Well hello there!
Stopped by to read this chapter? That's nice of you!
A few things: Sorry about Frank, but I didn't think that all of them would escape a battle like that without some serious injuries. Don't worry, he's not going to die :)
Also, thanks for 250 reviews! You guys are so amazing, sticking with me even though
the story's so long! Thank you all :)
This chapter was very important for me, especially Jason's and Percy's part at the end. It actually gave me shivers imagining them like that, but I don't want to spoil you.
Now all you need to do is sit back, put your feet up and enjoy this chapter!
I don't own PJO/HoO.

Oh and the new cover image is my own. It's supposed to be Leo and Penelope's first kiss :)
Tell me how you like both chapter and picture!

Chapter sixty-nine: Two Parts of a Whole
~Annabeth's POV~

"Lord Hermes" Annabeth said, completely perplexed. "What are you doing here? I thought the gods where incapacitated because of the whole Roman / Greek conflict?"
Hermes grinned, looking happier than Annabeth had ever seen him.
"Well, Annabeth, I think you'll find that quite a few things have changed back in New York. But I'm sure your fellow campers will fill you in" he winked at them, and sat down on a chair.
"Our...our fellow campers? But Lord Hermes, were thousands of miles away from Camp" Piper stuttered.
"That's right" Hermes said, like it was of no importance whatsoever.
"So...how can we talk to the others at Camp Half-Blood?" Piper asked, looking a little nervous at questioning a god.
But Hermes just smiled at her and said "It's quite simple, Piper. As I'm sure you know, I'm the god of travellers. Which means I can, er, travel a little faster than most" again he winked.
"What's the catch?" Percy asked, and his voice was dangerously mistrustful. Annabeth couldn't blame him though. After everything they'd been through, her own belief in the gods' goodness was pretty diminished.
Hermes sighed, he didn't seem angry, if anything he looked a little ashamed.
"No catch this time, Percy. I swear. I'm simply trying to say...thank you." The last word was a little stretched, as if thanking heroes wasn't something Hermes especially liked to do.
Percy eyed the god for a moment, and then looked at Annabeth, asking her a silent question, leaving the choice to her.
Annabeth knew that normally the help of a god came at a price, and that their word couldn't be trusted. But when she looked at Frank, pale and injured on the bed, and thought of Camp Half-Blood, of home, her decision was made for her.
"Okay" she told Hermes, and even managed a tired smile. "We would be grateful for your help."
Hermes grinned a little wickedly, reminding her a lot of a certain pair of brothers she knew.
Maybe accepting the god's help hadn't been a wise choice after all...
Hermes however was already standing up. "Hold on then, boys and girls, and please keep your arms and legs tightly by your side and your eyes closed at all times."
His voice reminded Annabeth of the announcer on her favourite theme park ride back when she was little, and an involuntary smile crept to her lips. She closed her eyes.
Suddenly, Jason called "Wait! You have to bring the ship too!"
Annabeth opened her eyes again to see Hermes raising an eyebrow at Jason, who stood his ground.
"Please, Lord Hermes. This ship it's – it was our friend Leo's – he loved it" there was pain in Jason's eyes, and Annabeth felt her heart go out for him. Even Hermes looked a little softened.
"Don't worry, son of Jupiter. The ship's coming too."
Jason nodded gratefully and they all closed their eyes, tightly. Annabeth had sat down next to Percy and was holding onto him with one hand and onto the bed with the other.
A loud humming started, like a swarm of angry bees, and suddenly there was a huge wrench and they started to fall, spiralling completely out of control..
Annabeth screamed without meaning to. Falling down, it just wasn't a positive sensation. Not after the nine day fall to Tartarus.
After maybe five minutes, she felt a soft bump as they landed on what must have been soft ground.
"You can open your eyes again, heroes." Hermes said, and Annabeth did so.
As far as she could see, nothing had changed. They were still sitting in the sick bay, still banged up and hurt, with a god dressed in jogging clothes in their midsts.
"Where are we?" Annabeth wanted to know, and Hermes smiled. "Half-Blood hill of course."
And then Annabeth could hear screams and shouting voices from far away. She jumped up, so eager to see her home, but Hermes held her back.
"Just a moment young lady. As I understand you still have a mission ahead of you."
Her heart sank, and guilt washed over her. For a second she'd forgotten about Gaia's blood, and what it might mean.
"Is it possible?" she asked, looking Hermes directly in the eye.
"Yes." he said, and her heart gave a skip. "But it will not be easy. Before you can start your quest, you have a job to do here, and your friends have been in the underworld for quite a while already.
Although they are in the right place, you must remember that it is extremely important they come willingly."
His gaze was intent, almost frightening.
"Come where?" Percy asked.
"Olympus, of course." Hermes said. "There will be a special council meeting tomorrow night, so I must urge you to get there on time." He stood up and walked over to Frank, before anyone could protest. When the god lay his hand on Frank's chest, Hazel put a protective hand on it, too.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, her golden eyes flashing.
Hermes looked a little taken aback, but half smiled at her "I'm going to take Frank to Olympus with me, so he can be helped. You may come as well if you wish."
Hazel looked astonished at the invitation, but nodded firmly.
"Goodbye then, you lot. I'll see you tomorrow. Don't be late."
And with that, Hermes, Hazel and Frank vanished, leaving only a few trails of light behind them.
Annabeth looked at the others.
"Come on" she said. "We have two camps to face."

***
As it turned out, Reyna had managed to get back to Camp Half-Blood before any real fighting had started. The Athena Parthenos had created a kind of barrier between the Romans and the Greeks, which could only be crossed by Reyna, Gwen, Dakota, Rachel, Grover and Chleo, all of whom had had no intention of fighting. They had talked and agreed on a truce, at least until the crew of the Argo II arrived back.
Annabeth and the others had been greeted by enthusiastic campers and even some curious Romans, although it took a while to explain why Hazel and Frank were no longer there.
Then came the worst part, as Nyssa and Chleo hurried over, the smiles melting off their faces as they took in what was left of the crew.
"Where...where's Leo?" Nyssa stammered, looking around as if he might suddenly jump out and yell "Surprise!" which, Annabeth had to grant her, would be totally like him.
Chleo said nothing at all, but studied Annabeth with a searching gaze before her face set in a hard expression. Annabeth knew it well, she had the same one when she was trying to hide her pain. "They didn't make it back." she whispered, fighting down tears. "They died to save us all. I'm so sorry."
"Oh no" Nyssa said, and buried her face in her hands. Annabeth knew how hard this must be on the Hephaestus kids, after loosing Beckendorf in the last war.
"How?" Chleo asked quietly, but Annabeth shook her head.
"Not now. We need to reconcile the camps once and for all, and then we have to-" but she broke off, realising it would be unwise to lift their hopes when the chance of them being fulfilled was so small.
She coughed, patted Nyssa on the arm and walked back to Percy, who was standing at the top of Half-Blood hill, next to Jason. They were both looking from the Greek to the Roman side, as the Athena Parthenos stood next to them, separating the two camps by an invisible barrier.
Annabeth had no love for the statue anymore. It symbolised pain and suffering and sacrifice to her, no matter how important it was to the peace of the camps. She averted her gaze.
"Percy" Annabeth whispered. "Jason. You need to talk to them. It started with you two. Only you can bring it to an end."
They both nodded, a determined look in both the green and the blue eyes. Only now did Annabeth truly appreciate how similar the two boys were.
"Right." said Jason, and he raised his voice, talking loud enough for both camps, which were gathered on either side of the hill crest, to hear.
"Campers!" Silence fell, as every face turned towards Jason and Percy. Annabeth herself had moved
a little down the hillside towards Camp Half-Blood, so that all the attention was focused on the boys.
"For those of you who don't know me" Jason continued, his voice strong and resonant "My name's
Jason Grace. I'm sixteen years old, and I was born a son of Jupiter."
A few mutterings in the crowd registered in Annabeth's ear. Apparently they'd all noticed Jason's phrasing.
"I grew up at Camp Jupiter, became praetor, lived in and defended the streets of New Rome."
Jason's eyes looked intensely blue against the morning light. "And then" he paused, letting everyone wait with bated breath. "And then Hero, or Juno, snatched me out of my life at Camp Jupiter, and dropped me on a school bus heading toward an excursion to the Grand Canyon. I woke up with no memories, no idea of who I was, and two people believing me to be one of their friends."
Here, Jason and Piper shared a glance, and Annabeth could see the understanding and memory flash between them. Piper smiled a little.
"We were brought here, to Camp Half-Blood, where the campers explained to us that we were demigods, the sons and daughters of the Olympians, and as I listened, I felt like I'd heard it all before, which of course I had. As you may know" his mouth twitched a bit "children of the big three aren't always considered lucky, especially not if they're my age. But the people at Camp Half-Blood didn't care about that. They accepted Piper, Leo and even me right away, although it was obvious I was different, although I might have been dangerous to them. After our quest, they helped us to build the Argo II, the ship which would turn out to save our lives during our quest to Ancient Greece. Camp Half-Blood became a home for me, just like Camp Jupiter was, and I can't thank them enough for their acceptance and help." he nodded at the Greek side, who had a few smiling faces, although nobody talked. "While I was here, I learned that another demigod son of the Big Three had gone missing, by the name of Percy Jackson."
There was a collective intake of breath, and Annabeth couldn't help but feel a little proud that it was the name of her boyfriend which caused it.
Jason looked at Percy, asking him silently to continue. Percy stepped forward, and there was a blazing in his eyes which Annabeth had seen on only a few occasions before, like when they'd fought the Battle of Manhattan, or when he'd protected her in Tartarus.
"I'm Percy Jackson" he said, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. "And like Jason, I was taken from my camp and placed at another one, Camp Jupiter, where Juno presented me as the son of Neptune. I had no idea who I was, but I was accepted into the fifth cohort and while I was there, I learnt some pretty important things."
His eyes swept over the Romans, and then the Greeks. "Rome stands for more than power. The Romans value discipline, honour and strength. They're loyal to their friends, and they understand
the importance of holding onto your heritage. But let me tell you something." Percy looked at Annabeth then, and she felt a shiver down her spine at the expression on his face. "Just because that heritage might be different for all of us doesn't have to mean that we're different. We need to understand that. We need to realise that there are more things which define us than where we come from. Nobody has only one side to them. Nothing's black or white, Greek or Roman, good or bad. That's what being a demigod is all about! Connecting two worlds, learning to live with two parts of a whole.
The gods thought that by separating us, they were making the right choice. But instead of avoiding each other, we should learn to accept and learn from one another.
We shouldn't ignore that other part of us any longer, but appreciate it as another thing that makes us us."
Annabeth felt like her heart had swollen inside her chest, she'd never have thought that her Seaweed Brain could express himself like that, capturing the attention of every single demigod, Roman or Greek. He looked at them all, and his expression turned a little sad.
"We've just come back from a quest on which eight of us started. Two haven't made it back. They sacrificed themselves for all of us, Greek and Roman, to protect us from the worst goddess of all.
It would be a dishonour of their sacrifice if we fought each other now. Look at our parents, look at how torn they are, fighting against themselves, just like we're about to. Do you wanna be like that?
Because I sure don't.
My name is Percy Jackson.
I'm the son of Poseidon. I'm the son of Neptune.
And I'm calling for peace between our two camps, once and for all."
There was a heartbeat of silence.
And then all Hades broke out.