A/N: Hello! It's been so long! I apologize for the absence, life has been crazy for many reasons. One of the main reasons is that my grandmother has dementia and it is worsening by the day. My family is all pitching in to help with her because we don't want to send her to a live-in facility, due to Covid. So my days just got a whole lot busier with caring for her, but that doesn't mean I haven't forgotten about this story. I simply have not been able to find the time to write!

Recap: In the last chapter memory Percy is traumatized and tormented by Sally's murder. He takes a swim and follows an eel, under the impression an animal needs his help. The eel leads him into a cave where he comes face to face with a shapeshifting Kronos. Kronos is real and has pulled himself from Tartarus with assistance from the bits of Percy and Annabeth that were left in hell.

When Kronos bends Annabeth's blood, Percy offers to be Kronos' new host in exchange for Annabeth's safety. Kronos agrees and the memory abruptly ends.

TW: mentions of death

NICO

Nico woke up to Annabeth Chase calling his name through an Iris Message. "I need your help," she said. "I'm at the Jackson's apartment. I need you to bring Piper, meet me there, and tell no one else."

Nico immediately jumped out of bed.

It wasn't that Annabeth had called him at three in the morning. It wasn't that Annabeth had called him out of the blue. It wasn't that Annabeth had called with a list of strange requests. None of these things were bothersome. They were demigods; spontaneity was their specialty.

No, it was the tone of her voice that had him searching for his clothes as fast as he could. In all the years Nico has known Annabeth he had never heard her sound so... so... vacant. It sounded like a part of her had died.

Nico kissed Will on the brow and left a note at the bedside before slipping out the door. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on funneling his energy and essence into the shadows. When he opened his eyes, he was in Aphrodite's cabin.

Stumbling through the dark, he found Piper McLean's bunk and gave her a gentle shake. The daughter of Aphrodite woke with a start and came very close to slashing out his eye with the dagger she kept beneath her pillow before realizing who he was.

"Nico?" she hissed, griping the weapon. Her hair was in tangles and her eyes were foggy from sleep. "What the Hades?!"

Nico raised a finger to his lips and made a beckoning motion with his hand.

Puzzled, Piper threw on a sweatshirt and followed him out of Cabin 10.

"Annabeth just Iris Messaged me," Nico told her outside. The world was damp with dew and the moon was exceptionally bright. "She wants to see us. Wants us to be discreet."

Worry danced across Piper's face. "Is she okay?"

Nico paused. "No," he said simply.

Worries and fears were crushing him flat, and a new sensation of being watched was starting to blossom in his chest. Paranoia, he told him. Paranoia and sleep deprivation. That's all it is. Nothing else. But could he truly be entirely certain that this strange, sudden feeling was entirely thank to lack of sleep and paranoia?

Not at all.

Nico held out his hand. Piper looked at it for a moment before taking it in her's. Together they faded into the shadows.

"He's gone," was the first thing Annabeth said when they appeared.

She had stood by the window with one hand on the sill, staring out at the sleeping city. She was the perfect picture of an early riser, waiting to greet the sun. But it took only one look in her eyes to find out how truly close she was to shattering.

Nico felt like he had been punched in the gut. He knew of whom she spoke without even needing a name.

So did Piper. Her eyes filled with tears and without hesitation she went to embrace Annabeth.

With a voice void of all emotion, the blonde started at the very beginning: with Sally Jackson's death. Nico's heart clenched as the tragic event was replayed. Mrs. Jackson had come to be some sort of den mother to them all. Besides Bianca, she was the closest thing he ever had to a real mother.

And now she was gone. Just like his mother and his sister. She had left them, and she wasn't coming back.

"Poor Mr. Blofis," Piper murmured, shaking her head in disbelief. "And what of Estelle?"

"That's the emergency," Annabeth said gravely, untangling herself from Piper's arms. "Mr. Blofis is wracked with grief. He forgets himself sometimes. He skips meals and bed or binge eats and sleeps for hours, and he's neglecting Estelle, whether he means to or not."

Sally raises a trembling hand to her mouth, sorrow glimmering in her eyes.

Percy doesn't like to see her like that. He doesn't let his gaze linger. Instead, he watches the odd trio.

"Is that why you're here?" Nico rasped. His ears wouldn't stop ringing from the news. He jutted to the hall with his chin. "To care for Estelle?"

Annabeth nodded mutely. "I don't think she'd be fed or bathed or changed, otherwise."

"Oh my gods," Piper mumbled.

"That's why we need to do something. The gods know she and Percy were close. They know she knows about our world and that she can see through the Mist. I'm afraid they'll take it upon themselves to do something about her or Mr. Blofis."

"I could try to charmspeak him," Piper suggested timidly. She licked her lips. "Maybe I could get him to snap out of it..."

"Is that wise?" Nico asked lowly, twisting the gold ring in the shape of a sun that now accompanied the skull on his pointer finger. Any other day the memory of the promise ring alone would make him feel a thousand times better. But this wasn't one of those days.

"Of course it isn't," Annabeth was saying gloomily. "The mind isn't a toy for us to play with."

"Whoever said that obviously didn't have a good sense of fun."

The three of them spun around. The queen of the gods leaned on the counter by a pile of dish towels and watched them with a disapproving stare. Ribbons of silver were woven into her purple locks and she wore a shimming gown of lavender and gold. Their rumpled clothes looked rather pathetic and vagrantly when compared to her divine image.

Piper was the first to regain herself. "My Lady," she said, kneeling.

Nico and Annabeth stiffly followed suit.

Hera waved them up with an wave of her bejeweled hand. "The man is a mortal," she continued briskly. "He has no place in our world. Why not simply make him... forget?" She snapped her fingers for effect.

"No," Annabeth said firmly, fingers twitching agitatedly. "His life isn't something for us to toy with. People suffer from loss every day. He will recover from this. He just needs time and space."

"And where do you suggest we find this time?" Hera sneered. "The world trembles once more in the shadow of a threat as halfbloods perish one by one! Daughter of Athena, I may be rich with many things but time, at the moment, is not one of them."

A threat?

Nico and Piper shared an anxious glance. They had only just saved the world. They had fought, bled, sacrificed, killed... surly the world couldn't be in danger again — and so soon. Surly the goddess jested!

"I don't know," Annabeth was saying. "The mind is a fickle thing. But I do know that it would be an ethically and consciously wrong thing to do... again," she added bitterly.

Nico tensed as the Queen narrowed her electric blue eyes. By the gods, did Annabeth have a death wish?

Hera turned on Piper like a serpent ready to strike. "And I assume you share these opinions?" she barked.

Piper was startled, but recovered quickly. "My Lady, I support Annabeth's beliefs. Altering someone's mind can only bring bad things. Of course, I speak with bias from a personal experience, but still..."

Hera rolled her eyes. "Demigods. So dramatic." She shot Nico a sour look. "And what say you, son of Hades?"

"Uh—"

A hunched figure lumbered into the kitchen, stealing the lack of response from Nico's throat.

"Oh," Salt gasps. "My dear..."

Percy winces when he takes in the figure.

A man stood in the doorway. He was dreadfully frail and ragged, his eyes were sunken and large, and his beard was outgrown and unkept. It was as if he just woke up, for his hair was unruly and his stare was glassy, but he wore a suit jacket, formal bowtie and a pair of old gym shorts.

Paul Blofis frowned at the demigods that were cluttering his kitchen.

"Annabeth?" he said blearily. "What're your friends doing here?"

Annabeth went to touch his arm, but had second thoughts and pulled away. "I was telling them about Percy," she said in a measured voice, speaking as if he was some wild animal.

Nico had to admit that he was highly impressed by her control.

"Oh," Mr. Blofis said. He did a double take at Hera, and so did Nico. The goddess had disguised herself as a college student, about the same as them all, and was looking innocently as the man who's mind she was so in favor of erasing a few moments earlier. "Are you new?"

"Mr. Blofis," Piper interrupted, stepping forward. "I am..." she faltered and took a breath. "I am so sorry about your losses."

Losses. Nico inhaled sharply. Sally, now Percy. Who would next?

Paul looked straight through Piper as if he hadn't heard her. Self consciously, Piper took a step back.

"Mr. Blofis," Annabeth said gently. "It's four thirty in the morning... may I ask why you're up?"

The man glanced out the window and frowned at the inky horizon. "I was going to the beach," he said dreamily.

"The beach?"

He nodded. "Yes. They loved the beach. The two of them. She'd always say..." He trailed off, then shrugged. Shook his head. Sighed. "I don't know."

Annabeth shot them a look that said see what I mean? as he sat down at the kitchen table in front of a stack of papers.

A baby's cry stole through the silent apartment. After a few moments passed of Mr. Blofis leafing through the papers, Annabeth excused herself to fetch his wailing daughter.

"Oh, was she crying again?" he exclaimed when Annabeth returned with the now quiet baby in her arms. "Goodness, I mustn't have heard..."

Annabeth gently passed him the girl, who started wailing at once.

Sally shifts restlessly by Percy's side, wanting nothing more than to comfort her daughter. And while Percy wants the same for his mother, he also finds himself utterly captivated and in love with seeing Annabeth cradling the baby. He feels the sudden pang of excitement as he imagines the day when they will get the chance to make a family of their own.

"Why is she doing this?" Paul asked tiredly as he bounced her in his arms.

She just lost her mother and brother, Nico wanted to say.

This was when Nico realized he still hadn't heard the details of Percy's death. He found himself wondering if actually wanting to hear. He would eventually learn the details. Spirits were huge gossips and the news of Percy Jackson's death would be in the headlines for weeks.

Estelle wiggled free from her blanket burrito and stretched her chubby hands out to Annabeth. Sighing, Mr. Blofis passed her back to the blonde, and Estelle immediately fell silent.

"She misses her mother," Piper said sadly.

"I miss you too," Sally whispers.

Mr. Blofis stood up, crossed the kitchen, and grabbed a mug. "Her mother..." he mumbled. The sound of the faucet filled the apartment as he filled his cup.

Hera stepped forward and bobbed her head knowingly, ponytail swinging. "Sally was a good mother."

Percy is surprised by the sincerity in the goddess's voice.

Sally drifts to Annabeth's side and gazes lovingly down at the baby. "I love you sweet girl," she whispers fiercely.

Estelle let out a sudden whimper. Was she hungry, or tired, or lonely? Or had she reacted to something else? Or was it someone else?

The unsettling sensation of being watched returned and tripled. Stop being so paranoid, Nico thought as he causally glanced around the kitchen.

Being a child of Hades meant that sometimes Nico could sense... things that clung to this world even after they ought to be gone. Spirits, ghosts, phantoms, the deceased. Nico knew them all to be the same, and he normally wouldn't care if it was just a harmless house spirit. But this feeling was somehow different... different in a way Nico couldn't explain and did not like.

Crash!

The sound of shattering glass pierced the early morning air.

Nico looked over to find the mug in pieces, water spilling across the floor, and the mortal man by the sink, staring at them with wide eyes.

"Who are you?"

The three of them gaped at him.

Mr. Blofis looked around the dark apartment frantically. "Where am I? Who are you? What am I doing? He noticed Estelle in Annabeth's arms and paled. "A baby... what're you doing with a baby? Do you need help? You're so young!"

Hera stepped forward and placed a hand on his trembling arm. "You are dreaming, mortal man. When you awake you will be in your apartment, safe and sound, and it will be as if this life has never happened."

She inhaled deeply and breathed out a cloud of purple smoke. The smoke enveloped Mr. Blofis and he slowly faded away.

"What did you do?!" Annabeth hissed furiously, bouncing a whimpering Estelle in her arms.

Hera returned to her divine form and rolled her eyes. "Relax. I didn't kill him. He's merely been returned to his former housing, pre the married life, fast asleep in his bed."

"You took his memories," Nico said. He was torn between not believing what had just transpired and feeling like idiot for not anticipating Hera to pull such a trick on them... again.

"Indeed," the goddess said as she inspected her manicured nails.

"You have to return them!" Piper said desperately. "This has to be fixed! Can't you see?"

"I cannot."

"Why not?" Nico asked, doubt growing in his gut.

Hera studied them with cool, calculating eyes. "Some things are reversible and some things are not. I am afraid that this was of the latter... But it was for the best, I promise. You'll see."

Annabeth was shaking with a seismic-like fury. "For the best? What about Estelle? Was this the best for her? The girl just lost her mother and her brother, and now she's lost her father too! She has no family left!"

As if on cue, Estelle started to wail.

"The girl is a living wound! She would only be a painful reminder of what he once had!" Hera snapped. "It is better this way!"

"You don't know that!" Piper protested. "She could've been his salvation!"

Hera shook her head and sneered. "You three are wasting my time. There is a reason behind my visit that has nothing to do with weak minded mortal men. Give the girl to foster care, be rid of her, and ready a team of three—"

"Foster care?" Annabeth said.

Nico knew what she was thinking. The foster care system was corrupt and rarely was it an ideal choice. Maybe for the parents, but scarcely for the kids. He had never been in foster care but many demigods had plenty of experience with absent parents, moving from place to place, and not having somewhere to belong. He would never be so cruel as to put a child into that system, to inflict that kind of life on an innocent.

"The child is parentless!" Hera snapped. "Where else is she going to go? Who else is going to raise her?"

Annabeth seemed to grow several feet as she stared down the queen of the gods with a glare that could melt glaciers and speed up global warming.

"Me."

Piper stared at Annabeth and Nico's jaw dropped.

That's my girl, Percy thinks.

Please review! And I just wanted to say that I have a lot of experience with foster care and foster kids. This is my opinion but of course people have other views about it, and that's perfectly fine and normal! Thank you and God bless :)