All rights to Percy Jackson and related characters belong to Rick Riordan and company. I'm just playing around in his sandbox of characters. Thank you so much for taking time to read my story; feel free to give feedback, read at your own leisure, or message me directly with suggestions. You all are amazing. I hope that your day is going great and that you stay hydrated :)

Percy

Percy leaned against a wall in the corner of the Big House Rec Room and let loose a big yawn. As the yawn subsided, tears of tiredness formed in his eyes. He blinked a few times to clear up his vision.

He was in the far corner of the Rec Room, towards the door and facing towards the Ping-Pong table. Years ago, all the cabin leaders could fit around that one table, with snacks and hot chocolate to spare. Now, after the expansion of the residential cabins, the head counselors nearly took up the entire Rec Room. Demigods were plopped in a sea of folding chairs, packed shoulder to shoulder. Some were talking, others were sleeping, and some were attentively looking towards the front. As Percy swept the room, he saw several familiar faces, including Will Solace, Drew Tanaka, and Sherman Yang.

However, he saw several people that he did not recognize.

It was surreal.

As he noted all the new people in the room, Percy realized something. Camp Half-Blood was going to continue to protect and train demigods for decades and maybe centuries. Even as technology increases and customs change, Camp Half-Blood was still going to be there. It may very well outlive him, Annabeth, and possibly even Chiron. People phase in and people phase out, but the institution of Camp Half-Blood may actually be immortal.

Percy thought that was wild.

Speaking of immortals, this was the first council meeting that he's participated in that was not called by either Chiron or Mr. D. This time, Annabeth was the one who brought them together, resulting in the uncharacteristically early time. She set the meeting time at 5:00 a.m., a time that is only experienced by the brave or the crazy.

Sometimes both.

Not all the cabin leaders had woken up early enough for the council meeting, unfortunately, meaning that there would have to be some people delegated to be messengers of what transpired during the meeting. Percy surmised that the purpose of the get-together was to discuss the theft of the Golden Fleece and possibly delegate a quest.

He hoped it wouldn't come to that.

He had come back to Camp Half-Blood only to serve as a support, not to go on quests and resume his active demigod lifestyle. As he has experienced firsthand, the hero life is a time-bomb. It can be great and exhilarating for a few years, but the reality was that the countdown begins as soon as a demigod is born.

Jason reached the end of his countdown, Percy thought to himself.

Percy was one of the few demigods to have the opportunity to leave this life behind. He could have gone to college in New Rome, stayed with his mother to help raise Estelle, or traveled the world with Annabeth before settling down into a career.

Yet, here he was.

Percy noted that Mr. D wasn't here to provide the customary snacks such as Cheez Whiz, crackers, and several bottles of red wine (or Diet Coke, for the underage). Instead, it was just a pool of bad attitudes and morning breath.

Percy figured he wasn't much better. He didn't have much time to make his hair or himself look presentable, but he was there at the meeting. Though it was in green and white striped pajama pants and a blue shirt with a pasta sauce stain on it, he was there.

Percy saw Annabeth count the number of people in the room, mouthing the numbers silently to herself. She wore the same things she did yesterday. Her orange and purple shirt now rocked a third color: wrinkles. Her light blue jeans had a few stains on it and her sneakers looked as if she had gone for a jog before the meeting.

She must have had a long night.

Chiron was at the head of the Ping-Pong table while most of the cabin heads from the original twelve cabins gathered around the Ping-Pong table in a horseshoe shape. The original cabin heads' chairs led into the pool of the minor gods' cabin heads seated in the body of the Rec Room. It made Percy wonder how they managed to still maintain some sort of hierarchy among the cabin leaders and made him slightly glad that he was in the back of the room.

Percy saw Sherman with his head down on the table and Pollux dozing off with his head in his hands. He didn't blame them; it was very warm in there.

Annabeth reached around Chiron and retrieved a clipboard that was in front of him. She cleared her throat.

"Miranda."

The head of the Demeter cabin popped her head up from her phone. Her dirty blonde hair whipped back as her head came up. Though they still had sleep in them, her green eyes popped from across the room. She gave a tired smile and gave a sing-song, "Here!"

Annabeth nodded and Percy saw her execute a check-mark motion on the clipboard. "Sherman."

The physically intimidating son of Ares and head counselor of the Ares cabin gave an equally intimidating snore in response. Some of the counselors tried to hold in their snickers while others rolled their eyes.

Annabeth closed her eyes and exhaled. Her blonde hair was frizzier than usual and she had bags under her eyes. Percy felt the urge to pull her aside and ask what was going on. She usually had her stuff together, even in the midst of a stressful time. However, he knew better than to interrupt her when she's in a groove.

"Nyssa."

A muscular woman with rich brown skin gave a weak salute and adjusted the red bandana on her head.

Annabeth continued with roll call for about five minutes until she had run through all the head counselors. About sixty percent of the counselors active within Camp Half-Blood were there this morning, a statistic that didn't seem to satisfy Annabeth.

It definitely surprised Percy.

After roll call, Annabeth took a breath. "I called you all here because of a serious development. The Golden Fleece has been taken."

Everyone was awake now. It was as if the coffee god had just magically injected caffeine into the demigods' veins. Nervous whispers and ripples of discomfort rolled over the crowd.

Kat, seated on the left-hand side of the mass of campers, turned and made eye contact with Percy. Her face looked pleading as if she was asking him to telepathically send her details.

Nyssa cleared her throat as if she was hacking up phlegm. "Yeah. The Fleece was taken in the midst of lightning that struck down on camp grounds."

She looked at the rest of the group as if she had already made her point. However, most people just looked at her slack-jawed.

She sighed. "Okay. Lightning is a form of electrostatic discharge. And so, in order for it to form, there must be a huge amount of electrical potential within the air. What demigods do we know that would be able to form that level of power?"

Percy thought about Annabeth screaming out Thalia's name towards the form, but decided against mentioning anything once he saw Annabeth's face. She was standing with her arms crossed with an expression of genuine discomfort.

Will Solace stood up. "Okay. So, when it comes to lightning, that's usually Zeus' territory. Do we think that it was a demigod, a god, or a monster who took the Fleece?"

Drew from Aphrodite's cabin stood up. Her make-up was done to painstaking perfection, as usual, but she looked uncharacteristically frustrated.

"Are we just going to ignore the fact that our camp remains unguarded?! What if monsters just walk in and tear everything up? Or worse, what if mortals actually walk in and see us riding horses and…and jousting? They may take pictures, and it would be all over Instgram!"

Sherman snorted. "Yeah, what if they see Drew getting her butt whipped in armor?"

A few counselors snickered, but were shut up by a look from Annabeth.

Drew exhaled shakily. "We are left unprotected. What will we do?"

Annabeth nodded. "Great question. Will, alert the archers from your cabin to take up posts on top of buildings, trees, wooden posts, and other things of the sort. They will have to be our protection. We need regular arrows, divine arrows, trick arrows, poison arrows, the whole lot. If they see anything making its way to Camp Half-Blood, they either turn them back or turn them into dust."

Will nodded and began to write notes on his notepad. Pollux raised his hand and was met with a nod from Annabeth.

"Sorry if I missed this, but what happened to the Hunters? Aren't they, like, honorary members of this camp? Would they be able to serve as our protection throughout the woods surrounding this camp, and whatever they catch, they get to keep?"

Murmurs of agreement and co-signatures rose from the crowd. Percy looked at Annabeth, who was looking at him. Her throat looked slightly constricted and she started to look pale.

In turn, adrenaline shot through his body. That look on Annabeth's face only meant that she was in trouble. Percy's throat closed up and his heart jumped. His hand twitched towards Riptide instinctively, but he realized that she wasn't in any physical danger.

She was just hiding something from everyone else. And as the presider of this meeting, she needed support from someone.

He cleared his throat. He was going to regret this. "Uh, hey, everyone. I'm Percy, from the Poseidon cabin."

All eyes turned and trained on him at once, like those green toy aliens from Toy Story that always said, "You have saved our lives. We are eternally grateful."

He saw Kat turn her entire body around to face him.

"I had a dream about the Hunters," Percy lied. "They're off on a quest for Artemis, something that may take a while. If they do finish up with that, I will send an Iris-Message to one of them to come back here."

The campers turned back towards Annabeth, and for a second, there were no questions or comments. Annabeth gave him the ghost of a grateful smile, then trained her attention back to the group as a whole.

Butch didn't bother to stand up, but spoke anyway. The son of Iris' rainbow tattoo shone in the sunlight peeking through the window.

"We're talking about logistics and not talking about one of the more important things. Someone stole from us. If we don't figure out who it was, they may do it again and may hit us again. Maybe next time, they take or hurt something…or someone…more valuable."

Everyone knew that Butch was the best equestrian around Camp Half-Blood, so they all knew that the safety of the stables was on his mind.

Damien White, the son of Nemesis, responded. "Who knows. It could have been Thalia. Or even Jason Grace."

The entire group shifted in discomfort. Percy sensed several emotions throughout the mass of people, including regret, sadness, and confusion. The emotions prompted a silence that stretched on for a few seconds too long.

Sherman sneered and broke the silence, much to Percy's gratitude. "Jason's dead, idiot."

Will Solace shook his head furiously and started twirling his pen around his fingers nervously. "Death isn't…people can still do things even after death, you know? Death is…death's a weird thing."

Everyone looked at him with concern and he gave a bashful smile. "Heh…you know…my boyfriend's a son of Hades. You know how it is."

Chiara Benvenuti's dark almond eyes flashed quickly. The daughter of Tyche reminded Percy of a panther, with dark hair and intense eyes.

"Well, aren't some more powerful entities able to manipulate weather phenomenon to their bidding? So, what if this is, like, Kronos or something?"

Percy's thoughts began to run to when Thalia was attacked by a lightning bolt and she was manipulated into initially thinking it was Zeus when it was really Kronos. He was interrupted, though, when Chiron cleared his throat.

"Let us not get ahead of ourselves, here. Kronos and most other Titans are out of commission whether by choice or not."

Percy figured Chiron wanted to shut down any rumors about his father as soon as possible. Malcolm stood from around the Ping-Pong table with his hands balled. He looked angry…a bit too angry.

Percy had his eyes on Annabeth as he started to stalk towards the front of the room. Cabin leaders quickly parted to make a path towards the front. Annabeth's eyes flicked to Malcolm and met his gaze with ferocity.

Percy looked at Malcolm. Though it was usually neat, his hair was unusually shaggy and fell in front of his face. He also looked tired, but his eyes looked wild and full of energy. Percy recognized this as someone who had a night full of nightmares.

"I can't take this anymore. You want to tell them the truth, Annabeth? Hm? You've been sitting here this whole time and not saying anything about what you truly know. The fate of the camp is at stake. I was going to keep your secret, but this…this is for everyone. Tell them what you know!"

Percy was ten feet away now. "Hey, man, ease off her. She's had a long couple of days."

Malcolm whipped towards Percy. "No. No, you don't get it, Percy. I've seen it. I've seen it in my dreams. I've seen Annabeth talking to her at night."

He turned towards Annabeth. "You know who it was, and yet you're letting all these people talk and speculate and guess and be wrong. Children of Athena are supposed to spread knowledge and wisdom, not manipulation and lies."

Percy put his hands up to try to calm Malcolm down. Percy's eyes, however, crept to Annabeth.

"Annabeth, what is he talking about?"

Annabeth stared at Malcolm not with loathing or anger, but with a tired resignation. She looked at the ground, and then trained her eyes on Percy.

"When Jason died, it was a tough time for everybody."

Percy's heart dropped. He stopped advancing; he was nearly at the Ping-Pong table. Annabeth had kept something important from everybody and seemed to have no plans of telling them anything.

"One of the people I tried to check on was…was Thalia. But, I wasn't able to get a hold of her. It was like she had dropped off the face of the planet. And you all know how…how sensitive that can be for me."

The room murmured agreement. Malcolm sat down slowly, still glowering.

Annabeth looked at him, then back at Percy. "I tried to talk to the Hunters, but over the week after Jason's death, they said that they don't know where Thalia went. They had elected an interim leader for the time being, but they were worried that Thalia was in some serious trouble. So, about two weeks after Jason's death, which would be close to two months ago, I was outside the Athena cabin when I received an Iris-Message from Thalia. When I saw her face and heard her voice, I nearly cried. I'd had bad experiences with losing…close friends."

Annabeth maintained eye contact with Percy and he looked away. He knew he couldn't blame her for hiding this information. If anyone knew what she had been through, it was him. And she had been through a lot. He knew she still had nightmares about his disappearance, and even nightmares about Tartarus.

"And so, I talked to her. She seemed okay, making jokes, being the same big-headed self that she's always been. I was confused, though…because Jason was dead. Thalia goes AWOL and then calls me with nothing but smiles? I asked her what was going on and her smile dropped to a serious expression that I had never seen on her."

The group was dead silent. Even Clovis was fully awake, watching and listening intently. Some campers had their mouths agape and some were grabbing the legs of the folding chairs.

"She told me that she was going to bring Jason back to life."

Percy's heart stopped. A cloud must have moved in front of the sun because the sunlight that was seeping through the window had darkened. Bringing someone back to life was ridiculous, something that was more of a movie plot than an actual plan.

What in Zeus' name was she thinking?

Annabeth took a deep breath. "I had never seen her so determined. I told her, as you all know, that doing that would take a ridiculous amount of power because she would be going against nature, against the gods, and against the Fates themselves. She just said that she already knew, with a disturbingly hungry look on her face."

Percy thought back to when Thalia was petting the Ophiotaurus years ago. He had been unsettled by the hungry look that she had when she was imagining the power that Bessie's death would have given her.

Annabeth continued. "So, I argued with her. I told her that only divine figures are able to resurrect people. Achilles' mother Thetis was divine, Heracles was brought back by Zeus, just to give a few examples. Even though Orpheus was someone who was able to cheat this rule with his beautiful playing, he was eventually killed by Mr. D once the music's spell wore off."

Chiron was sitting with his hands intertwined with one another. Though he was usually a calm person, Percy couldn't shake the feeling that Chiron also knew before the other campers. It reminded Percy of the multiple times the two of them kept important details of the prophecy form him.

"So, Thalia got annoyed and ended the call after I said no."

Annabeth took out her dagger and ran her hand over the blade. "There are…consequences of forcibly bringing someone back from the dead. Everyone dies, yes. And it would be great if you could protect the people you cared about and keep them from death."

A lot of the cabin leaders found the ground to be very interesting. Annabeth looked around before continuing. "But…everyone dies. You can't just reject that reality and bring someone back to life. You could fail and get punished, receive a cursed death, get killed or tortured by the gods, or even have a punishment inflicted upon you by the Fates themselves, and that's something that you never want to do. I've heard stories that they have literally eradicated someone from existence, like taking a piece of a puzzle out a completed picture and replacing it with a new, perfectly-sized one. No one would know the difference."

The room was uneasy. Percy couldn't stop thinking about his mother and Estelle.

What if Hades had actually killed her?

When Percy had gone to the Underworld all those years asgo, a part of him was scared that she was actually dead. So, did he technically do the same thing, trying to bring his mother back to life?

How different was he from Thalia?

As he looked around, he saw people looking into space, at the floor, or at each other. He figured that the campers were thinking about who truly mattered to them and what they would sacrifice to keep them safe.

However, there was one thing stumping Percy. He cleared his throat, resulting in all eyes flicking towards him again, like having a conversation with Argus. "Yeah, Thalia's tough. But she's not tough enough to resist the gods. Why wouldn't she just get struck down, or have her immortality taken away?"

Chiron responded a little too quickly, "The gods can't get involved in demigod affairs that are of a certain echelon. Thalia is not trying to bring down Olympus, she's trying to go on a personal quest of hers. Regarding the immortality, Artemis will exercise her discretion of when to take it away. Thalia hasn't killed anyone yet, nor has she renounced membership of the Hunters. She'll keep her gifts for as long as Artemis sees fit."

Annabeth slammed the dagger on the table, making half the room jump and commanding everyone's attention. "We need to stop her. A small crew of two or three, small enough to not be intimidating. We need people that she knows well to go and talk some sense into her. I've known her for over a decade, so I will be the first. Is there anyone else?"

Even though Annabeth looked at him afterward, Percy was already answering as her head was turning. "I'm in, of course. Is there a third?"

There was silence in the room. The room started to get uncomfortably warm as the cabin leaders avoided eye contact with both Percy and Annabeth. He didn't blame them, though; a lot of them had seen Thalia fight.

Will looked up from his notepad. "What about Grover? Wasn't he close to Thalia too?"

Will was right; Grover was Thalia's protector back in the day. Chiron raised an eyebrow and Annabeth looked at Percy with the ghost of a smile. Percy nodded and Annabeth mirrored the gesture to Will.

"Then I'll pay him a visit. Will, get your campers in those trees. Leaders, shut down any harmful rumors regarding what's going on. Stay within Camp borders and keep your eyes and your ears open. No cabin should have all its members asleep at one time. Sleep in cycles and always have someone on watch duty. No cell-phones at all. With so many demigods in one place, you're basically broadcasting where monsters can have their next meal."

Miranda and Drew looked up quickly and slowly put away their phones.

Annabeth sheathed her knife. "And remember to debrief your cabins about this, but don't mention Thalia by name. I don't need people trying to go on secret quests to capture her. They may not make it back alive."

Chiron clapped his hands once. "I believe that may be enough for today."

The cabin counselors filed out slowly and somberly. Percy didn't hear any smart comments or jokes being made. People seemed genuinely shaken by the news, and Percy didn't blame them. Though Thalia wasn't always an official camper, she did have an air of heroic mystique about her that made people feel a strange sense of safety.

Percy saw Malcolm call Annabeth outside. After a second of hesitation, Annabeth quickly strode out the door with her brother.

Percy moved to leave, but Chiron called his name.

"Percy. Do you mind helping me with these chairs?"

Percy took one look at Chiron's wheelchair and nodded. Together, the two of them stacked the rec room chairs and propped them against the left-side of the wall. As they dragged the last stack to the wall, Chiron coughed.

"Percy…in all seriousness, I am uneasy with you going on this quest."

Percy couldn't believe his ears. This was Thalia in trouble, and he needed to be there. "Oh, no, Chiron. This isn't going to be like the quest to save Annabeth from Luke and Atlas, is it? I need to be there for Thalia. She's saved my behind too many times for me to not at least try to save her from doing something insane."

Chiron raised an eyebrow. "But is it really all that insane?"

Percy scoffed. "Yeah, definitely. She's trying to bring someone back to life. She's going to be real disappointed when she finds out that he can only come back in his corpse form and he's walking around as a living zombie."

What was Chiron trying to get at?

"If your mother had truly died that one night years ago, would you have tried to bring her back?"

That's what Chiron was trying to get at.

Percy straightened up and clenched his jaw. "No."

Chiron made a clucking noise. "But you did, didn't you? You went on the mission to clear up the business with the lightning bolt, but also to bring your mother back."

Percy's mouth was suddenly devoid of saliva. Chiron wheeled himself closer to Percy and looked up at him. "I once told you that you and Thalia are very much alike and the only difference between you two is that she is more sure of herself than you are. Do you remember?"

Percy nodded. He remembered him not knowing whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. Percy knew which one it was now.

Chiron continued. "Because you two are so similar, I am scared that if Thalia is able to convince you to listen to her reasoning, your fatal flaw may be exploited. You may succumb and sacrifice the world, your fate, and everything else to save Jason. But you must remember: Jason is dead. Do not let anything convince you otherwise. Do not succumb. If you do…you may become one of the examples of why the term 'fatal flaw' has earned its name."

Percy looked at Chiron's eyes, windows to his infinitely wise soul. He thought about journeying to the Underworld for his mother, fighting through Tartarus with Annabeth, giving Luke the knife, and drinking poison. His entire life has been defined by taking chances for the people he loved. Percy didn't think that he was going to stop today.

He opened his mouth to deliver a witty retort, but decided to close it. Chiron broke eye contact and his eyes fell to the ground like a leaf in fall. Percy stepped past the centuaur and walked outside to meet Annabeth.

Whew! Another long chapter out the way, thank the gods! Sorry for the late update, I had to go through a long graduation week and it's finally over! I'd probably expect some much more regular updates taking place.

00Leaf, thank you for the kind words! Hope you enjoy this.

MafiaMarshMello, thank you for the kind words as well! I will try to update regularly.

Thank you for everyone who took time to read the story. You all are awesome!