We stopped for food and there's wifi! Hello! I hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus

Hello everyone, I'm back again! A quick note, if you guys want me to, I might write an epilogue to these branches. If you think you would like that, let me know. Also, like I said last chapter, I may put a semblance of myself in my next story, so go that read description in the last one and let me know.

I'm going to try to make this chapter a long one since it's the last one, so I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 17 Branch 1

Percy's POV

The school year had been brutal.

My senior year at Goode had just ended and I was never so happy to be done with a year of school.

Everything had been mostly the same as it always was, but the classes were harder this year and my depression came back a several times. One time in particular, it had been really bad. I'd been going through a really bad week, most of my classes were loading homework on me that I was under pressure to get finished to pass the classes, Nico hadn't come for several weeks so I hadn't had anyone to talk to. My mom said she was there for me, but she didn't understand as well as Nico and I couldn't go talk to her about it. I was home alone while Paul was still at work correcting some papers, and my mom had gone to get some groceries for the week and I was feeling useless. It got so bad that time that I had a knife to my wrist before I caught myself. I'd promised my friends and myself that I wouldn't hurt myself again, so I forced myself to put the knife down and go lay on my bed where I couldn't hurt myself.

After that, my depression had lifted considerably, although it was still there some of the time. The day to go to Camp had finally come, and I was really excited to get back to my favorite place.

By some miracle I had convinced Nico to come back to camp. He told me he wouldn't stay, but at least he would be there for a while. Despite the fact that I had recovered from my depression almost entirely I doubted people would treat me normally again so quickly.

It was Thursday so there would be a game of capture the flag tomorrow, and the first game of the year was one of the more intense games each year. Maybe helping the winning team would get people to be around me a bit more. It was a small hope, but it was all I had.

I hugged my mom and walked outside and through the streets of Manhattan. I made my way through the crowds and towards the same alley where I had come last fall. I was going to meet Blackjack to go back to camp and that was the most inconspicuous place around.

I finally got to the alley after about forty minutes of wading through people and went towards where Blackjack should be waiting. I got there and saw he wasn't here yet, but it didn't worry me. He was probably waiting in the clouds for me to call.

I whistled and saw the black silhouette of the pegasus coming towards me. I looked back to where I'd come from and saw a homeless man next to the dumpster, seemingly asleep. I looked at him for a few more seconds a realized he was the same man I'd seen last fall. I kept looking at him, expecting him to morph into some monster and attack me, but he just stayed there, eyes closed.

I looked back towards Blackjack and watched him land near me. I walked over to him, "How have you been Blackjack?"

Bored boss, nothing happens during the winter. Do you have any sugar cubes?

I wasn't in the mood to argue with him that sugar was bad for him so I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a small handful of them.

After he ate them he shook his head for a second before looking at me again

Camp?

"Yeah, take me to camp." I said as I climbed onto his back.

Before we took off I looked back at the homeless man who was no longer asleep. He was just looking at me, and he wasn't acting scared or confused. A knowing smile slowly appeared on his face, and I saw his stormy grey eyes. We took off, but I could've sworn that I saw a necklace around his neck showing next to his shirt like the ones we wore, but we took off too quickly to see it very well.

The flight lasted for a little while, and was really uneventful other than scaring a small flock of birds that we flew past.

I saw Camp come into view as we dropped down out of the clouds and couldn't help but smile. I'd gone through so much here, I'd learned more here than I had at any school and this was where all my friends were.

We landed at the pegasus stables. I walked inside and got a brush and quickly brushed Blackjack.

Once I finished I went towards the cabins to see if Nico had kept his promise. I wandered around camp. I checked his cabin, the pavilion, and the arena, but I couldn't find him. I asked a few people, but they said they hadn't seen him. I walked around for a while longer, then went into the forest. I looked around everywhere that I thought he would be, but couldn't find him. I decided to take a break and went to the beach. I planned on going for a swim to relax and enjoy the feeling of being back, but I saw Nico sitting on the beach alone. I wasn't sure why he was there, but I walked over to him.

"This is an odd place to be sitting alone." I said as I sat beside him in the sand.

He didn't reply to me for a couple seconds, staring out at the waves crashing down in the ocean. "How've you been Percy?"

"School, I think that's an emotion in itself."

He smirked at that, but it didn't last very long.

"What about you?" I continued.

"Just… Alone. After the Giant War everything's been off. It just feels different to be alone now, it used to be solitude, peace, a place to think. Now, whenever I'm alone I can't stop wishing that I was with Bianca or Hazel or another person. Something about that war changed my perception of being alone."

"That's deep, but being deep should be normal for you, seeing how you spend so much time in the Underworld."

He looked over at me with a blank expression, "Do you have to keep making jokes? I'm being serious Percy."

"I know, I'm just trying to cheer you up. I can't let my friend sit here and ponder life, we're still teenagers. You're not allowed to ponder life until you're at least 30."

He smirked a little bit again, but looked back out at the sea.

"Come on, I need to unpack my stuff in my cabin and dinner is soon."

He nodded and stood up, walking next to me back into camp.

Unpacking had gone very quickly, seeing how I never brought very much with me to camp, and we went to dinner with the rest of the camp. We got the welcome speech from Chiron for a new year of camp. He welcomed the new campers and quickly told about everything that would happen this year. He also announced the game of capture the flag for tomorrow night. That got a lot of cheers.

After dinner had finished, everyone went to the campfire, I even got Nico to go even though he was silent for the whole thing. Everyone sang to the songs that the Apollo cabin played for us, joked around, and generally had a good time.

Eventually it was over and everyone headed back to their cabins to get their bunks before the new kids tried to take them and that camp quickly got silent. I told Nico I would see him tomorrow and went back to my cabin.

Once I got there, I opened up my backpack and pulled out the one thing I hadn't unpacked earlier: my journal.

Ever since I had nearly cut myself I'd made it a habit to read the journal every once in a while. There were times when I read it once a week, then there were times a read it once or twice a day. I left it in my backpack until now to make sure that no one would come in and find it. There weren't many secrets I had, but this journal was personal.

I read through all the notes that were written in it to the light of the moon and the slightly fluorescent slat-water fountain in the corner. Once I'd finished, I put it into the drawer in my nightstand.

I changed out of my clothes from the day and laid in bed. I rested my head on the familiar pillow of my bed at camp and slowly drifted off to sleep.

-Not the end! -

I woke up the next day with light from the early morning pouring in the windows onto my face. I knew Apollo probably assumed that making sure it was a really bright day for the first day of camp was a blessing, but this early?

I got up and went to get showered and changed into my new clothes for the day. I was back on my regular schedule this year, so I would have to make sure I was on time for what I needed to do. I heard the horn signaling breakfast, so I made sure I had Riptide in my pocket and stepped out the door.

I saw everyone else streaming out of their cabins, and followed them towards the pavilion. Once I got there we said the customary "To the gods!" and sacrificed a portion of our food. I went back to my table and sat down alone. Nico was now sitting at his the Hades table, so I would be eating alone again.

The meal went by quickly, and very boring, and we all separated for our activities for the day. I was starting in the arena with the Hades cabin (so Nico) and the Athena cabin.

I made my way for the arena and found Nico on the way there. We started talking about what had happened over the year since camp ended, since his visits to my family were usually short.

He told me he had been all over the US as well as a couple of countries in Europe and one accidental trip to Alaska.

I told him about my school year, although it was really boring compared to what he had done over the year. Nico was a good listener because he was so quiet, so he never interrupted as I told him about it.

We finally reached the arena to find the Athena cabin already practicing. I saw Annabeth watching the rest of her cabin, occasionally giving tips to the newer kids, a few of which were obviously wielding a weapon for the first time, and one nearly skewered Malcolm while he was practicing a move he was just shown.

Annabeth looked over at us and I smiled at her. I didn't hold anything against her anymore, and to be honest, I'd missed her company. She smiled back and continued practicing.

Nico and I went over to the usual area where we sparred and got our weapons out.

Neither of us had been able to train lately so we had a lot of pent up energy, being the ADHD demigods we are. Once we started we both fought mercilessly, hacking, slashing, and stabbing at each other. Neither of us landed a blow on the other, but we got close a couple of times.

The time in the arena seemed to go by very quickly and was over sooner that I would have hoped. We cleaned up and I went for pegasus riding while Nico went to archery.

Training had gone very slowly after the arena. Everyone was excited for capture the flag and could hardly keep from bouncing on their feet waiting for training to be over.

When it finally came to the time to get ready for capture the flag, everyone could hardly wait. I went back to my cabin to get my armor and the watch-shield Tyson had made me and went towards the edge of the woods where everyone met up before capture the flag.

Once I got there, I looked around and found out what teams the cabins had split into.

Blue was being led by Athena (as usual), and had Poseidon, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus Nemesis, and Iris. Red was led by Ares (also as usual), and had Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, Dionysus, Hecate, and Morpheus (I apologize if I missed any).

The teams quickly split up and went into the woods. Our team went to the half of the woods with Zeus's Fist. Once we got there, we placed our flag at the top.

We all gathered around at the base of the Fist with Annabeth giving each cabin orders.

"Half of Athena cabin will be on defense, along with Hephaestus, half of Hermes and Iris, the other Half of Athena will be on offense with Poseidon, Hades, Nemesis, and the other half of Hermes."

Everyone muttered consent and we moved to where we would be. I waited at the border by the creek with Nico and the three Nemesis kids. We waited until the horn signaled the start then jumped out from behind the foliage we were hiding next to and rushed forwards, immediately met by four Ares kids.

Nico and I held our own pretty easily, and the Nemesis kids, even though they aren't big, were good fighters. If one of them got hit they immediately attacked back even more intensely. Once we had subdued the four of them, we ran forwards deeper into their territory. We heard bronze clashing against bronze around the forest, battle cries, and arrows being shot.

A couple arrows went past us, but we weren't hit. We dodged our way through some more Ares kids, and ducked some arrows from the Apollo guards.

We found the red flag with a boar in it in the center of a clearing. We ran to it, fighting against several more Ares campers while being shot at by the two Apollo campers guarding the flag, although they were hesitant because of their allies fighting us.

I hit one of them in the helmet with the flat side of my sword and he stumbled to the side, then I started helping a Nemesis camper. Once we had them backed off enough I quickly signaled the kids from Nemesis to grab the flag.

The one I had helped got it and started running with his siblings close behind. I followed with Nico, but when we got nearly halfway to the creek, I stopped and turned around. Nico quickly followed suit, and we started fighting the Ares campers that had been fighting us by the flag to give the campers from Nemesis time to reach the creek.

I fought as hard as I could against the two who were fighting me, and when I saw Nico he looked like a demon with a sword, quickly changing between which camper he was fighting, swinging his sword quickly between the two of them, striking, slashing, parrying, then stabbing. After about thirty seconds of fighting, I hit one of them in the helmet and kicked the other back and I started to run again. I saw Nico do the same and we ran for about 100 feet before we heard the horn that signaled the end of the game. I stopped and Nico got a little ways ahead of me, before he stopped panting from the exertion.

I straightened up and stopped panting quite so much, but before I could say anything to Nico I felt something pierce deep in my side through a chink in my armor.

I collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. I heard Nico yell "Percy!" before I blacked out.

I woke up and immediately felt water rushing around my lower body. I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't move yet. I could feel something pressing down on my chest, as if something was stuck on top of me while I was unconscious.

I waited for a few minutes then tried to open my eyes again. This time, they slowly opened and I immediately saw a wave of blonde next to my head, then I slowly became aware of arms wrapped around me. I tried to say something but it only came out as an unintelligible sound. The head next to me suddenly moved and I could see Annabeth's face. I could see where the tears had been running down her face.

I finally could see where I was. I was laying in the stream in the woods, where they must've taken me while I was knocked out, the campers were all standing watching to see if I was ok, and Nico was a couple feet away, sitting and watching.

After about a half a second of looking at me, Annabeth suddenly said "Percy!" and kissed me. I lasted for only a second, then she pulled away from me and hugged me tightly. "Don't ever scare me like that again." She said to me.

She was squeezing me too tight to say anything, so I could only try to nod a little.

She looked at my face again and said to me, "You're not getting away from me that easily seaweed brain. If there's any way, could you give me a second chance?"

My voice was still failing me, so I could only smile and give her a small nod, and with that, she kissed me again.

The End! Yay and stuff for Percabeth! But please read this, it is important!

Alright guys, this is the end of Branch 1 of this story, and I had a lot of fun writing it, but remember, Branch 2 isn't over yet, so keep reading if you're interested in that, but I have a few questions.

First of all, should I write an Epilogue for this story? I'd like to write on if you guys want, but if not I don't want to waste my and your time.

Second, what should I do for my next story? I'm not very good at coming up with ideas, although I can expound on ones others give me, so what should I write? I'll consider just about anything you guys ask for, so Romance, Depressing topics, AU (maybe), specific ships you guys have, whatever. Just give the idea and a brief summary for me to build on.

Third, and this a re-asking of this one, I'm considering putting a semblance of myself as an OC in my next story, because I think that would be cool and I would be able to show my own emotions and thoughts better than characters I've only read about. A quick description for all of you, a little larger than the last one. I'm 6' 2", so I'm pretty tall, I'm very tan compared to most people, brown hair, green eyes with gold specks in them, I snowboard, wakeboard, and swim, I'm mostly a loner, I have very, very few friends, I'm pessimistic and think poorly of myself, I don't enjoy farming and I'm not good with plants, I don't think music taste matters but I like rap and dubstep, I'm very sarcastic around my best (and only) friend, and I'm into computers and programming. That was a lot, just trying to let you know who I am, so who would be my godly parent if I was in the story, or I had the other idea, my grandparents if I had two demigods for parents? Let me know please.

I think that's everything, sorry for going on so long, but I need some answers because I'm indecisive. Please Review and let me know what you thought about this story.

Thank you to all my fantastic readers who have supported me through my first story, and I hope I can count on all of you to read my next ones!