Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I own nothing. No characters, no places, no nothing. This may come as a shock to you all, I know, but it is what it is.

This chapter was betaed by the fabulous Anon516.

There had been one hell of an uproar after he had nearly beat his brother to death. He didn't regret his actions though. He was more than justified. One day, Jack would actually die for what he had done, but the beating had just been a preamble. One day, his time would come and he would regret his entire life.

There had been quite a process at camp. There had been a few calls for his blood and demands for him to be thrown out. Luckily, Chiron and all of the other campers from his day knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't do something like that without just cause. They managed to calm everything down. The campers really didn't like Percy after that, but he didn't really care. Once his mission was over, he was never going to see them again. By the time he returned for the war, most of the current campers would be long dead. It was a strange thought, but it was true.

Chiron was going to send word that he was there at camp, but Percy stopped them. He wanted to tell them himself. Chiron told him that Piper and Jason had moved to Camp Jupiter a few months after he had disappeared. He was about to shadow travel there with Sara when he learned that he didn't need to. Apparently, the Gods had created a portal system to conjoin the camps. There was a portal from Camp Half-Blood to Camp Jupiter, and vice versa. There was another portal in each camp to Olympus.

The Gods seemed like they were trying to turn over a new leaf in terms of communication with their children. Looking around camp, Percy noticed that there were no unclaimed children. There were nearly 300 campers now, and each and every one of them was claimed. There were a lot more cabins now. There were the 12 main ones, as well as a cabin for Hades and an honorary one for Hestia, which was open to anyone, as per her wishes. There had been several new cabins constructed since he had left. A few dozen smaller cabins for the kids of minor Gods. It was good to see. And Percy was absolutely sure that the Gods had little to do with it. Jason had been busy. He made a bet with himself that there would be hundreds of statues and murals to the minor Gods all throughout Camp Jupiter. Clearly, the son of Jupiter had been determined to keep his promise.

Percy and Sara stepped through the portal into Camp Jupiter. It had been 20 years since he had last been there, but the place hadn't changed too much. It still looked fairly busy. Everyone still looked dutiful; like they had places to go and things to do. He wasn't sure where he would find Jason or Piper, so he relied on his senses. He followed the smell of Ozone through the camp. It wasn't long before he saw him. Jason and Piper were immortal, so he hadn't aged. He still looked like he was in his 20s. He was wrapping up a training session with a bunch of legionnaires. Percy and Sara waited. Once they were done with their session, Jason turned around to walk away and froze. He and Percy spent a few moments watching each other before Jason surged forward and wrapped Percy in a bear hug. The hug lasted a few moments before Jason pulled away.

"How… Where have you been?"

"It's a long story, man. You wanna find Piper and everyone else, and I'll tell you all?"

"Yeah, that sounds good, man."

He glanced over at Sara.

"Who's this?"

"Of, right. Jason, this is Sara. We've known each other a long time, she's good."

Jason looked slightly hesitant, before brightening.

"Good to meet you, Sara. I'm Jason, son of Jupiter. Are you a demigod?"

"No, "she said, "I'm just… You know what, I think it would be better to wait for everyone else before we get into that."

Jason looked a little bit confused but relented. They set off in search of Piper. As they walked, Jason and Percy chatted. They had a decent bit to catch up on. They hadn't seen each other in 20 years, after all. From what Jason told him, he and Piper seemed quite happy. They were living in New Rome, in one of the praetor villas, as they had planned. They had attended the New Rome college together, and gotten their degrees a dozen years ago. Jason had a position on the senate, as did Piper. They taught a few classes in their spare time, instructing the newer generations on how to survive against various monsters. They were making a positive impact on the world around them. They were living the lives Percy had originally planned out before his life had been effectively ruined. The longer he listened to Jason, the angrier he got at Jack. He was being told about what his life should have been.

They found Piper coming out of a different training session. She had been teaching a class. Whereas Jason had been teaching combat, it was clear that Piper was teaching something theoretical, not practical. She was emerging from a classroom, dressed kind of like a professor. She looked at ease. Calm. Content. Or at least, she did. The serene expression was wiped from her face as soon as she laid eyes on Percy. Her jaw dropped and her eyes had grown to the size of dinner plates. She stared at him for a few moments, before she flung herself at him and wrapped her arms around his torso as hard as her small frame allowed her to. He returned the favor. He had really missed Piper. She had always been like a little sister to him. It felt good to hug her again. She pulled away after several moments.

"Percy… Where have you been?" she asked desperately.

"I'll explain. Can we get everyone together? I don't really want to go over it a dozen times."

She stared at him a little bit longer, but she understood. She was pretty smart and she knew him pretty damn well. She would be able to tell that whatever he had been through over the last 20 years hadn't been very pleasant, so she could appreciate that he didn't want to go through it over and over again.

"Ok, fair enough. I can get a message to them to meet at our place ASAP," her eyes shifted to Sara, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Piper," Percy cut in, "This is Sara. She's a friend. I can vouch for her."

Piper's eyebrows rose fractionally, but she left it there. Percy had been gone for 20 years, but his word still carried weight. If he vouched that someone could be trusted, then that person was to be trusted. That was all there was to it.

"Good to meet you," Piper said, reaching out to shake Sara's hand.

Sara reached out and took it, "Likewise."

After that, Piper excused herself to get in contact with the others. While she got hold of them, Jason led Percy and Sara to the villa. It was located in a beautiful spot in town. But Percy knew that. He had already been there when he checked it out as a viable place to move to. He knew the area and he knew what the villas were like on the inside.

As they approached the house, Percy was sent back in time. Back to when he had first seen in, his future in mind, with his beautiful wife-to-be. Maybe a few children. He forced himself back to the present. Dwelling in the past did no one any favors. The house looked just like how he remembered it. Though, he noticed something different. There was a camera installed at the front door. It was beyond tiny. Almost invisible. If his senses weren't enhanced to the degree they were, he would never have noticed. He barely even saw it even with his massively boosted vision. He only saw it after sensing the slight electrical current flowing to and from it. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Why would Jason and Piper be security-conscious in New Rome? There was never any crime to be protected from. He made a mental note to ask his friend about it later.

As Jason led them inside, he was greeted with the interior that he already knew, but it was altered slightly. You could tell that the place was lived in. There was almost no clutter, and Percy could tell that none of it came from Jason. They were both reasonably organized people, but out of the two, Piper was simply tidy, while Jason was borderline obsessive. Percy scanned around the living room. There were a lot of pictures. Anyone that didn't know them could walk inside and instantly recognize what the couple held near and dear to their hearts. Their friends. Family. There must have been dozens of pictures. There were so many of the two with the rest of the seven. Leo and Calypso were seen frequently. Frank and Hazel were in every other picture. There were half a dozen with Thalia. Nico was surprisingly common. Reyna was seen throughout the pictures. Out of the several dozen pictures, there were quite a few that were old enough to include Percy. He saw his own face many times. He looked so much happier back then. Back then, when life was simple. He had to turn away when he caught sight of blonde hair. He could feel his chest constricting at the sight of her and he knew that he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Jason led them through the house until they came to a blank wall. Jason pressed his hand against a specific section of it and held it there for a second before he pulled it back. There was a small part of the wall that was pushed in. It stayed as it was for a moment before it filled back in to match the rest. Half a second later, a section of the blank wall fell into the floor, revealing a hallway. Percy quirked an eyebrow. He had known it was there, sensing the airway currents behind the wall, but he hadn't expected too much of it.

Jason led them down the hall and they came to a fascinating room. There was a very large table in the center, surrounded by several screens and computers. Percy blinked at it all in shock. He really hadn't been expecting that. Jason saw the look of shock and felt the need to explain.

"After you vanished, we were all determined to find you. We arranged all these expeditions around the world, in tons of major cities to try and find you. But, of course, we didn't. We did find other stuff though. Stuff that kept us awake at night. The things mortals do to each other… we couldn't believe it. Of course, we aren't much better, but still. We felt like we had to help out. We made our case to the Gods and they allowed us to organize this. It's pretty top-secret; we're the only ones who really know about it. Piper and I, Leo and Calypso, Nico and Will, Frank and Hazel, Thalia, Reyna, and the Gods."

Percy took a second to absorb the information.

"So, what do you do?"

"Officially? We rescue demigods from abusive living situations. And that's a huge part of what we do, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot more than that. We try to patrol a few of the bigger cities throughout the States every night. We stop whatever crime we see. Muggings, kidnappings, assaults, rapes, and so on. We make sure to take out any monsters we see, along the way too. Plus, whenever we hear about something big going down, we move to intercept it."

"And when you say 'something big', you mean…?"

"I'll give you an example."

Jason turned to one of the screens with a keyboard laid out in front of it. He hit a few keys and brought up a police report from the LAPD. The report was about a shipment of guns that was apprehended at one of the docks. The guns had been found in several crates and a bunch of unconscious criminals were tied to them. There were also a bunch of dead ones throughout the area. Percy raised an eyebrow again, this time because he was impressed. He was supremely proud of his friends.

"Wow. That's pretty amazing. So, how did you guys set all of this up?" he asked, gesturing around the room.

It wasn't exactly "hi-tech", but there were several monitors and a few computers. He knew that they would all need their own cables and power sources, none of which were visible. A quick sense of the room confirmed that the cables were tucked into the wall, to keep them out of sight. In of itself, that wouldn't be very hard work, but he had a feeling that it was slightly above his friends' scope of abilities.

"The Gods did it for us. The entire area is incased in Celestial Bronze, so all of the tech in here doesn't attract armies of monsters. Well, no more than usual, at least. Vulcan, or Hephaestus if you prefer, has been a massive help. He helped us install everything in here after we saved one of his daughters from a group of monsters in Chicago. Leo's always tinkering with something too. He's working on something pretty cool right now, actually, but I'll let him tell you about it. I'm sure he can explain it way better than I can."

Percy nodded. Then he noticed another door off to the right.

"What's that?"

Jason grinned and gestured to follow him as he went through the door.

On the other side, there was what looked like an armory. There were a bunch of weapons neatly arranged along the walls. There was everything from the demigod-standard swords, spears, bows and arrows, spears, and knives. Then there was some more modern stuff, like guns and explosives. There were tons of different kinds of guns. Simple handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and even a few RPGs. It was a pretty good setup. There was a massive stockpile of ammo there too.

But all of that only passively registered with Percy's brain. What drew his focus first, were the several suits of armor that lined the walls. They looked kind of like superhero suits. They weren't particularly colorful, but they looked pretty damn cool. They all looked like they were made of simple leather, but he knew there was more to it. Like his robes which he had received from Chaos, he knew that they would be reinforced to be much stronger than they appeared. In addition to looking cool, they seemed to be very functional too. From the look of them, Percy could tell that they each carried a lot of gear. There were belts complete with every suit, and the belts had several pouches to store things. There were also several spaces to clip on spare magazines for their guns. The suits were very well designed. He knew that each of them was a joint effort between Leo and Piper.

They were all distinct from each other. They clearly shared the same basic design, but there were several details that were changed between each suit. The first one was clearly Jason's. It was a mix of light blue and dark yellow. He had a simple helmet for his head. Piper's was a deep, dark purple. She had a hood for her head. Leo's suit was dark red and his belt looked thicker than the others'. He clearly carried more than they did and there was a heavy hammer resting beside the suit. Like Jason, he had a helmet. Calypso had a plain white suit, with nothing to cover her head. It made enough sense. She didn't have a mortal identity, being a Titan, so she didn't need to hide her face. Nice's suit looked a little bit like Percy's robes. It was fully black, and he had a hood. He seemed to carry less gear than the rest of them, but that made enough sense. He could use the shadows to create weapons if he needed them. The only thing on his belt was a few spare magazines. Will's suit was dark yellow. There was a bow resting near it. Not the kind of ornate bow you would expect to see from a son of Apollo. This was a compound bow, made from metal. The only distinction Percy could see between that bow and the ones used in the Olympic games was that Will's didn't have any scopes or sights. He didn't need them. Frank's suit was unique. Instead of reinforced leather, it seemed to be made of some kind of elastic. Percy knew why, of course. Frank could shift from his usual form into any kind of animal he wished. The suit must have been designed to stretch with him, so that he didn't end up shredding his clothes whenever he transformed and ending up naked when he turned back. He had a hood to cover his face when he was in his regular form. Hazel's suit was black mixed with dark black highlights. She also had a hood. Reyna's suit was dark rood, almost the color of dried blood. She had a lot of stuff strapped to her belt. It was clear that she was more upfront with how she handled things. There was less ammo for guns, and more throwing knives and slots for swords and stuff. Thalia didn't have a suit. Each suit had a cape and upon closer inspection, Percy noticed slight metal plating around the knuckles. Knuckledusters. Nice.

He was ever so slightly blown away. He had fully expected his friends to be doing a lot of good in the world, but he hadn't been expecting anything of that scope. They had clearly put a lot of effort into their operation. He formed a mental map of the United States. A list of big cities sprung to mind. Cities where crime was high and police interference was low. Places that desperately needed help. And his friends were helping. He felt even prouder of them.

He noticed Jason looking at him hesitantly. He looked concerned. Worried. He was probably worried that Percy was freaked out. That he was unnerved by the idea of his friends acting as vigilantes. The thought of his friends killing people. He didn't know what Percy actually felt at that moment. He felt the need to reassure his friend. His brother, in all but blood. He pulled Jason into a side-hug and felt his friend sag in relief.

"Jason, this is amazing. Seriously, wow. I'm really proud of you. All of you."

The blonde man beamed at him.

"You're sure you don't have some problem with this? I mean… we do kill people."

"I do too. Sometimes, you do what you have to do."

Jason looked even more relieved than he had earlier. Just then, a sound chimed. A look at the side wall told Percy what it was. There had been an alarm set up and connected with the front door. Every time someone entered the house, the alarm would go off. Anyone that was in the base of operations would know to go up and greet the visitor. The alarm had an accompanying monitor that showed the footage from the camera he had noticed earlier. The monitor showed all of his friends entering the house, led by Piper.

Jason gestured to sit down at the round table that dominated the first room. Percy and Sara took their seats and a few moments later, Piper and everyone else appeared in the room. They looked confused as to why they had been summoned out of the blue, but their jaws dropped the moment they laid eyes on Percy. There were a few seconds of stunned silence before he was consumed in a massive group hug. He was reasonably certain that he was going to walk away from it with several bruises, but he didn't care. He had really missed them.

Once they released him, his friends all hounded him with questions, Piper and Jason included. He had promised them some answers when everyone was together, so they were still desperate to know where he had been for so long. Unfortunately, he still couldn't tell them. He trusted his friends beyond anything, but orders were orders. One day, he would be able to tell them, and that would be that. But today wasn't that day. He told them what he could, of course. Basically, the same stuff he had told Thalia. He had been at a place and been taught by someone. He told them about his enhanced senses and his healing factor, which he hadn't even told the Gods about. It was for the best that they didn't know. He told them about his shadow powers, too. Nico in particular had looked quite shocked at that. After 20 minutes of catching up, he told them about Sara.

"By the way guys, this is Sara. She's…She and I have been with each other for a long time. She's good, trust me. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't even be here right now."

They all looked slightly shocked at that. Sara included.

"When did I save your life?" she asked, genuinely confused.

He tilted his head at her, "You remember. The recruits, in my bunk."

"Ohhh. Right, I remember," she shuddered uncomfortably. Clearly, the memory wasn't fun for her. It wasn't exactly a picnic for him, either. Her hand reached out under the table to give his knee a reassuring squeeze.

"Recruits?" questioned Frank.

"Can't really talk about it."

With a sigh, Frank sat back in his chair.

"That's a lot that you can't tell us, man."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you more, I honestly do, but I can't. I'll be able to someday though. I'm not sure when, exactly, but I will."

There was a moment of silence as everyone at the table gathered their thoughts. Based on the expressions of his friends, they were inclined to go with him on it. They were willing to trust him, so long as he swore that he would tell them one day. Going through war together formed some pretty strong bonds.

"Alright," Jason said, "If you say she's good, then she's good. So, Sara, you said you aren't a demigod, so what are you?"

Sara smirked to herself.

"I'm an alien," she said casually.

His friends' eyes bugged out of their skulls. It was an understandable reaction. They were demigods, and as such, were used to a certain level of unpredictability, but finding out that they were talking to a literal alien was shocking even by their standards. Leo was the first to recover, as a massive grin washed over his face.

"I KNEW aliens were real! I knew it! What planet are you from? Are you a martian?"

Sara blinked. She had prepared herself for a few possible responses that she considered more likely than others, but that hadn't been one of them.

"Umm… No, I'm not a martian," she said cautiously.

Leo blinked and deflated somewhat.

"Oh… Sure. So where are you from?"

If possible, Sara looked even more confused than she had been.

"I'm actually not sure. The people that took in Percy, took me in when I was really young. I never found out where I was from."

"That sounds pretty tough," Frank chimed in, sounding sympathetic.

Sara gave a half-shrug. Percy could tell that she felt pretty uncomfortable talking about it. She had struggled enough to tell him, and that was after he had laid out his entire life for her. He could tell that she felt a bit weird talking about it with near-strangers.

"Well, it's been so long that I'm cool with it. After several thousand years, the first 2 don't really count for much."

Again, Percy's friends blinked in surprise. They were coming to realize that the alien sitting before them was as old as their Gods, if not older. But they didn't really comment on it. They just reasoned with themselves and moved on. It took Percy a second to realize why. It was never polite to discuss a lady's age. Their good manners made him snicker slightly.

"Alright," Leo started, "We've been over all of the important stuff, now we need to cut loose a little bit. You're back, man! We need to celebrate!"

Percy couldn't help the smile that cut across his face. He had missed his friends.

They all left camp and ended up in LA. They made their way around town, having fun. They found several bars where they ate like crazy and drank even crazier. It had been 20 years since they had seen each other, so they were going to do their reunion in style. While they had already caught up on everything important, they spent hours swapping anecdotes. Of course, Percy didn't have too many of his own to tell, but he listened attentively and commented whenever he found something particularly funny. Sara had a lot to talk about. It was obvious that she wanted his friends to like her, so she pulled out some of her best stories. They were all stories that he had heard her tell before, but he paid just as much attention. He loved listening to her talk, and she was an extremely animated storyteller. When he had first heard her voice, he had thought that she could read the phone book to him and he would have listened contentedly. He reaffirmed his opinion. Her voice was as smooth as caramel and he adored every word that came out of her mouth. A casual glance around the table told him that his friends seemed to like her. In fairness, it was pretty tough not to. She was easily one of his favorite people.

Unfortunately, they kept getting approached by random people. There was a sea of women hitting on the guys and an army of horny dudes making moves on the girls. Each of them was dealt with appropriately. Sara took a few attempts to get used to the routine, but she caught on soon. They all had their own excuses for their particular suitors.

But aside from that, it was a very fun evening. Percy could clearly see how his friends had grown while he was gone. It wasn't like a night/day difference; they were still the same people, but clearly more grown-up. It made him realize that they had basically just been kids back then. Throughout the prophecy of the 7, they had all been 17 or 18 years old. Now, they were all nearly in their 40s, not that they looked like it. Despite looking exactly the same, they were much more mature than they had been.

At around 3 a.m they all went back. Percy and Sara were left with a choice; whether to return to Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter. It wasn't much of a choice though. While Percy had spent most of his life on Earth at Camp Half-Blood, it was now the furthest thing from a home to him. Not only would he be haunted by memories of a happier time, but he would be faced directly with the man who had taken everything from him. Jack was a God now, so even after the monumental beating Percy had given him, he would have recovered by that time. He was sure that if he saw him strolling around camp, he would beat him even worse all over again. The sight of him made his blood boil. Percy and Sara returned to Camp Jupiter with everyone else.

Once they got back to the camp, there wasn't much more socialization. They were all a bit tired, so they just said goodnight to each other and went their separate ways. Percy and Sara went to the villa adjacent to Jason and Piper's. The one he had thought he would move into. They walked through the rooms he had seen 20 years ago. He could still remember the way he had imagined it would look once they moved in together and got married. He swallowed hard and tried not to think about it. He and Sara got into bed and went straight to sleep. He hoped against hope for a dreamless sleep, but of course, he wasn't that lucky.

The instant he fell asleep, the memories invaded his mind like a plague. There was a continuous barrage of visions. Blonde hair. Grey eyes. Laughing and grinning. Gentle eye-rolls and teasing smiles. Words, softly spoken. 'I love you's sent back and forth. 'Seaweed brain's and 'Wise girl's exchanged. It was all so vivid. He almost forgot that she was dead. That she had been murdered by his brother. He almost forgot that it had been 20 years since any of those memories had taken place. He almost believed that he was back there, and nothing had happened. But that wasn't the case. After what felt like hours in his dream-state, his memories turned sour. The wonderful memories were replaced entirely. They were replaced by the image of his beautiful fiancee and his amazing mother lying dead in an alley. The expressions on their faces, frozen for all of time. The bullet holes in their chests.

He woke up sweating and screaming. He shot upright like a torpedo, his back perfectly straight and rigid. He was breathing hard. He hadn't had a nightmare that bad in a very long time. He took a few moments to try and breathe properly, before he sagged forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

He almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand on his shoulder. On instinct, he twisted around and slapped the hand away from him, assuming that he was being attacked by someone. He used his other arm to grab the assault by the throat and shove the person down and pin them to the pillows. He felt a hand gently wrap itself around his wrist. Not forcefully, to try and remove it. Just a comforting gesture. It confused him. That's when he realized who he was pinning to the mattres. It wasn't someone trying to kill him. It was Sara, who had just tried to comfort him after his vivid nightmare. He flung himself back in shock, making sure to let go of her. As soon as his hand released her throat, she brought her own hand to it, to rub it soothingly.

"Percy," she started, but he didn't let her finish.

Without thinking, he shadow travelled away. He didn't even have a destination in mind, he just needed to leave. He needed to be alone. The shadows spat him out at the beach where he had shared his first kiss with the woman he thought he would marry. Another memory. Like his subconscious was taunting him. He stayed there though. He could have left, but he didn't.

It dawned on him that he deserved to feel like he was. He deserved to feel the crushing guilt. Not just his mother, but his fiancee too, were dead. And what had he done? Had he avenged them? Had he mourned them properly? No. Here he was, 20 years later, with a new girlfriend in Sara, and a new maternal figure in Chaos. He had practically replaced them and he hadn't even realized it. What gave him the right to be happy? What gave him the right to move on? He knew in his head that they would have wanted him to move on. To be happy. But knowing something and understanding it were two very different things. In his head, he could understand that they would have wanted the best for him. In his heart, he felt like he was committing the worst kind of sin. So he deserved to feel guilty.

Not to mention the fact that he had hurt Sara. That was a whole other clusterfuck. One of the few people in his life who had been there for him and made him happy in the last 2 decades, and he had probably just alienated her forever. Good. He deserved it. Sara was a luminously wonderful person, who didn't deserve to be intertwined with someone like him. Clearly, everything he touched turned poisonous. She should get out while she has the chance. Before he ended up hurting her even worse.

He spent the next half-hour in his self-loathing cocoon on the beach before he felt a hand on his shoulder. He saw Sara standing there. He turned away from her.

"Please leave," he croaked out.

She sat down next to him. He didn't say anything. Neither did she. That worked for him. They sat in silence for a while before she spoke.

"You were having a nightmare about her, weren't you?"

He just nodded mutely.

"It's ok, Percy," she said soothingly.

"What about this is ok?" he snapped back.

"Everything. It's ok for you to miss them. It's ok that you had that nightmare. It happens. Your reaction when you woke up, was ok."

He just scoffed.

"I'm serious, Percy!" she said, a bit more firmly, "You need to cut yourself some slack. I know it's hard being back here, but you aren't being fair to yourself. It's been a really long time."

"So that makes it ok?!"

"That makes what ok?"

"This whole situation! I should be mourning my fiancee. I should be mourning my mother. Not moving on. That's not fair to them."

"No, Percy, that's not fair to you."

"I'm not the one who was shot in an alley."

Sara took a deep breath and went quiet for a moment.

"So, what, Percy? You're supposed to live like a monk for the rest of your life? You're never allowed to love anyone ever again? That's not what life is supposed to be like. Especially not for you. You deserve more than that."

"Says who?"

She looked at him incredulously.

"Says me. I know you, Percy. I know that you're a good person. I know you don't deserve to feel miserable for the rest of your life. Why do you feel like you do?"

"Because I betrayed them! I just moved on with my life. My mother dies? No problem! I'll just replace her with Chaos. My fiancee dies? No problem! I'll just replace her with you."

He could see that Sara was getting frustrated.

"What the hell makes you think that you've replaced anyone? What's wrong with moving on with your life?"

"What's wrong, is that I haven't even done the slightest bit to avenge them! I couldn't even do that for them. I can't even do that one simple thing for them. And now I get to see their murderer parading around in front of me, and there's not a goddamn thing I can do about it!"

Clearly, Sara decided that she was done with words. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him. He tried to extract himself, but he wasn't able to. She was a lot stronger than he was. He resisted as much as he could, but he could feel his drive for it lowering. He noticed how tired he was, mentally. It was starting to manifest itself physically too. Every muscle in his body was aching. He felt so damn tired. He felt tears well up in his eyes. He let himself hug Sara back and cried while she held him as tightly as she could.

Eventually, they moved from where their spot on the beach. He had calmed down enough that he let Sara shadow travel them away. He noticed that she didn't take them to the villa in New Rome. Instead, they were in a room in a hotel. Probably in Manhattan. She left him there for a moment and shadow travelled away. She returned a few moments later with a key to the room. In the back of his mind, he wondered what last name was on the ID she would have given them in order to rent the room for the night.

When she came back, they didn't say a word to each other. She just climbed into the bed with him and wrapped him in her arms. They fell asleep pretty quickly. Thankfully, Percy didn't dream for the rest of the night. He woke up and checked the clock in the room. It was 11 a.m. A glance over his shoulder told him that Sara was still asleep.

He shadow travelled back to camp. He knew that his friends would be up by that point and didn't want them to worry that he had disappeared yet again. He knocked on Jason and Piper's villa and waited a moment. The door swung open to reveal a very relieved Piper. She hugged him.

"We thought you were gone again!" she said into his chest.

He was massively tall and she was rather short, so the hug was slightly awkward but he relished in it. Piper was kind of like a sister to him, and he loved her as such. He had kind of forgotten how good it was to hug someone platonically until he had arrived on Earth again. In Chaos' realm, there were only 2 people he would ever entertain hugging. Chaos and Sara. Chaos wasn't much of a hugger, and any hig with Sara was far from platonic.

"I wouldn't leave without saying goodbye if I had a choice, Pipes."

A few moments later, she pulled away.

"Where were you? We got a little worried, so we may have broken into your villa to look for you."

He blinked.

"Seriously? Breaking and entering?"

She quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Sweetie, yesterday you found out that I'm a vigilante. Does a little B&E really concern you?"

He shrugged, "I suppose it doesn't, no."

"Well then, you mind answering my question?"

He took a deep breath, "I need some advice. From everyone. You mind having everyone meet here at your place?"

She looked kind of reluctant to go without answers, but she trusted him.

"Yeah, of course. I'll track everyone down. Let yourself downstairs to the room that Jason showed you yesterday. We should be with you in a few minutes."

And with that, she walked away. She left the door to their villa open, so he let himself in and shut it behind him. He made his way through the villa, to the false wall that Jason had showed him. He pressed his hand approximately where Jason had. It was easy enough to find the precise spot. He could feel the sensor on the other side of the wall. It was a pretty simple machine. The wall was pushed in slightly, which triggered a little sensor, almost like a pressure plate. The sensor then activated a row of cogs, which caused the retractable portion of the wall to slide down. When the same switch on the other side was activated, the wall would slide back up. A simple mechanism, but perfectly effective for its purpose.

He made his way down to the main room which he had seen the other day. Looking at it while alone, gave him the opportunity to examine a few things on his own. There were a couple of computers there and several monitors. He turned on one of the computers and found that they didn't have a password. Fair enough. Why would they? Supposedly, no one knew about this place, so why would they feel the need to password-protect their devices?

A quick look through their files showed him some stuff that he deemed to be quite interesting. They were very organized. They had a lot of data on various cases. There was a lot about demigods. They had several files on people throughout the United States whom they suspected of being half-bloods. The kids in the files had been diagnosed with either ADHD or dyslexia. Or both. They had been forced to switch between a lot of schools. There had also been several reports of the child exhibiting behavior that mortals ruled as "unusual", or being caught up in unexplainable situations. They were all good candidates. All of the names also came with addresses and a family history. Clearly, it was standard practice for his friends to swoop in when a suspected demigod turned 13, or if the child was being abused, or hunted by monsters.

He left the main room and checked out the room with all of the suits and weapons. His friends' armory. He examined the suits a bit more closely than he had been able to with Jason and Sara there. A closer inspection of the suits revealed that they would certainly be bullet-proof. He could feel that with his fingers. There were more vulnerable spots that his Chaos-assigned robes, but they would still do very well. It was important that they did. His friends were demigods, and very powerful demigods at that, but they were still vulnerable to bullets. One between the eyes and everything would be over. Same went for knives, theoretically, but he knew that his friends were far too skillful to have that be a real issue. They were demigods, and some of them had been through a war, while the rest had been through 2. If there was one thing that war did, it ensured that the surviving soldiers knew their shit. Untrained mortals with knives posed little threat to them. Untrained mortals with guns, however, could do some real damage. It was a sad fact that someone didn't really need much training to use a gun. In an hour of practice, someone could become efficient enough to kill someone with a handgun.

He took a look at the capes. They interested him quite a lot. They weren't ordinary fabric, though they behaved as if they were. But there was certainly more to them than met the eye. His enhanced sense of touch told him that the capes were all fire-resistant and even bullet-proof. He also felt that the tips were weighted and iron-tipped. The capes clearly played a part in their combat style. He heard his friends approaching from above, so he sat down at the central table and waited for them to come in. Slowly enough, they all came in. They all took their seats at the table. He noted the way they did it. There was no randomness to the way they sat. Apparently, each person was assigned a seat. As they sat down there was a brief silence before Piper broke it.

"So, why did you ask us here?"

He leaned forward so that his elbows were resting on the table and rubbed his eyelids. He was tired. But he knew that it was a mental type of exhaustion, rather than physical. His body had all the rest it needed. It was his mind that was being pushed to the point of breaking.

"It's kind of a long story."

He told them all about his dream last night. He told them about how he had reacted to Sara when he had woken up. He told them about his thoughts as he was on the beach. He told them about the argument that he and Sara had had. Once he was done talking, they all leaned back in their seats and absorbed the information. They all looked like they were thinking hard. Even Calypso, who had once had a thing for him, was thinking intently about how to help him with his issues with another woman. He appreciated that. Leo too. He was deep in thought over the best way to help him deal with his problems. He had always thought that Leo was by far the least mature of them. He was glad he had grown up somewhat. He certainly still retained his penchant for lunacy, thankfully. His reaction to finding out Sara was an alien proved that. But he could be more serious when he needed to be, and for that, Percy was grateful.

Eventually, Piper reacted. She reached across the table and wrapped her hand around his. He gave her a light squeeze and a small smile. Everyone around the table made similar gestures toward him. There were lots of half-hugs, and pats on the back, and reassuring gazes. He appreciated them more than he could really say. The first to speak, was Frank.

"Dude, I'm really sorry. What exactly do you need our help with? Anything you need."

Percy gave him another tight smile and crossed his arms around his torso, in a type of self-soothing gesture.

"I need to talk something through with you guys."

"Whatever you need to talk about, we're here," Calypso said.

He took a deep breath and considered how to phrase what he was about to say.

"I think… I think Sara and I need to break up."

There was a decent variety of reactions around the table. They were all indicative of surprise.

"But," Piper started, "I thought you said she talked you down last night on the beach?"

"She did. But I still can't help but think. Back in Ch… Back where we were before we came back to Earth, it was pretty much just me and her. It was a lot easier not to think about everything that happened back here before I left. But now that I'm here, I can't ignore it anymore. I thought I dealt with their deaths a long time ago, but I was wrong. I haven't dealt with anything. I basically just ran away. I haven't confronted the real problem. I'm not sure if i can do that while I'm in a relationship. Even if I do lo… Even if I have feelings for her."

There were a few moments of silence. Jason was the next to speak.

"Buddy… You haven't been able to describe where you've been the last 20 years, or what you've been doing in that time, but one thing is pretty clear. This girl, Sara, seems to be genuinely important to you. More than some rebound, more than a fling. You don't need me to tell you that if they were still here, they would want you to be happy."

"I'm not sure if I can move on though. Not since I still haven't dealt with my grief. Or at least, since I still haven't killed the guy that killed them."

Something flittered across Piper's face.

"You know who did it?"

He nodded.

"Was it Jack?" Leo asked.

Now that surprised him. He didn't think they knew.

"Yes, actually, it was. How did you know?"

They all exchanged glances. Hazel spoke.

"We didn't know for sure, but we've had our suspicions ever since you disappeared. We knew that you loved him, so it made no sense that you would attack him like that for no reason. We didn't buy the bullshit story that he sold to the Olympians. We knew that there was only one thing he could have done to make you so angry. And the beating you laid out on him when you got back, really helped our suspicions."

He nodded mutely. Solid reasoning.

"Why haven't you killed him yet?" Piper asked.

He sighed.

"That's not by choice, believe me. The person that sent me here told me that I can't kill him. Not yet."

"Why not?"

He sighed again, "I can't say."

They all nodded understandingly. They trusted that he had a good reason for it.

"Well, if we can't kill him," Leo picked up, "Then we can at least out him. Tell the Gods what he did and have him exiled."

"No, we can't do that either. I was told that he has to remain in the position he has at Camp Half-Blood. It's important."

They didn't like that. Their faces tightened and he sensed Piper's fist clench under the table. He hated it just as much as they did, if not more, but Chaos had told him why and he accepted her reasoning on the matter. His vengeance wasn't worth the potential hundreds of lives that would be taken if Jack wasn't around to train the campers for the next war.

"Percy," Jason started, "If you want my advice on the Sara thing, then I think you should do what your gut tells you. You have fantastic instincts, and I know whatever decision you make, it'll be the right one. At the end of the day, this comes down to you, and you alone. Regardless of what you decide to do, I know I'll support you all the way."

Everyone else nodded. He was glad to have their support. And he made his decision. He needed to break things off with Sara. He didn't want to, but he needed to. Best case scenario, they could stay friends. But if not, then it still needed to stop. He had things that he needed to deal with. A lot of things. Maybe one day, if he ever managed to work through things the right way, then they could try again. Or maybe they wouldn't.

Well, that's the end of that chapter. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the long wait. This chapter was pretty tough to write, and the next one will be too. Next one shouldn't take as long though. Exams are almost over, so yay. Once again, this chapter was betaed by Anon516, so quality of life fixes are all down to him.