Chapter 6

Disclaimer: As I said last time, I still own nothing.

2 months later.

Two months had gone by since Percy and Annabeth had announced that they were leaving camp. After working out all of the details with Jason and Piper, they had all spoken to Chiron to tell him their decision. He had been sad to see them go, but he had understood that they couldn't remain at Camp Half-Blood forever, no matter how much he may have wanted them to.

Chiron had then announced it to the campers at dinner that night, and there had been a general mood of sadness, but they knew that they would simply need to accept it. After dinner, Percy, Annabeth, Jason, and Piper had approached their replacements. Clarisse, Travis, Connor, and Will for combat training, and Katie and Lou for diplomatic positions. They had discussed what they would need, and while they had all been hesitant at first, they agreed.

The 2 months since then, had been spent instructing the camp's new combat instructors on how to actually teach the younger ones. It was one thing to be able to do something, but teaching it required a whole other set of skills. Luckily, they had all taken to teaching reasonably well. There had been several trips to the Roman camp, to show them what could be learned from them, and integrated into the Greek way of doing things. As Percy had predicted, they were all slightly unwilling to admit that the Romans had some good ideas at first, but they warmed up to it. By the time they were ready to take over instruction of the camp, they had devised a plan to teach the Greek campers the perfect blend of Greek and Roman fighting styles. They were all over the moon that they had managed to agree on a course of action.

During that same two months, Percy and Annabeth had also spent a large portion of their time training Lou and Katie to take over on the diplomatic side of things. The two girls had also been brought to Camp Jupiter whenever the combat instructors had gone. In addition to representing the Greek campers to the Gods, they would also function as an envoy to the Roman camp, so they would need to be familiar with the Romans to ensure peaceful cooperation. There had also been several trips to Olympus, where they had discussed certain matters with the Gods themselves.

There was one big meeting on Olympus every year, where the most senior members of both camps were invited. But Percy and Annabeth met with the Gods, and the Roman envoys at least once a month. It was important to keep things fresh between them.

That meant that within the 2 months since Percy and Annabeth had been training their diplomatic replacements, there had been 2 meetings. They had brought Katie and Lou to both of them. Not to add anything of their own, they had explained to the Gods, but to let them adjust to the Gods' presence. It could be very daunting to be a demigod in the company of Gods, but Percy and Annabeth had long since adjusted to the feeling. That was part of what made them good envoys. It would probably take some time for Katie and Lou to adjust to the Gods as Percy and Annabeth had done, but it would happen. Overall, things were going well.

But there was one exception to the positive status quo throughout the camp. Jack. Percy and everyone else had been hoping that Jack would calm down a few hours after his original outburst when he had found out they were leaving. They had found out that they had all been wrong the next day when Jack went the entire day without talking to anyone. Then he did the same thing the next day. And the next day. And the next.

One day, nearly a week after the night when they had told him, Percy had gotten sick of this behavior from his younger brother.

"Jack, you're acting like a child. Now, Annabeth and I have both told you that this isn't the end. We'll still see each other all the time. But this is happening. Annabeth and I are moving, whether you like it or not."

Jack turned to his brother with a murderous look in his eye.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! After everything, you're just gonna fuck off and leave me here?! Where's this coming from?!" Jack was screaming.

There was one aspect of that sentence that confused Percy.

"What do you mean, 'Where's this coming from', Jack?

"I mean, is Annabeth pushing you to do this?"

"Why would Annabeth try to convince me? Jack, you're way too young to really understand this, but New Rome is really the only place in the world for older demigods like us. We want to have an actual life, and that's the only place we can go to have it. She doesn't need to push me into anything."

"Yeah right. I can't believe you're covering for that stupid-" Jack muttered before Percy cut him off.

"JACK!" Percy was mad now. It was one thing to talk back to him, but insulting Annabeth was where he drew the line. That was too far, and he wouldn't stand for it."

"You know what? Forget it. I'm out of here, I've got archery."

And with that, Jack had left. Percy had been fuming and had immediately sought after Annabeth to try and calm down. They had discussed what had happened between the brothers, and Annabeth had done her best to get him to relax.

After that, the relationship between the two brothers had become far more strained than before. They saw each other every day since they stayed in the same cabin, but they rarely spoke. When they did, it was using the shortest possible amount of words, lest they break out into another fight. That was how they operated since then.

Plus, due to all of the added stress of training the new instructors and diplomats of camp, Percy and Annabeth had been forced to hit pause on their wedding planning. That had been a shame, but they needed to put their duty to their home first, ahead of their wedding. They could get back to it anytime they pleased.

As it stood, their responsibilities with training their replacements had nearly come to an end. Clarisse, Will, and the Stolls were quite well, but they still weren't quite ready to completely take over the position. They had formed a good teaching plan that they felt combined the best elements of Greek and Roman techniques, but they still needed some help imparting it to the younger campers. So, the seasoned instructors were still with them to address any questions the newer ones had. It was quite a process, but it was coming along quite well.

Katie and Lou we doing quite well as the camp's ambassadors to Camp Jupiter and the Gods, but they were still slightly timid, so Percy and Annabeth stayed with them whenever there was something that needed to be dealt with. They even created some fake scenarios as tests, to see how well they could do under pressure. Annabeth was quite pleased with the results, but Percy was still a little bit hesitant. The welfare of the campers was a big issue with him, and he felt like his oath to Luke at the end of the second Titan war, was still of great importance, and always would be. But Annabeth managed to convince him to let it go for the time being. If anything happened, they would only ever be an Iris-Message away. Plus, they were moving to New Rome, not the moon. If need be, they could be back at Camp Half-Blood relatively quickly. A flight from California to New York would take 8 hours with no stopovers. While Percy was naturally against flying, he could suck it up if the camp was in some kind of danger. Plus, they could pray to Zeus to ask permission beforehand. He would probably let them if the camp needed immediate assistance.

One night, Percy was holding Annabeth in his arms as they were relaxing together on the beach. He smiled down at her and kissed the top of her head.

"Soon." was all he said.

She smiled.

"Soon." she repeated.

A/N: I know that this one is pretty damn short, but the next one is gonna be pretty busy. I think that's when I really get started with the main plot. This was just a bridge between the last chapter and the next one because I feel like that jump would be a little bit disorienting without something in the middle.