I met up with Luke and Annabeth beside the elevator to go back down to the mortal world.

When I approached they quickly broke up their hushed conversation. I didn't say anything, walking into the elevator and holding it open for them instead. As they got in, I pressed the 'Ground Floor' button and silently prayed that the trip wouldn't be full of awkward silence.

'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga began playing.

Okay, that's it. What the fuck is up with this thing's taste in music? Also, how does one go about murdering an elevator?

I promptly began to glare holes at where the song was coming from. Honestly, if I had access to a decent supply of water-

"You lied," Luke stated. It wasn't a question.

"Yes." No two ways about it.

"Why?" Annabeth piped up.

"Because the truth would have meant your death."

Luke scoffed, "And it wouldn't have meant yours either?"

I pinned him with a look. "Yes, but I've lived longer than I should have. You're young, you deserve to live your life."

"I'm young?" he asked incredulously.

I raised an eyebrow. "I was older than you are now when I died. I may look like a twelve-year-old, but I'm closer to 34."

"What?" Annabeth said disbelievingly. "You're 34?"

"34 total!" I corrected quickly. "I died at 20, nearly 21. I'm almost 13 now, so age 34 in total."

"You were a year older than me?" Luke frowned, baffled.

I pinched my nose. "Yes, and I can assure you that not only was I more mature than you, I've also lived through too much already."

Annabeth stared at me in sceptically. "How?"

I flicked my eyes to the display that steadily ticked down the number of floors. We weren't even halfway down the elevator ride.

"Because, sweet, innocent, Annabeth- I died in a school shooting during a worldwide plague."

"What?" Luke seemed stunned. "No way, you're lying!"

"Nope," I gave them a grin. "Imagine this: the year is January 2020, you are a young depressed adult. A new illness starts in China, some sort of superflu. You think, 'Ah, the doctors will have this cleared up by the end of the month.' They don't. It spreads worldwide by March. A lot of people brush it off, say it's just some flu. Spoiler alert: it's a thousand times worse. Of course, the death toll starts rising. Worldwide quarantine by May. Some countries cope better than others. In the USA though, where I was, nobody actually did anything because, 'it's against our freedom.' In a word? Stupid. Move. People are still going to work, they're over 100,000 confirmed deaths, and they send you back to school because 'only 1% of you will die.' Fucking lovely. But wait! There's more."

" Suddenly, but not exactly unexpectedly, some cops cause the death of an unarmed black man. 'Black Lives Matter' movement is back and here with a vengeance. 'Defund The Police' and 'ACAB' is everywhere. Millions are rioting and protesting in the streets- It's like the 60's again. Of course, the plague is still going on. This is still only July. The president is a confirmed pedo and racist; he commits war crimes. He is not impeached. Cops are monitoring your social media to see if you're a protester. You live in a surveillance state. You go back to school, it's August. One day, a lockdown drill comes on. This is normal, there hasn't been a single month in your whole life where you haven't done at least two of these drills and seen an actual school shooting happen on TV. You call your family and tell them you love them, just in case. It's a real shooter. He enters your classroom and shoots the students. You bleed out because it wasn't a fatal shot but nobody comes in until nearly two hours later. He managed to kill some fifty students."

They look horrified- pale as the corpses I was surrounded by in that classroom.

The elevator dings and opens.

"And that's my death. Lovely, wasn't it?" I stretched my lips into a grin, a mask to plaster on my face. Then I run.

"Ophelia!"

I could hear them calling after me. I didn't stop, but I did slow down a bit.

"Ophelia!" Luke grabbed my shoulder.

I struggled to throw him off, his grip not budging an inch. Eventually, I resorted to scratching.

"Whoa!" He pulled back, but didn't let me leave. "Sorry, sorry! Ophelia, you can't just run off after that."

"Watch me," I snarled at him. "My whole life went out the window in one year, Luke. I was supposed to die and stay dead- I was supposed to be allowed to rest!"

Annabeth answered, her eyes sad. "We're sorry, we shouldn't have asked, but you've been lying to us. I'm sorry that you've been through all of that, please don't run away."

I took in a shaky breath. I fucking hate this life.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone?" I felt vulnerable, asking them this in a crowded Manhattan street. "Promise you won't tell anyone before I'm ready?"

There was hesitation, but Annabeth soldiered ahead.

"I swear on the River Styx that I won't tell anyone of your secret past life unless you let me on your own free will."

Luke gaped at her. She elbowed him.

"I swear on the Styx not to tell anyone of your past life unless you are okay with it," he hastily swore.

I tried to smile at them, but judging by Annabeth's wince, it didn't come out quite right.

Luke sighed, running a hand through his hair. A sign of stress from him as I've learnt in our time together. "You owe us one, got it?"

I nodded rapidly. "Of course!"

"You still have to answer our questions!" Annabeth said, frowning. "I'm not letting you go on without telling us more."

This. I did not like this.

"I want to know about how our lives were just some story," Luke added.

I winced. "My apartment is a few blocks away. I'll explain more on the way."

oOo

Some things were taken better than others.

Annabeth lit up to find out that she's loved as a role model in the fandom.

Luke stopped to punch a wall when he found out that he was supposed to die saving Olympus.

They both nearly started crying when I told them that Thalia could come back, but she joined the Hunters in the end.

I had to hold back tears when they asked about my past family.

It broke (and healed) all of our hearts to know that any knowledge I have isn't concrete, that it could all change now that 'Fate' doesn't have a stranglehold.

It's just us now.

By the time we arrived at my apartment, suspicion had lessened, and trust had grown.

Maybe this family won't break.

oOo

I stopped them at the steps to the apartment.

"Right, so, there's one last lie to clear up." I itched my arm nervously.

Luke gave me a look.

"IDidn'tKillMedusa!" I breathed out in a rush.

"What?" Annabeth shrieked.

My hands quickly flew up in a surrender. "She was just bitter and alone and I pitied her and so I told her I'd welcome her home and she agreed and swore not to kill me and now she's probably upstairs!"

Luke's mouth opened and closed a few times wordlessly before just letting his head fall into his hands.

"Why did I even bother?" he finally managed to groan out.

Annabeth, despite looking very disapproving of my actions, giggled at him.

"Sorry," I apologised.

"So Medusa, killer of demi-gods and men, is in your apartment right now?"

"That's what Pai said, I'm not sure," I admitted.

Annabeth sighed, "Great."

"You can stay down here?" I offered.

"Nice try." Luke grabbed me by the scruff. "Let's go."

I led them into the apartment.

And got promptly greeted by the sight of a bunch of cops arresting Gabe's poker circle while Mãe and Medusa watched, drinking…. Coffee? With marshmallows?

I quietly 'eeped' and ducked backwards, pulling my friends with me.

"What the fuck?" Annabeth whispered.

I bounced on the balls of my feet, struggling with my laughter. "They're finally getting fucking arrested!"

"For what?" Luke hissed.

"Probably paedophilia and tax evasion. Maybe some other stuff too." I held back the urge to deck Eddie in the jaw, just in case this was the last time I ever saw him.

"Excuse me?" Luke's voice rose several pitches in shock. "You know them? What- I'll kill them!" he snarled.

"No!" Annabeth and I quickly grabbed him and hid, watching as the cops led them all outside, leaving just my Mãe and Medusa at the door.

"Okay, now you can. Just don't get caught," I offered Luke to Annabeth's vocal disapproval.

Then I was running full speed at my Mãe to tackle her in a hug.

Mãe, used to my antics, swiftly handed her coffee mug to Medusa and swept me up into a tight embrace.

"Ophelia! Ay, graças a deuses. Oh, my baby." (Thank the gods)

She crushed the air right out of me. We stood in the hallway as she cried and ran her hands through my hair. We were both shaking with relief.

Medusa silently slipped away into the apartment. After a beat, Luke and Annabeth tip-toed past our hugging to join Medusa. I was quietly thankful.

We re-entered our home a few minutes later.

As expected, Luke and Annabeth were glaring suspiciously at Medusa who was sitting primly on the couch, uncaring of their stares.

The apartment was cleaner than I could ever remember. There were no beer bottles or chips strewn on the floor, no blaring ESPN on the TV, no smell. Just a pristine home, smelling of peppermints, with a statue of Smelly Gabe in the corner.

Wait.

"You turned him into stone!" I exclaimed happily. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I caught Medusa in an unexpected hug.

"It's quite alright, child," she said, a bit off-balance, "He deserved it."

"She arrived at the right time," Mãe explained. "Gabe had hit me, she helped patch me up." She gave Medusa a soft smile then turned back to me. "Good job darling, you were right on helping her."

I gave a cheeky grin. "As you say."

Mãe ruffled my hair. "How about you introduce me to your friends while I get us some sandwiches? I'm sure you all are hungry."

"Thank you, Ma'am." Luke nodded with respect.

"Don't thank me dearie." She waved him off. "So what's your story?"

oOo

There may or may not have been a chinelo thrown at me. (Jandal)

Mãe was incensed that I drew the attention of the gods in the Waterland park, yelling in a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish about how she raised me better than to do something so stupid. I ducked the chinelo and had to run away from her when she grabbed a second one, trying to (uselessly) defend my stupidity.

She eventually calmed down and started to cry into my hair again, but it's better than being chased by a Jackson armed with a chinelo.

Mãe was thrilled to hear that I had found friends in Annabeth and Luke, offhandedly mentioning that she's never seen me have any friends near my age to Annabeth. In the background, Medusa hid a smile as I visibly cringed. She then told Luke about how she was his age when she had me, how funny is that? I turned a blind-eye to Luke's quiet anger on my Mãe's behalf as well as Medusa's double-take followed by some muttering about how much she hates my Pai.

This is fine. The world wasn't ending yet. We're good.

We told our story through bites of blue cookies and fortifying sips of hot chocolate. I made sure not to bring up the Fates or my past life, and my companions followed the cue with some side-eyeing. Hey, you saw her react to the Waterland incident, she'd actually kill me if she found out about the Fates cursing me.

I still don't get it. What did they actually curse me with? Shouldn't they be too busy trying to regain some semblance of control over Fate?

Medusa was quiet the whole time, more watching than reacting, but I could see the warmth in her eyes.

oOo

Mãe told us that we are going to stay the night, and in the morning she'll call a taxi for us. She ushered Luke and Annabeth into one of the now-unused rooms and told them to help themselves to the bathroom, promising to bring some fruit over later since it was a bit early.

I started washing the dishes while she dried them when I finished. It was nice- not having to worry about Gabe.

"So, are you going back to Camp?" she asked me.

"Yeah…" I spoke softly. "Best for me to finish the summer there."

"And will you come home?"

"To you?" I looked up at her, expression genuine. "Always."

She gave me a kiss on my forehead. "Just for the summer?"

"Just for the summer."

"Te amo," she told me.

"También te amo," I chimed back.

And all was right in the world.

A/N

Izzy: This is a bit more 'telling' over 'showing' than usual, but I'm a bit stiff on writing today and could barely make it to 2k words.

Raven: Same. I dunno, something in the air? I just can't muster up much energy right now. Well, the chapter's out, so there's that.

Izzy: lol yeah, I had a very productive weekend but that left me with no energy for this fic. The good thing with co-authoring is that if one can't finish something, the other can. I wanted to write ahead, but apparently that's not happening.

Raven: I hereby dub thee 'Lazy Syndrome'. Or something. Man, even my humour's tired. :I

Izzy: you literally had the chance to say 'Lazy Izzy' and rhyme but you missed it. Lmao, we that tired.

Raven: :I