Camp Jupiter was massive.
They had been searching for well over two hours, now, and still no sign of either Frank or Hazel.
There was only one place in the entire camp that they hadn't searched yet, and that was the stables.
They were going to search there first, as that would be the place that Hazel would spend most of her free time besides her cabin, but Annabeth insisted that they search the camp methodically, so that there was no chance that they could miss them.
The stables were at the far edge of camp, at the other end of a large field that horses were grazing in. It was nice and peaceful out here, none of the hustle and bustle of camp life. Percy could see why Hazel liked it so much.
When they walked in, Percy was surprised at how clean it was, it hardly smelled bad at all, in fact Percy quite liked the smell of this stable. It smelled like worn leather and sun bathed hay.
A loud voice inside of his head interrupted his (for once) peaceful thoughts.
"The fuck are you doing here?".
He looked around him, appalled at the curse and the obnoxious tone of voice of whatever horse that was. But then his gaze landed on Arion in his stall, being brushed from behind by somebody who could only be Hazel.
He fixed the horse with a glare, and said, "You are very rude, you know that?".
The others looked around in confusion before realising that he was talking to the horse.
It whinnied angrily and stomped one foot, "If you think I'm going to call you lord, than you've got another thing coming".
"I'm your brother, you could at least be a little bit nicer to me".
The horse made a sound that sounded like its version of laughter before it snorted, "In your dreams".
Before he could continue the conversation going nowhere, Hazel spoke up from behind him.
"What's got you so agitated, boy?". She patted him on his neck, and he threw his head towards the group gathered in the doorway.
She came around his side, and when she spotted them she froze.
Her golden eyes took in each of them at once, finally landing with a confused expression on Percy and Xavier.
"Hey guys! I didn't know you were coming!", she went over and gave everybody a hug, stopping in front of the group and staring at Percy and Xavier expectantly.
She had definitely matured, she seemed, older, somehow. That little kid sparkle of curiosity that had always been in her eye was gone, replaced with a look of wisdom that took Percy by surprise.
She continued to eye the two boys as a heavy silence fell. Her gaze settled for longer on the large scar on Percy's cheek, grimacing slightly. But then her brow furrowed in confusion.
She shook her head and smiled at herself, as if shaking a ridiculous thought out of her mind and finally broke the silence.
"Well? Aren't you going to introduce yourselves? I already know who everybody else is, though what they're doing here I have no idea", at that she paused and threw Annabeth a questioning look which she just ignored.
"You really don't recognise me, Hazel?", Percy asked, a little bit of hurt creeping into his voice.
He knew he had changed, but he didn't think he had changed so much that he was unrecognisable.
His green eyes locked with her golden ones, and they stayed that way for a few moments before she gasped.
"P-Percy?", she asked. A little bit of the little girl was creeping into her eyes and voice, and she stepped closer to him.
"It is you! Oh Percy! What happened?", she threw her arms around his midsection, as she was too short to reach any higher.
At first he stiffened at the embrace, but soon he relaxed and hugged her back.
"I'll explain it all in a few minutes".
She pulled away, and turned quizzically to Xavier.
"And who are you?".
"I'm Xavier. I work with Percy".
She frowned slightly as she asked questions about his answer.
"Work with?".
Percy smiled, drawing Hazel's attention back to him.
"We'll explain that in a moment too".
"Okay… Are you a demigod?".
"No-".
"Clear-sighted mortal?".
"No".
She frowned again. "Then what are you?".
"If you would let me finish…", Xavier paused to throw a glare at Percy who was barely containing his laughter at Xavier's many failed attempts to talk.
"I am not a demigod, I am a demititan".
Hazel paused her spew of questions, and seemed to analyse Xavier in a different light.
Finally, she asked, "Which titan?".
Xavier seemed mildly pleased that Hazel had not freaked out like everybody else had when they'd been told, and answered in a less foul tone of voice.
"Helios. He's faded now, thank the gods".
"What's the matter? You have issues with your parents?", everybody chuckled at that and the tense feeling in the air seemed to lift.
Hazel walked over to her brother and gave him a big hug.
"Good to see you, Nico. I haven't seen you in a while". The younger boy looked surprised at first, but then seemed content and hugged back.
"So. Not that I don't love seeing you guys or anything. But what do you want?".
She turned back and walked towards Arion, summoning a gold nugget from the ground and giving it to him.
Before anybody from the group could answer her question, somebody could be heard calling from outside.
"Hazel?! Are you in there?". They couldn't tell who the voice belonged to, but Hazel answered that question for them soon enough.
"Yeah, Frank! Come in!".
Perfect. Now we don't have to go around and try to find him again.
Frank walked in through a door from behind Hazel that Percy hadn't even seen, but when he saw them all gathered with Hazel in the middle of the stable he stopped in his tracks.
"Hey, big guy", Percy said, giving him a small wave.
Unlike all the others, Frank seemed to recognise Percy immediately. "Percy?".
Percy gave a small grin and a nod, uncomfortable with the silence that had once again settled over the group.
But then Frank did something unexpected, he changed into a cat.
They all stared dumbly as the cat paced around and meowed a lot.
Leo busted out laughing, and soon the others joined in, unable to resist.
The only one not laughing was Hazel, who sighed dramatically and picked up cat-Frank.
"Oh, Frank".
Once he got over his laughing fit, Leo was able to ask a question between breaths.
"Why did he just randomly turn into a cat?".
Hazel was holding cat-Frank in her arms, and was scratching it behind the ears to calm it down.
"Frank turns into a cat when he feels anxious or overwhelmed. It's just his thing", even she cracked a smile as she stared down at the ball of fluff that used to be her boyfriend.
"Well how long until he turns back?", Percy asked.
Annabeth and Piper had gone up to stroke cat-Frank and scratch him behind the ears while making little cooing noises, leaving the boys behind where they were before.
"How come she doesn't give me that much attention?", Jason grumbled.
"I know right?", Leo added.
"Hazel, uh, Frank", Percy addressed the cat a little bit awkwardly, not used to having a normal conversation with cats.
"We have a lot to talk about".
Hazel furrowed her brow and shot Annabeth another questioning glance, but she still nodded.
"Okay... Follow me".
She led them back all the way through camp to her cabin.
They entered the cool dark space, and sat in various places around the cabin.
It was definitely decorated with Pluto in mind. All the colours were various shades of black and grey, but Hazel had decorated it a little bit with various splashes of metallic color.
She set Frank down on the bed beside her, and most of the others sat on the floor in front of her, Percy just leaned against the wall, and Nico seemed to melt into the shadows themselves, but he was still vaguely visible.
"So... Tell me everything".
Percy looked at Xavier, not wanting to tell the story for the third time, and luckily he got the message.
As Xavier told Hazel and Frank about what had happened to Percy and him leading up to where they were now, Hazel's face remained strangely impassive.
It struck Percy once again just how much older she seemed now.
In fact, all of his friends seemed more mature now in some way.
Physically, they all looked younger than him, as they had been made immortal a good three years before he had.
But you could see in their eyes and in the way that they carried themselves that they had changed.
Leo, although still the jokester, seemed to have sobered up a bit since he had returned with Calypso.
Jason carried himself differently. He had always been regal and just overall very Roman, but now he carried himself less stiffly, and more with comfortable control, like his Greek and Roman sides had completely mixed since the last time Percy had seen him.
Piper seemed fiercer, her kaleidoscope eyes held a glint in them that they never had before, and her hand always seemed to be sitting on the hilt of the dagger strapped to her waist, as if waiting to be attacked at any moment.
Nico was still as quiet and dark as ever, completely accepting the part of him that was King of the Ghosts. He still seemed to radiate darkness, but unlike before, it seemed more controlled, like he now realized exactly how powerful he was.
And Annabeth, Annabeth seems tired. Her stormy eyes still held that fierce curiosity, and her gaze was just as analytical and cold as ever, but all her muscles and limbs seemed more relaxed than before. And somehow it was even more scary, like she had already come up with the way to completely destroy you and found it boring.
Percy zoned back in from studying his friends just as Xavier finished his explanation.
Hazel's golden eyes flitted to his for a moment in pity before sweeping again over the whole group.
Finally, she spoke, "So, Frank. Looks like we're needed to save the world again. You up for it?".
Cat-Frank butted his head against her leg and purred, and they all laughed.
"Okay... We're in".
They waited in Hazel's cabin for a little while longer, waiting until cat-Frank turned back into Frank.
Finally, after about ten minutes of the crew just joking and messing around, Frank was ready to go.
"Finally! When we said time was of the essence we weren't joking with you", Leo said with a grin.
Frank just grinned at everybody and pulled them into one big group hug.
"Frank... You're crushing us...".
"Sorry".
He smiled sheepishly again, and Percy was glad to see that despite his new appearance, Frank was still the same guy.
He had grown into his new more muscular body, and since Percy had last seen him his face had changed. It was no longer as babyish as it was before, and suited the rest of his bulky body much better.
Frank and Hazel each grabbed as big a water bottle as they could, and then the group walked out of the cabin, making their way through the camp to talk to Reyna before they left.
As they walked through camp, Percy made sure to keep his hood up, remembering how people had stared at him during his first time through.
Even with his hood up he still had the tingling sensation at the back of his neck that told him he was being watched.
He looked around, but nobody in the camp was sparing him any more than a curious glance.
It was coming from outside of the camp.
The thought had just crossed his mind when he saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.
On instinct, he turned and held his hand out, his reflexes working to catch the arrow that was aimed right at his head inches from his face.
The others continued on in front of him, oblivious.
There was a second, a split second when he was too shocked to move. But then his battle senses kicked in.
"Xavier! Hunters! Get down!".
Xavier immediately stopped his conversation and reacted as Percy had said, alerted to the danger by his tone of voice.
Xavier pushed the group off of the Main Street so that they were no longer so exposed, but Percy could tell by now that the hunters weren't after them, they were after him.
He threw down the familiar silver arrow and another flash came from the forest on the hill skirting the camp.
He opened his wings to their full length and blocked it, the arrow bouncing harmlessly off of them.
His group off friends now safely out of the area, he allowed his aura to expand until the air around him was frozen to at least fifty below zero.
Any arrow that came at him now would freeze and fall uselessly to the ground before it reached him.
Taking advantage of this momentary safety from attack, he scanned the surrounding forest, but saw nothing.
Of course he didn't see anything, Thalia wouldn't allow her hunters to be so sloppy.
There.
A bird call, coming from a section of trees to his left.
It sounded remarkably similar to a real bird, and under any other circumstances Percy would have thought that it was, but he knew Thalia.
He uncapped Anaklusmos, waiting for it to sound again.
There.
It was closer this time, coming from the same direction. The sounds of normal camp life blurred together until all he could hear were the sounds he needed to.
He threw Anaklusmos. The trident flying through the air with deadly speed and accuracy.
He heard a thwack as it hit a tree, and then a cry of pain as it pinned its target.
Three more arrows dropped to the ground around him, frozen solid.
Campers were crowded around as close as they could get to Percy, staring at the action. And he could see Xavier and the rest of the crew crouched behind some barrels and boxes.
Percy used his wing to deflect another arrow, and lifted into the air to see who he had caught.
When he landed, he found his trident stuck fast to a tree not far from the camp.
It pinned a girl with spiky black hair and a circular tiara.
Thalia.
She was struggling against the trident which was pinning her to the tree.
Her wrist was caught between two of the prongs, and every time she moved more blood appeared from her wrist which was wedged between two of the razor sharp blades.
She tried to pull the trident out of the tree to free herself, but it was stuck deeply in the trunk, and from her position with only one hand she wasn't strong enough to get it out.
When Percy landed, the ground in the area surrounding him immediately froze over, and the air temperature dropped dramatically.
Thalia's head snapped up to look at him.
More arrows flew from trees around him, but he just waved his hand a summoned a wind to send them off course.
The arrows were getting quite annoying, of course. Especially since he couldn't see who was firing them.
He focused on his connection with the Earth and the ground, channeling his power into it and willing it to shake. It responded, and the ground began to rumble. The trees shook as the ground did, and after a few moments of this, five hunters fell out of trees all around him.
Percy raised an arm, and ice began to grow around the dazed hunters, trapping and pinning them to the ground.
Thalia watched from her position pinned to the tree with wide eyes as all of her hunters were incapacitated.
"Who are you?", she asked, turning to Percy and putting as much venom and malice into her voice as possible.
Percy didn't answer her question, instead firing back one of his own.
"Why are you doing this, Thalia? I thought we were friends".
She looked confused at his question.
"Friends? I don't even know who you are! Why don't you take off that damn hood and show your face!".
She was trying to rile him up, although Percy didn't know why.
Unless…
"Thalia, where's the scout?".
She played dumb, "What?".
"The hunter that's still free somewhere around here. Where is she?". Percy's voice was deadpan, and he studied her reaction carefully.
"How did you know that there was somebody else?".
She was still trying to keep him talking. Whoever it was must have still been pretty far away.
He couldn't let them get here before he explained himself.
He walked towards her, the ice and frost on the ground crackling beneath his feet. She widened her eyes in fear, as he grasped the handle of his trident.
But he didn't hurt her. He just released her, pulling Anaklusmos out of the trunk of the tree with one firm yank.
Thalia cried out as the sharp blades on the tips of the prongs cut through her skin, and then stumbled forward as her hand was released from its prison.
She looked up at him, shocked at her release.
Before she could get over her shock and try to attack him, he raised his hands to the hood of his cloak and let it fall back, revealing his face.
She recoiled at the sight of the scar on his cheek. And unlike all the others, Percy saw Thalia read the words written into his skin underneath the large symbol.
"All must fall? What does that mean?".
She looked up at him in horror.
"Who do you work for?".
"I work for Chaos, creator of the universe. I am one of two of the warriors she has here on Earth. This brand was given to me by Tartarus himself when I was captured. He is already risen and means to attack sometime within the next three weeks. I am surprised that Lady Artemis has not told you any of this already. I have already spoken with her and the rest of the Olympians".
She continued to look at him warily, although the the hostile glares stopped once he mentioned that he had spoken to Lady Artemis.
"Who are you". She spoke the question more insistently this time, pinning him to where he was with her gaze.
He heard slight rustling in the tress to his left. So quiet he would have thought it was just a breeze disturbing the trees. There was only one problem with that, there was no wind.
He sidestepped just as a silver arrow shot through the place where his head had been just a minute ago.
"Thalia! Call them off! How am I supposed to tell you who I am if you're constantly trying to kill me?".
She studied his face, not moving as Percy just barely dodged another arrow.
"Thalia! Call her off before I have to kill her!".
He hefted his trident, using it to deflect another arrow away from his face. He was just about to throw it towards the faint sound of a twig snapping nearby when Thalia said, "What!".
He stopped, and so did the arrows.
She gave a short whistle, and another hunter stepped out from the bushes behind him.
She was tall, and had hair so blonde it was almost white that was tied back and braided down her back. A bow was slung over her shoulder and a quiver on her back.
As she saw her sisters on the ground restrained by ice, she turned back to him and stared in disbelief which quickly morphed into anger.
Thalia beckoned her over, and she went to stand until she was next to her lieutenant.
"This is Leila, my second in command", Thalia started.
She was still somewhat preoccupied with her wrist which was still bleeding.
Percy would have stepped forward to help her, but the only thing he had on him was a small amount of Phlegethon water, and he doubted that she would appreciate him pouring that on her.
Her lightening blue eyes snapped back up to his and studied his face once more.
"Now… Who. The hell. Are you?".
If Percy hadn't known Thalia for the better part of three years, he would have physically flinched at her words, but he was used to this kind of thing by now.
He was surprised that she still hadn't recognised him. All of the others had gotten it within ten minutes of his face being revealed.
And yet here he was, having a long argument with Thalia, and she still didn't know who he was.
He shook his head before speaking, not wanting to delay this for any longer than he had to.
"It's Percy, Thalia. Percy Jackson. I'm back".