Today was the day the Romans went back to camp Jupiter, so there was even more chaos than this day usually saw. We all had breakfast together and I saw Nico arguing with Chiron about sitting at the Apollo table. Why did he want to sit there? Not that his request would actually go through. Percy and I had been trying to get to sit together for over a year and Chiron wouldn't allow it. After breakfast, I helped Percy pack the rest of his things (He insisted that his stuff was too much to fit into his bag, but a bit of rearranging did the trick.) Now, the last day of summer could truly begin.

After breakfast, the new beads were handed out. This year, the head counselors had voted on the Argo II, which was one of the few times that the bead actually showed something that the entire camp had taken part in, unlike some other beads that referenced a specific quest (Fleece, labyrinth) or just a specific person arriving (Thalia's tree, trident). We also decided to make one side of the bead orange and the other one purple, representing the two camps now united. There had been a suggestion to make it show the doors of death or Tartarus, representing the first three demigods to escape from there, but Percy, Nico and I really didn't need a picture of our worst trauma hanging around our neck, so we had vetoed that idea.

Each cabin got their beads from their respective counselor, which looked very awkward in the case of Percy, Jason and Nico, since they all were the only ones at their respective tables. Over the course of the day, more and more campers were picked up by their mortal families while others left on their own. Around noon, Clarisse noticed something "Hey guys, there's still a tradition we need to fulfill. I know it's not quite the 18th yet, but then Percy won't be here, so I guess we gotta do it now" After a moment, the campers began to understand what she meant and picked up me and Percy. They then also picked up Hazel, Frank (who were about to leave camp with the rest of the Romans), Piper and Jason and carried all six of us over to the lake. Percy already knew where to do. Once we all landed in the water, Percy made three separate air bubbles, one for each couple, and what came next was pretty much…

Percy

…the best triple under water kiss of all time. And honestly, I was a bit proud of myself for maintaining three different air bubbles with just about one percent of brain capacity. The other 99% were busy with Annabeth kissing me. When everyone was finished, I brought us back to the surface. "Hey Clarisse" I shouted over to her "Where's Chris? I need you two here" "Nope Prissy, not happening" Well, three under water kisses in one day were enough. But next time I got to camp, she wouldn't get away so easily. Once everyone was dried up again, which thanks to me took around two seconds, the Romans were ready to leave. They had already packed up their own camp (remember, when they came here, camp half-blood had been their target of war) and were now ready to head home. The last hugs and good byes were exchanged, the two remaining nymphs were loaded onto their busses and everyone got in. Nico and Hazel would help them get home faster. Of course, Nico couldn't shadow travel everyone through half the country, or at least Will wouldn't allow it, but they could still help. I didn't quite understand the mechanics of it, but apparently the fleet of busses (fleet was probably not the correct term here, but I couldn't help it. Nautical terminology was literally in my blood) would be suspended in a state between normal matter and whatever you are while shadow traveling, which would greatly accelerate the trip. Nico claimed that they'd be there by noon today, even though it was already 1 PM, so either he was referring to San Francisco time, or he could time travel, which I doubted. Not because it was per se unrealistic, His grandfather was Kronos after all, just because he would have used the power before. I watched the fleet flicker into darkness and then shoot off in a trail of darkness, which for some reason made me think of Santa Claus. Though it would have to be an evil Santa for the trail left behind to be so dark. How about Santa claw? That sounded evil.

With the Romans gone, our camp suddenly seemed empty, even though it had always been like this up until less than two months ago. Apparently, my perception of a normal amount of campers changed quickly. Perception of the norm generally changes rather fast, for example I could not get enough of sunlight and grass after Tartarus, even though those things had been normal parts of my life just three days before. That time has really taught me to enjoy the little things in life, which is probably the best thing I or anyone else has ever said and will ever say about that place. At around three in the afternoon, I decided to head home as well. I said goodbye to Annabeth for probably the first time this year. At least it was the first time it was for more than a few hours. Of course, all of those good byes could have been our last, but I had learned long ago that looking at demigodhood from a factual point of view was quite depressing and should be avoided. "See you on Wednesday, seaweed brain. Love you." "Actually, I was thinking you could already come over tomorrow. In the evening. Then you could sleep at my place and we get to spend our entire birthday together." "Well, if your mom allows it, see you tomorrow seaweed brain." "One more thing, we're shouldprobably tell Mom about the DID, do you want me to brief her, or are you gonna do that?" "I think I'm going to tell her. On the other hand, it might be better if she knows what it is beforehand. I think there's this one movie about it, it's called Sybil. It's not really accurate, but as long as your mom knows the general gist of it, that'll make things a lot easier." "Ok, I can try to get her to watch that. Shouldn't be a problem, she loves watching movies with me."

I wanted to kiss her, but then noticed where we were standing. We walked away from Thalia's tree and I gave her one last kiss. Then, I ran down the hill towards the beach, jumped in the water and started swimming home, which was actually faster than if my mom had driven me all the way from camp. Instead, she waited for me at the coast of the east river, only about a kilometer from our apartment. I could have just walked that distance, but my mom had insisted on driving me. Okay, I had all my stuff from camp with me, so maybe walking wasn't really a possibility. When I saw Paul's car standing next to the river, I made the water shoot me up and jacksonfully (Jason declared that only he can say gracefully, so I'm stuck with jacksonfully) landed next to it. Once I got in the car, I explained what I had come up with

"Hi Mom. Remembered when I told you how one part of my mission made time pass slower? And how the lotus casino did the same? Well, neither Annabeth nor I know exactly when our exact birthdays should be, so we figured that the 18th was about in the middle and to celebrate both our birthdays together on that day. Here at our place. If that's okay." "Sure, a double demigod birthday in my house. What could possibly go wrong." "Nothing. That's what could go wrong. Thanks Mom. Oh, and I also suggested she come over to us tomorrow, so we can spend the entire day together from morning on. Is that okay?" "Do I really want a freshly reunited couple spending the night at my place? Wonder what you might do. On the other hand, didn't Annabeth once say she's asexual? I guess we're safe then." "Correct, totally ace. Nothing to worry about." Ok, that was kind of a lie. But only kind of, because if you're demi you're still on the ace spectrum, so technically, saying that Annabeth was ace was true and, as the Stolls once said, technically the truth is the best kind of truth. And if it made my mom agree to let Annabeth spend the night with us…

We arrived at our apartment, my Mom parked the car and we got inside. Once there, I put my stuff in my room and then we had lunch. My mom had finally figured out a way to make completely blue spaghetti. The problem was that when they had been in the water long enough to eat, the color hadn't reached the middle of the spaghetti yet, so they always had a yellow core. But now she had apparently figured out a way around that, so I finally had entirely blue spaghetti.

After that, I spent the rest of the day preparing my present for Annabeth. I had actually spent several days designing a Lego set specifically for her. Ok, a Lego set might seem a bit childish for someone who survived two wars, but Annabeth likes it. But she likes a lot of things I don't understand, like physics. The set I designed showed the Parthenon, with the Athena Parthenos in it. Choosing all the necessary parts had been no easy task, especially without much internet access, and I probably would not have managed to do it, had the Athena cabin's near infinite supply of books not contained a complete list of all existing Lego bricks. But even with the list, it still took a lot of time. The things you do for love I suppose. After making a list of all the bricks I would need, I had my mom order them and have them shipped to our apartment. I found the ordered bricks in my room and now all that was left to do was to give the box a better outside design and add the instructions. I had just finished packing everything up when my mom called for dinner.

After dinner, I remembered what Annabeth had told me to do. Watch that movie. "You know what we haven't done in ages? Watch a movie together" "Sure, why not? What you want to watch? Finding Nemo again?" She just knows what I like. "Normally I would, but Annabeth just suggested me this one movie that she thought was quite interesting. It's called Sybil." "If you say so. I won't question Annabeth's advice. Let me see if I can find it anywhere." We ended up finding and watching the movie. Now I needed to be a bit careful not to give away the importance of it. I reminded myself of Chiron, or Mr. Brunner, as he had called himself back then, teaching me all about Greek mythology without being able to tell me that I was part of it.

"So, what'd you think of the movie?" "It's interesting that Annabeth liked it, because usually she's all about facts. And this movie didn't seem that realistic. But then again, I would have said the same if I had watched a movie about Greek gods 20 years ago, and now I know it's all true so who knows?" "Yeah, who knows? Probably Apollo, he's literally the god of knowing stuff. The only thing he doesn't seem to know is how to make good haikus. Like seriously.

My sister pleads for my help

Green grass breaks through the snow

I am so cool.

What kind of a text is that?" "I have no idea. Isn't he also the god of poetry? You'd think he'd be good at that but no." I really didn't want to anger Apollo more, so I decided to go to bed. It felt a bit weird to know Annabeth so far away from me; we hadn't been farther than a few kilometers since the feast of Fortuna. And at night we had never gotten more than about 100 meters. But tomorrow, we'd be back together. With that thought on my mind I fell asleep.

My dream began on a gravel filled slope leading down into a dark hole. It took me a second to realize what it was. This was the place where Grover had almost been dragged into Tartarus four years ago. I once again wondered whether the flying shoes were still there. Next to the hole I noticed someone operating some large machine. I approached him and noticed it was Beckendorf. And the machine looked a lot like a grabber arm. "Hey, can you hear me? " I asked "Who's there?" "It's me, Percy. I'm seeing you in a dream. Whatcha doing?" "Oh, I met Leo a few days ago and we talked a bit about your mission and how he wanted to pull you and Annabeth out of here. And now I'm trying to get Bob and Damasen out. But the arm won't reach deep enough, only to the upper layers. I've already found Annabeth's stuff, but for some reason I can't pull them up. Gravity is a bit weird down there." A plan started to form in my head. Or should I say optimistic goal? "Two questions. How precisely can you control the grabber and could you get the stuff deeper into Tartarus?" "I got about one centimeter of accuracy with this thing, and yes, I could probably get it deeper in. Why are you asking" "I have a plan that involves blowing stuff up. But you'll be safe." The last time I had blown up something in his presence, it had been his death. "Ok, what do I need to do?" "I'm gonna need you to type something on the laptop." He moved around the levers for a moment, probably opening the laptop. "Ok, what do I write?" I told him the text I had come up with.

To Bob and Damasen,

I had an idea. Using the heat of the Phlegeton, maybe you can boil of a lot of water and use the steam as an engine to get you out of Tartarus. Something similar has worked for me in the past. All the programs necessary for the calculations are on the laptop. And please bring it and the other stuff with you. We need it here.

See you on the surface.

Percy

"And now make sure that stuff gets to the swamp." Beckendorf went back to his levers, but I couldn't see him do anything else since that was when I woke up. I'll never understand how you can go to sleep, dream for like two minutes, and then you wake up and 8 hours have passed. During breakfast, my mom and I discussed in more detail everything that had happened since last December. Like she had already mentioned, my mom was three months pregnant. Finally a half sibling from her side of the family. I had way too many on my dad's side, including but not limited to: a magical sheep, a cyclops who had guarded the wool of said sheep, another cyclops who had helped me steal the wool from the first cyclops, a few giants, the first Pegasus, my friend's horse and a warrior in golden armor that was sometimes a pig with wings. And I didn't know whether Poseidon had also fathered the myonean drakon, who had the exact same eye color as most other children of Poseidon, but at this point it wouldn't even surprise me. But all those children would also mean that my new half-sister would have a whole lot of step siblings. I just hoped they would not insist on meeting her once she was born. I could deal with Tyson, but apart from him, all her step siblings were either animals, monsters, otherwise evil, or dead. All not very good criteria for being let anywhere near a young child. But my sister's birth was our least concern right now. Now it was time to organize my birthday. And Annabeth's. Tomorrow we'd celebrate.

Hey there, I'm back with another chapter. I missed a few uploads because I was on vacation, but I'll try to get back on schedule. In theory, chapter 23 is supposed to come out this Friday. I probably won't be able to catch up this soon, but I'll try my best. I also did some writing while I was gone, so it's not like I have nothing to work with. See you probably sooner than you expected.

PS: I said that Bob and Damasen still being alive wouldn't matter to the story. As you can see, I lied.