Casey started smiling more after she and Nate started officially dating. She was calmer now, happier even. She hadn't moved on from Jase though. In fact, she was more determined than ever that he was alive. She had accepted that they were doing everything they could without risking further life, and that preventing herself from obtaining happiness wasn't going to make it any better.
Besides, there were other matters at hand. For example, Calypso had finally given birth. It almost hurt for the parents to look at their newborn son, but they were happy too. His name was Roberto Charles Valdez. They named him after Charlie, not because they thought he was dead, but because they were proud of him and wanted Roberto to have a part of his brother with him, even if he never came home.
The baby was big news, and was something happy to celebrate at Camp. Hazel and Calypso spent lots of time together, with the Zhang twins only being a few months older than Roberto.
Camp had settled into a new routine. They sent out small search parties to look for the entrance to the Labyrinth. Nobody was allowed to enter, but they could at least look for it. If they found entrances, then there was a possibility that they could help, or at least patrol. Percy tried to pretend that he wouldn't jump through the first Labyrinth door he found. He knew the risks, but he'd done much more dangerous things for people that meant less to him than Jase.
The only other big news at Camp was the arrival of a new demigod. This was unfortunate for one reason: his name was Jake Johnson. For this reason and this reason only, Casey hated him.
Mr. D used to call her brother Jake Johnson, so it brought back many memories for the campers. Casey was too stubborn to accept any happy memories of Jase before they got him back.
Even Mr. D didn't seem to like poor Jake. When introducing him to the Camp, Dionysus used Jake Johnson's actual name instead of making up a name for him. This was never a good sign.
Dionysus, despite his reputation, did have a small ounce of care for the demigods. After looking after them (although by force) for so many years, he had to appreciate what they did for the gods. After what had happened to Jason Jackson, he did blame himself a bit. It was he who sent Charlie Valdez to the Argo. If he had never done that, Charlie never would have fallen and Jason never would have jumped and the camps wouldn't be in dismay.
"Will Mr. D kill me?" Jake asked.
Maxwell Zhang, who was the unfortunate Ares kid chosen to tour him around Camp, shook his head. "No. I mean, I don't think so. He's never killed a camper before. He turned somebody into a dolphin, but that only happened once," Max said.
Jake yipped in surprise. "What?! Who?" He looked around wildly as if a half dolphin demigod was going to jump around the corner at any moment.
Max looked down awkwardly, regretting bringing the subject up. "Uh, we don't really talk to him much. It was Jason Jackson, grandson of Poseidon."
"Was?" Jake squeaked.
"That's why we don't talk about him," Max hinted.
"Is he dead?" Eleven-year-old Jake sounded scared. He was beginning to decide that being a demigod was a lot scarier than it seemed.
Max shook his head defiantly. "No he's not. I mean, we don't think so. He sacrificed himself to try to save another kid. He might be alive right now, I mean there's been signs and stuff, but there's no way to know for sure. I'm choosing to believe that he's ok."
Jake got the idea that Max knew this kid and chose to stop talking. He felt almost as if he was intruding on a private moment. Max appreciated the silence, but he knew it wasn't for good reasons. He didn't want to scare the new kid away.
"Anyways...have you tried a strawberry from the fields yet? They're actually delicious! When you sign up for chores, sign up for strawberry picking. I'm pretty sure we eat more than we pick," he said.
Jake smiled, successfully distracted from the talk of death. "We have to sign up for chores?" he asked.
((AUTHOR'S NOTE: The next many chapters will be Jase's perspective. There will be more of the "outside" perspective at the end though!))