hey guys! Damn it's been a while HAHA

I"m really sorry for not updating! Had common tests and comps at the same two weeks, and caused me to screw up the common tests due to lack of time and sleep

anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!

R&R!

P.s- made a small change. 2/3/14

Annabeth's POV

The day after Percy opened up to us, none of us- Jason, Nico, Grover, Thalia and I- went to school.

I tried, along with Thalia and Jason, to get Percy. But, when we finally plucked up the courage to knock on his door, we got no response.

We had spent a whole hour knocking incessantly, but dead silence responded to our attempts.

We would have spent a longer time attempting to get him out if I had not checked if his shoes were still on the shoe rack. To say I was utterly irritated with myself would be quite an understatement.

Apparently he had already left the house before any of us got up. We had been spending a whole hour trying to get an response from someone who wasn't even there. Thalia and Jason both face-palmed as I told them, deadpanned, that Percy wasn't at home.

After getting over how amazingly dumb and stupid we were, we decided to call up Nico and Grover to fix a meeting place for the five of us.

"What about my place? It's quite near to the hospital-which is where Percy should be- and I have tons of vegetables here for breakfast." Grover suggested rather enthusiastically. I had to stifle a laugh as I heard Nico groan over the phone.

"I think I'll bring my own food there to eat. I may be abit late." Nico said before abruptly cutting his line.

"Hey! What's wrong with tomatoes and broccolis for breakfast?" Grover exclaimed, apparently not realizing Nico had already cut the line.

"Grover," I cut him off as he ranted on the phone. "Nico's not on the line anymore. You're ranting at nothing." I couldn't help but chuckle when Grover checked and cursed Nico.

"Well, I'll be expecting you soon. See ya in a while." Grover grunted over the phone before cutting his own line. I noted with a smile that Grover was not a morning person.

"So, what's the plan?" Jason asked.

"We're going to Grover's house. It's the nearest to the hospital." He nodded.

"Vegetables…" He muttered with a soft sigh. "I'll go get changed." He said dejectedly before spinning around and walking towards his room.

Thalia merely rolled her eyes and shot me a quick smile. "I'll get changed too," She said. I nodded and she went to her room, closing the door behind her, leaving me to roam the place alone.

I sighed, my eyes sweeping over the oh-so-familiar place. I bet that if someone told me to close my eyes and try to recall where each and every item in the room was, I would be able to accurately pinpoint the exact location of it.

I sat down on his plush cushion and stared at the air in front of me, my mind starting to wander due to the lack of things to do.

Unfortunately, out of the thousands of subjects and topics my brain could have picked, it just had to choose the Percy as the topic.

I frowned and shook my head violently, trying to dispel the guilt-filled thoughts of Percy. But, for some insufferable reason that I do not have an inkling of exactly what it is, my mind always strayed back to Percy.

And henceforth came the multitude of soul-wracking emotions that crashed into me like an unstoppable tsunami, causing me to drown in the gigantic swirling maelstrom of guilt, grief, sorrow and despair.

As fast as my legs could carry me, I rushed to the toilet and locked myself in before letting myself sob like a pitiful girl. I despised it. I despised the fact that I was so weak, that I had such little trust in Percy.

And so, for five whole minutes, soft sobs wracked my body as I let out the emotions I had kept bottled inside me from last night till now.

A knock came from the toilet door. "Annabeth," Jason's curious voice called. "We're ready. You ready to go?"

"Just a minute!" I replied, forcing my voice to sound normal. I flushed the toilet first- just to make them think I was really using it- before turning the tap and splashing the clear lukewarm water over my tear-stained face. I then took a short length of tissue from the thick toilet roll and dried my face. Then, I

Just before I left, I checked my reflection to see if there was the slightest hint that I had been crying just seconds ago. Fortunately, there were none.

I briefly wondered how many times I had fooled people to think I was all right when I had been crying just seconds ago. Thinking back, it had been countless times I did that.

I frowned as I saw two sets of worried faces staring right at me as I opened the door. "What?" I asked. "Something in my face?" Sudden panic filled my, causing my heart to beat twice as fast. I mentally sighed in great relief when I saw them shaking their heads.

"Nah, nothing. Was just wondering why you took so long. Stomachache?" Thalia asked. I nodded, forcing myself to look annoyed.

"Don't even know why I have one right now when I haven't even eaten anything fro breakfast. Ridiculous," I said in fake irritation which they fell for. Jason gave a small smile whilst Thalia chuckled.

"Well, lets get going then," She announced, spinning on the balls of her feet and walking to the main door, Jason and I following right behind.

"You guys are even later than Nico!" Grover exclaimed, slightly aggravated, as he let us in. I gave him a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, I had a bad stomachache," I explained. He clucked his tongue and shook his head. He then waved his hand, signaling me to get in so he could lock his main gate.

"Never knew you were this rich," I told him as we walked towards the mansion before us. The crunching of pebbles could be heard as we walked on the pebbled pavement, and everywhere I turned, green grass and a multitude of different colors of flowers could be seen on the lawn.

"Well, it is the first time you're visiting my house," Not sounding the least bit sheepish. "And I'm not the richest person here. Nico and Thalia and Jason Grace are the richest among the whole gang."

"Jason and Thalia?" I asked in slight surprise. They never struck me as rich. I mean, if they were rich, why would they be living with Percy right now?

"You mean you don't know about their heritage?" Grover asked, stunned. I shook my head in bewilderment.

"Uh, nope," I replied. He sighed and chuckled a little.

"Guess we never really bothered about talking about it. Okay, you ever heard about the big three?" Grover threw out the question out of nowhere. I tried to recall, wracking my brain as I went through every single memory I had. It sounded really familiar.

"Ah!" I exclaimed as I finally recalled. "They're the three biggest companies in the world. The first company- Zues manufacturing electric appliances cooperation- was and still is the most advanced in the technology in the electronics department. "

"You're correct," Grover stated with a pleased tone. "But what you don't know is that Jason and Thalia are the daughter and son of the very owner of the company. Jason is scheduled to inherit the company a few years later." My jaws slackened as i heard him. Wha...

Grover, seeing my stunned expression, decided to continue.

"The second one is Hades oilrigs supply and Hades Gold and Diamond jewelry manufacturer. He harvests and sells the most oil in the world, and is also one of the best jewelry making company in the world. This very man is Nico's father." I stopped dead in my tracks, staring at Grover as though he had just told me the world was ending in two days.

"You can't be serious," I said numbly. Grover chuckled when he saw my utterly shocked expression.

"I'm serious. Nico doesn't like to tell many people about it, so he keeps quiet. He's so secretive about it, and he hides so damn well that the people in our school still doesn't know that he's the son of one of the three richest people in the world." I shook my head, trying to get my brain working again.

"So…he's that rich. Never told me before," I tried not to let the hurt show in my voice, but I guess Grover caught the tone. It's really unnerving sometimes, that he could sense emotions as good as Percy.

"Hey, don't worry about it. He probably never found a reason to talk about it." Grover said with a comforting smile. I couldn't help but return the smile.

"How about the third of the big three?" I asked curiously. Grover's face considerably darkened as I asked, causing me to panic. Did I ask something wrong?

Grover, seeing my expression, waved his hand dismissively. "It's not your fault. The thing is," he sighed as he continued. "I know nothing, absolutely nothing about the son of the owner of the third of the big three."

"The third company is called Poseidon sea merchandise and travel…. a very simple name for such a big company. The company practically owns every single cruise ship in the world, and controls about eighty percent of the ships in the world."

"However," his tone became really low. We were now standing at the entrance of his house. We could hear the incessant chatter coming form inside the house, but it was merely a noise in the background as my attention zoomed in on Grover. "Twelve years ago- when we were six- a fire burned down the entire Poseidon mansion."

My eyes widened at the revelation. "Arson?" I questioned in growing horror. He nodded solemnly, his face grave.

"Many signs at the scene points towards that direction, so most likely. Both Poseidon and Sally Bluestone were killed in the fire. Their bodies were found, blackened and completely unrecognizable. The only thing that told us that they were Poseidon and Sally were the trident wedding rings that were still on their fingers" (Guys, I'm changing the last name- in fact, the whole name- of Poseidon's last name and Percy's past name. See life's complcations chapter 38)

"So what happened to the company?" His face seemed to darken even further.

"They had a child…the same age as us," he continued. "The child was found staring at his hands as he knelt in the middle of the rain in a park nearby. His name was Perseus Oceanus Bluestone." The name Perseus rang in my ears.

"isn't the first name-"

"The same name as Percy's real name? Yup," Grover nodded in confirmation.

"What happened to the boy?" I questioned, getting back to the topic at hand. "He was traumatized, wasn't he?"

"It's not confirmed, but there may be a possibility that the child saw his parents die right in front of his eyes," I gave an involuntary gasp at this.

"He was sent to a foster home after that, and his company would have been given back to him when he reached twenty."

"Would have been?"

"He disappeared," Grover stated, and then sighed. "He had ran away from the home at the tender age of eight. He hadn't been sighted ever since."

The dreary atmosphere clung onto my heart. My heart felt heavy, and I silently prayed to the gods to allow this poor boy to be alive out there, wherever he was.

"Hey!" Nico shouted from inside the house. "You two have been standing there for more than five minutes! Hurry up and come in!" Grover rolled his eyes, slightly exasperated.

"Well, lets go then," Grover waved for us to go in. "Don't ask them about their parents though. It's not a really pleasant topic for them." I nodded in agreement, and proceeded to take off my shoes before stepping in.

As the rest chatted about anything and everything, I completely ignored them, my mind stuck on the story. Even when they became solemn and started to tear as they talked about Percy, I was too immersed in the story to notice.

Perseus Oceanus Bluestone…I had never met anyone who had suffered perhaps as much as me before. What's more, it was so eerily similar…just that his parents died in a much more gruesome way compared to my biological mother.

Even though I probably would never even know him, I already felt a connection with him. If he was alive now, he would be able to understand my pain, my suffering. To have our beloved parents die right before our eyes, to be an outcast of society, always utterly alone, frantically treading whatever blackness that threatened to drown us in a sea of hopelessness and despair.

I gave another silent prayer. That one day, I would find this boy, this boy who suffered so much, who would understand me much more than anyone else in the world.

And I prayed that if we ever did find each other, we would be able to help each other, be able to piece back each other's shattered hearts and souls. To be able to mend each other back to what we once were- happy, peaceful and contented people.

I didn't even know that the healing had already started for me…I didn't know that the gods had already answered my prayers long before it actually happened.