Chapter 20 - The Messenger
'Well… I suppose that settles it.' Zeus had motioned towards the shared Iris message that they were all watching from the throne room. Athena leaned in ever so slightly. That was the key, that was the thing they'd been waiting for since his arrival, the thing that she'd suspected all along had finally come to pass.
Percy Jackson WAS a God after all.
'Athena, you may begin your mission. Informs the camps and those that were close to him about what has become of him… I understand that some may be more affected than others by his disappearance, please express my apologies to all that we could never find him of our own accord.' Zeus told her, motioning for Athena to begin her mission.
And so here she was, standing in front of the public relations building in the centre of New New Rome, the building where her daughter was heading the operations that kept the peaceful alliance between the Greeks and the Romans.
This wasn't a moment that Athena wanted to be a part of, let alone to lead. She hadn't been that fond of Percy, not when the boy was growing up, when he'd been by Annabeth's side for so many years, but as time went on he started to grow on her… and now?
Now he'd appeared after years of being off of their collective radar, not saying a word to anyone, leaving them all behind on that fateful day when Annabeth found her world was shattered.
To Athena it begged the question of WHY Percy hadn't ever come back, what his intentions or feelings to Annabeth had really been? It was clear to her, to all of the Gods, that he held something special in reserve for Artemis, and Athena was smart enough to know that the feeling was returned. A bond like that wasn't ever going to go unnoticed.
How was she even going to tell Annabeth that her ex-boyfriend had finally returned after being missing for years. Athena knew for a fact that Annabeth had moved on, but she didn't know how much of that was just a surface lie.
She took a final breath before closing her eyes and steeling herself for a conversation that she didn't know how to have. It was the hardest step she'd had to take over the threshold.
Inside the public relations building was all hustle and bustle, busy bodies moving around like crazy. Things were busier than ever in the years following the great war, it was perhaps the greatest thing that Annabeth could have chucked herself into to ensure she had enough on her mind to take it off of other things.
The bottom line for all of them was that if Percy Jackson didn't want to be found…
Well, they never actually found him, he just sort of reappeared at some point.
Athena wasn't in a form that many would recognize, but her long blonde curls would never have gone unnoticed by the stormy grey eyes of the ever analytical Annabeth Chase. The child of Athena looked up from her paperwork, where half a dozen people were waiting on a verdict of opinion about whatever it was, only to find herself looking into the unmistakable eyes of her mother.
"Look guys, I need some time to think this one over. I've got an emergency appointment, I'll bring the revised plans to you all after lunch, ok?" She asked, looking around at her peers who all took that as a clear sign of dispersing.
"Mother, what brings you to New Rome?" She asked in genuine surprise. She motioned for Athena to follow her through a hallway which led to a moderately sized office with a big window expanse that overlooked a lot of new construction.
"I see you're burning the candle at both ends? It's impressive how well you've restructured New New Rome." Athena nodded proudly.
"We still just call it New Rome, adapting to another suffix turned out to be a painful reminder of the friends we lost along the way, that plus Reyna hates it and I have no reason to irritate her more than I already do on a daily basis." Annabeth added with a slight laugh.
Normally people might be stressed having to deal with the public relations of two massive Demi-god camps as well as the architectural redesign, restructuring, and repairs of an entire city, but Annabeth was in her element.
"Hmm. I see, I suppose that would bring up fresh memories of loss." Athena wasn't off topic for the reason that she'd come here in the first place. Bringing her daughter the truth was becoming an increasingly harder thing to do with each passing second.
The wisdom Goddess decided to rip the bandage off and roll with the punches as best as she could. She took a deep breath that was almost missed by her daughter before she brought the subject right to her.
"Percy Jackson has returned." She said aloud, not taking her eyes away from the city scape of construction out the window. It seemed that literally anywhere would have been a better place to look rather than at her daughter who she knew was silently staring at her, an unreadable mask of toneless emotion across her face.
"He… He's alive?" Annabeth's face began to crumble with the slightest quiver before she steeled herself and got her emotions under control This HAD to be dealt with logically otherwise it would ruin her, and she knew that.
"There is a lot for me to go through and explain so for the moment just listen to what I have to say." Athena told her firmly. She decided to take a seat opposite her daughter and just go through everything that was needed.
"At the end of the last war, as you know, he decided to go off on a mission of his own, one last reclamation before the war was truly over. Pandora's Pithos, except someone had cursed the damned thing and when he opened it, it released an old race of corrupted Dragons, and it changed the boy irreparably."Athena explained. Normally her words might have been slowed for the other person's understanding but it wasn't something she had to worry about with Annabeth.
"For the past years that he's been gone, he has taken it upon himself to hunt down these corrupted Dragons in an attempt to rid that race of their corruption." Athena slowed down enough for this next part, gratifying Annabeth's heightened focus."HIS race."
There it was, the face that she knew was coming. Annabeth had opened her mouth to try and force out any one of a million questions rolling around her mind, how could she not after being told that her ex-boyfriend who was previously missing had returned years later as a different race!?
"There's more to it Annabeth." Athena jutted it, holding her hand up to stop Annabeth from asking anything just yet. "We as a council waited a few days to see the true depths of this development before coming to tell any of you. I had a hunch and I implored Zeus to wait on it until I could see whether or not I was right." Athena sighed heavily, this was the kicker.
"Perseus Jackson is a God. He is THE Dragon God." Athena explained. She could almost see the impossible amount of question marks fizzling above Annabeth's head as the girl desperately tried to understand what was going on.
"So… He was cursed by Pandora's Pithos and in the time that he's been gone, hunting corrupted Dragons no less, he has somehow ascended to being called THE Dragon God?" Annabeth asked, not even believing the words coming out of her mouth.
"Yes… That's correct." Athena confirmed, watching her daughter intently.
Annabeth let out a breath she hadn't known that she'd been holding and simply leaned back into her chair, processing it all. "That's so very typical of you, isn't it?" She muttered, staring out of the window.
He'd never wanted immortality, not by a long shot and then by design of fates unkind, he'd gone and ascended what it even meant to be immortal.
"You unbelievable bastard." She muttered again but this time with a smile. "We went through Tartarus for each other then one day he vanishes and can't even send me a letter? It's not like he didn't know where I'd be… Thank you for coming to me in person mother." Annabeth looked over at the deity on the other side.
"I believe that he stayed away from this life because it would endanger you all. Everyone that he cared about would be hurt by his chosen path. I do truly believe that he had your safety in mind when he walked away from us all." Athena tried to explain.
"I know. Three years I've been expecting to hear that he's dead. The saviour of Olympus, gone without a trace. When something like that happens in our world it usually means the worst. Honestly I'd moved on, put that part of my life behind me, and now this… Is closure. Thank you." Annabeth smiled but her eyes were firmly shut. A single tear rolled down her cheek in memory of the life that she'd had with Percy, and in sadness about the life that she would never continue with him.
But things were different now, three years she'd had to fight with her emotions, now the time was gone.
"You're taking this better than I expected." Athena smiled, grateful that this news hadn't reduced her daughter to a rubble of emotion.
"Oh, it's difficult to process but I think somewhere in my heart I knew that he was gone forever, regardless of where he was, in this life or the next. I'm just finally coming to terms with it now that you've made it very clear that he's changed." Annabeth explained.
Athena was silent but in her mind she was desperately praying to herself that if she was right about Percy and Artemis that the rest of the camps didn't find out for a little while, that would at least give Annabeth enough time to fully adjust to it all.
"I won't keep you, I'm sure that you're busy with telling the rest about this and I think I need to keep myself busy in order to fully get through that." Annabeth explained, standing up and downing the cold coffee on her desk.
Athena gave a sad smile to her daughter before parting ways and leaving her to deal with it on her own.
It was what she needed to do to fully appreciate what she'd been given on the matter.
Closure.
A/N: And that's all for Annabeth. Hopefully you'll all appreciate the be all end all of it. I mean, she might reappear as one off pieces here and there like half of the characters do, but she's not key to the story.
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