You guys wanted another chapter, so I oblige. This one was a lot more difficult for me—I actually had to come up with something original, instead of just altering some of the book. Seeing as the next Camp Half-Blood series comes out in a few months, I figured this final chapter should help lead up to it.


If you're ever lost

And find yourself all alone

I'd search forever just to bring you home!

Here and now, it's a vow!

—"Come For You"


Percy

"Come on, you're supposed to kill me." I admonished the new camper. I swiped at his head, making him duck. "Act like it."

"I'm trying!" He protested. "You're a lot taller than me." He stood maybe 4'10", I would guess. I was 5'9", so I did have a bit of an advantage. At nineteen, I was one of the oldest campers, anyway.

"So are most of the monsters out there." I twirled Riptide in my hand. "And sometimes you'll get cornered. But there's always a way out, for those clever enough to find it."

"Isn't that what my mom told you?" A female voice called from behind me. I turned, grinning, and the camper immediately lunged forward, slashing at my knees. Stupid son of Hermes.

"Hey!" I yelled, blocking his sudden attack. "That's poor sportsmanship!" I struck back a few times, making him step back. Despite being most invincible, I was wearing heavy armor over my chest and back. I wasn't going to risk some camper getting a lucky stab and accidentally killing me, but I could hardly just cover my Achilles' spot and nothing else. It would be a dead giveaway.

"He's smart." Annabeth remarked. "In real fights, sportsmanship doesn't count. Just who wins." The kid grinned happily at earning her praise, his attention on her for a brief second. I seized the opportunity to kick him squarely in the chest and send him to the ground.

"First rule of combat." I admonished. "Never let your opponent—or anything else— distract you. But at the same time, you must be completely aware of your surroundings." He looked puzzled. I tried to make myself a little clearer. "Learn to keep track of what's happening around you, but at the same time stay focused." I gestured for him to wait, then turned and strode to the edge of the arena, smiling broadly.

"Hey, wise girl." I risked a kiss, half-listening for the camper to charge and try to stab me in the butt. "How'd it go?" Hearing nothing, I bravely clicked riptide back into pen form and pocketed it.

"I finally got complete approval." Annabeth said proudly. "Of course, that was only because our favorite war god and love goddess weren't there." She carefully avoiding saying their names. I knew that Aphrodite and Ares had been holding up approval of her plans, saying they wanted more statues and monuments to them. "So, I'm going to review it over one more time, then send it back to Olympus by Hermes Express."

"How long will construction take?" I asked. Annabeth looked sheepish.

"About an hour." She admitted, a little embarrassed, as if the plans should have been more complicated. "Hephaestus will be in charge."

"One hour?" The camper repeated loudly, laughing. We both turned indignantly.

"You look bored. How about you go do fifty push ups while we're talking?" I suggested. "Over on the other side of the arena." He grumbled something about senior campers and big heads, but went.

"Second to last trainee of the day." I sighed. "I better finish up here."

"You do teach them skills, not just thrash them, right?" Annabeth teased. I shrugged.

"About fifty-fifty each, I'd say." I clicked riptide, and the pen extended into a normal-sized sword again. "See ya at dinner, wise girl."


"Depressing, isn't it?" I asked reflectively, staring towards the back of my cabin, towards the sea. The odds were not favoring us.

"The view?" Annabeth asks. Her focus was on her easel, but she looked up briefly. "I like it."

"A hero's fate is never happy." I said, recalling what my father had told me. "How many heroes have you ever read about that had a happy ending? Besides Perseus, son of Zeus?"

"Are you afraid something's going to happen?" She questioned, looking a little concerned. "Rachel would have warned us. Or Apollo."

"Maybe." I said, a little doubtfully. Rachel didn't even remember the prophecies the Oracle gave; Apollo wasn't around enough to hear all of them. "Almost all heroes end up being betrayed or ticking off the gods and being cursed. Didn't Hercules get poisoned by a centaur? Hippolyta was killed by Hercules in his escape after getting some relic. Helen and Paris started a war and got thousands of people killed—didn't both of them also die? Atalanta and her husband were turned into lions after they defiled Zeus's temple."

"They were still together." Annabeth pointed out. "Zeus made a mistake and thought that lions could only mate with leopards."

"I'm sure they would have preferred staying human." I countered. "So many heroes end up having awful fates. Including Achilles, who was just as invincible as me."

"Achilles didn't have a daughter of Athena around to watch out for him." Annabeth teased. "What do you suggest we do? Go bribe the Three Fates, find out what's going to happen to us?"

"No." I sighed. "I don't think it would work."

"Neither do I." Annabeth concurred. She erased a small piece of a statue and redrew it. It must not have come out right, because she frowned and tossed the pencil aside on one of the cabin's many spare beds. "Percy, what's wrong? This isn't like you."

"Hermes had a good suggestion." I managed a smile, ignoring her question. "He said that his father had given a certain garden as an engagement present, and that one of his half-brothers had already stolen from it."

"And Hera tried to kill him. A lot of times. And she made him go insane and kill his own family." Annabeth said, leaving her easel and sitting down next to me on my bed. "You've been having nightmares again." It wasn't a question.

"A few." I admitted. "More, lately. At least it's not visions."

"What about?" Her voice was soft, quiet, and she scooted up against me, brushing my Achilles' spot lightly with the palm of her hand.

"We're in the Fields of Asphodel, being judged" I tried to remember the details, wishing I could just forget it all. "We were killed, but I can never remember how."

"Do we go to Elysium?" She asked. I wonder briefly if she's curious or just wants me to get this off my chest.

"They decide that you earned it pretty quickly." I recall. "It was Thomas Jefferson, Oskar Schindler, and King Richard the Lionhearted. Then I step up, and they start reviewing my file. But alarms sound, and I see Hades' army rushing towards the gates. Schindler looks at me sadly and says, 'To think, young godling… you might have prevented this.' "

"The prophecy." Annabeth sat bolt upright. " 'Foes bear arms to the doors of death.' It's the prophecy!"

"Maybe." I allowed. "I don't know." The last thing I want to do is freak Chiron and the gods out because I had a few nightmares. It was a bad dream, but it wasn't a vision.

"We should talk to Chiron about this." Annabeth said, sounding worried. "It could be happening. We need to prepare."

"When people go out of their way to stop prophecies, they always make them come true." I reminded her. "Even the mortals know that."

"Well, seaweed brain, what do you suggest we do?" Annabeth asked, irritation lacing her voice. "Instead of telling Chiron, that is."

"You're taking this way too seriously." I was very much regretting not being more cheerful. That, and frantically trying to think of how to turn this conversation around. "It's just, it made me think about how heroes' stories always end. So I was thinking about how to make sure ours' doesn't end like that."

"The Garden of Hesperides?" Annabeth filled in. I nodded again.

"The Apples of Immortality. They don't just stop your aging—they make you stronger." I said. "Your sight and hearing become perfect. Wounds heal right away. If an old person eats one, it returns them to the prime of their life and keeps them there."

"You sound like a salesman." She sighed, shaking her head. "Percy, it's almost impossible to steal the golden apples. Hercules did it—but he also killed the Nemean lion with his bare hands. Aphrodite has a stash of them, but she doesn't give them out on request."

"You don't think I could get two?" I asked. Annabeth tried to hide a smirk.

"Percy, only Hercules has ever done it. Four heroes have tried. Luke failed, but he survived and that's more than the others could claim." Annabeth informed him. "You do remember what you told me a few seconds ago? People make things happen by trying to prevent them?"

"I considered that." I couldn't stop from grinning. "But, thank the gods, it didn't happen." I walked over to the cabin's safe and turned the dial a few times. The lock clicked, the door opened, and I withdrew a metal lock box.

"You didn't—" Annabeth started. I swung the lid back and revealed two golden apples. "You…" Her eyes were fixed on the apples and her words came out very slowly, like talking wasn't important. "Hera's garden… you stole from…" Her hand drifted out almost on it's own, gently brushing one of the godly fruits. I inhaled the smell and my stomach growled, my mouth watering, hunger coursing through me immediately. Annabeth looked just as tempted, but she wrenched her attention away.

"You stole two apples of immortality." She stated, not looking at the fruit. I forced myself to close the lid, removing the apples from sight. I still felt hungry, but it ebbed a little and I could think again. It took me a few seconds to remember what Annabeth had said.

"Yeah… I raided the garden." I nodded proudly. "I managed to scare the Hesperides off, without hurting them. But then I had to fight Ladon, and, believe me, that was really scary."

"And now you want us to become immortal?" Annabeth concluded, looking up at me as if she couldn't believe what she was saying.

"Why not?" I asked, grinning. "It'll be amazing. We'll be living legends."

"I think you know 'why not,' Percy." Annabeth replied evenly. I winced, remembering my mother saying the exact same thing when I wanted to turn Smelly Gabe into a statue. "The same reason you told my mother that you didn't want to become a god. If you freeze things, they'll never get any worse. But they'll never get any better, either!" She pushed the metal box away and gave me a hug. "Bad things could happen, Percy. Bad things do happen. But we'll get past them, together."

"But things are perfect now." I protested weakly, very unhappy with the way this was turning out. "We can keep it like this forever! We can be in the prime of our lives in a hundred years. We can cheat Hades himself!"

"Percy…" Annabeth put her arms around my neck and kissed me lightly, her gray eyes locked on mine. "You don't… stop designing, just because you made something great. You keep drawing. You'll make some blunders, but you'll also make things even more amazing. You don't freeze your life as a teenager anymore than you stop a hike once you find a good spot—you keeping going. Because…" She paused for a moment, finding her words. "Because, Percy, you never know what the tide might bring in." I managed a tiny smile.

"That was from Castaway." I remembered. Annabeth laughed shamelessly.

"Yeah." She admitted, smiling broadly. "But it was perfect."

"Fine… you win, for today." I slowly got up, and very reluctantly put the apples back in the safe.

"You're keeping them?" She asked. "Hera would probably be less mad if you give them back." Something between a bark and a snicker came out before I could stop it.

"No way." I objected, spinning the dial. "I worked hard for these. I'll wait until you catch the flu or get a broken leg, then see how you feel about it. That, or maybe just slice one up and give it to you in your lunch." She opened her mouth and for an instant I thought she was going to ask if I was serious.

I was.

"I don't think I'm going to change my mind about this, seaweed brain." She informed me, a hint of condensation in her voice. I love her, but she can be such a smart-aleck sometimes. Then again, that's probably normal for a brain child.

"So… you'll think it over." I said flatly, fighting disappointment. Annabeth rolled her eyes and I could see her patience wearing thin.

"Percy, you want to be nineteen forever? You think I want to spend eternity as an eighteen-year old? Seriously?" I looked away, thinking, drumming my fingers.

"That's a trick question, isn't it?"

"Argg!" She threw a pillow at my head. "Percy, it's a bad idea. Think about it. For one, what if we had kids? They'd look older than us pretty quickly. It'd be so weird.."

"Kids?" I asked incredulously. "We've got two apples of immortality and you're thinking about having kids?"

"Don't you want to have kids?" Annabeth asked. I must have had a weird look on my face, because she quickly added, "I mean, eventually?"

"Uh…" I could not imagine myself as a father. Ever. But judging by the look on her face, now was not the time to say that. As little as I knew about girls, I could tell a change in tactics was needed. "What's so wrong with you being eighteen forever? I mean, you're amazingly beautiful. I don't see any downsides." The compliment hit its mark. She was still frustrated, but I saw a slight change.

"As stubborn as the sea, like always… " She muttered. "Percy, I'll make you a deal. Think about it—and keep it to yourself!—and if you still can't see a reason not to do it by next week, we'll talk about it again. Okay?" I nodded rapidly and she looked relieved that I was dropping it, at least for now.

"It's getting late. You should probably head back to your cabin." I reminded her. She looked a little stung, as if I was kicking her out, but it was close to the Athena cabin's lights out time. She carefully organized her things on a spare bed, then walked to the door, but paused before she left.

"Hey…" She said, a little hesitantly. "I know… you probably thought this was a great idea, and I'm sorry I don't agree right now… but thank you. Very much."

"For what?" I asked, walking over to join her in the doorway. Annabeth shrugged, like she felt awkward.

"For… for saying that you want to spend forever with me." She said quietly. "I love you too, Percy."

"Aren't I suppose to say that first?" I wondered. She smiled.

"You never have to."


The Next Morning

Annabeth

"This is seriously sleeping in late, even for you!" I rapped my knuckles on the door again, wishing that door knockers had been put on the cabins. I would have just walked in, but I hated waking up with someone standing over me and I knew Percy did as well. After another thirty seconds passed and I heard nothing, though, I tossed out such courtesy and strode inside. The inside of the cabin was dim, shades drawn over the windows.

"Percy?" I called. He hadn't been at breakfast, three hours earlier. Normally that would have been alarming, but Percy frequently slept in, needing more sleep every since he bathed in the River Styx. Everyone knew that. I moved a curtain aside, letting some light in.

His bed was knocked over onto it's side, the bottom facing the front of the cabin. I drew my knife—a modern Ka-Bar, not the blade Luke gave me years earlier— and walked forward slowly, making as little noise as possible.

He wasn't there. The bed was unmade and some of the sheets were ripped, but otherwise it was intact. I hesitantly tried to right it, but felt froze when I felt something sticky tug at my shoes. I moved my foot and noticed a small puddle, maybe two inches wide. No! My hands were shaking as I scraped my knife against the remaining liquid, watching as a glob stuck to the metal.

Blood.


I don't remember screaming, but something brought my brother Malcolm and Chiron to the Poseidon cabin a few moments later.

"He's been taken, hasn't he?" Chiron asked, taking in the situation quickly. I nodded wordlessly, forcing myself not to cry. They started searching the cabin. Percy's sword was still on his dresser, in pen form. There were no traces of the dust monsters usually turned into when destroyed. I dimly heard Chiron leave, saying that he would contact Artemis and seek her help. Artemis and her hunters hated men, but Artemis had a soft spot for Percy since he had rescued her from the Titan's Curse. That, and her lieutenant Thalia was a dear friend of Percy's and mine. They would help.

We had nothing to go on and could only conclude a few basic facts. He had been taken in the night—long enough ago for the blood to coagulate—and had done it fast enough that he couldn't draw his sword. They hadn't taken anything else, either. The safe was untouched, two apples of immortality still inside, and a handful a drachmas remained in the saltwater fountain. It was possible that the hunters would find a trail, but I doubted it. I picked up a picture off Percy's nightstand. The two of us, standing outside the Parthenon in Nashville.

"I'll find you." I choked out, his picture smiling up at me. The frame was shaking in my hand, grief and helpless rage tearing at my insides. "I swear on the Styx, I'll find you. I'll bring you home." A hand touched my shoulder.

"It's going to be okay, Annabeth." Malcolm said firmly, his voice not leaving any room for doubt. "Hermes, Apollo, Poseidon, Artemis… they favor him; they'll help us. The world isn't big enough to hide Percy for long. We will find him." I swallowed down my fear and picked up Riptide, then carefully slipped it my pocket. I would give it back to him when I found him. We would find him.

We must.