The rain wouldn't stop. It came down in torrents like the gods themselves were crying down on them.

Luke held Annabeth in his arm; she had been knocked unconscious by the monsters they had just been facing. Thalia stood next to him, and Percy stood opposite all three of them. Riptide was still out and hanging uselessly by his side.

"You don't have to do this Percy," Thalia said breaking the silence that was weighing down on them. Her voice cracked at the end, giving away her sadness.

"You shouldn't do this Percy," Luke spoke up, correcting Thalia. He nodded towards Annabeth who was still laying in his arms. "She will be devastated."

Percy's determined face faltered slightly. His eyes were flickering down to Annabeth and then back to Thalia, more determined than before.

"She will be safer."

Thalia couldn't argue with that, one child of the Big Three was dangerous. Two? That was practically suicide, and Percy knew it.

Without another word, Percy went to turn away from them. Luke, and by default Annabeth, also turned to leave.

Then, Percy stopped and turned, so he was facing the wall of the alley they were standing in and called back out to Thalia.

Thalia turned back around to look at Percy again.

"What?" She called back, wondering why he had called out to her and not Luke who he was closer with. Luke had also stopped at Percy's call but he as too far away to hear what they were saying over the rain.

"Keep her safe."

Thalia kept silent at his words; they both knew who he was talking about. At last, she nodded, an understanding passed between them, and then Percy turned and walked away into the darkness and the rain.

Thalia's face softened as she watched Percy disappear. Of course, he would ask her. He knew she would sooner die then let Annabeth, her little sister in all but blood, get hurt. So once he had disappeared from her sight, she turned back to Luke and started walking in the opposite direction as Percy, not even answering Luke when he asked her what Percy had said.

Four Years Later

The sun shone down in Annabeth's eyes no matter how she tried to block it. She, along with the entirety of Camp Half-blood, was stuffed into two separate vans on their way back from a field trip in Manhattan. Eventually, she gave up on trying to block the sun from her face and just let it's insistent ray's bear down on her. The day had been hot enough, to begin with, and now she was shoved between two sweaty people in a van full of loud talkers.

She tried to block the noise out, but it was just as useless as trying to block out the sun. Everyone around her had someone to talk to besides her. None of her closest friends were in this van, so she sat in silence, her mind wandering. But as Annabeth knew to let her mind wander could be very dangerous as she found herself thinking about a black-haired green eyes child that she had been best friends with so long ago.

She shook her mind out of the past, trying not to remember that time. When she had woken up only to find out her best friend in the whole wide world was gone. She had cried then; she hadn't understood that Percy was trying to protect her. Now, years later, she understood.

She was jolted out of her thoughts rather forcefully when a figure darted out from the woods to their left and straight out in front of the van. Argus tried to stop, but it all happened so fast. They hit the figure with a massive SMACK! The object rolled up the windshield and then back down onto the road.

For a second no one moved. Where there had been nonstop chatter before, there was now utter silence. Then Travis, who had been sitting in the passenger's seat, jumped out of the van.

"We just hit a person!"

They all scrambled out after him, the people from the van behind them following suit. All of them wanting to know why they had stopped.

Annabeth got to the front of the crowd that was forming around the person they had hit. Luke finding her in the group and coming up beside her.

The person laying in the middle of the road was young, around her age, and had dark hair. They were covered in dirt from head to toe. Annabeth knelt beside him to see if he was still breathing. She grabbed his wrist to see if he had a pulse, once she knew he had once she was more relaxed. However, her touch seemed to have woken him up as he stirred, eyes fluttering open and closed.

"What hit me?" The boy mumbled almost incoherently, sitting up to hold his head. He seemed oblivious to the number of people around him, so Annabeth cleared her throat.

"A van."

The boy jumped up at the sound of her voice, finally looking around him.

Annabeth figured it would be somewhat intimidating to wake up after being hit by a van to be surrounded by thirty or so kids and a man in a wheelchair, but the boy didn't seem scared, just confused.

Annabeth took a step closer to him, bringing his attention to her. "Are you-" Her sentence was cut off as the boy grabbed her, spinning her around, so her hands were behind her back and pulling a sword out of nowhere and holding it to her throat.

She froze, not daring to move. Luke cried out, lunging forward only to stop when the boy increased pressure on her throat, but not enough to draw blood.

"Just tell me what's going on." The boy asked, his eyes darting around, waiting for someone to answer.

Luke answered. "Our camp was on our way home from a field trip, and well, we accidentally ran you over."

The boy lets go of Annabeth, sensing we were telling the truth, and she ran over to Luke, rubbing her throat.

The boy was grinning. "A camp for Half-bloods?"

Chiron rolled forward catching the boys attention for the first time. "Yes, indeed, boy. My name is Chiron, trainer of heroes."

Annabeth, who had been letting Luke know she was fine, heard the conversation. Luke also looked up, jerking at the familiarity of the boy before him. The black-haired boy had his sword hanging loosely by his side, grinning as Chiron talked to him. Just as the realization hit Luke, Annabeth gasped, recognizing the sword.

"Riptide."

Both Luke and Annabeth looked more closely at the boy, he as a few years older but it was him. Right down to the grin he sported.

Before Luke could stop her, Annabeth stepped forward, effectively ending Chiron and Percy's conversation.

"Percy?"

Annabeth could hardly believe it. She had never thought she would see him again; she had never even gotten to say goodbye to him. As she got closer, he backed up, studying her, trying to figure out how she knew his name.

Then, his eyes widened in realization. "Annabeth."

Annabeth smiled at him. Percy let out a laugh of disbelief. Annabeth laughed breathlessly as he brought her into a bone-crushing hug, careful not to impale her with Riptide.

The two of them laughed the entire time, whether from happiness or disbelief no one was sure, all they knew was that words couldn't sum up the joy they were feeling.

Then, Percy spotted Luke behind them.

"Luke!" Percy yelled excitedly and pulled him into a hug as well. Luke laughed and patted him on the back affectionately; he couldn't seem to believe that Percy was there.

Chiron cleared this throat from behind us, and they realized they were making quite a scene, blushing slightly they all turned to Chiron to explain what was going on.

"Chiron, this is Percy. We were part of our group on the streets before we split up." Annabeth explained, is extremely brief.

Chiron nodded excepting the short answer, knowing if the three of them wanted to tell him more they would. The fact that they had never mentioned him before probably gave away their reluctance to talk about it.

"Well, then Percy, would you like to accompany us to camp?"

And just when people thought Percy smile couldn't get any bigger, Chiron asked him that, the smile he gave as he nodded looked painful as everyone climbed into the vans again, Percy following Annabeth into hers to sit next to her.

Once they were driving again, Annabeth remembered that they had hit Percy with about a ton of metal that made up the delivery vans. "Percy is your head okay?" She asked with concern as she examined it for blood.

Percy nodded. "It's fine. I can't believe I made it here though."

"Made it here?" Annabeth asked Percy wondering when he had even heard of the camp.

Percy just nodded and sent her a look telling her that he would explain later. Annabeth nodded happily that the two of them could still understand each other so well.

There was a beat of silence when no one knew what to say. Then, Percy seemed to have gathered up enough courage to ask a question. "So where is Thalia?"

When no one answered, and the silence around them became heavy Percy's eyes widened in horror. He shook his head in denial and seemed to mouth, "No" over and over again.

"Annabeth where is Thalia." He asked again this time desperate.

Annabeth shook her head and gave him a brief explanation. Percy's eyes got wider and wider as she told him about Thalia's sacrifice.

She wasn't sure what compelled her to do it, but she finished the story with, "She died protecting us Percy."

He didn't say anything more until the van stopped.

Once everyone was unloaded from the vans, and the other campers had headed up the hill, Percy and Annabeth stayed back. Annabeth pointed up to the majestic Pine Tree that was Thalia. "That's her."

The two of them walked up the hill to the base of the tree. Percy stepped forward until he was right in front of it. He didn't cry, didn't fall to his knees, he just sat down next to it carefully and closed his eyes.

Around that time Annabeth decided to head back down to camp not wanting to intrude and give him his moments with her. And as she walked away, she tried to pretend she didn't hear him say, "You kept your promise, you kept her safe."