Chapter 5, Sammy, Somewhere in Colorado

"Samantha!" her father yelled in fear as she fell off the bars and onto her back, the air getting knocked out of her. Samantha gasped, feeling like a fish out of water as she tried to get air back into her lungs. She immediately regretted trying to skip 3 bars instead of her regular 2. Her arms weren't long and she wasn't ready for that, but, of course, her curiosity of if she could have done it got the better of her. She now had the answer, she couldn't.

"We need to get her to the infirmary!" she heard her father bark at the other campers around her. She blinked looking up at the sky taking in what just happened. She took in a big breath, the air finally returning to her. She sputtered, and started to cough. Her frizzy black hair had somewhat fallen into her face.

"I'm... I'm good," she stammered as she tried to push herself up, trying not to flinch at the pain that filled her body as she did. She had to push through this, be strong like her mother and father.

"Sam. Don't try and sit up, you got to be seriously injured! You just took a 5-foot fall," her father reported, forcing her to lay back down to her original position. She saw her father stand up, his purple toga turning with him as he looked around to make sure that the Apollo kids were coming.

Sam nodded and let her father take charge, he was one of the 4 praetors after all. Since the camps had merged the number of praetors had been raised from 2 to 4, 2 for the greeks and 2 for the Romans.

It took less than 2 minutes before she was lifted up, placed onto a gurney, and carried to the infirmary.

"Dad... You know I'm not that injured!" Sam complained trying not to get sick from the bouncing of the gurney.

"Let Will decide that Sammy- plus if you are, your mother will kill me," Her father stated. Sam rolled her eyes and let out a reluctant huff, accepting her fate, she couldn't win a fight against her father.

When they got to the infirmary, she was transferred from the gurney to a bed. Sammy shifted uncomfortably, to be honest, the bed wasn't very soft or anything. Her father stood at the side of the bed, watching her until he turned with a smile on his face.

Her father had aged a lot in the past 15 years since the camps had merged, his once pure black hair was now speckled with gray flakes, and he had started to have bald patches on the front of his hair. His eyes had permanent bags under them, from the late nights of searching for lost friends and battles against rising enemies. Sammy knew her father blamed himself for the disappearance of the others, and the disappearance of Percy Jackson. He'd spent so long trying to make up for it, that he hadn't even paused to think it wasn't his fault.

A tallish man rushed over to the bed, breaking Sammy from her thoughts. He had shaggy blonde hair, blue eyes, and an athletic build, and draped across his shoulders was a purple preator cape like her father's. There was a warm smile on his face, but Sammy could see the pained look in his eyes. It was almost like he was always like that, every time he saw one of his friends. It was a look of blame, she knew it because her mother, father, and Praetor Reyna all had the same looks in their eyes. They all blamed themselves for the deaths and disappearances that had happened during the attacks on the camps.

It pissed Sammy off. They didn't deserve to have to carry that blame and they weren't the ones at fault, the gods were, both Greek and Roman. They were the cause of all their deaths and disappearances. One of which included her uncle.

"And what trouble did you get yourself into this time, hm?" The man asked, looking from Sammy to her father with one eyebrow raised. He always did this when Sammy and her father came in. Whenever Sammy got hurt her father would panic and force her to go to the infirmary in the fear that if she didn't get checked then she could get hurt worse and another death would be on his shoulders for him to take the blame.

"She fell from the bars of the training course, Will," Sammy's father said before she could utter a single word. "Again."

Sammy had fallen off the monkey bars plenty of times. Her curiosity pushed her boundaries to see how far she could go. She didn't always get hurt like this. Sometimes she landed on her feet with ease or managed to shapeshift into something before landing. But other times she broke an arm, cracked a rib or something else. So every time she got injured she ended up here.

"I thought I could do it this time!" Sammy threw her hands up in the air in a defensive manner, and immediately regretted it when pain shot through her back. She dropped her hands and smiled sheepishly at him.

"And that's what you say every single time," The head healer responded, shaking his head fondly before taking a step closer and starting to examine her.

"Thank you, Will," her father remarked, "I swear to the gods that you're the only one who can deal with me and Hazel's panic."

"It's really no problem, Frank," Will stated with a small chuckle. "Though Sam you should know by now, curiosity killed the cat."

"But don't you know that satisfaction brought it back?" Sam responded, smirking proudly. No one ever remembered the second part of the quote.

"I didn't know that, but I can tell you that it is medically impossible to bring something dead back to life," There was an amused expression on his face, but it disappeared as he pursed his lips. "Trust me, I'd know better than anyone." The atmosphere sobered as Will and Frank shared a grave look as if they both suddenly remembered something at the exact same time. Sammy assumed that was the case.

No matter how many years passed, no matter how much time had gone by, somber moments like these were always there, haunting everyone in their wake. Sammy wished desperately that she could somehow make it go away; to help those that she loved so that they didn't always have pained expressions as though they were always suffering.

The two were so in their somber moment that they didn't see the iris message that opened up next to them. Sammy quickly recognized the girl on the other side. Her electric blue eyes reminded Sammy of the sky and her black hair was held back by the silver band that went around her head though there were choppy bangs that ran across her forehead.

"Thaila!" Sammy beamed jolting up too quickly, causing a rush of pain to shot through her. Thalia looked to be in a car, she could tell by the shaking of the car. Now the question in her mind was how Thalia was iris messaging from a car.

"What the hell is that!?" She heard someone yell from the other side of the messaging system.

The iris message had now caught Will's and her father's eye and they both turned to look at it.

"Thalia. Do you have news?" Will asked hopefully. Everyone in camp knew that the daughter of Zeus was out searching for the missing 7 after finding a piece of info of their where abouts and the prophecy from the oracle.

Thalia smirked evilly like she knew something they didn't but before she could respond a girl with grey eyes and black curly hair popped into view.

"Who are those people!?" the girl exclaimed shocked, "And how the hell are you using a rainbow to communicate!?"

"Zoë! Sit back down and put on your seatbelt! I will not have you die by car crash!" a voice barked at the girl. She let out a frustrated huff before muttering 'fine' and disappearing from the view of the iris message.

Thalia rolled her eyes and started, "Ya I got news. Percy apparently had cliché timing cause now we got a mini Annabeth with Percy's hair," she answered, "That and Death Breath and Happy Death Breath are alive. Don't know where they are, though, had to hang up before I could find out where exactly they are, but I told them to meet us in Atlanta."

Sammy automatically noticed Will's eyes widened at the two nicknames, but her father, unlike Will, just looked confused at the statement.

"Death Breath and Happy Death Breath? Who are they?" Frank inquired. Will was still standing there though he'd began muttering to himself. Sammy eyed the son of Apollo suspiciously, not understanding why he had been so put off by the two names.

"You seriously ne-" started Thalia before getting distracted, "NO! Don't put touch i-" she yelled before getting cut off, the iris message disappearing into mist. Frank and Sammy exchanged confused glances before looking at Will. He was staring into space like he'd just been told that someone had died.

"Will? Are you okay?" asked Sammy tentatively.

Will nodded, but Sammy could easily tell he was faking. He wasn't okay. She could tell by the way he sat down on the infirmary cot next to her's, his face now pale, like he was about to faint

"Will. Who are Death Breath and Happy Death Breath?" her father asked, setting a hand on Will's shoulder.

Will opened his mouth to respond but before he could the doors to the infirmary slammed open, 4 women walking in, two of them had purple capes attached to their shoulders, the purple fabric floating behind them. Behind them walked a 17-year-old with black hair and piercing green eyes, she stood at the same height as the others.

"Hazel, Reyna, Clarisse," Her father greeted. Hazel paid no attention to Frank and instead rushed past him, over to Sammy.

"Are you alright?" Hazel questioned, somewhat panicking, looking Sammy over.

"Mom. I'm fine," Sammy told her. Hazel continued to worry over her daughter so the two praetors looked to Frank and Will.

"What happened?" Renya questioned her fellow Roman.

"You want to know what happened to Sammy or the thing that just happened?" Frank questioned, unsure which to tell them.

"Well it was originally Sammy but now I want to know about the thing that just happened," Clarisse stated.

"Well, Sammy fell off the monkey bars again. And we got an Iris-message from Thalia, apparently Percy has a daughter who looks Annabeth and has his hair. Also, she mentioned someone named Death Breath and Happy Death Breath," Stated Frank. As soon as he mentioned Death Breath, Hazel's head snapped towards him.

"They're alive?" she asked.

"Who's they?" Reyna questioned confused.

"Nico... Nico and Bianca. They're alive," Will stammered, the color finally coming back to his face.

"Wait so if Nico and Bianca, along with Percy's kids and Annabeth are alive... does that mean..." Frank started.

"All the other's are alive, we just have to find them," Reyna finished.

"Well except for Prissy. We did find his pen sword after all," Clarisse remarked joking. Everyone turned to look at her and gave her a Really? or Not the time type of look.

Reyna let out a low huff and looked over to the 17-year-old that had come in with them.

"Aquila. Go tell Chiron, then prepare the other hunters. We're getting the 7 back," she told the girl.

Aquila nodded once, "Yes mother," she stated before turning away and running out of the infirmary.

Next Chapter: Esperanza Ogygia Valdez