A/N: Hello all - I'll be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to leave this story. I have been insanely busy with school and honestly have felt like it won't really matter if I do or don't finish it. But, I wrote this all today in one shot, and felt very happy doing so and really love where this story is supposed to go. I apologize for a long wait to those of you have been faithfully following along - I hope you enjoy.
Engagement with this story has meant the world to me and honestly my biggest reason for trying to continue on. Please leave a review, they help me motivate and make me feel like someone cares about where the story could go next.
For the first time since arriving at Camp Halfblood, she dreams that night.
She's rarely had vivid or premonition-esque dreams before. Reyna always seemed to recount dangerous battles before they happened, always citing Bellona's visions for her from her dreams among other gods. For the most part, her head has always been filled with radio silence when it came to the gods.
After years of being ostracized or gawked at awkwardly from across the dining pavilion, she had grown used to knowing that she would never foster deep connections with the gods. They didn't seem to like her, and quite frankly, she was never their biggest fan, either.
This time, she felt like she had been experiencing all of her other dreams in black and white compared to this live in living color world. So much fog had seemingly cleared.
It started with her landing in smack dab in the middle of the city, running around frantically with a laptop with a glowing delta symbol on it and full battle armor on. She recognized a few of the Greek faces making an appearance here and there, but there were still so many she couldn't place. A short brown haired boy with the same eyes and kind smile as Will Solace, a beautiful girl with long black hair training down her spine, another boy with a pitch black eye and a patch over the other one to match. Mortals littered the streets, passed out on park benches, sidewalks, even in their askew cars.
Perseus seemed to flash in all the images, speckles of blood on his clothing, matching gashes and burn marks leaving him dressed in tatters, but not a single scratch marrying his skin. She even fought back to back with him, his eyes always scanning over her with concern but also a sense of hardness, like someone he trusted so deeply that she was just an extension of himself, their connection in battle and leadership stronger than either one of them alone. She was both out of body, watching from a third person perspective, and flipping into first person, commanding statues to come to life with a specific code and watching Perseus single handedly wreck the minotaur.
After the battle scenes passed, she seemed to fall further back into a different room, one with a boy with a long scar curling down one cheek, bright blue eyes, and a figure that she figured must be Mercury based on his elfish ears and upturned nose. She recognized him from the battle, but he seemed entirely different now—no gold eyes, no powerful aura, no scythe in hand.
She watched on as the boy quarreled with Mercury, pity pooling in her stomach as she looked over and recognized Thalia and Piper as well, both significantly younger with wide set eyes of innocence. Just as she reached out to take Thalia's hand, everything evaporated before her once more.
In her final dream, she landed on the pier she recognized from the canoe lake. She started laughing, tucking a curl behind her ear and running a hand over the baseball cap that materialized on her head. She looked down to the lake's surface and her insides swirled akin to the ripples, a black mop of hair lifting between the crests of water. She recognized Perseus again immediately, his piercing green eyes staring deeply into her with a kind of soft compassion she had never even imagined in them before. He laughed too, and she couldn't help but join in with the melodious sound.
"You're such an idiot sometimes," she hears herself involuntarily say, a smile gracing her lips as she delicately reaches out a hand to him. "Come on. Take my hand."
And then everything fades to black again just as his fingers skim her palm, her heart pulsating in her throat.
.
"What does it all mean?" She said rather desperately as Chiron set down a second mug of tea on the kitchen table for her. Just as she was getting overly familiar, his eyes flashed with a certain hidden mirth, as if he knew something she did not that he found deeply amusing.
"What do you think? As a daughter of Athena, I know you must have your own thoughts."
She clasps her hand around the mug and stares deeply down into it. He was right in assuming she had her own thoughts—of course she did. She just didn't like a single one of them.
"In almost every vision, I was wearing an orange camp shirt. I hardly think that is a coincidence."
Chiron smiles back at her and picks up his own mug. "Yes, I would have to agree. I believe that your mother was trying to communicate with you."
She sat back and her mouth fell open. In all the messages, she hardly felt like Minerva was finally extending some motherly insight. The images she saw hardly left her feeling warm and fuzzy.
"But Minerva hates Neptune," she blurts out, then backtracks, "er, sons of Neptune, also. Why would she show me things about Perseus?"
Chiron scans her face, clearly searching for something. As he sighed, she could not tell if he found it or not.
"Perseus' fate has been intertwined with the Romans, and you clearly have a role to play in the unification of our camps. Perhaps she was urging you to trust us more by displaying Percy in his greatest moments of heroism."
She shifted uncomfortably, the memory of her and Percy alone on the pier flashing in her mind. When she sought Chiron's insight for her dreams, she specifically omitted a few details, namely the entirety of the last one. Looking up sheepishly to meet his eyes, she wondered if he somehow knew what she saw anyways. She refused to speak first again, and Chiron sighed once more, much more softly.
"You say you were in an orange camp shirt, yet I have never seen you wear the one we gave you weeks back. You say you fought in the Battle of Manhattan, but I can assure you, you did not. We would have benefited too much from your cleverness for me not to have noticed you."
She flushed under his praise, slinking back into an open posture in her chair once more.
"What do you think the significance is of you experiencing the Greek's battle firsthand?" He spoke with such directness, but still softened the blow of his every word, as if he knew how his statement would otherwise fall on her ears.
Thanking him for his time, she gets up and pushes her chair in swiftly behind her, and closes the door on her way out.
Why would her mother show her what her life could have been like with the Greeks?
.
Over the next few days, she makes her efforts to acclimate with the Greek's much more known. She does not wait for Jason to come back and sit with her after their argument, but rather takes a seat next to him at dinner when he sits with Leo and Piper. She laughs at everything Leo says, and finds that the more she does so, the less she is actually pretending to enjoy his humor.
She asks Clarisse directly if their cabins could train together, but decides after being verbally assaulted during their spars—not even with clever quips, she might add—she decides that the children of Mars would not make the best companions for her.
Reyna immediately took notice of Annabeth's new-found intrigue in the Greeks. When she calls out for Reyna, Piper and Jason to wait for her as they make their way to the campfire after dinner that Friday, Reyna sends her an appreciative beam bright enough to stun any onlookers. The Roman girls rarely showed their emotions so blithely, after all.
Though as much as she tried, she still dragged her feet with every step, and conveniently chose a spot in a corner, decently far away from the majority of people.
She realized quickly, however, that where Piper sat, attention would inevitably follow. She flagged down Leo instantly, who eagerly waved on a handful of people including Butch Walker, Grover, and the one and only Perseus Jackson. People seemed to hover around them, suddenly filling in the rows to the edge of the fire rather than right up against it.
A few Apollo campers lazily began to string lyres absentmindedly and people for the most part seemed to be talking amongst themselves. On the other side of the fire, a few girls from the Venus and Hecate cabins began a Greek chant in sing-song voices, but it seemed more ambient than anything else.
Piper easily became the center of attention in their little clique, dramatically retelling how Leo accidentally lit her on fire while they were kayaking earlier in the afternoon. With the shared glances and familiar laughter, Annabeth assumed this was something that happened rather often.
Percy had acquainted himself to the spot right behind her, and she felt heat crawl up her neck at the thought of her dreams last night. Was it just her imagination, or were his shoulders always that broad? Was the smell of clear blue beaches and sea salt always so strong around him?
"Right, Annabeth? You've been zapped by Jason before!"
Her eyes flitted quickly up to Piper's, praying that the multicolored fire hid her red cheeks.
She shook her head slightly, as if shaking herself would bring her back down into reality. Smiling from the side of her mouth, she earnestly said, "One time, he grabbed my arm so hard my hair straightened."
Leo clutched his stomach as he laughed so hard, and Jason even laughed freely as he pulled down an absent curl of hers till it was taut.
If the fire hid anything before, she's sure the physical heat from her face gave her away.
"I think Percy has just about done that just by talking to her," Reyna said that in between her own laughs, which just made everyone roar more. From the corner of her eye, she could see flames growing taller.
"Wait till he soaks you with toilet water," Piper grumbles, making even Annabeth join in on the laughter.
"Or monster snot," Grover chimes in.
"That's nothing. One time, I was actually swimming through the Ophiotaurus' shi—"
It happened before she had even known to move. Percy was caught off mid-sentence as he jumped down, tucked and rolled almost directly in front of her, suddenly wielding a long, bronze sword. A hellhound bounded out of the darkness seconds later, and a mere three feet away he swung his sword in a wide arc, dust poofing down like snowflakes around them.
With a pant, he turns back, and the clenching of his forearm muscles paired with his intense stare made her choke on the air in her lungs.
"You okay?" He asks, capping his sword back into a pen and taking a step instinctively towards her.
She has to avert her eyes to the monster-dandruff flakes and busies herself with untangling them out of her hair, her mouth unable to move as Percy kept looking at her like that.
"I'm fine," she pushes out, trying to sound the way Piper does when she uses her charmspeak. Everyone's eyes were heavy on her, both because of the sudden attack and in baited anticipation of another one ensuing between the two of them.
Another noise rustles from beside them, and this time, she springs into action before Percy. He uncaps his sword quickly again but it's like she can see four steps ahead of him, so she twists the blade's handle into her own hand as she unsheathes her own knife, stabbing the next hellhound that emerged in front of her and twisting back before blinking, swiping Percy's sword through matted fur that quickly ebbs into dust.
She straightens and pauses for a second, ears out to the side to detect any other hidden threat. Her shoulders relaxing naturally as her guard falls down, she looks back at Percy to see everyone else's eyes still prying in their direction.
She sinks the end of his sword into the ground in front of him and wipes her brow, now switching her attention from the woods in the other direction.
"Do you think there are more?" She says to no one in particular, and when no one responds, she sweeps through the crowd again.
"Why is everyone still staring at us? We need to keep looking."
Percy's mouth flops open and closed a few times, eyes still fixated on her. He shakes his head slightly, but regains eye contact with her. "Not us. You." He says plainly, not with the same concern as before but without any malice as well, as if he was completely awestruck.
Her eyes look back to the similarly shocked faces and suddenly she realizes what Percy means. Everyone's eyes had moved past his figure and now were solely focused on her.
Her chest swells a little bit and she stands straighter once more, wanting to capitalize on her display of strength and battle prowess. "Right. Let's check the borders. We can separate by cab—"
The sound of hooves clipping cuts her off and Chiron approached, and he stopped short at the edge of the crowd.
He bent slightly at his hips, bowing as he spoke, "Hail Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, Pallas, protector of the city, wisdom and battle. Hail, the bearer of the Mark of Athena."
Everyone seemed to follow suit, bending to a knee or placing a claw over their heart and thrusting it outwardly. Even Perseus, now looking reluctant enough to make her want to sneer at him.
She hurriedly looked above her head for the Aegis she had waited so long to see, but her stomach sank as she was greeted with a different, silver insignia.
Not more than a foot above her head, she recognized the Greek Drachma, a token given by Athena to her most worthy demigod children.
She had read about it in very few myths, and suddenly she felt her blood run cold, remembering how they had all ended.
.
Whatever progress she had made befriending some of the Greeks suddenly evaporated. Piper, of course, still extended the same friendly invitations to the canoe lake and Pegasus races, but even Leo seemed to duck out of conversations with her quickly, no longer able to meet her eye. She caught many of the Apollo campers sending her half-lipped, sympathetic smiles, as if they were envisioning her inevitable dramatic ending.
Stepping into the council they had convened days after the hellhound attack, she felt less inclined to speak than she did the first time. At the time, she wouldn't have thought that would be possible.
Chiron looked paler than normal, but maintained his ever-even tone as he addressed everyone.
"Three hellhounds were able to breach our camp. That is what we know. It is not known who sent them, or if they broke through on their own."
"They must have come in through the labyrinth," Percy said confidently. This time, he sat at the head of the table and pressed his elbows onto the surface, leaning so intently his whole body shifted forward.
"Wait, hold up, I thought that collapsed or closed or whatever, like, three years ago," Travis Scott piped up, "that's why you told me not to try and stash stuff down there!"
Chiron held up a single hand, yet it instantly killed off the light buzz that had spread in all of their side conversations. "We cannot be sure what condition the labyrinth is in unless we survey it, which I am not willing or curious enough to do. We can assume how the hounds got through, yes, but it seems more important to focus less on the how and more on the who or the why."
"It's Juno—ugh, Hera, whichever—she has clearly had it out for us this year. She must be behind it." The sky did its usual melodramatic cracking, but the way Percy dug his fingers into the splintering green wood of the ping-pong table suggested he didn't notice or care.
Maybe it was because he used her Roman name first, or his obvious contempt for Juno, but suddenly Annabeth couldn't help but support Percy's accusation.
"He's right," her voice jarring nearly everyone in the room as it seemingly always did, "the attacks must be related to whatever reason Juno has introduced our camps to each other."
Chiron paced a hand over his beard, eyes thoughtful with something that obviously had been on his mind. "While I don't think Zeus's wife would unleash an attack, I think it would be foolish not to think that this attack is related to her recent interfering, especially with Olympus being closed off these days."
Annabeth nodded fervently. "Still, who would have done this?"
Chiron sighed, directly addressing her and her alone now. Actually, as Jason, Reyna, and Percy seemed to look only at her, she now realized everyone in the room was.
"I don't know, Annabeth. I fear it may time to consult with the Oracle." Chiron sounded labored, begrudging.
Percy stood almost instantly. "Yes. I'll go find Rachel, and—"
Chiron, again, waved his hand idly but simultaneously with enough power to get Percy to sit back down and quiet himself.
She decided she needed to learn that little trick as soon as possible.
"Thank you, Percy, for volunteering for yet another quest or task. But," he paused, heavily enunciating her focus to Annabeth again, "I believe Ms. Chase was claimed at the time of the attack for a reason. This must be her quest, or I fear Athena may not look upon the camp favorably."
Annabeth nodded again, but with one succinct and curt movement. "Alright. I will consult your oracle, and I accept any quest it may give. In the meantime, we need to make a plan for heavier sentry duties, and consult Lupa to find out if anything strange has happened in California."
Chiron looked rather pleased at her for a brief moment, but his face flashed back to serious.
"Thank you, Ms. Chase. Let's."
The meeting continued on for maybe twenty minutes more, a few counselors staying after to design a schedule for the sentry as Piper shuffled her out the door, guiding her to the oracle.
"I'll go too, just give me one second Pipes," Percy called after them once they broke the threshold.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I save his life from two hellhounds and he thinks I'm not okay enough to go hear some stupid rhyming poem?"
Piper gives her a friendly nudge, but giggles just the same. "He just wants to see Rachel."
"Rachel?" Annabeth asked instantly, and then instantly bit her tongue. Piper's eyebrows raised at her, but she didn't say anything in response. Clearing her throat, Annabeth continued, "Rachel must be the oracle then, right? Some dusty old hag living in the attic or something?"
Piper laughs again, but her eyes keep their knowing gaze as they move over Annabeth's face. "Yeah, something like that for sure."
.
When they reach the cave littered with half-finished paintings, some of Greek battles and others just abstract or of the camp itself, she realizes Rachel is not some old hag. Instead, a petite girl with bright green eyes and a ruff of curly red hair stands before the three of them.
Percy moves in quick to wrap her in a hug and lifts her slightly off the ground only to place her back on her tiptoes, and she giggles while playfully admonishing him.
Annabeth scoffs under her breath and looks away slightly embarrassed, feeling flustered but not entirely sure why.
"You're the oracle?" She says slightly accusatory, and Rachel just blinks back in response.
"Right, sorry. Yeah, I'm the local old witch living in the cave who sometimes spews green smoke."
Percy adds, "The one and only." He nudges Rachel's side, and Rachel ever so slightly flushes under his gaze.
Annabeth's eyes narrow on them, but she continues. "So how does this work?"
Rachel smiles kindly at her. "Follow me, we should do this alone." She waves a hand on as she moves further into the cave, taking Annabeth beyond the sight of Percy and Piper into a small alcove.
"I always feel like I should light some incense or get a crystal ball for back here," Rachel jokes, but Annabeth stays tight lipped and doesn't respond.
"Right," Rachel sighs as she takes a seat in a plush chair, "let's get to it then."
Rachel closes her eyes, and just as Annabeth was about to scoff and turn around, her eyes open a clean sheet of green, making Annabeth jump slightly.
Mist begins pouring from her mouth, as a raspy voice utters out:
Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire, the world must fall,
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death
When they walk back out and recite this to Percy and Piper, both of their brows furrow.
"No, that can't be it," Piper starts, "that's the Great Prophecy. We already know that one. We need one for a quest for Annabeth."
Rachel frowns. "I don't know why that one was what came out, but that was it. There is nothing else the spirit of Delphi can give Annabeth or you guys."
Percy's frown deepens. "So no quest right now? This kinda seems like a perfect time for a quest."
"Think you're stuck here for the time being, Perc. Sorry to disappoint." Rachel turns to face Annabeth again. "I'm sorry, I wish there was something else I could do."
Annabeth looks around the room, and outwardly deflates. "Yeah, me too," she grumbles out and starts making her way towards the door. "Pipes? You ready?"
The nickname slipped out accidentally, but Piper visually brightened at it and walked over to the blonde with a small smile playing on her lips. "
Yeah, I guess." She turns back toward Percy. "Catch up with you later, yeah?"
And he nods in response as Piper ushers Annabeth out the door with a light pull to her wrist.
Annabeth can't help it, but she looked back as they made their way back down the hill, just enough to see Rachel's head thrown back laughing as Percy moved to sit down. Annabeth's stomach churns, but she chalks it off to be her dissipating nerves.
"What's her deal, anyways?" Annabeth says as they approach the cabins.
"Who, Rachel?" Piper asks with a bemused smirk, "Percy found her a few years ago. She became the oracle like a year or two ago, too."
Annabeth snorted. "He found her? What does that even mean?"
"Well, a few years ago, on a que—"
"Yes, a Percy quest and a fight with Percy in it, I'm sure. What else?"
Piper can't contain the growing look of amusement on her face. "What else, like, what else about her and Percy? Or how she became the oracle?"
Annabeth knows her cheeks are flushing, but she can't help but push on. "Oracle, obviously."
Piper nods slowly, teasingly, but she doesn't try to wind up Annabeth up anymore—much to Annabeth's content. "She always had clear sight. During the Battle of the Labyrinth, she started having some visions. After that, Chiron brought her back to take the spirit of Delphi, and now when she stays here, she gets that sick little cave up there all to herself."
"Mmmhm," Annabeth nods, trying to feign interest. Really, she's not sure why she even asked.
"But don't worry," Piper says, now all coy with playful eyes, "becoming the oracle means she had to vow her maidenhood. So she can't date, and all that."
Annabeth flashes her head to give Piper a sharp stare, but her eyes suddenly find Reyna and Jason sitting by the campfire alone, cozied up with dusk falling in the background and the flames a deep red. She freezes in place, and the familiar broken pang in her heart thudding in her chest.
"Sometimes I wish I declared maidenhood forever," she mutters under her breath, but not quite low enough for Piper not to hear.
Surprisingly, she realized that Piper's gaze followed her own, and had the same longing stare to it. Annabeth is sure their faces mirrored one another.
"Yeah, me too," Piper says wistfully as her eyes stayed on Reyna and Jason.
Annabeth cleared her throat, suddenly uncomfortable as she shifted on her feet. "I'm gonna turn in early. Do some reading," she said lamely, her dejection too clear in her tone for her own liking.
Piper looks back at her with sad eyes, and nods plainly, distractedly.
.
Similar to hellhounds two and three, she hears the fourth before she actually sees it. At some point late in the night, she juts up from her bed and somehow knows there is a monster waiting for her beyond the protection of her cabin.
Rushing out in only her pajama shorts, cropped shirt and her knife hastily grabbed from her nightstand, she takes in the scene before her.
Nico di Angelo stood in front of the tank sized hellhound, pointing at the ground as if he was training it to sit. He did not look afraid, if anything dull and bored. He looked to the side and she followed his gaze, taking in Percy Jackson running straight at the beast with his sword pointed directly at its target.
After the puff of monster dust fades, her eyes adjust better and she sees the brightly colored fish on Percy's boxers and has to stifle laughter.
"Nico," Percy says rather exasperatedly, almost as if he wasn't sure if he was relieved or distressed that the younger boy was here.
"You know Nico?" She said, and then immediately wanted to face palm. What a stupid question. Obviously he did.
"You know Nico? He's Greek, how could you—"
"What do you mean he's Greek, he was claimed at Camp Jupiter years ago—"
"Percy," Nico said definitively over them.
Percy glanced back at him, and his face fell instantly. "What, Nico? Why are you here?"
Nico hung his head as he stared at the ground, and then he raised it slowly to address Percy.
"It's your mom. She's missing."
A/N: thank you so so SO much for reading! Please drop me a review to tell me what your thoughts are!
p.s. YAY Joe Biden is pres, shout out to anyone and everyone that voted :-))))