Disclaimer: All rights belong to Rick Riordan. I take no credit, and I do not mean to break any copyright rules. This is simply a work of fiction made for enjoyment. No money is being made.

Rating: T for dark themes and violence

Author's Note: Sorry, Piper, but Leo and Annabeth are the real best friends. It's even hinted at in canon even though Rick deprived us of an actual interaction between the two of them. Oh well. That's what I'm here for.

Chapter 22

Somehow, the destruction looks even worse in the gray morning light.

Annabeth walks around the island, picking up pieces of debris and lost weapons. All but two of the huts had been destroyed, and those have now been converted to infirmaries. Will and Calypso breeze in and out. They stayed up all night trying to stabilize the wounded, and now they're taking shifts sleeping and working.

Annabeth dumps a load of wood next to the hearth as Will staggers out, his shift over. He sits heavily down on the sand next to where she stands.

"Do you think he left on purpose?" he asks, wiping at his eyes.

"Who?"

"Nico. He can sense death, right? Did he know there was an attack coming so he left?"

Annabeth can't even begin to imagine what goes on the son of Hades' head, but she does know that Will is exhausted and emotional and not thinking straight right now.

"I think that Nico is on his own path, and sometimes it takes him to different places. There's no use in trying to understand some things." Annabeth finds a blanket and hands it to Will. "You should rest while you can."

Everyone that isn't seriously injured works all day. In the evening, they have another funeral. Although it's not fair to those who died, the affair is much more muted than Percy and Beckendorf's service. There are no lengthy speeches, no beautiful eulogies. If someone wants to say something to one of the people who died, they simply walk up to the pyre and say it to themselves.

Annabeth lights Silena's pyre, the shroud colored the same pale pink as the dress she always wore. As it burns, it smells like roses. After she lights it, she melts back to the edge of the crowd. Leo and Calypso are standing just a few feet away from her, talking quietly.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Calypso says. "Your dragon saved our lives. Sciron wouldn't have stopped until we were all dead."

"Yeah, well. Silena told me that Festus was originally built to protect people like us from monsters. I guess I should have seen it coming."

He pulls out his wires and gears and fiddles around with them, not looking anyone in the eye.

"Are you going to stay?" Calypso asks.

"Someone has to fix up your home. May as well be me."

Annabeth drifts back to the remains of the village after that, not having the energy to stay any longer. As she lays on the warm sand and stares up at the stars, all she can think about is her last night with Percy. She traces the constellation of Zöe the Huntress with her eyes and finally understands what Percy meant when he said it wasn't easy to end up in the sky anymore. It took Zöe three thousand years of being a hero.

If it were as easy to end up in the skies as it was in Ancient Greek times, Annabeth would be seeing Percy, Beckendorf, Silena, and a dragon-shaped constellation.

Annabeth sits on the storm-damaged beach, watching the tide advance and retreat. She used to love the light breeze that swept off the surface of the water and the smell of salt, but now the sound of the waves brings her only sorrow. She's lost too many people to it.

Leo splashes around in the waves for a couple hours, searching for more pieces of Festus. He finds a few neck plates and one of the ruby eyes, but nothing else. He finally gives up and heads to his make-shift workshop, a ramshackle building he'd constructed from driftwood and pieces of the destroyed huts. The sound of his forge echoes across the tiny island.

The wounded heal remarkably fast under the care of Calypso - "it's part of the island's magic," she assures Will - which frees her up to focus on her hosting duties. She brings around trays of warm bread and roast along with mugs of cider. Leo sets down his hammer long enough to eat and Annabeth, though not hungry, accepts a roll and cider.

She keeps thinking about her conversations with Rachel and Hestia. Rachel had asked what she would do next. Hestia had told her that she was lost and talked about what a home means. Annabeth wonders if she should just stay on Ogygia and keep Calypso company for all eternity. Could Ogygia be her new home?

No. Calypso doesn't do much more than Annabeth would have done if she had stayed in England with Luke. Not that it's Calypso's fault - she's stranded here. Annabeth still has a choice.

She remembers Percy telling her about a place like New Rome in Greece. Maybe she should go there. Percy had said he'd trained there before striking out on his own. Annabeth knows she still has a lot to learn about this world, so it would be a good place to stay while she studies all the myths and learns how they've transitioned to the modern world.

Annabeth is so preoccupied with her thoughts that she almost doesn't notice when a figure emerges from the sea. From a distance, she first thinks it's Sciron and shouts a warning. As he continues walking, Annabeth realizes her mistake.

She jumps to her feet and stands, pinching herself to make sure she isn't dreaming. Then she takes off, running across the beach and into the water. She nearly tackles him as she slams into him, wrapping her arms around him.

He holds her for a moment before his arms slip away. Annabeth leans back and cups her hands around his face, not entirely convinced he's real.

"Percy," she whispers, staring into his sea green eyes.

She hears the others running across the sand and she takes a step back, realizing that she's making a scene. Frank pushes past her and wraps up Percy in a bear hug. Percy pats his back a couple times before untangling himself. As he steps away, Annabeth realizes that there's something different about him, although she can't place what it is exactly.

Will pushes through the crowd next and gives him a hug. Percy scans the shoreline, his brow furrowing.

"Where are we, exactly?" he asks. Then he catches a glimpse of Calypso, standing alone on the shore, and his eyes widen. "Never mind."

Annabeth hadn't been jealous when Calypso was telling her about Percy's time on her island, but watching the way Percy stares at her now, she feels her chest constrict. Without even thinking about it, she takes a step back. Percy doesn't seem to notice, but Frank and Will both shoot her sympathetic looks.

The tension of the moment is broken when Leo, covered in soot and grease stains, a pair of goggles pushed up into his curly hair, pushes to the front and looks at Percy skeptically.

"Who are you?"

Percy isn't the only person to magically reappear on the island. Nico stumbles out of a shadow of a tree as they're walking back to the remains of the village, practically falling right into Will's arms. Mrs. O'Leary is at his heels, wagging her tail in delight when she sees Percy.

Percy is the only person who doesn't seem surprised by Nico's presence. The two of them make eye contact and nod, almost as if they're accomplices. A second later, Frank accidentally lets go of a jagged vine he's holding back. It snaps across Percy's arm, but he doesn't even flinch. He just pushes it aside as if he's irritated. Annabeth inspects it after he moves on, and although the branch is sharp enough to prick her finger, there was no injury to his person.

Once everyone is situated around the fire pit, except for Calypso, who disappears as the moment she and Percy make eye contact, Percy begins his story.

"Beckendorf and I were on Sciron's ship for weeks," he starts. "I'm not sure exactly how long, but it was at least a month. He was torturing us, trying to get us to tell him where the pearl was. We didn't know, obviously, but we weren't going to tell him what we did know. Finally he threatened to kill Beckendorf if I didn't talk, so I had to. He found the pearl shortly after. Once he had it, he planned to execute us. Beckendorf had found some Greek fire on the ship and he planted it so that we could blow everything up. The plan was for us to get off the ship and then ignite it but…" Percy trails off, staring at the fire. "It didn't work. We were caught. Beckendorf blew up the ship and I barely managed to escape."

"And so did Sciron," Frank murmurs under his breath.

"I was injured pretty badly, so I spent a couple weeks healing at my father's palace. I told him about Sciron and the pearl, and he gave me some information to help defeat him."

"And?" Annabeth asks, hearing the finality in his voice but knowing there's a lot more to the story.

"And then my father pointed me in the direction of my crew." He avoids looking her in the eyes.

Annabeth isn't satisfied. She points at Nico. "He told me that everyone who was on Sciron's boat was in the Underworld. So either he lied, or you're not telling us the whole truth."

Nico and Percy's eyes meet, and Percy frowns. "Yeah, so I went to the Underworld for a little while. Nico didn't lie. But it's not that important."

Annabeth has the feeling that it's incredibly important, but she holds her tongue. She's already let her irritation at the whole Calypso/Percy thing bleed through her tone enough, and obviously it's not something he wants to talk about in front of everyone. She'll just have to get him alone before she presses.

Frank sets his hand on Percy's shoulder. He hasn't been able to wipe his smile off his face since Percy came back. "We're so glad you're here. We thought you were dead. We had a funeral and Annabeth made a really nice speech and everything."

Percy looks over at Annabeth for the first time since he'd first emerged from the sea. His eyes are even more distant and unreadable than before. When he realizes she's staring back, he averts his gaze.

"Sciron came here last night." Will cuts through the silence. He looks up at Percy with pained eyes. "That's why everything is in ruins."

"How did you drive him away?"

"Silena did." Will nods at Leo. "She stole his dragon and dive-bombed the dirty pirate."

Percy looks curiously at Leo. "You have a dragon?"

"Had," Leo corrects, looking pained. "And apparently you knew him. Some mission with Silena and my half-brother."

Percy suddenly looks really sad. "Silena. I meant to be the one to tell her, but…" He shakes his head. "Where is she?"

"She didn't make it," Frank says quietly.

Percy covers his face with his hands. Annabeth longs to reach out and place a hand on his arm, but she's been getting strange vibes from him, so she doesn't.

When he drops his hands, she can see that his eyes are sparkling, but he holds the tears back. "The last thing Beckendorf said was her name," he says. "I wanted her to know. I got back as fast as I could…"

"She knows," Annabeth says gently. "She knew."

Percy leans back, looking tired. He stares at the fire, and a tense silence falls over the group.

"You said your father gave you some information to help us fight Sciron," Frank says after a few minutes. "What exactly did he say?"

"He gave me directions to a ship. I can raise it from the ocean floor, but we'll need a mechanic."

Leo sits up straight. "What kind of ship are we talking about?"

"Please don't tell me it's like the last ship your father gave you," Will groans.

Frank shoots him a look. "Don't talk bad about the Pax. We went through a lot with her."

"And how much of that could we have avoided if we had a better ship?"

Percy ignores them and turns to Leo. "It's a Greek trireme."

Leo's face pales. He digs around in his tool belt for a moment before pulling out a piece of paper with a sketch on it. He hands it over to Percy. "Does it look like that?"

Percy scans the paper. "Minus the dragon figurehead and once it gets fixed up, yeah. Where did you find this?"

Leo takes it back. "It's a dream I've had since I was a kid. If you go to my workshop on the beach, you'll find the dragon for the figurehead." He stuffs the picture back in his belt. "You need a mechanic? I'll be the best mechanic you've ever had."

Another awkward silence falls over the group. Annabeth can tell that Leo realizes his mistake almost immediately, but he doesn't know what to say. He opens his mouth but she shakes her head at him, and he quickly closes it. She knows that whatever he was about to say would have only made the situation worse.

Leo jumps up and brushes his pants off. "Well, I'm going to go and finish some stuff." He walks away a little too quickly.

The other crew members stay to catch up with Percy. Annabeth begins to feel like she's intruding, so she also leaves.

Her mind spins in overdrive as he tries to process the new information she's learned. Percy had gone to his father's palace and had spoken to his dad - had he found some closure, then? Come to an agreement with his family?

A line from the prophecy jumps out at her: You must reunite with the one you have spurned. That could definitely be in reference to his father. Percy had seemed pretty bitter sometimes when he talked about his dad.

But then there was the whole thing about the Underworld. If Percy hadn't died, then why had he gone to the Underworld? What was he doing down there for weeks? And Nico had disappeared the night before Sciron's attack - had he met Percy in the Underworld? Annabeth is positive he did. The way they looked at each other, as if they're keeping a secret, was pretty definitive.

Then there was the vibe Percy was throwing off. He had greeted all his friends with a hug, but Annabeth had caught an underlying don't-touch-me vibe. Not in a mean way, but rather more like he's not comfortable with people touching him. He did mention he was wounded pretty badly in the explosion, but he doesn't appear to have any scars or lasting effects. It was more than just the space issue, too; his entire face seemed off. Percy had always been mysterious at times, but now he's just straight up unreadable. Maybe it has to do with his secret. He does seem like he's trying to guard himself better.

Part of it is definitely due to his grief. Annabeth could clearly see the toll Beckendorf's death had taken on him, not to mention Silena's. She knows how Percy blames himself for everything; she can only imagine how hard he must be taking this.

The most painful part of it all, though, was his seeming indifference to her. When she'd run up to him at the beach and hugged him, he hadn't held her tightly back. He'd just set his arm gently around her for a second. And when she'd stared into his eyes, he was unreadable. He'd ignored her completely throughout his entire story telling, and the only time he looked at her was when Frank had mentioned her funeral speech.

Annabeth wishes she could blame it on Calypso, but some of those things happened even before he realized where they were.

She knows she can't be mad at him for acting like this. She was the one who ran away - both from him and to another man. He doesn't know that she rejected Luke. He doesn't know the painful decision she made. He doesn't even know how she truly feels towards him. All he knows is that he put himself out there and she rejected him.

Now she has to live with the consequences of her decision.

Annabeth finds herself at the edge of Leo's workshop. He's at the forge, pounding away at a small disk of Celestial bronze with a hammer. Festus' lifeless head and neck sit off to the side. He's in the process of reattaching all the pieces he managed to recover.

She's not sure how long she stands there until he stops, pulls his goggles down to his neck, and then turns to see her. He jumps a little, as if intimidated.

"Uh, hey," he says.

"I'm not really sure what I'm doing here," Annabeth admits. She wanders over to his desk, where she sees the infamous Archimedes spheres. She picks one up and begins spinning the rings. Leo takes a step forward.

"Just, uh, be careful with that," he says, biting his lip and looking nervous. Annabeth resists the urge to smile.

She spins the symbols together in a sequence and the dome of the sphere pops up. Leo's eyes grow wide and he crosses the distance.

"How did you do that?" he demands, reaching out for the sphere. She hands it over.

"I don't know."

"I've been trying to get that open since I found it!" Leo's fingers run over the delicate gears inside. "Oh wow. There are so many possibilities…"

"Am I going crazy, or am I the only one who noticed how awkward that group chat was?" Annabeth asks, unable to stop herself. She's driving herself insane by overthinking about Percy, and she wonders if she hasn't half-imagined most of it. Heck, she isn't sure that Percy's arrival wasn't a day dream.

"No, it was super awkward," Leo agrees. "So, I only got half the story. Who is that guy? And how did he just appear? And who is this father of his?"

"Percy Jackson. He's the captain of our ship - was the captain. It got sunk by his half-brother, the guy who attacked us yesterday. He went missing and we thought he was dead for six weeks. It turns out he was with his dad, Poseidon."

"That explains him emerging from the sea. I thought for a second he might be Aphrodite's long lost brother. She's the goddess that came from the sea foam, right?"

Annabeth shrugs. "I think so. That sounds right. I'm still pretty new to this world myself."

"Really? 'Cause everyone seems to be looking up to you a lot. You and the big Chinese guy."

"Frank. He's Percy's first mate."

Leo nods. "Makes sense. And what were you, then?"

She turns back to one of the other spheres on his table and traces her finger along one of the rings. "I don't know," she admits. "I did a little of everything. I helped Will in the infirmary and I helped Frank with navigation and Beckendorf with the mechanics. Percy once called me his advisor, and I went on every quest with him."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but he kinda seemed to be giving you the cold shoulder," Leo says, fishing a small wrench out of his belt and making an adjustment on the sphere. It shoots out an electric shock and he jumps back in surprise, dropping it. Annabeth reaches out and catches it before it hits the ground.

"Yeah." She sets it back on the table. So it wasn't all in her head. She should be relieved that she's not imagining things, but she just feels terrible. "Well, if you need any help, Beckendorf showed me how to do a few basic things and I've read some books. It's not like I have anything else to do on this island."

"Depending on what kind of shape Percy's new ship is in, I may need a lot of help." Leo glances back at Festus' head. "I can't wait to stick it to that pirate jerk for killing Festus."

"I can think of a few people I wouldn't mind avenging myself." Annabeth turns and walks back down the beach, but after a few seconds she can't stand the sight of the ocean. She heads back to the village, picking up some pieces of wood for the fire on her way.

The crew members are spread out again, some eating and others playing cards or helping make temporary shelters. Will is playing fetch with Mrs. O'Leary while Nico leans against a tree and watches. Frank is making more arrows by the fire.

The sun begins to set. Annabeth finds a pot of stew and a half-eaten loaf of bread left out and she grabs some to eat. By the time it's dark, most people have settled down to sleep. Even Leo has apparently set down his hammer for the night, although there's still a good chance he's messing around with Festus' control disk or his Archimedes spheres.

Annabeth walks to Calypso's cave to grab a blanket and when she passes the gardens, she hears muted voices. From the glow of the strange silver flowers that only bloom at night, Annabeth can see Calypso and Percy walking together and talking. She clutches the blanket tightly in her hand before turning away.

Annabeth tosses and turns on the ground as she tries to sleep. She hates how everything reminds her of Percy - the sound of the waves against the shore, the salty sea breeze blowing across the island, even the stars in the sky are no longer neutral. Everything connects back to him.

When she finally falls asleep, her dreams are no better.