get much rest.

A couple hours later and Annabeth was standing outside the Big House, trying not to remember that the last meeting at the Big House, he'd been there. Now for the first time in years, there wouldn't be a counselor representing the Poseidon cabin at the counselor's meeting.

Annabeth shook her head to clear her thoughts. No sense in getting emotional or distracted. This meeting was important, this could finally answer where he was, she told herself.

So she took a deep breath and took a step inside, hoping that Jason had news about where he was.

As she walked in to the meeting room, she saw that only a few of the counselors had already arrived. They all stopped what they were doing and glanced up to her. She shook her head and sat down quickly. She tried to ignore the disappointed expressions on their faces, instead she stared straight ahead towards the door.

Minutes later and Rachel popped in with a reassuring smile and sat down. She gave Annabeth another "It's going to be okay" expression, which did little to lift Annabeth's spirits.

The others filed in and began to goof around. Annabeth was tempted to tell them to knock it off, but she reasoned that what they were doing meant no harm. He certainly wouldn't have said anything.

As Jason stepped in, Annabeth couldn't help but fix her eyes on him, trying to discern something from his expression. Unable to learn anythign from her stares, she waited for the meeting to begin.

While Jason explained Hera's schemes and what he remembered about himself, Annabeth felt her stomach fill with dread as the realization of what Jason was saying hit her. And it hit her hard, like she had slammed into a giant. Holding the sky was looking more and more appealing than this kind of anguish.

Jason turned to look at her as he finished, no doubt seeing that she had connected the dots in Hera's crazy plot.

When Jason announced her fears out loud, she felt like the whole world was crashing down on her and she could do nothing to stop it.

And Annabeth Chase's pride made her hate that she couldn't do anything.

He was gone, and probably didn't even remember her.

"Well then, to retrieve the missing hero we go!" Leo announced with an impish grin that made Annabeth want to strangle him.

"It's not that easy, Valdez," Butch interjected.

"Yeah, Jason said we could search for years and not find where the Roman camp is. And if we can't find the camp," Will began.

"We can't find Prissy," Clarisse finished with a frown.

Jason gave them a determined look, "I know it will be hard, maybe nearly impossible to do it. But we need to try, we need the Romans and based on what Hera implied, we need Percy Jackson. He and the others from the prophecy are at the other camp. We cannot succeed without all seven of the prophecy."

"Hera wouldn't send Percy to the other camp so we would never find him again, and she wouldn't tell us to join forces with the Roman camp if it was impossible to find it," Piper added.

No, she hadn't lost Percy, there was still hope. She owed it to him, he would have never given up on her and there was no way in Tartarus she was going to give up on him. With memory or not.

She stood and everyone fell silent, "Then there's little time to waste. We have a ship to build."

Everyone nodded and some grinned with hope and renewed confidence and purpose.

Leo jumped up and rubbed his hands together, "Let's get started shall we?"

And with that he sprinted out to get the Argo II drawings. Annabeth smiled at his enthusiasm as he came bounding back and dropped the plans on the ping pong table. Panting, Leo managed, "Alright my counselors, let's build my baby!"

Everyone gave him raised eyebrows, with Piper questioning, "Your baby?"

The son of Hephaestus grinned apologetically, "Sorry, our baby."

"So what do we need for supplies...," one of the counselors asked.

And so the planning on the Argo II began. The conversation consisted of pointing out parts of the ship on the drawing, listing supplies needed for conversation, arguments that broke out, yelling, and even some arguments nearly erupted into full on battles with swords and knives.

Annabeth smirked, and joined in on the conversation by bringing order to the group. As she organized the different responsibilities each cabin would take on for the next few months, she made a promise to Percy.

She would find him, no matter how long it took or how far it would take her.

And until then, she'd busy herself with this new project.

...

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