Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Sixteen

Why?

"I've been ignoring this big lump in my throat

I shouldn't be crying,

Tears were for the weaker days

I'm stronger now, or so I say

But something's missing."

"What Now" by Rihanna

Reyna, as an act of friendship and kindness, invited all of us Greeks to dinner in the Forum. There were low couches and tables scattered across the room, and groups of ten or twenty Romans surrounded each, munching on pizza, chips, sandwiches, drinks and even cookies. Wind spirits floated around serving all of these 'delicacies' to all the campesr. As honored guests (which was what Reyna and Percy were calling us – everyone else had some unpleasant names for us whispered under their breath), we were invited to sit at the front table. So all of us from Camp Half-Blood – that's seventeen people in total, folks – and then the two praetors of Camp Jupiter, Reyna and Percy, the five Centurions that led each of the five Cohorts which were like our cabins but bigger, then ten senators, and of course, the Augur.

Luckily it was a long table.

And fortunately for Percy, it meant he could sit at the exact opposite end of it, as far away from me as possible.

In the Coliseum, when we were addressing all of the demigods – Greek and Roman – I noticed that Percy's right hand was swollen, burised and cut up, which meant two things. One, he had gotten angry about something in-between our…'confrontation', we'll call it, and getting to the Coliseum. Two, he could no longer heal. Somehow he had lost his invulnerability from the River Styx.

That desperate part of me, the one that was grasping at any possible straw, suggested that maybe his memories of me dsappeared with his invulnerability. It would kind of make sense – he told me he had used me as his anchor to keep him alive while he was in the River Styx. Well, his memories of me were, anyways, who wouldn't it make sense that if he lost the ability, that he lost the memories that anchored said ability?

"Stop obsessing about it."

"You know I could kill you and not even break a sweat, right?" I asked Leo, giving him my most pleasant smile.

"Jason was right, you do threaten to kill people when they're right," Leo said, and I gave him a look. "You're not doing yourself or anyone else any good by trying to find a reason why. We don't know, and obviously he doesn't want to talk about it."

"You don't get it, there's so much more to this than you guys know," I said harshly, pushing the plate in front of me a little. The sight of the sandwich and cookies on my plate made my stomach turn unpleasantly.

"Breathe and put your game face back on. You can't let the Romans see you as controlled by your emotions," Jason said under his breath. "You're right – we don't know the whole story with you two, but if you want to tell us later, we're more than willing to listen."

That was very nice of him to say. I took a deep breath and nodded, taking a bite of the sandwich and forcing it down my throat. "Happy?" I said with as fake a smile as you could get.

"You might want to tune down the smile, you look like you're about to kill someone," Leo mentioned.

"You two are at the top of my list," I said in a sing-song voice as I took a sip of water. "How am I supposed to go on this quest with all of you, with him, if it's like this?" I asked. "I can barely hold it together now, so what am I going to be like on the actual quest?"

"You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for," Jason said.

"I'm really not. Physically, yes, I can fight like no one else and I've got amazing abilities," I said. "But I can't control those abilities or my emotions, which is weakness, not strength." Jaosn and Leo exchanged frustrated looks before sighing. "You two are getting distracted. Percy knows who I am and what we mean to each other but he's still pretending that he doesn't."

"How do you know for sure?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, even you said you weren't sure how accurate your lie-detecting abilities are," Leo mentioned.

"Even without the powers, I can tell when someone's lying. Certain verbal and non-verbal cues," I said, watching Percy closely. "See how his chest is positioned towards me, but he refuses to look at me? It means his attention is on me but he's pretendin it isn't. He sat as far away from me as possible and if I bring up one of our past quests or things we did together, he'll tense up – watch."

"Annabeth!" I called and she gave me a look telling me not to do it. Obviously she had been in my head. "Do you remember when we went on that quest two years ago to Greece? Such a beautiful country, don't you think?" I asked, looking not at her but at Percy. Percy had a very distinct tell when he was lying – he always fussed with his ahir, pushing it back and ultimately making it messier. But that was exactly what he was doing right now. "I mean, we're going to be there on different terms than we were last time, but almost the same thing, right? Maybe we'll even be there in time for the festival in Skiathos."

His face went bright red. He remembered everything. Why was he lying to me?

"Yes, Andee, it was beautiful. Maybe I'll actually get a chance to see it this year, even though it will probably just be in passing," Annabeth said in an exasperated tone. Not sure whether it was the fact that I was intentionally bringing it up to catch Percy in his lie, or that she really hadn't gotten to go to the festival last year.

"What about you, Percy? Do you remember any of that?" I asked pointedly. I was giving him a chance to redeem himself. If he admitted to the lie, I would forget this had ever happened. It was the perfect opportunity for him, and he needed to take it.

He immediately looked down at his food. "No, it must not have come back yet."

"Hmm," I said coolly. "That's strange, seeing as it was such an important night for both of us."

"Hey! Reyna," Annabeth interrupted, "you know, I couldn't help but admire the architecture of all the buildings her in New Rome. It's incredible!"

Oh Annie and her architecture.

"I would love to give you a tour, if that's something you're interested in," Reyna said and Annabeth confirmed eagerly. Jason gave the same offer to Piper, saying he wanted to show her where he grew up and she seemed flustered, but super appreciative.

As everyone dispersed after dinner, I knew what I had to do and who I needed to help me.

"I have a plan," I said quietly to Leo as we left the Forum.

"That doesn't sound good."

"And I need your help."

"And those are the words I was waiting for," Leo said. "What crazy scheme am I getting myself into?"

"I'm going to take off these bad boys," I said, shaking my wrists at him.

"Uh…won't you go ka-boom if you do that?" Leo asked warily.

"Technically, yes, which is why you're going to stop me if something goes wrong," I told him.

"Okay, what's the detailed plan?" Leo asked, so I told him everything I planned to do. "Are you sure this is a good idea? You know, if he's doing something so drastic, there is a probably a good reason for it."

"There's not good reason to lie about something like this," I said. "We'll wait just over there – it's a more public area, and he'll have to cross through it at some point."

Leo was still heistant but at the end of the day, Leo loves a crazy plan and he knew how important it was to me. So we stood near the lake, waiting and waiting, and finally Percy showed up, walking by with his new Roman friends.

"And…acting!" Leo whispered under his breath.

"I told you, I've got it under control! Besides, they're really bothering me," I projected, making sure he would hear.

"But have you ever done it before?" Leo asked.

"Well, no, but the gods have made it pretty clear that I'm not allowed to, but they're a little preoccupied at the momeny, aren't they?" I asked, reaching to my wrists. "Besides, it's just for a minute. I just want to feel free for a moment."

Jason and I had been working on my control, but we had never taken off the bracelets. I wasn't allowed to, so I hadn't seen the need to before, but I knew I could control myself for at least a minute, maybe more.

I took a deep breath. No going back now. I pulled the pin out of the left bracelet and was about to take the bracelet off when a hand clasped it shut.

"Are you crazy?!" Percy demanded, grabbing the pin from me and putting it back in place.