CHAPTER TEN: End of The Epoch

There was few people Percy would blindly follow orders from. His mother for one. Chiron, his trainer, for another. Annabeth, obviously. When he first met Reyna, he never thought she would be one of them. That, even without her praetor status, she could give him a list of instructions and a brown envelope, and he would do as she said with complete trust.

Of course, no plan could go into action without his partner in crime by his side, and today, that was Annabeth. She was still asleep, sleeping off hangovers that she had been dragging with her for weeks, catching up on the months of sleep she missed out on. In the meantime, Percy paced around her kitchen, for some reason avoiding the urge to look in the brown envelope Reyna had handed him. It was pretty big and had something small in it that didn't seem to be a piece of paper...

"Percy?" came a voice from behind him.

He turned to Annabeth and paused before running to her and hugging her. "Are you all right?" he asked, looking her over to make sure she was okay. "Annabeth, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said, shaking him off. "I assume Jason told you what happened? What's going to happen?"

Percy nodded. "But nothing is going to happen, Annabeth," he said. "Reyna has made some sought of plan with Jason."

"What?" Annabeth asked. "What is it?"

Percy shrugged. "I don't even know. I'm putting all of my faith in Reyna at the moment. But we have a role to play."

Annabeth paused. "Wait, wait, I'm confused. I need some coffee and an aspirin."

Percy handed her the pills as he made her coffee in silence. There was silence for about a minute as both of them remembered the argument they had when they last saw each other. She looked better than she had then. She had more colour to her skin, her hair was less lifeless. She still looked thin and her eyes were darker, but she did look better.

"I did some things before I went to sleep," she said, swallowing. "I made an appointment for one thing, to talk to Dr Coole. Jason suggested her, she lives in the city. I'm going to talk to her about reducing my medication. You were right, Percy, they are the problem. I'm losing sleep... I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

He turned to her, confused. "How can anyone possibly blame you for that, Annabeth?"

She smirked. "I talked to a few of my professors as well. I officially dropped Architecture 101. You were right, I do know everything there is to know about the subject. So I'm still going to get the degree, just without taking the course. I also dropped Advanced Mathematics... it's not even advanced, it's basic."

Percy sniggered. He had seen some of her course work and it was harder than anything he could imagine. "Good for you," he nodded, smiling at her.

She paused. "Percy, are we okay?"

He walked over to Annabeth and set her coffee down on the counter beside her. He swiped a golden curl from her face and kissed her cheek. "Annabeth, nobody said college would be this hard. But we never expected it to be easy. Couples are torn apart when they go to college, but that can't be us! I won't let that be us! So I'm not going to hold this, or anything against you. Especially since none of this is your fault."

His hand hovered by her face and she leaned into it. "Couples are also torn apart by rehab, which seems to be where I'm going."

"Not if we follow Reyna's orders," Percy said. "She came up with a plan, and she wrote out a list, spelling everything out for us."

"How thoughtful of her," Annabeth said, taking it from Percy. "Step One: Get dressed. Formal, suit but no tie, casual cocktail dress."

Percy looked mildly confused. "K. I'll go to my dorm and get changed. I'll meet you back here in ten minutes?"

Annabeth nodded as Percy ran down the hall. He owned a total of one suit. And the trousers and shirt had been from his old school: Goode. He had gotten the jacket a few months before hand for his high school prom. He had pretty much stood in the corner all night with Rachel Dare, drinking from a flask someone had sneaked in.

When he found Annabeth's room again, she was waiting outside in a yellow dress that she seemed to have just pulled out the back of her wardrobe. It reached about mid-thigh and wasn't too low. She also wore white heels and did nothing with her hair.

"Step two," she said, reading from the list as Percy jogged up to her. "Ugh, Reyna wants us to go to the stupid dance. The one for charity where Cami's going to play her home movie."

"Okay, well let's go," Percy said.

"I don't particularly want to see it," she said. "The stupid film."

He sighed. "Trust Reyna. She wouldn't send us there just to watch. Come on, let's go. It should be starting around now."

They actually arrived a little early. Somebody had rented a party room, filled it with balloons and streamers. It was hosted by a charitable society run by some university students. People sponsored certain dancers or joined in, and the longer you danced without a break, the more money you raised.

"I think we're supposed to blend in," Annabeth said, as the music started. Percy lead his girlfriend onto the dance floor. The music got really loud as people started leading partners onto the floor or danced solo. He was worried about Annabeth's head and wondered if she still had a hangover.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She nodded, sighing. "Are you sure?"

She rolled her eyes. "Percy, I don't need everyone babying me. I know I've had a rough couple of days, and I know I've been weak and I needed help. But overall, I am not weak. I can handle myself."

He spun her around rather slowly and wrapped his arms around her. "I never doubted you, Wise Girl."

She pulled Reyna's list out and read step three over Percy's shoulder. "Why did Reyna write us a list anyway?"

Percy shrugged. "She didn't have time to really talk to me this morning," he said. "I only saw her for like, ten seconds before she ran off to do something else. She didn't have time to explain, so she wrote it down in advance."

"I think step three is just for me," Annabeth said. "I have to go to the bathroom and put on my Yankees cap."

"Do you have it on you?" he asked.

She nodded. "It's in my bag in the corner. Wait by the punch bowl and I'll meet you there when I have to take it off again."

Percy nodded and went to go sit behind the punch table. The dance began to pick up, more and more people arrived. There was a big screen above the stage that had cartoon characters portraying dance moves on. And Karaoke lyrics. Percy figured that was where Camille's video was going to be played, but he didn't know when.

There did seem to be everyone there. Board members, University Councillors, all taking part or filming the fundraiser. But Jason and Reyna were no where to be seen, neither was Camille. Neither was Annabeth, and Percy wondered what she was up to, what Reyna wanted her to do.

That was until she revealed herself behind him and poked him in the sides, making him jump out of his skin. "Annabeth!" he said. "What did you do?"

She held up two cards, while looking around nervously. "They're the student ID's of some of the people running this thing. Reyna wanted me to take them. I don't think she realises how risky that is, considering that every authority figure in the college is here."

Percy took one. "I'm assuming we're using these to get in somewhere."

Annabeth nodded and pointed over to a door next to the stage. "Through there. Notice the security guard to one side?"

Percy nodded and walked over to the door with Annabeth by his side. He stuffed her Yankees cap into his pocket, along with the envelope Reyna had given him. They covered the pictures on the ID cards and held them up as the security guard held his hand out to stop them. He let them through without question. Probably thanks to the confident and casual looks on Percy and Annabeth's faces.

Back-stage was pretty much a small, dark room, full of wires that lead to a music sound set. The wires must have lead to the speakers outside on the dance floor and to the large screen. There was a rack full of CD's that Annabeth walked over to.

"We're looking for something called Inception," she said. She started flicking through CD's, Percy going through the other side. "Do you think this is the footage of me?"

"Probably," Percy said, looking for the CD. "I don't see what else it could be. How did Reyna know what it was disguised as?"

"I have no idea," Annabeth said. "Where do you think she is? With Jason?"

"If those two are working together..." Percy shuddered. "I am beginning to believe that she is an evil genius. For future reference, you're going to want that girl on your side."

"I found it," Annabeth said. She held up a CD case with a picture of an ocean on it and writing that read Inception. She opened it up to a plain white CD.

Percy pulled out the list Reyna gave them. "We're supposed to switch it for the one in the envelope," he said, pulling said envelope from his jacket pocket and opening it up to see a CD, identical to the one in Inception.

"Wait, what do you think is on this one?" Annabeth asked, swapping them over.

Percy shrugged. "We're going to have to find out."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Camille had been on her way to the dance herself, when she took a detour. As far as she was aware, one of the university directors had wanted to meet her in the courtyard and she had wrapped her coat on over her dress and went out to find him. It was a lovely, thick red coat with layered, frilly skirts, black buttons, a black fur collar and a red bow around her waist. She wore high red heels, her ebony hair was perfectly curled, and her black skirts were poking out from under her coat.

There were patches of people, as ever, mingling in the courtyard, none of which really paid attention to her. Until of course, Jason walked up to her. "I think it's about time you and I had a chat," he said, standing directly in front of her and crossing his arms, in an angry sought of manner.

"You," Camille spat, clearly unhappy. "I don't have time to chat with you, Jason. I'm meeting someone out here."

Jason rolled his eyes, as if she was being dim. "Yes, my friend Michael called ahead, I believe. Stop looking, Camille, no university director is here to talk to you."

"You - You lured me out here?" she asked, coming to her senses.

"You wouldn't have met with me otherwise," he said. "I thought we should discuss your little temper tantrum involving one of my best friends."

"It's not a temper tantrum," Camille said.

"Relax, I'm here for peace," Jason said. "Walk with me."

Camille reluctantly walked by Jason's side as he absent-mindedly listed all of the reasons Camille shouldn't play that video of Annabeth. "You can't just do that to a person," he said. "You can't send her to rehab when she's done nothing wrong. You can't ruin her like that."

"Jason-"

"No, I'm not going to let you hurt my best friend," he said. "She's done nothing to you, nothing to Octavian."

"Jason," Camille said. She had kind of had a rough past with Jason and Reyna. Whilst they were praetors, Reyna seemed to always have a particular burning hatred of Cami.

Camille had never really behaved and Reyna hated people abiding by rules that weren't her own. Roman punishments were hard, and Camille had every right to hate the ex praetors.

"Annabeth, as far as I can gather, was the leader of the seven," Camille said. "The seven is the reason my first love is dead. I have to avenge him, Jason, I must. Because of you, because of Annabeth... I have no one."

"You don't have to have no one," Jason said. "Nobody forced you to do horrible things, you could have easily just made friends instead of enemies."

"No, I couldn't have," she said. "It's in my nature to get revenge, and I do have my reasons. Because of Annabeth, I'm all alone."

"Oh, you're not alone Camille," said a sickly sweet voice from behind her. She turned to see Reyna smiling kindly at her, as if being reassuring. "I'm here now. And I came with some people who really, really want to talk to you."

She gestured behind her to one security guard, two University Governors, Hazel Levesque, wearing her praetor cloak, and Terminus, who popped into thin air before them. Camille developed a mildly scared look. She turned back to Jason, who just looked smug, before looking back at Reyna.

"Okay, look," Camille said. "Praetor, Governors, I don't know what Reyna told you, but it's not true. You have to believe me!"

"There, there, Cami," Reyna smiled, handing Camille a handkerchief, as if she was about to cry. "It's going to be all right."

"No, it won't," Hazel said, stepping to Reyna's side.

"Or it won't," Reyna corrected. "We're all so worried, Cami. I found out everything. How you have been hoarding and taking study-drugs yourself."

"Not now," Cami said. "That's all in the past and I've admitted to that. That was a hard time," Cami said. "Back when I was a teenager, but I've changed. I've gotten over it."

"When?" Reyna asked. "When you started stalking Annabeth to find her Adderall? Terminus was furious when he found out you sneaked Annabeth's Yankees cap in through the boarder and into her hand when she was asleep."

"I've had enough," Camille said. "I have a party to attend. And you can not prove I've done anything wrong!"

"Oh I think we can," Reyna smirked. She checked the watch on her wrist and smiled. "See, in about five minutes or so, the video you shot of Annabeth, will be replaced by one of you. Hiding Cameras in Annabeth's dorm-"

"Breaking College rules," one of the governors said.

"Taking illegal pills-" Reyna added.

"Within the city limits!" Terminus screeched, outraged.

"Breaking pretty much every rule New Rome has," Hazel added.

Camille began to get a little panicky. "I have to get that DVD back-"

"Stay where you are," the security guard demanded, stopping Camille as she tried to turn around. Reyna just smiled wider.

"Yes, do stay, Camille," she said. "I'll leave. Oh, wait, I almost forgot to leave you with the information I discussed with Hazel, here." She handed a leaflet over to Camille, who took and read it.

"It's where you're going," Jason said, from over her shoulder.

"A rehab, just a mile from here," Hazel said. "Reyna was kind enough to do some research."

Camille turned to Reyna and glared at her, shooting daggers from her eyes. Reyna just smiled sweetly, a sight that people only saw when she was being incredibly sarcastic. "Haven't you heard?" Reyna asked, leaning in so only Camille could hear her. "I'm the crazy bitch around here."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Reyna and Jason were allowed to go immediately. They went to the little party and found Percy and Annabeth. They moved over to a staircase leading backstage and sat down. Percy and Annabeth were on a couple steps above Reyna and Jason, but they were all still pretty close together. Jason explained where Camille was going and what was on the DVD Reyna had created. Percy was beaming and Annabeth was so relieved she could cry.

"I told you," Jason said to Percy. "I'm always betting on Reyna."

Reyna wouldn't meet his eye as Camille ran in. She was followed by the security guard just as her video played. It showed her planting cameras in Annabeth's room, taking un-prescribed study-drugs, stalking and hurting Annabeth and explaining her evil schemes. Someone backstage had turned the video off quickly and started the music up again.

"Shame," Percy said. "I would have liked to see the ending."

"If you turn to your left, you should be able to see it," Jason said, pointing to Cami getting dragged out of the room. "Kind of feel bad for her."

There was a pause before they all laughed. "Well," Percy said, "can I have this celebratory dance, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth got to her feet as well and took Percy's hand. "You most certainly can, Seaweed Brain."

Reyna watched as they left her alone with Jason. "They look so cute together," she commented, watching her lean into him, feeling safe and happy, the first time she had looked like that for weeks. She looked to Jason, who seemed pretty solemn. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I danced with Piper to thins song once," he said.

"Oh," Reyna said. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I mean, it's been almost an entire year. I'm over it."

Reyna paused. She knew Jason to much for him to hide things from her. He was completely transparent to her, whether she liked him or not. "No you're not," she said. "She was you're first love. You haven't moved on."

He sighed. "How does anyone ever seem to move on?" he asked.

She put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "Jason... I think you'll meet someone entirely new. And you'll fall so madly and deeply in love that you'll have moved on without even realising it."

He looked at her, cocking his head slightly. "Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano. My best friend. Even if I'm not yours anymore. I ruined everything, didn't I?"

She nodded slowly. "Even if we manage to salvage something out of this, it'll never be the same as it used to be. Why did you leave me?"

It was the way she asked that question that gave Jason a strange sense of hope. It wasn't directed at him, it was directed at no one, at nothing. And she wasn't expecting an answer, because he had already given her the answer, time and time again. The way she asked it then, it was almost as if she was asking the universe why these events just had to occur.

"Thank you," he said.

She looked confused. "For what?"

"Even if we can never have it again," he said, "you have me the best friendship I could hope for. You were incredible to me."

She nodded. "I was. I did everything right, I was a good friend. And you may not remember, but I do. I remember that I didn't deserve what I got."

He nodded. "I remember. You were my best friend, Rey. You were always there for me when I needed someone, when I was upset or angry, you were just... always there."

"You know that's never going to change?" she said. "No matter what happens between us, we're family."

There was a long pause. Neither of them knew what to say next, Reyna was on the verge of leaving. It was a dressy event and she was in leggings and a denim jacket. It was at least en minutes before Jason spoke.

"This year, I heard Piper say goodbye to me," Jason said. "I heard Thalia cry a little when she sent me off to college. I heard Annabeth cry on the phone when she told me she didn't know where she was. I heard so many terrible things this year but when you told me you hated me... I think it was the worst thing I had ever heard in my life. So whatever I can say, or do, to be your friend again... Please tell me."

She just looked at him and smiled, softly. "We're okay."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Annabeth was climbing into bed when the door to the dorm room opened and Reyna came in, a grin on her face. She was holding an envelope in her hand and she showed it to Annabeth.

"What's that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at Reyna.

Reyna sat at the end of Annabeth's bed and put the envelope on the blondes lap. "I know you've had a terrible couple of weeks," she said. "So I wanted to do something nice for you. I remember something you said, before leaving for New York for Christmas."

"What did I say?" Annabeth asked, trying to think back but coming up with nothing memorable.

"So crap you usually say about architecture in England," Reyna said. "So I called my sister who works at Amazon and got a family discount."

"For what?" Annabeth asked, taking the envelope and opening it up.

"You need a break," Reyna said. "You need sleep, food, doctors, but above all, you need a break from this place."

"We're going to England!?" Annabeth exclaimed, taking two plane tickets out of the envelope and staring at them with wide eyes.

Reyna shrugged. "I could only get two, with the family discount or not, so you can take Percy, or you could take me. Or Jason, or anyone, it's completely up to you-"

"I want to take you," Annabeth said, as if it should be obvious. "Oh my Gods, I can't believe you did this! When do we leave?!"

A/N: And this concludes their first year of college. I most likely will not be updating again until after Christmas, but I will be back on Friday with It's Called Christmas, and I hope to see you all there. I actually have to go and do the cover for that now.

Their second year of college will include a lot more Michael/Reyna/Jason stuff which I'm looking forward to writing. Please let me know what you think before you go! Hours to write, seconds to review. -Izzy