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

Author's Note: How long did you think it would be until another chapter was published? Hmm? Truth be told, this chapter was already pretty much written, I just had to add some stuff in there. But I hope you like it, please enjoy! Make sure you leave a review to let me know what you think!

Chapter Twenty-Eight
Mama

"Don't let memory play games with your mind
She's a faded smile frozen in time
I'm still hanging on, but I'm doing it wrong
[Couldn't] kiss her goodbye…"

- "Promise to Try" by Madonna

Do you have that place where you go and it's like everything is suddenly okay? Like the world could be ending but it doesn't matter because you're finally home. It could be your grandparent's house, the beach, your best friend's place, Disneyland…

That was Skiathos for me. Vancouver would always be my home – it was where I was born and raised, but Skiathos was my home away from home. When things got messy or stressful, when I needed a break from life, or needed a reminder that there was more to life than fighting monsters or performing, I went to my grandparents' house in Skiathos.

The run-in with Cupid had been too much. Nico took a few moments to compose himself before we went back on the Argo II, but then immediately locked himself in his room with the scepter. When everyone asked what happened, Jason and I just told them we ran into some trouble but that we got the scepter and that was that. I knew everyone had more questions, but it wasn't our place to answer them. Nico could do when he wanted to, if he wanted to.

I got out of the fray as soon as possible too, not wanting to see the face that Cupid had shown me. I already had an inkling of what the memory potion had hidden, and who the Prophecy was about (I'd have to be stupid not to). I just wasn't sure how much I could handle right now. And having not slept in multiple days, I needed to rest.

My brain decided otherwise.

I stayed up just pacing back and forth, or lying in bed trying to fall asleep or at the very least, relax.

As we pulled up to the dock, it was like all the stress I'd been holding in my body just released in one big wave. Leo tied the ship down and I was the first person off, followed by Annabeth, then the others. I turned to face everyone. "You guys wait here, I just want to give them a heads up before there are suddenly nine demigods on their doorstep and in their house."

"I'll come with you," Annabeth said, and the two of us made our way around to the front of the house and knocked on the door. I had done another healing on Annabeth's ankle and she was truly good as new.

The door opened and Yaya's face lit up with surprise and delight as she wrapped her arms around me, kissing the top of my head. "My beautiful granddaughter! Look at how you've grown! I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too, Yaya," I said, hugging her back. She looked the same as she always did. Her grey hair was tied back in a loose bun, and her tan skin was aged with laugh lines. She had the same green eyes that I had, and my mom before me. There were actually a few pictures of my grandmother from when she was young hanging in the house, and we all looked alike. It was actually kind of eerie. "Where's Popa?"

Here's the run-down on my family, because I've heard it's confusing. So Yaya, my grandmother (whose actual name is Aglaia, after one of the Graces) fell in love with Zeus, and together they had my mother, Avalon. Of course, because of the Big Three pact, Zeus having a child was a big no-no, so after a few years of living in New York with a lot of trouble, Zeus sent Yaya and my mom to Vancouver to keep them safe. Yaya inherited this house from her parents, and it became the summer home. She met Popa here when my mom was in elementary school, and he came back to Canada to help raise my mom and Val with Yaya. When they retired (which they did early – parents of demigods dealt with a lot), they came to live in Skiathos full time.

"Popa is at the market, grabbing a few things for lunch and dinner," Yaya said, before turning to Annabeth. "My sweet girl, how are you?"

"I've been better, Yaya, but it's good to see you," she said, giving my grandmother a squeeze.

"I'm guessing you have others with you?" Yaya asked knowingly.

"Seven more, to be exact," Annabeth said. "No one really needs to stay inside –"

"I won't hear of it, you are all welcome to come inside," Yaya said. "I'd rather have you all in the safety of my roof. Besides, it's almost lunch and I'm sure you're all hungry. Come bring everyone inside, and we'll figure out the rest later."

I nodded and left to get the others, but Annabeth stayed behind, talking to Yaya quietly who looked at me worriedly, but I tried not to think about it. Everyone seemed so worried about me lately, but I think we all needed to be worried about everyone and everything.

I met the others down at the Argo and led back up to the house.

"You grew up here?" Hazel asked, catching up so that she was walking beside me.

"Kind of," I said. "Summers, winter break, spring break. Not so often once I was in high school, but it's definitely home to me."

"You're so lucky," she said. "It's beautiful here. I never thought I'd get to see somewhere like this in my lifetime."

"Well, take advantage of it while we're here. I know it's not the most ideal circumstances, given our quest, but we all need to recharge because it's about to get much, much harder," I told her as we entered the house through the backdoor.

"Hello! Welcome!" Yaya said as everyone came in. "Come, come, I'll have food ready in just a few minutes!"

"What is it with grandmas and food?" Leo asked with a grin. "Can I steal Yaya?" He did all but run to the table. As Popa came back with the remaining ingredients for lunch, I introduced everyone to my grandparents, re-explained how we were related, and we all dug in.

You know when you go on vacation, or go away to school, and you just eat all crap, but then you come home and have a really good home-cooked meal? You know that bliss?

I was currently experiencing that.

I could die now and I would die happy.

"What would you like to do for room arrangement, Paidi Mou?" Popa asked.

"Hm…well, I want my room and I know Annabeth will want hers," I started.

"Wait – you guys have your own rooms here?" Jason asked. He was sitting right beside Nico and every time Nico would finish whatever small portion was on his plate, Jason would serve him more. It would start a glaring match each time, but Nico would eventually give in and eat.

"Obviously," I said cheekily. Jason gave me a look.

"They're Andee's mom's old room and her aunt's old room," Annabeth explained.

"Then there's the spare guestroom, right?" I asked Popa and he nodded. I quickly did the math in my head and tried to figure out the most strategic way to place everyone. Certain people were probably better off not rooming with other people, to avoid awkwardness or hanky panky in my grandparents' house.

I would not have any hanky panky under this roof.

"We could do three people in each room? Piper and Hazel with Annabeth, Jason and Nico with me, and Leo, Percy and Frank in the spare?"

"Actually," Leo said, "I'd prefer to stay with Festus in the Argo. You know, just in case."

"No one should be left alone," Frank said. "That hasn't ended well so far. I'll bunk out on the Argo with you."

"Me too," Hazel said.

Okay. For having such a weird, awkward dynamic before, those three seemed to be a really smooth working machine now. That made me feel really good. I wish I could credit that to my incredible leadership, but that would be giving myself way too much credit. Everyone here was just amazing.

"I'll go on the boat, too," Nico said. I would have rather had him in the house where I could check in on him easier, but Hazel, Leo and Frank would take care of him.

"So Piper and I can room together, then Percy and Jason, and you can have your room to yourself," Annabeth said. Jason looked at me, obviously wanting to room with Piper and I discreetly waggled my finger at him.

No hanky-panky under my grandparent's roof. Go to the Argo, at the very least.

"Yaya, can I talk to you and Popa?" she nodded and the three of us left the table to the sitting room. "I need to tell you what's going on."

So I told my grandparents everything that was happening and that had happened so far. The war looming between the two camps, the Mark of Athena, Gaia trying to rise to power and the gods splitting.

"And the gods can't do anything to help?" Popa asked.

"They're all…they're all split between their Roman and Greek counterparts. There's a few that aren't as affected, but they're just trying to keep things as together as they can. It's…the whole world's a mess and the final showdown is happening here, in Greece."

"You're warning us to give us an opportunity to leave," Popa said slowly.

"I just…we don't know what's going to happen if the Earth Mother wins. The most likely answer is that the world is going to end and…I don't know," I said. "I just don't know. I just honestly don't know what will happen if she wins, but I think it would be best for you to be as far away from the epicenter as possible."

"Well, if the world ends, there is no other place I'd rather be than right here," Yaya said, holding my grandpa's hand and looking into his eyes. I wanted that. I wanted that kind of love, that 'even if the world ends, it's okay as long as we're together' kind of love and it made my heart ache a little bit.

Percy walked by and caught my eye, giving me a little wave that made my heart skip half a beat.

Okay, heart, but not with him. I don't want to fulfill that stupid Prophecy.

"Go rest, Egoni," Yaya said. "You look tired."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

"I love you," she laughed, giving my hand a squeeze before I headed upstairs to my room.

Flopping down on the California king bed felt incredible. Those cramped bunks on the Argo II had nothing on a real bedroom. I almost let out a moan it felt so good. The pillow-top mattress, the fluffy duvet. I was in heaven.

I wished I could just stay in bed like this forever. But I still had work to do.

Well, I told myself that a few seconds before I passed out.

"Go, go, go!" a much younger Val said, sprinting ahead of me. Her hair was still long and curly, but pulled back in a hasty bun, falling out in different places. She had a backpack on, jeans and a jacket as she ran ahead of me. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground, making the sidewalks slick. "Avalon!"

"I'm coming!" I said with a bit of a laugh. Definitely not my voice. As I passed a store window I caught my reflection. I was quite a few inches taller – standing at about the same height as Val – with long blonde hair covered by a hat, a slight tan for the cold weather, and light green eyes. "We're good – they're not following!"

"Every time we've said that, they have suddenly appeared so excuse me for wanting to put some extra distance between us," Val said, but she had started to slow down.

"It's fine," my mom said, coming to a stop and swinging her own backpack around to the front as they veered around to the alley. She pulled out a canvas bag from inside, some dirt spilling out from the top of it. "Such a weird quest. What kind of goddess gets a demigod to get her some plants?"

"To be fair, they were heavily guarded and it's not like she can leave the Underworld to get them herself," Val said, pulling a similar canvas bag out of her own backpack. "Not at this time of the year, anyways."

"So how do we do this? Do we just summon her or…?"

"Something like that. She gave me this –" Val rooted around in her backpack before pulling out a small coin-shaped jewel, "- and said to just place it on the plants when we had collected them and that she would send the reward."

"Let's do it then," Avalon said, gently placing her bag on the frozen ground and Val did the same. There were some very strange looking plants inside the bags, but some pretty ones as well, and the two had fought very hard and had had to do a lot of strategizing to get these. Val placed the coin jewel on top and in an instant the plants disappeared and were replaced with two new items – one was a small book written in Ancient Greek, with a small message for Val. The second item was obviously for Avalon.

She picked up the branch and note and looked at it carefully. It looked like a small branch from a Princess Tree, but it had eight small flowers made of jewels on it.

Avalon,

Each blossom can take or give a life. Use them wisely.

Persephone

My mom looked at the branch perplexed, but nonetheless tucked it into her bag, unsure of what she would do it. There was already a Prophecy about her life being shortened, and knew there was nothing she could do about that, so what use was a gift like this?

The vision changed to show Avalon and Val in Skiathos, at the festival that happened every summer. They were older now, only by about two years, making them around seventeen years old. They were both wearing sundresses and sandals, standing outside the entrance.

"Is it weird that we're going in together?" Val asked. "Is everyone going to think that we're together together?"

"No," my mom said firmly. "And besides, I have 2 years prophesized left to live. I have a lot of things I'd like to do in that time and this is one of them."

"Then let's do it."

The two walked in like they owned the whole place, and from the looks they were getting, they might as well have. They were both in beautiful flowing sundresses, their hair in soft curls and wearing sandals. The two girls went to a couple of the stalls together before going to the dance floor, dancing together.

"Do you mind if I interrupt?" The person speaking was a guy a few years older than them, and very tall. He had perfectly tan skin, was muscular and had the most gorgeous smile Avalon had ever seen. He had beautiful blue eyes that looked like the sky on a hot summer day, and longer blonde hair that was tied back in a short ponytail. Normally Avalon would hate that hairstyle on a guy, but somehow, he made that work. He was wearing just a simple tank top and shorts, but somehow made it look like he was wearing the latest fashion off the runway.

He was looking at Avalon. She nodded, smiling and Val sent her a conspicuous look with a bit of an eyebrow wiggle before disappearing into the crowd, probably to find her own dance partner.

"I'm Avalon," she introduced as they moved into position.

"I'm…Paul," the guy finally said. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"I'm not – I'm actually Canadian. My parents have a summer house here so we spend a lot of our vacation time here," Avalon answered. "You don't exactly have an accent either."

"No," he chuckled. "I guess you could say I'm just good at languages."

"Me too," Avalon said with a smile.

"That smile…you are so beautiful," Paul said, gazing at her intently.

Avalon blushed a little, her smile growing. The two continued dancing for what seemed like hours, talking and talking. He wanted to know everything about her. He loved that she was a dancer, and pulled out a few moves of his own. He said that his family originated from Greece, and that he was big into the arts. Avalon thought he was very funny and charming, and maybe a little full of himself, but he was really cute. And sweet. And he had her hooked. Her stomach was full of butterflies any time his hand brushed against her hip, and he'd give her a certain look that sent shivers down her spine.

"I know who you are," Avalon said, one arm wrapped around his neck and one hand resting on his chest as she looked at him.

"Wh-what do you mean?" he asked, seeming a little startled.

"You're Apollo," she said simply.

A look of realization dawned on his own face. "You're a demigod." She nodded. "Who…"

"My father is Zeus."

"He's not supposed to have any kids," Apollo said. "There's a pact."

"When has that stopped any of the Big Three?" Avalon asked cheekily. "Why do you think I live in Canada?"

"Good point," he said. "So…uh…what do you think of me now that you know who I am?"

"It doesn't change how I feel about you," Avalon said.

"And how do you feel about me?" Apollo asked. Avalon reached up, pulled Apollo's face closer to hers and kissed him. He looked a little surprised, but it only took a moment for him to smile and kiss her back.

"By the way," my mom said, pulling away for a minute. "Paul? Is that really the best you could come up with?"

The scene changed again, to Avalon sitting on a couch, lying in Apollo's lap. Her stomach was much bigger now – she was pregnant and quite far along. She had a sparkling ring on her finger and a wedding band right beside it. Apollo had his arms wrapped around her, his head resting on her shoulders.

"I'm worried, Apollo."

"We can't worry right now, we don't know what's coming," Apollo said.

"But we do!" Avalon said, turning to look at him. "I am going to die before I turn nineteen. And I'm pregnant, due after my nineteenth birthday. If I die, our little girl could die too."

"She won't die, I made sure she could heal…wait, we're having a girl?" Apollo asked.

"Yes, love, we're having a little girl," Avalon said with a small smile.

"I'm…I'm not able to have a daughter," Apollo said. "How is this possible?"

"We've broken a lot of rules, Apollo," Avalon said. "Our baby is just inheriting our traits."

Apollo was just grinning like crazy. "I'm having a little girl."

"You have to promise me you'll look after her," Avalon said. "I'm not going to be around to do that. I've already asked Valkyrie to be her godmother, and unfortunately she's going to have to step into that role. I need you to be there to support both of them, okay? She's going to be strong, I can feel that, and she's going to need you."

"We're not allowed –"

"You're not allowed to marry mortals. You're generally not allowed to be with demigods. You, personally, aren't able to have a daughter, only sons," Avalon said. "Like I said, our love breaks the rules. Keep breaking the rules for our daughter."

Holy Hera, that was a lot. All I wanted was a restful sleep, and instead I saw my mom. A lot of my mom. I had never seen any visions about my mom before, and now to get so many in one sleep?

"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked, looking worried.

"Why are you in my room?" I asked.

"Andee, you've been out cold for sixteen hours," Annabeth said. "Leo literally asked if you had gone into a death trance like Nico."

"What?" I asked. "So it's the next day?"

"It's the next day," Annabeth confirmed.

I cursed. How could I have been so stupid? I needed to sleep. I should have been sleeping when I could, not letting it all build up like that. But those visions…maybe that would have happened either way. "Did anything important happen while I was out?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Honestly, everyone's just been relaxing for the most part. No attacks, no visions, nothing." Well, except for me, apparently. "Everyone was just worried about you, but I told them you were fine and just tired."

"I am fine and just tired."

"Are you?" Annabeth asked seriously.

"Annabeth, I haven't slept in a few days," I told her honestly. "The stress of all this is definitely getting to me. But I had some confusing visions."

I let Annabeth into my mind and showed her the visions I had seen, with the exception of the first one. I don't know why I didn't tell her about the vision about my mom and Val's quest, but I felt like that knowledge needed to be kept to myself for now.

"Why now?" Annabeth asked. "Why are you getting visions of your mom now, in the middle of all this?"

"I don't know, Annie," I said quietly. "A lot of things are happening, and it seems like everything's building up faster and faster."

She leaned her head on my shoulder. "We're going to get through this."

"Hopefully."

We took a few minutes to just sit together before I needed to get up and get prepared. There were things I needed to do. As soon as I had done my morning yoga, showered and dressed, I went downstairs to see the rest of our group down at breakfast. Even Nico had joined the group at the table. Everyone was talking and laughing, and the room felt so bright. It was nice.

"Sleeping Beauty has awakened!" Leo said dramatically.

"Oh, shush," I said with a laugh, pulling out the chair between Annabeth and Popa and taking a seat. Everyone continued talking, laughing and joking around and I just took it all in. I don't know what happened in the day that I had been sleeping, but it seemed like everyone that might have been slightly at odds before, were now friends. Even Jason and Percy seemed to be bro-ing out, which was kind of cute, to be honest.

"Andee!" Leo said, and I looked over. "Remember that festival you told me about that happens here every year?" I nodded. "Well, Hazel, Frank and I went into town yesterday to find a couple of parts for Festus and saw a couple of signs for it – it's tomorrow!"

"Oh, I've wanted to go after sunset for so long!" I said excitedly. I had heard about it for years and years, coming here since I was little. Apparently after sunset was when all the fun started, but you had to be sixteen to go after sunset. Last time I was here I was sixteen, but I didn't have a date so I didn't go. Oh, it would be so good to go…

I might have glanced at Percy.

Might have.

But I quickly glanced away, not giving away anything.

I guessed it would have to wait another year because there was more important things on our plates than dates and festivals.

And I was still single.

Life was cruel, sometimes.