Annabeth

XII

March 2011

The words and images blurred on the sheets in front of me despite my best efforts, and I sighed in defeat before rolling up the architectural blueprints for a temple of Artemis I had been designing for Mount Olympus. It was hard to focus on weight-bearing posts when your boyfriend had officially been M.I.A. for three months. Instead, I blankly looked up from my spot sitting near the canoe lake and let my eyes survey the campers walking about.

Percy once confessed to me that, in the week I had been missing while captured at Mount Tamalpais, he had nearly lost his mind worrying about whether or not I was okay. In a moment of utter self-pity, I cursed him for having to only worry for a short period of time in comparison to the time I'd been left in the dark without knowing where he was.

Well, I guess I did know: he must've been hanging out amongst our Roman counterparts somewhere on the West Coast. However, I still worried: had they accepted him as we took in Jason, or is he being held captive? Do they know that he's actually a Greek? Was his memory also completely stripped from him? Does he remember who he is?

Selfishly, I pondered the question that has been sitting uncomfortably in my chest for the past three months: does he remember me at all?

A familiar wave of terror ripped through me as I let myself sit with the thought. I mentally sifted through our entire history together—the St. Louis Arch, wandering through the Labyrinth, navigating the sea of monsters, that stupid kiss in Mount St. Helens—and felt crushed by the reality that every moment we'd spent together over the years might have ceased to exist for him. No one knew me as well as he did, and he might not even know me at all anymore.

I'd spent the last four months putting on my bravest face every day, turning my face into a calm, collected mask to get through each war council and boat designing meeting and responsibility I still had as the head counsellor of the Athena cabin. I was certain that everyone else believed that I would never break; I mean, I had been the one who made sure I gave that impression. I just didn't know how much longer I could do it. I tucked a loose curl back behind my ear.

I watched as Jason and Piper made their way over to the archery range from the cabins, and an icy thought climbed up my spine: What if Percy found someone else while he couldn't remember me?

Piper had confessed to me that sometimes Jason got weird talking about one of the girls he knew from home, and that she was almost afraid to ask the question of whether he had someone waiting for him to come home. I had wanted to let her talk through the feelings of it all, but the idea of Percy hazily being unable to recall me when and then meeting someone new made me feel like I was going to throw up.

I mean, this whole son-of-the-big-three-switcheroo scheme was thought up by Hera and we all know she was not exactly my biggest fan. It would be so fitting of her to have the last laugh with me.

I glanced over in the general direction of the bunker, where Leo and the rest of the Hephaestus cabin were probably hammering away at the Argo II. At this rate, the ship would be ready to fly at the beginning of June, a prospect that simultaneously thrilled and terrified me.

On one hand, I was eager to get this quest on the go. Time was one of our most valuable resources against Gaea, and every day we remained inactive was another day that she had to grow her army of giants and other allies. Besides, the sooner we could set flight, the sooner I'd know that I'd get to see Percy again.

On the other hand, after spending the past five years of my life on the brink of death in a series of quests and battles, I was not exactly itching to jump back into the thick of it. I'd seen enough death and destruction to warrant needing extensive therapy and, after the Titan War, I thought I was finally going to get a chance at normalcy. I was hoping that I could truly enjoy being a teenager for the first time in my life, with all of the cheesy cliches. Holding hands in the car with my boyfriend, going to school, thinking about college: they're all such boring, average things, but I'd wanted them all.

I absentmindedly ran my hand over the clay beads on my necklace, stalling as my fingers brushed against the one with a trident on it from the summer when I was twelve.

During all those years, with the Great Prophecy looming over our lives with its threatening presence, I had never let myself want him. At least, not wholly. I read that stupid prophecy when I was ten years old and then, once I realized it was about him, I was pretty certain that he was going to die at the end of it all. I tried to keep my feelings at bay: I would not let myself love him only to have him ripped from me when he turned sixteen. I don't think that I could have recovered from losing someone I loved in my life again, and definitely not like that. I did all I could to suffocate any hope for something to happen romantically between us.

But then it was over and he lived, and I was so ecstatic with the reality that I could want him—fate was not threatening to tear us apart—that I must have jinxed it. It was a few months of pure joy and then the rug was ripped out from underneath me. It's like I'd let him in for real only for the fates to pull a heinous prank on me.

I stood up from my spot, brushing grass off of my jeans, before walking back toward my cabin to put my papers away before dinner started. Tonight's activity was a game of capture the flag, and despite being one of the team captains, my heart was just not in it.

I was thankful that no one else was in the Athena cabin when I arrived. I placed my designs into a cubby underneath my bed, taking a moment to sit down and just breathe. I rubbed my fingers to my temples in slow, deliberate circles, trying to ease the tension that had taken residence there for the past few months.

I wished he was here.

I wished I was wherever he was.

I allowed a few tears to slip down my cheeks—only a few. If I let any more out, I was afraid that I'd start sobbing and wouldn't be able to stop for days. I didn't have time for that.

At the sound of the conch, I wiped my cheeks dry and checked myself in the mirror, practicing until my face was plastered with an expression of rigid determination. Once I was certain that no one could tell that I had been crying, I made my way to the pavilion for dinner.

There was a buzz in the air between all the campers as we started to get set up for capture the flag. It was March break this week, so camp was a little more populated and lively than it normally was in the off-season.

Despite normally being adamant on being in control of these things, I let Malcolm take the reins on organizing our team and figuring out the strategy. We were going up against the Hermes cabin and I'd secured Jason as well as the Aphrodite and Ares cabins to our side. Malcolm had put in work all week to get us a lot of the campers from the newer cabins here.

I was tightening the straps on my armor when Jason made his way over to me, sword in hand. Between the metal of his sword and his blonde hair, he truly looked like a golden boy. "Malcolm assigned me to follow your lead on defense."

I raised my eyebrow. I'll admit that I had been so checked out for the past couple of weeks that I hadn't taken the time to review the strategy Malcolm had proposed to the offensive team. I just would have expected for Malcolm to have taken the son of Zeus—I mean, Jupiter—onto his team.

Then again, the other team would never suspect that either. I rolled my shoulders as we walked into our place in the woods.

I watched Malcolm setting himself up with Clarisse and the other members of the offensive team. He prepared different groups to take various routes into enemy territory. He's really a natural at leading these things, and part of me worried that I hadn't given him enough chances to take on a leadership role over the years. He was a good brother, but I never liked to let someone else outshine me when I knew I could take control.

Perhaps I ought to work on lessening my pride more often.

Once the conch shell blew to signal the start of the game, I watched our offensive group cross through the creek and into enemy territory.

I turned my head to Jason. "Can you get into the air and find out what's coming our way?

He nodded his head, willing the air currents to come up underneath him and take him up over the trees. Luckily, it was still too early in the year for the foliage on the trees to start regrowing for spring, so he could have a pretty clear view of the whole forest.

He dropped back down to ground level. "One group coming up our right flank, but that area is already guarded by half the Aphrodite cabin, Iris, and Nemesis. Another, larger group is lurking just beyond the creek in the center, but isn't making any attempt to advance yet."

I took a moment to assess our defenses. We had a handful of the Ares kids behind us, closely guarding the flag about 60 yards back. Interspersed throughout our territory, we had groups who were waiting in the limited cover available, ready to catch any members of the other team off guard as they crept toward our flag.

The flag itself was resting on a tree branch about twenty feet above ground in an area with lots of overlapping and knotted tree roots that would make it a little harder for the opposition to sprint through.

I was feeling pretty confident in our setup until I saw the first arrow fly whistling over our heads and landing directly behind a dense cluster of boulders where one of our groups of campers were. The second the arrow hit the ground, a cloud of noxious gas exploded all around them.

"Ew, it smells like rotten eggs!" One of the Aphrodite girls squealed.

Then came the full volley of arrows. Strangely enough, though, the arrows were directly targeted at each group of our players that were dispersed in the woods, with different types of smoke, gas, and explosives going off at the feet of our defensive team. An arrow was hurtling toward us, but Jason used the wind to knock it aside before it got too close. Still, the overpowering sound of a sonic arrow exploding over our heads nearly blew my eardrums.

"Apollo cabin isn't taking it lightly on us," Jason mused.

My mouth set into a scowl. "They have the Hephaestus cabin with them. They must be using some sort of heat-seeking radar to know our location."

Jason narrowed his eyes. "Of course Leo would think of that."

Our groups had regained most of their composure just when the second volley was released.

"Scramble!" I yelled to our forces, everyone giving up their hiding locations to escape the wrath of the second wave.

I batted away an incoming arrow with my shield as Jason moved quickly in the opposite direction.

"Their archers are based under that tree," he said, pointing to a tall, bare oak tree on the opposite side of the river. As the offensive line of the other team started to sprint towards the creek to cross into our territory, I could only assume a third volley was coming soon to disrupt our already disgruntled defensive team.

I glanced at the tree. "Do it."

Thank gods, he understood. Within less than a second, the air started to crackle with ozone and then, just like that, a bolt of lightning descended from the cloudy sky and struck the top of the tree. I heard the sounds of explosives being accidentally detonated and the painful yelps of campers who had just been lightly fried followed like clockwork. With the archers out of the way, we could focus on the foot soldiers.

After spending the last couple weeks in a haze of worry and fear, it was almost nice to have a group of heroes barreling towards me. It really wakes up the senses and makes you focus on the present.

"Fall into a triangular formation behind me. Let's close off the space between these boulders," I ordered, and our allies obeyed. We had chosen this location for a reason: if the other team wanted to take a direct approach, they'd have to funnel in through a space about 30 feet wide between two large boulder formations. It would be easy to barricade an attack from getting through that space.

We were hit directly by the assault in close combat, but we were more than capable of holding our own against the campers who were trying to charge through our formation. The sound of celestial bronze weapons clashing against each other filled the air. I caught the swing of a sword using the hilt of my knife, kicking the camper in the chest hard before they could recover, knocking them back into one of their teammates.

"Let's go around!" one of the Hermes campers on the other team suggested, leading a small team to sneak around the flank of the boulder to get to the flag from the side.

The tiniest hint of a smile graced my lips. Idiots, if you think going against the Athena cabin could be that easy. I silently counted: one, two, three, four…

The sound of Greek fire traps getting detonated by a tripwire burst out from behind me to my left. The whole area around the flag was rigged with dozens of traps: if they wanted to get to the flag, they'd have to take the direct approach.

I was confident that we could keep them at bay long enough for our offensive team to get back with the flag until Leo crossed the creek with some of the other Hephaestus kids, his hair standing up on its ends. "Not cool, Sparky. I look like a Troll doll."

One of the other girls, Nyssa, launched a grenade right into the midst of our group.

An Ares kid kicked the grenade out of the center crowd just in time before it exploded, but a couple of the Aphrodite campers on the edge of the formation were still subjected to the poisonous gas.

"Holy shit, it's giving me acne!"

Nyssa laughed. "Yeah, acne grenades are the perfect weapon against teenagers who want clear skin."

I have to give it to her: that's a pretty genius weapon to bring against the Aphrodite cabin.

It was clear that we weren't going to be able to hold our position much longer. The Hephaestus kids, excluding Leo and Nyssa, rushed to join into the fray. They were going to smother us at this funnel.

Or maybe not. Jason was still fighting like a demon, his Roman style of combat catching a lot of the campers who had only come for spring break off guard: they hadn't had a chance to observe him on the battlefield yet. His lunging and jabbing was doing wonders to disrupt the opposition.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Piper had rejoined her cabinmates and was actively charmspeaking their opponents into dropping their weapons. Nyssa's grenade launcher was losing its effect as Jason used the winds to knock the projectiles astray.

We would have been perfectly fine had Leo not started shooting white-hot balls of fire from his fingers. One whizzed just inches from my face, searing the plume off of the helmet of the Ares boy next to me, the burning smell lingering in the air.

I wish Percy would soak the little fire starter.

The thought came into my brain so naturally. I had been so used to having him on my team over the years that instinctually, I had just expected him to be here.

I felt the cold grip of sadness threatening to squeeze my heart, so I did the only thing I knew could help. I charged the twerp.

Funnelling all my frustration and rage into my sprint, my senses went on overdrive. My quick footsteps dodged the spits of fire shot in my direction, as I closed the twenty yards between us in record time and smashed my shield right into his face. I definitely had at least four inches of height on him and I was aware that he had found me incredibly intimidating from the moment we met. He folded like laundry and hit the ground behind him with a faint, "Ow."

Nyssa got a look in her eyes that I recognized well: it was the same expression the other students on the debate team at my new highschool got when they got set up to practice against me. However, unlike Leo, she braced herself for the fight, getting her sword arm up just in time to deflect the point of my knife.

I'm not normally someone who charges in battle—this is completely out of character for me. Yes, I'm a decent fighter, but my skill was always in strategy, not brawn.

Yet here I was, fueled by all the horrible feelings I had been suppressing for three months. I was bloodthirsty. I was angry. I was ready to tear someone apart. I deserved the catharsis of it all.

I was too late. Before I could launch my second strike against Nyssa, Malcolm leaped over the creek and onto our side with the enemy flag in his grasp, winning the game for our team. Everyone lowered their weapons. I hesitated a second longer than the rest before dropping mine as well.

All the fiery anger that had been living in my chest just seconds ago flushed out of me in a breath, leaving the rest of me like a hollowed out carcass, feeling empty and incomplete.

I listened to all of my teammates cheer around me, congratulating each other on the victory while the other team rolled their eyes and grumbled about the loss.

I just stared at the creek, my eyes glassy, waiting for something that I knew wouldn't come.