/ Happy Birthday to Annabeth Chase! I'm publishing this chapter early to celebrate. Unfortunately, it isn't a happy chapter for her birthday. Sorry, Wise Girl!
/Author's Note - A fair amount of the dialogue in this chapter comes straight from MoA. Reminder - I do not own MoA, PJO, HOO, etc.
Chapter 41 - My Mom Gives Me the Worst Present Ever
The rest of April and most of May were a blur. I had big projects at school, my first try on the SAT, oh, and building a Greek warship on the weekends. Will said I officially graduated from what he could teach me and sent me to Chiron for more advanced magical healing tricks. The first weekend in May, Piper managed to stop the entire Ares cabin from charging at her with a single word of charmspeak. Sweat poured from her forehead from the effort but she was elated. Leo's ship was looking amazing and we tried taking it out of Bunker 9 for the first time. We put it in the canoe lake and figured out where our issues were when it was in water. We'd work on the issues when it was in the air next. Jason and I talked every night I was there. I had started a notebook for everything I had learned, keeping track of who all the major players were in the Roman camp.
The war council and Athena campers worked together to come up with what our plan was to convince the Romans to work with us. Accept us. Trust us. Clarisse and I still drilled with a variety of weapons as soon as Will had given me the all-clear from my centaur-inflicted wounds. I was getting better at each one. We also spent a fair amount of time strategizing against the Giants, but we weren't sure how much help it would be - we'd need gods on our side and so far they were all still hiding on Mount Olympus.
It was time for my weekly visit to Percy's parents. Paul was out for the day, some kind of teacher's retreat, so it was just Sally and I. We had done our usual - talking about the things we couldn't wait to do with Percy when he got back, as if he was just away for a week or two. Talking about the progress on the search for Percy (there wasn't any) and on the boat (there was a lot). Talking about what was going on with the demigods Sally had met (Jess was beating most of the other campers with an axe now, Livy had learned to make healing potions that actually worked, and Milo was learning how to lay tripwires.) We were sitting in comfortable silence when I asked, rather impulsively,
"When did he tell you about me? What did he say?" It had been so long ago I wasn't sure she'd remember, but suddenly, I wanted to know. Had he gained as much respect for me after that first summer as I had gained for him? Had he thought about me as often as I'd thought about him that year?
Sally smiled at me. "Let's see…. I suppose he told me about you when he told me about that first quest. He said you were the first person to be his friend at Camp, and about you using him as bait during capture the flag -" I grinned at that memory. It'd been a strategic move since I knew Clarisse would go out of her way to attack him, but I also did it because I wanted him to prove he was the child in the prophecy.
"He said he realized just how smart you were at Medusa's place, when you realized who she really was and saved him and Grover by knocking them out of her eyesight." She smiled a little at the memory. "He also said he couldn't believe you dragged them to see the Gateway Arch, and wanted to watch the history channel. That first year he kept telling me little details, because he said he didn't want to forget." We smiled at each other, tears in our eyes at the irony. He didn't want to forget any of it, but now he had.
Sally cleared her throat. "He'd keep that picture you sent, the one in front of the Lincoln Memorial, in his notebook so he could look at it and remind himself that everything that had happened was real." She told me more moments she could remember, then looked at me.
"Ok. My turn. When did you know you loved him?"
I thought about that. "It happened slowly, I guess. I-I had a crush on him since that first quest. When we had our first real talk, in the back of this zoo truck and he convinced me to give my dad another chance. He didn't judge me or anything, he just…. Was so supportive." I told her about that night in the back of a truck full of mistreated animals.
"But then -" I took a deep breath. "But then Luke betrayed us, and, I don't know. It was like…. Like I couldn't trust anyone as much anymore. It was hard. I had all these feelings for Percy, he'd become such a good friend, but part of me was fighting getting close to anyone ever again. I couldn't handle the hurt again. I started trusting him more after the Sea of Monsters. I'd wanted to listen to the Sirens, because they could show you things about yourself that you didn't know. Percy helped me do it and protected me, even when I fought him." My eyes filled with tears, remembering as I battered him in the water and Percy dragged me back out to sea, determined to save me. I told Sally about all of it.
After a moment, she asked quietly, "I know you said you learned your fatal flaw, but what did you see?"
I looked at her quizzically, "Percy never told you?"
She shook her head. I took a deep breath. "I-I saw my parents, back together. Luke, never betraying us. New York, rebuilt the way I'd do it. But mostly -" I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Mostly, I saw my family act like they loved me. Accepted me. Completely." I buried my head in my hands, thinking about that now. Luke was dead. My dad was far away. And my mom….. Wasn't speaking to me.
Sally got up and came to wrap her arms around me. "Annabeth. You do have a family, you know. Not just your blood family. But Percy, Paul and I. Chiron, your friends at Camp. All of us love you and accept you. Completely."
After sharing more tears and trying to pull ourselves together, I finally left the Jackson residence. I decided to go back to my dorm via Grand Central. There were tons of ways to get there, but that was my favorite, because I could look at all the architecture. Suddenly, I stopped. I saw her. My mom. I'd just passed that old candy shop where Percy's mom had worked, and was thinking about stopping to grab some candy, when I saw my mom.
For normal people, seeing your mom after months would be crazy. For me, it's crazier. Because Athena doesn't typically just…. Walk around. But there she was, a woman who looked startlingly like me but with dark hair, staring at the subway map like she was lost. But she couldn't be lost - Athena doesn't get lost. She knew the subways well, she had talked to me about the way they were built.
"Mother?" I asked. I truly still didn't think it was her. After months and months of no contact… why would she be here, where I was, without seeking me out? I'd called, banged on the doors to Olympus, tried every way to get in contact…. So why was she here but still not talking to me? I looked her over. She wore jeans, hiking boots, and a red flannel shirt. I'd never seen her dressed so casually. She had a hiking stick and a backpack. She looked…. Like me when I head off on a quest.
"I must return home." She murmured. It didn't seem like she heard me. "The way is complex."
No, no it wasn't. The Empire State Building was easy to find. But she looked back at the map like it confused her. I wondered if she was sick. Could gods get sick?
"I wish Odysseus was here. He would understand." She continued.
"Mom! Athena!" I insisted. But I was scared now.
"That was my name." She agreed, sounding like she was in a trance. "Before they sacked my city, took my identity, made me… this." She looked down at her clothes in disgust. "I must return home." She muttered again.
I stepped back. This wasn't Athena - it was Minerva. And if it was Minerva…. Was it still my mom?
"Yo-you're Minerva." I told her.
"Don't call me that!" She snapped, fire in her eyes. "I used to carry a spear. And a shield. I held victory in the palm of my hand. I was so much more than this." She was bitter, and angry, and lost and confused -
"Mom? It's me, Annabeth. Your daughter." I tried again. Even more than the unanswered calls, the closure of Olympus, this hurt.
"My daughter?" She sounded confused, like she no longer even knew what a daughter was. "Yes. My children will avenge me. They must destroy the Romans. Horrible, dishonorable, copycat Romans!"
I looked around, worried we were causing a scene. She was getting so agitated.
"Hera argued that we must keep the two camps apart. I said no - let them fight! Let my children destroy the usurpers!"
"Y-you wanted that?" I asked, shocked. My mom never advocated for out and out war. She was a war goddess, sure, but only when there weren't other options. She knew the wisdom of when to fight and when not to. Picking your battles.
"But you're wise." I was almost pleading now, trying to get her Athena side to come back. "You understand warfare better than any-"
"Once!" She snapped. "Replaced. Sacked. Looted like a trophy and carted off. Away from my beloved homeland. I lost so much. I swore I would never forgive. Neither would my children."
Her eyes focussed on me for the first time in the conversation, and I did not like the hunger I saw there.
"You are my daughter?"
"Yes."
She took something from her pocket and handed it to me. It was a small coin. An old fashion subway token.
"Follow the Mark of Athena." She ordered me. "Avenge me."
I looked at the coin in my hand. It changed before my eyes from a subway token to an ancient Greek drachma. An owl with an olive branch was on one side. The other held a simple Greek message - The Mark of Athena. My thoughts raced. How was I to follow a coin?
"Mom." I tried to be as soothing and calm as possible. "Percy is missing. I need your help. Hera took him. She… switched him for this other demigod, Jason. It's an exchange, see. To bring the two camps together. Like you wanted, except we'll be on the same side. We'll fight Gaea together. That's the plan, anyway. So, Percy got sent to the Roman camp, we think, but we can't find him - "
In the past, my mom had always been willing to help. Give advice. Guide me where I needed to go. She loved me, truly. But this was not Athena. This was Minerva. Fully, entirely Minerva.
"Never!" She declared, stamping her walking stick on the ground. "Anyone who helps Rome must perish! If you would join them, you're no child of mine. You have already failed me."
"Mother -" I tried again.
"I care nothing about this Percy. If he has gone over to the Romans, let him perish. Kill him. Kill the Romans. Find the Mark. Follow it to its source. Witness how Rome has disgraced me. And pledge your vengeance."
"Athena isn't the goddess of revenge." I reminded her, trying to keep a hold on my temper. I was so scared. So desperate. Here my mom was, but when I needed her most, when we were about to embark on this major world-destroying quest, she couldn't help. Not couldn't - wouldn't.
"Percy is everything to me." I told her, trying to get her to see my side.
"And revenge is everything to me!" She snarled. "Which of us is wiser?"
"Something's wrong with you." I muttered. "What's happened?"
"Rome happened." She snapped. "See what they have done? Making a Roman of me? They wish me to be their goddess? Then let them taste their own evil. Kill them, child."
"No!" I insisted.
"Then you are nothing." She declared, and turned her back on me. She looked back at the subway map, still seeming confused. "If I find the routes…. The way home…. Then perhaps…. But, no. Avenge me or leave me. You are no child of mine."
I wanted to protest. To yell and scream and remind her of how Percy and I had been the ones to save the gods. How it had been Percy and I who fought and nearly died to save their thrones, to fulfill the prophecy. How could she turn her back on us now? Part of me wanted to lay down on the floor of Grand Central station and kick and scream like a little kid until my mom would help me. Tears stung my eyes. I turned, and ran.