Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus

Hello once again everyone! Really fast note before the chapter begins, a couple people have told me that they have been getting confused about the two branching chapters, so when I've finished writing the whole story, I'm planning on re-publishing the story as two different stories so each branch can be separate.

Also, I'm going to be gone this weekend to visit family, but if I can, I'll try to keep updating from there. That's all, now I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 12 Branch 2

Percy's POV

I woke up in my bed, later than I usually did.

I stood up and looked around my cabin, trying to figure out what I needed to do for the day.

Chiron was allowing me to do all of my usual activities again, although he was still being very lenient with me about when I do them, so I'm not on a strict schedule again yet.

I was changing clothes and looked at my nightstand and saw the journal still sitting in the drawer that was partially open from last night. I smiled remembering the notes that had been written in it as I thought about each of them.

I finished getting ready and went outside and to the pavilion to eat breakfast. I got my food and sat down next to Nico at my table like we did every day now.

I ate for a few minutes in silence before Nico asked me "Percy, are you ok? You look dead tired and if you fall asleep and fall in your food, I'm not helping you clean up."

"Yeah, I'm ok. Just a bad night."

He looked curious but he didn't ask me anything.

When I finished eating we stood up and started trying to decide what to do for the day because Chiron was allowing me to do any of the activities again, even if I'm not on the regular schedule that I usually am.

"So what should we do today?" I asked Nico as we looked around the camp.

"Well, we could go practice sword fighting, it's been a long time since you've had any practice. But first I need to go to my cabin to get my sword."

I agreed and we started to walk towards his cabin.

We didn't say anything on the way there, and when we got into his cabin, I leaned against the wall while he went to the back of his cabin to get his sword. While I was waiting, I thought about the note Nico had written in the journal, wondering why he would choose to share his thoughts about his sister with me now.

I was still there when I was brought out of my thoughts by a punch in the chest.

"Percy!"

"What?"

"You were just standing there, and wouldn't respond to anything, so I punched you in the chest and it worked."

"Oh." I felt really stupid for not realizing he was talking to me.

We left his cabin and went to the arena, talking about swords and what kind of stuff Nico had learned about fighting while he was on his own traveling the world.

When we got to the arena I saw that the Athena cabin was there practicing. Many of them were spaced around in the arena, sparring with each other with various weapons.

I looked around the arena then over at Nico, "What should we do?"

"We can go over to that edge," he said, pointing, "no one is over there, so we shouldn't be able to avoid the other kids."

We went to the edge, drew our weapons and started sparring. I hadn't realized, but I was out of practice. The few weeks of doing nothing was taking a toll on my abilities and I felt slow.

I hadn't fought Nico in years, but I hadn't expected him to evenly match me, whether I was out of practice or not. We fought back and forth, attacks and counters for a while until we were both sweating and decided to take a break to get a drink.

We walked over to where there was some water, and Nico got a drink while I poured some over my head.

I wasn't wet from it, but the cool feeling of the water felt nice on a hot day like it was.

As we were sitting at the edge of the arena by the water, I looked around and watched the Athena campers practicing.

I was looking around and noticed that Annabeth was there, practicing with one of her siblings. She and her partner stopped very soon after I saw them, and went to take a break. Annabeth saw me and I quickly looked away.

"It's probably time to get back to practicing again Nico."

He noticed that Annabeth was there. He simply nodded and we went back over to the area we had been in before, and started practicing again.

I fought harder than I had been, beating Nico over and over as I let all my emotions and confused thoughts out through my sword arm.

About an hour later, we quit, both of us panting from the exertion.

As we were about to cross the threshold out of the arena and into the rest of the camp I heard from behind me, "Percy."

I turned around and saw that Annabeth was awkwardly standing about ten feet away from me.

"If you ever want to, you're free to come practice with the Athena cabin."

I wasn't sure what I should say to that.

"Umm, thanks." I said quickly.

She looked like she wanted to say something else to me, but stopped.

I turned back around and went out into the camp with Nico.

"I'm really tired after that Nico, I think I'm gonna go back to my cabin to rest for a while, see you later at dinner?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'll see you later."

I was glad that Nico was letting me go so easily, even though we had only been practicing for about an hour and a half, I needed some time alone.

I got back into my cabin, which fortunately was fairly dark, even though it was still the middle of the day.

I laid down onto my bed and thought about everything that had been going on over the last few days. I thought about my breakup with Annabeth, her apology, Nico sharing his feelings about his sister, and the notes.

I don't know what I'm going to do, but somehow, everything is going to work out.

And that's chapter 12 Branch 2! I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter, and I'm trying to make the branches more and more different from each other. I've really enjoyed writing this story, and I hope that all of you will stay with me as I keep writing it to the end! Please review and let me know what you think, and I hope to see all of you in the next one!