Just wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who leave reviews. They always encourage me and make me want to keep going.
Reunion
Annabeth-POV
Annabeth sat on the ground staring at Percy. She could see him trying to figure out what was going through her mind. "You're alive?" She asked, still in disbelief.
"I thought you were supposed to be smart, Wisegirl." He replied, trying to joke. His goofy smile was still as sweet and attractive as she remembered it being. She laughed a moment before crashing her lips against his, tasting the hint of salt she missed so much. She felt his arm come up around her back and pull her deeper into the kiss. At first she happily obliged, but then the shock started to wear off, and Annabeth realized he had been alive the entire time. She pulled away from their kiss, leaving him with a confused look. He seemed to realize what was coming just a moment too late as Annabeth's fist crashed into his jaw. It felt like she hit a wall, and Annabeth yelped out in pain, but it had the desired effect on Percy as it knocked him flat on his back, dazed as his hand shot to his cheek.
The disturbance had drawn everyone's attention towards her, but she was too mad to even explain herself. Instead she looked straight at Percy and yelled, "This entire time and not a word to anyone?"
"Anna-" She heard Thalia, but Annabeth interrupted her by punching Percy with her other hand, again causing her to yelp as it made contact.
"Annabeth, stop it. He-" Nico started, but stopped as Annabeth turned to face him. She could tell by the way Nico stiffened that the look in her eye must have been terrifying.
"He came from the Underworld…you were going to go get him-YOU KNEW, DIDN'T YOU?" She screamed at Nico before she charged him. She didn't get very far though because two strong familiar arms wrapped around her and pulled her back. She turned and tried to fight to get away from him, her arms and fists hitting his chest repeatedly, but over time her hits became less and less forceful and soon she found her head buried in his chest crying. "I thought I lost you, Percy. I thought you were dead…I didn't know what to do. Your parents, Chiron, us…" she whispered.
Percy kissed the top of her head before he replied, "I'm sorry, Annabeth. You have no idea how much I wanted to come back and be with you, but I couldn't, not if I wanted to protect all of you. It wasn't easy for me either." He tried to reason with her. Of course she knew he wouldn't have happily left everyone he cared about, but she couldn't understand why he never tried to contact her, to give some sort of sign. "I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere ever again." He whispered back to her.
"I'm going to hold you too that." She replied, not pulling her face away from his chest.
Jason-POV
Jason watched from a distance as Annabeth held on to the man who had saved them all like she was afraid of losing him. "Annabeth?" Jason heard Piper ask. She started to walk towards the man and Annabeth, but Nico stepped between her and them.
"We need to get to camp, and tell Chiron what happened." Nico said fairly loudly, causing the man holding Annabeth to loosen his grip and pull his hood back over his head before he turned to face everyone else. Annabeth seemed reluctant to leave his side, and Jason could see the daughter of Athena wanted to say something, or more accurately she looked like she wanted the man to say something, but he obviously didn't want to because he shook his head.
"I don't suppose you could shadow travel us there, could you Nico?" Jason asked. He had questions for the man and Annabeth, but he could hear sirens drawing near and he realized the mortals were probably coming to investigate the explosion. "We don't need to be here when the mortals come to investigate."
Nico shook his head. "I'm lucky to be standing after tonight's battle…I doubt I could travel myself more than ten feet, no way I could take all of us all the way to camp."
"Then we need to start walking." Jason said.
Jason was about to take off and lead the way, but Nico stopped him. "Hold on." He said. The son of Hades appeared to be looking at the man who had saved them and Jason immediately realized they knew each other, and Annabeth's outburst suddenly made a little bit more sense to him. After a moment, the man nodded his head and Nico responded with a nod of his own. "We need to hang tight, we have some rides on the way."
"What do you mean? We need to go before the mortals get here." Piper said, concern laced in her voice.
"Our rides will be here before the police and firefighters, Pipes." Annabeth said reassuringly. Jason noted her voice seemed still seemed a little shaky and Jason again began to wonder what about the man had caused her to be so emotional.
"Well what do we do with him?" Thalia asked, interrupting Jason's thoughts. He turned to see Thalia pointing to a crying Chance on the ground some twenty feet away. "We can't take him with us, but we can't leave his body here, and there's no way in Hades we're leaving him alive."
Jason hadn't thought about that. What were they going to do with the traitor? Fortunately the mystery man from earlier solved the problem for them.
Percy-POV
The moment he noticed Chance was still alive, Percy felt anger course through his body again. He badly wanted to kill the man as slowly and painfully as possible, but he knew there wasn't enough time. Instead Percy chose the more logical option. With no one looking towards him he slipped Riptide out of his pocket and uncapped the sword. He then walked up beside Nico and whispered, "The stygian Iron will absorb his essence." Nico nodded and he too pulled out his sword.
"What are you two doing?" Piper asked from behind them. Percy didn't make a move to stop though, and Nico followed his lead. When they arrived to standing just above Chance, Percy kicked him over so he was looking up at them.
"Please, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-I swear I wont say a word to the police or anyone. I just want to liv-" Chance began but was cut short when Percy's sword pierced through his heart and Nico's through his stomach. Chance made a sort of gagging sound as he chocked on his blood and quickly died. Shortly after, Chance's body began to turn to a sort of mist and was pulled into both the swords.
"πηγαίνετε στην κόλαση (Roughly translates to "go to hell")" Percy said softly as the last of Chance was pulled into Riptide. Then he and Nico both turned back to face the group. They were staring at Percy intently. He was about to cap Riptide when he realized that would give away who he was, and he just didn't feel it was the right time to expose himself to the group right now, that could come after they made it back to camp.
"Smart thinking, Stygian iron." Annabeth said, breaking the awkward attention Percy was getting as he walked back towards the group, keeping his hood pulled low. He was thankful she didn't seem to be super mad at him, but he knew he had a lot of explaining and making up to her. He did feel sorry for Athena though, Annabeth had been furious enough when she realized Nico knew; he could only imagine what she would be like when she realized her mom knew as well.
"Rides are here." Nico said as he looked up into the sky. Percy felt a wave of dread come over him as he felt the pegasi's prescence draw near.
The moment they pegasi landed, the lead pegasus made a beeline straight for Percy. "Holy Poseidon, it really is you, boss! Where the Hades have you been, its been forever? Do you know how many people fell apart after you left? Your dad was-"
"Not now, Blackjack, wait until we're in the air and I'll explain everything, I promise." Percy replied, trying to calm his pegasus before he caused anymore of a scene.
Piper-POV
Piper knew she wasn't the smartest person in the world, but the moment it all clicked she felt her breath leave her. The pegasi was the last hint that tipped her off. Percy Jackson was alive, and he had saved them all. He was different now, that was for sure, but it all made sense to her now. Annabeth getting so mad when she went to help him up off the ground, the way she had reacted when she found out Nico had known who Percy was, and then the way Annabeth refused to let go of Percy when she finally calmed down. It was that moment where Piper began to have an idea who the man was, but when the pegasi came from camp to find them and Blackjack was leading them, she knew. She had witnessed first hand how Percy could call the pegasus from pretty much anywhere and she knew that was an ability of the children of Poseidon. Blackjack's apparent reaction only confirmed her suspicions as she watched the pegasus throw a fit when he saw Percy.
Piper was curious as to why Percy wasn't revealing himself to them, but then she realized this wasn't the time or the place. She began walking towards the nearest pegasus when she heard Thalia ask, "How did they know to come and get us?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Piper saw Percy freeze. The police sirens were growing closer in the background and Piper knew they needed to leave right then, so she covered for Percy, "Hades probably had Poseidon send them, or at least contacted the camp to come get us." She came up with quickly. Then she used her charmspeak and said, "Let's just go ahead and head to camp, we can figure everything out there." Her voice had the desired effect on everyone, even Annabeth. They all mounted the nearest Pegasus and quickly took off. Unsurprisingly to her, Percy didn't seem affected by her charmspeak…apparently he had grown a lot more powerful than just in strength if he could easily resisted charmspeak.
"Thank you, Piper." He said as he climbed up Blackjack. Obviously he had figured out that she knew who he was because he didn't try to disguise his voice in the least bit.
Piper pulled herself up on to her pegasus. "You have some explaining to do when we get back to camp…" was all she replied before she motioned her pegasus to take off.
Percy-POV
Percy watched as Piper took off to join the others. He wasn't sure how the daughter of Aphrodite figured out who he was so quickly, they had never been very close, but he was thankful for her help. But her final words still rang in his head, "You have some explaining to do when we get back to camp."
Percy shook his head. "Yeah, I do…I have a lot of explaining to do." He said to no one in particular.
"Hey boss, those sirens are getting closer, shouldn't we be heading out?" Blackjack asked.
Percy looked around the clearing again, or at least what was left of it. He let out a deep breath as he thought of how close he had been to losing the people he cared about most. Then Percy steeled himself and said, "Yeah, let's get out." Blackjack neighed in response and Percy climbed onto the pegasus's back with ease. "Let's go home."
Jason-POV
It seemed like forever before their savior joined them in the air, Jason had almost turned back to make sure the man was coming. As soon as the man joined the group headed for camp, Annabeth was flying right by his side. Jason couldn't hear over the wind, but judging by Annabeth's face, she wasn't very happy with whatever the man was telling her.
The man…Jason wasn't completely sure he was just a man, everything about him seemed more like a god or other powerful being. Even the man's armor and sword seemed to only appear when he wanted them, and that just made Jason wonder if he really was some minor god. But deep down, Jason knew the man was a demigod, just am extremely powerful one.
"You okay?" A voice asked, drawing Jason out of his thoughts. Piper was flying directly beside him, watching him intently.
Jason nodded his head, "Given everything that's happened tonight, I'd say so…" Piper chuckled a little at his comment. Jason then took a quick glance back towards Annabeth and the man. Annabeth had a wild look in her eye, a look she got a lot when she was beginning to piece things together, and she didn't like what she was figuring out. "Should we be leading him to Camp Half-Blood?" He asked Piper.
"We can trust him Jason." Piper said with such certainty that it was almost as reassuring as it would've been if she had used charmspeak to answer him. "Besides, he already knows where the camp is."
Jason turned his head at that comment. "What do you mean he already knows…how do you know he knows?" He asked confused.
"That's not for me to say, it's his story to tell. We just have to wait till we get back." Was all Piper said. Jason wasn't happy with such a mysterious response, but he knew Piper and he trusted her judgment. And the camp was within sight, so he wouldn't be waiting very long for his answer anyway.
Percy-POV
"Rhea, the titaness? Kronos's wife, and your dad's mom, sought you out to protect you from Oceanus?" Annabeth asked for clarification.
Percy nodded, "She knew Oceanus was conspiring and she said he would think I was a threat that needed to be dealt with before I became anymore of a problem. Rhea knew they'd do anything to get to me, so we just beat them to it, so to speak. As far as the world was concerned, I was dead. Oceanus focused on preparing his forces while I was able to train…and you and everyone else were safe." He replied. "Leaving wasn't easy for me…I only got to hear about how you were doing occasionally. I saw you once…it wasn't planned but we ran into you on the way to the Styx."
"A year ago…in the Park with Chance." Ananbeth interrupted. "The rain, you were stopping it, that was you!" She asked in astonishment.
Percy grimaced. "Chance seemed to be making you happy, and I wanted you to be happy. Had I known what he would've done tonight, I would have kil-"
"You had to watch me fall in love with another man…all while you were so close. Percy, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were alive, I promise I always loved you. I could never fully move on fr-"
"You have nothing to apologize for, Wisegirl." Percy interrupted, giving her a sad smile. "I left you for four years."
"You had good reasons though, as much as I don't want to admit that."
"But you had no idea that I had reasons for leaving. You just thought I was dead, and I saw how much it hurt you…how much I hurt all of you. And now I'm back, but that only means that the war is coming." Percy said solemnly.
"Then it's a good thing we have our leader back with us." Annabeth said smiling at him.
Percy laughed. "I'm not sure Jason or Thalia would be okay with me claiming that title."
"Thalia gave you command in the titan war, and besides, after your little display of power tonight, I don't think anyone would dare question your right to lead us." Annabeth said, and Percy knew she was right. Athena, Hades, Rhea, and Nico had already told him he was going to return a general.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we're camps getting close. How are you wanting to play this out, Perce?" Nico asked as he came alongside Annabeth and Percy.
Percy thought for a moment. "How should I play it? I can just walk in and when Chiron gets everyone into the Dining Pavilion I can take my hood down, or I could a showy appearance and just jump down?" He asked.
"You make a showy appearance and they'll kill you, Seaweed Brain. Everyone was hurt when we thought you were dead, you don't need to turn back up showing off, that will not go over well." Annabeth answered, earning a chuckle from both Percy and Nico. "I think you need to tell the others when we land, and then we'll all present a united front to Chiron and the others as you explain the upcoming war."
"I agree with Annabeth, Perce. It makes more sense to have your closest friends by your side and knowing what's going than to have everyone confused all at once." Nico said.
"I'm in agreement with that plan actually. Besides, Will, Piper, and Leo are all cabin leaders; it would be helpful to have their support during the discussion of the war, and to keep everyone on track despite my reappearance. Jason and Thalia are also camp leaders so to speak, and they'll be able to help reign in the uproar." Percy said as their pegasi began to descend towards the camp.
"Since when did you come up with tactical plans?" Annabeth asked him with raised eyebrows.
"A story for another time, Wisegirl." Percy replied with a smirk. As they finished their descent, Percy couldn't help but keep a smile off his face as he took in the sight of the camp growing closer and closer.
As soon as they landed, Blackjack said, "Welcome home, boss."
Jason-POV
After everyone landed, Jason and the others surrounded Annabeth and the hooded man. Nico stood next to Will, but Jason could see Nico was eyeing the group like he was afraid of what would happen next.
"Please don't be too mad at me before I have a chance to explain." A voice Jason hadn't heard in years said. Everyone's attention snapped straight to the man as he was pulling off his hood, but it had all clicked into place already for Jason and the others. It was still shocking to see THE Percy Jackson alive and standing in front of them all. Jason was at a loss for words. Percy was one of his good friends, despite the fact they hadn't known each other all that long. They had been through a lot together and when Percy had "died" Jason had been hit hard by the loss of his friend and the hole it had left in his life.
"Per-percy?" Thalia was the first to finally speak. Before Percy could respond though Thalia tackled him to the ground as she hugged him fiercely. Jason knew Thalia and Percy were close, probably closer than Jason and Thalia were to each other. Thalia had taken Percy's death almost as bad as Annabeth had.
"C'mon Thals, let me-" Percy began, but like Annabeth, Thalia cut him off by punching him hard in the face. Thalia quickly stood up.
"What the Hades, Percy?" Thalia asked angrily. "You're supposed to be dead!"
"Yeah, I know. And I'm sorry that I'm not but let you all believe I was. It wasn't fair to you all, but believe me it wasn't any more fair for me either." Percy replied as he picked himself up off the ground.
Jason found himself slightly angry at Percy's comment. "How's that, Percy? We all thought you were dead, and you want us to believe it was hard for you?"
"It was, Jason. I had to watch the pain I caused all of you, but I couldn't do anything about it. I heard the words you all said at my shroud burning. I knew you all suffered from grieving, but I couldn't do anything to alleviate it. That hurt me more than you can even imagine." Percy replied. Jason knew it was true, but he still didn't understand completely.
"Why couldn't you have just come back? What kept you away then?" Leo asked as he stepped forward towards Percy. He looked like he wanted to hit Percy, but Calypso held him back.
"Leo, give him a chance to explain. Percy always has his reasons. If there's one thing I know about him its that he's selfless in his actions." Calypso said.
Percy turned and looked at everyone individually before he finally settled his gaze on Jason and continued. "There was a war coming, one that started tonight with our battle. I was going to be a target four years ago because Oceanus was afraid I could tip the scales of the battle. I was told he would do anything to get me to come to him, including hurting the ones I cared about the most, which meant all of you, and my family, and Hazel and Frank. I couldn't let that happen."
"Who warned you? Zeus swore there were no more threats." Jason replied. His anger was almost completely gone now, and he was trying hard not to charge Percy and envelop him in a bear hug. He was just glad to have his friend back.
"Rhea, Kronos's wife." Percy shifted his gaze towards Thalia. "I knew one day I could come back and that is the only thing that kept me going for four years. I didn't ask to have my life taken away from me, and I didn't want to hurt you all…but I would do it all over again so long as it kept you all safe.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, but Jason realized he heard soft cries. He turned to see his sister fighting back tears, and he knew she had forgiven Percy just like Jason had. Finally she said, "Dang it, Kelp Head, I want to be mad at you." And then she ran to him and hugged him tightly. Jason was a mere seconds behind her, and soon their entire group was hugging (minus Will, Nico, and Calypso).
"Its good to have you back, Perce." Jason said
"Its good to be back."
