Eventide
part one: civil

ch. five: in the gloaming


She decided she wouldn't question him. At least not yet. The day had been too long, too tiring. Briefly, her mind strayed back to home, where her siblings had probably discovered her missing and Guido, alone, with a saddle on his back. Annabeth remembered the eight months of black surrounding the camp in a suffocating way. She clearly saw in her mind's eye Chiron's face, worn and weary, his eyes sad. Did he look like that now, staring at the sky as he looked for her?

The days dragged on for Annabeth. She liked sitting on the beach, where the waves would crash against the shore. Endless, boundless, always moving. It was beautiful, almost like home when she thought about it. No, she corrected herself. She was home, now. Percy was her home.

When she was little, she had never understood why people asked whether a home could be a person and not a place. Now, maybe twelve or thirteen years later, she knew why. As long as we're together. Her late-night screaming. Her necklace, dotted with beads and pendants; the red shell in the middle. Percy felt like home to her; maybe that was why running away had been so easy, she decided. Because he wasn't next to her, fighting off the nightmares or telling her how she could totally kick his butt.

Percy found her there, that morning, sitting and staring at the waves. It wasn't really cold, like she had expected it to be. She'd already taken off her jacket and laid it on the ground next to her.

"Hey," he said, settling down next to her. She breathed him in, the smell of pine cones and the air after a good, long rain, fresh and sweet.

"Hi," she said, lacing their fingers together. He squeezed it.

"Okay?" he asked, but he already knew how she felt. He always did, somehow. Annabeth leaned back into him, closing her eyes at his touch.

"No," she muttered. "I miss camp. I miss Chiron and our friends, waking up in the morning and yelling for everyone to fall in-" He kissed the top of her forehead, like he used to do.

"Don't we all." His voice was sad, wistful. "If we ever go back- when we go back, Piper or Jason or Leo or Reyna or Hazel or Frank or all of them, Nico included, will kick our podexes to the Underworld and back. I'm afraid of that." She laughed quietly at the image of the seven people banding together to kick their butts.

"Yeah?" she asked. She could feel his nod. "Percy, did- Why won't Chaos tell me anything yet?" She twisted around so she could look at his face. His brows furrowed.

"Annabeth," he sighed. "Chaos... It's really overwhelming, okay? And I'm not saying you're not ready, because you are ready, but I guess Chaos itself isn't ready, 'kay? I thought I was the impatient one," he joked. She shoved him, making him fall back onto the sand. He growled and tackled her, mercilessly tickling her sides until she couldn't breathe and was red-faced from laughing.

"Stop!" she shrieked. "Truce!" His eyes gleamed with amusement, lips pulling forwards in a lazy grin.

"Stop what?" he asked, before he picked her up and threw her in the ocean. She screamed at the sudden cold that spread through her body, instinctively kicking up and glaring at him. He dove after her, laughing maniacally as he splashed her with water.

"Oh, no, you don't," she growled, flinging water at him. They fought back and forth, bickering about little things and generally just getting wet. It felt good to laugh again, the kind of stomach-hurting, lung-busting laugh straight from the soul. It felt good. She evaded him underwater, but he followed her, catching a wrist and forming a bubble around them, the outside world muted.

"You're not getting away from me," he murmured, and her eyes stung. Her lips felt numb.

"Never again," she whispered into the silence, choking the words out. Her throat was too tight, the sea too empty, but then he was kissing her, and she couldn't think about anything else. Annabeth wrapped her arms around his neck, and they stayed there, just kissing, just breathing each other in, for a very long time.

When they returned, Silena was, ah, dying from Aphrodite-ness. As Leo would have put it, her Aphrodite side was showing a lot. Overload. She was squealing and clapping her hands, glancing over at them every two seconds because... how did she put it? You two are just too cute! Right. The girl sounded exactly like her mother; Annabeth didn't quite know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Her boyfriend, a big hunk of muscles and sweetness, was watching this exchange quite awkwardly. It must have been hard, being a child of Hephaestus, to score with love. He wasn't exactly the people type, she supposed.

Glancing around the cozy cabin, she noticed that not all of her friends were here. When she asked, Silena shrugged, not looking bothered. Beckendorf simply told her they'd gone to explore the city or something.

At that, her friend gasped. "We should totally go shopping!" Silena yelled. She kissed Beckendorf on the cheek. "You genius! I should've thought of this earlier; maybe they have new fashion trends. I need a new pair of jeans, anyway, and some high heels-" Annabeth interrupted her.

"Wait, how do you guys run in high heels?" It was the strangest phenomenon in Camp Half-Blood. The Aphrodite kids could run extremely fast in high heels. Silena winked.

"It's an Aphrodite thing. Mom thought we'd like that." Everyone simply stared at her for a second before shrugging. Cabin Ten had some pretty weird powers as far as demigods went. She then proceeded to grab a wallet off of the kitchen counter-since when had that been there?- before looping her arm through Annabeth's and pulling her out the door. She went along with it, because sure, she did need more clothes.

Behind her, the two boys looked at each other as if going, hey, what are we supposed to do about it? Percy shrugged and followed, Beckendorf's expression both amused and pained. She couldn't help but laugh at their miserable faces. Boys hated shopping.

Forty-five minutes and five or six stores later, Annabeth had five bags slung on her arms, the handles digging into her skin and leaving red marks. She'd bought a couple pairs of jeans, two T-shirts, and a soft grey windbreaker. Thrae's climate wasn't terrible, but Percy had told her it got chilly at nights. Speaking of Percy, he and Beckendorf had run off at the first chance they'd gotten. The two girls had watched them flee out of the store laughing at the escapees. She'd turned back to the rack almost happily. Shopping wasn't something she enjoyed, dear gods, no, but it made her feel like she had control over at least something in her life.

She was brought back to the present when Silena shoved a sundress at her, which made no sense because there was no sun around the planet. That detail was completely irrelevant, and she was probably over-analyzing, but that was okay. She had her ways.

"I think it'll look nice on you, Annabeth," the older girl said. Her eyes sparkled in the light. "I know you don't normally wear dresses, but... just save it for something special." She sounded so melancholy, so... pure, that she agreed and slipped into the dressing room stall.

Contrary to prior belief, she was the tiniest bit self-conscious about her appearance. As she stripped off layers, peeled off the cloth that stuck to her skin, she was trying hard not to look down. But stark naked in a stall, she looked down anyway. Her fingers skimmed over scars; she twisted and turned in front of the mirror, running her hands over the marks that littered her skin. She didn't know; was she supposed to be proud of them, wearing them as badges of war? Or should she be ashamed of them?

Disgusted by her dark thoughts, she slipped the dress over her head, feeling smooth chiffon (or whatever) slide against her skin. It took her a little bit of time to wriggle into it, but when she did, it fit snugly, though it wasn't too tight.

Silena had been right. (And, she had to admit, she'd been wrong. It wasn't a sundress.) The dress, a muted yellow color, tucked in around her waist before flowing down to her ankles. It was sleeveless, and with approval, Annabeth noted it didn't show too much cleavage. Okay, it was... nice. It made her sad though, with no one else to see her in it. She could almost see and hear Thalia, exclaiming loudly that oh my gods, Annabeth Chase is wearing a dress. Everyone, freak out.

Meanwhile, Silena was straightening the dress for her, standing up from her bent position to clap her hands excitedly. "It's perfect," she gushed. "It only accentuates your hair, and oh, your skin tone just works so fantabulously with it."

She turned a faint shade of red. No one had really told her that, ever. She'd grown up in rough environments, where there was no time to feel pretty or to dress up. Her respect and gratitude for Silena rocketed upwards. This must be what it's like to have a sister.

"Yeah," Annabeth said, nodding. "Maybe."

Later, she folded it carefully and tucked it away in a drawer in her (now) room. Something special. Annabeth found herself nodding at the thought. She could wait for that. Every demigod needed to feel good about themselves every now and then, and she supposed she was no exception.

Someone walked in, saying her name, and she spun around, slamming the drawer closed behind her. "Luke," she said, looking at him with wide eyes. She trembled slightly, scolding herself. You should have noticed! She had to stay on guard, had to make sure that she was safe and okay. She had to stay strong.

"Annabeth," he said, leaning on the door frame. "I've been calling your name for the past few minutes." She trembled more, staring at him. He looked painfully like the brother she'd known, a small smile playing on his lips, his features soft and caring, even with the scar.

"I-uh, sorry." She tried to look composed. She wanted to go to him, to wrap her arms around his waist and lean into his shirt, like she would do when she was younger. She stopped herself from moving, remembering his choices.

"It's dinner. I just thought you'd want to know." He shot her another smile before disappearing into the hallway, and she stared the spot where he'd been, longing for her brother. Then, she sighed, making sure the dress was well-hidden before going to eat as well.

It was a regular camp dinner; comfort food-barbeque, fresh dinner rolls- everything tasted like home. They ate in silence, the not-really-dead-anymore (She'd never make that joke again.) wolfing down the food as if they'd never tasted anything like it.

And maybe, she realized, they hadn't. Even in Elysium, they must have been deprived of the necessity of eating. They hadn't had barbeque and bread rolls with butter in a long time. Next to her, Percy seemed to know what she was thinking. He sent her a nod and a sad smile, before taking a huge bite of his food. She followed his example. There was no use in starving herself if she was going to make a better future.

Suddenly, Ethan raised a glass of Coke in the air. "To us," he said. Feeling something warm beginning to grow in her, something like hope, she raised her own glass of sweet iced tea.

"To us," she echoed, and the room was filled with clinking glasses and smiles. She thought of all the doubts she'd had earlier, doubts about her family, her friends, doubts about herself. But everyone had doubts. Every single person in the room doubted something, and that was okay, because they'd learn to move on. She would learn to move on. And maybe, just maybe, this was the first step.

Everyone seemed a bit more relaxed after that. Tension lifted from rigid shoulders and straight backs slouched comfortably. She understood, to an extent. It was like something had just gone away, and everything became so much more clearer. A film in front of a camera.

And it was interrupted by Chaos, who walked in like she owned the place. (Which, technically, she did, but that detail was ignored.) Looking at the expression on her boyfriend's face, it appeared this hadn't been the first time. He swallowed something and spoke.

"Um, you have a thing for walking in during meals or something..?" he asked. She shrugged and conjured a chair, sitting down with a grace that only fit the creator of the universe.

"What do you say nowadays, whatever? But at any rate, Perseus, I am ready to begin the, ah, initiation, I suppose." He shot up, having being the only person in the room who was an official member of the so-called Fellowship.

"Right now?" Annabeth felt numb, though she was sure the storm of emotions would crash into her soon enough. It did seconds later, and the erased doubts rose in her mind, as well as fear and nervousness. For days, she'd waited, eager to join, and now that she was about to... well, she sure wasn't excited anymore.

"Um, Lady Chaos, if you don't mind, where is initiation?" Ethan asked, his one eye dark in the light.

"The temple, of course. The entrance to the Void. Why do you think Perseus here cautioned against going there?"

The Void. Annabeth had heard all about it - or what was known of it, anyway. It was where immortals returned after fading, and where some of the more... unruly immortals did as well. The unknown ones, ones that people had never heard of. Not even Daedalus had much on the Delta laptop during the times when she'd researched it. Next to faded and unruly immortals, the Primordials, otherwise known as the Protogenoi, stayed here. Like Hemera, or Aether, or even Erebus.

Others, such as Nyx, Tartarus, and Gaea, were still moving in the universe. (Proven by the fact that all three hated and had tried to kill her, of course.) She'd never really thought about it. The Void, from a demigod's view, wasn't really important with monsters trying to kill you left and right. They would never see it. And now she would be one of the first to.

"The Void," Bianca repeated, in a daze. "That's... that's a real thing? I thought it was just a myth." She then proceeded to blush.

"Yes, it is a real thing. But be warned; it's not what you are expecting. Very different, most likely. Now, follow me, unless you have qualms against this." Chaos, who for some reason was a girl (as she now noticed), turned and marched out of the cabin. Or, at least, she tried to.

"Wait," Bianca said, suddenly. "I mean, I do want to be a part of this, but what do you mean, qualms? We can... we can walk out of here, then." Annabeth realized she'd never considered this. She wasn't being forced to, not really. Chaos nodded an affirmation.

"That is true, Bianca. You may refuse this offer, yes, and return to Earth, where you will be dipped into the Lethe and given a new body. It will be exactly like reincarnation. Or," Her voice changed. "-you can choose to still join the Fellowship, yet control where you are sent. Meaning if you wanted, you can become an, ah, Earth agent so you'll stay on Earth to work."

"Oh."

"Either way, you are following me. Come." With that, she stalked out of the door, almost leaving them behind. Percy went first, leading the way. They followed wordlessly like sheep after a shepherd. Or maybe it was the other way around.

Even as they passed, civilians from the streets watched them. They were either clear-sighted mortals or demigods brought in a few days ago. She could feel their prying eyes and questioning gazes.

The temple, in the very center of the city, was the only building that even resembled one found in the older times. It was massive, as big as the Parthenon, and maybe even bigger. To her, it seemed to change colors. It faded from dark grey to black every time she moved. The pillars were beautiful, decorated in a way that ionic columns couldn't be. Inside, the temple wasn't much.

There were stone steps leading down into darkness. It appeared to be their destination, as Chaos stepped towards it. She stopped there, not going down. Percy was next to Chaos, silently conversing in some weird magical way. Then, the girl dissolved into thin air.

"So," Percy said, turning towards them. "This is your last chance before we go into the Void, okay? You join or you don't."

Castor, the son of Dionysus, suddenly looked pale. "I.. I don't think I can do this," he muttered, seeming ashamed of his choice. At his tone, she wondered why he was so ashamed. There was no shame in not doing joining. It was, at the very least, terrifying.

Percy nodded. "Yeah," he said, sighing a bit. "I knew there was a chance of this. It's okay, though. You'll be fine. It's a lot to ask, I guess." Castor nodded, still pale. Percy waited for anyone else to speak up. No one else did, so he waved them over down the steps, stopping before the last one.

"Repeat after me, guys: I pledge myself to Chaos. I fight for the balance of the universe. I turn my back on believing in one world to believe in many more. I will do my best to help those in need. I give my service to you and I give my life to those who cannot fight for themselves. I choose to devote myself to balance and the prospect of good."

An oath. A binding oath, like that of the Hunters, that would tie her to Chaos forever. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and repeated it. After the last of their chiming voices echoed in the stairway, Percy smiled.

"Be brave," he said, stepping into the Void.


Uhm. First, I realized that I had no author's notes, which serves to confuse. Then, I didn't update. I suck. Next chapter's partly finished; don't worry. I hope to update soon.

Percy might seem a little serious. He's trying to adjust to his new powers/position/life. He did this alone, while the others had each other. Next chapter we get more on Annabeth, and then we'll have a time skip after Piper.

To haters, I portray Piper differently, if you read my fics. I love y'all and hope you enjoyed "in the gloaming." Review: it hps when I have a bad day/bad moment. Still love you; not sure you'll say the same.

achieving elysium