Damasen opened his fist, revealing a backpack. My backpack! I ran to Damasen who gave it to me. I almost broke the zipper as I opened it up. In it was all the stuff I had had with me during my solo quest: A water bottle, nylon string and plastic swords. And below that were two of my most prized possessions: Daedalus' laptop and my dagger. I was just as excited as I had been when seeing Percy again at camp Jupiter. Maybe even a little bit more. Sorry Percy. And it wasn't just me, I could feel a lot of happiness and excitement bleeding through from other alters. I looked at Damasen, towering over me. With him being, from my perspective, right next to the Athena Parthenos with her Aigis, the scene had a surprising similarity to the last (and first) time I had received that knife: Luke, who was a lot taller than me at that point, though not by the same factor as Damasen, standing before me, Thalia with her shield in the background. This was also the second time in the past two weeks or so that aspects of this situation were recreated, the other time being when Piper had told me that she believed I was quite clever. They say that history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes, and I guessed that this was an example of that saying. I think the resemblance might have brought a little closer to front, at least I felt weirdly young if that makes sense.
I opened up the laptop, fearing it might have broken, but it still turned on. "Thank you thank you thank you" I muttered to Damasen as I hugged him. (Yeah, there was definitely some childishness coming through.) And when I say I hugged him I mean I hugged his lower leg, making me look like a toddler. I quickly let go thought because being isolated in a swamp for four millennia isn't very good for your smell. I then saw Bob coming out. I was super glad to see him even though I, logically speaking, already knew he was here. "Why does Damasen get all the thank you's?" Percy asked behind me and I turned around in confusion. "This whole thing was my idea." The expression of 'what the Hades are you talking about' on my face was apparently quite visible as Percy explained.
"Let's start at the beginning. When we fell, Leo tried making a grabber arm to get us out, remember?" Of course I remembered, when did I ever not remember something (outside of trauma. To be fair, that situation was trauma related). I nodded, signaling him to go on. "When Leo died he met Beckendorf. Then he apparently disappeared from Hades, so I'm guessing he's alive again. Anyways, Beckendorf tried recreating the grabber to rescue these two. The arm wasn't long enough to reach the swamp, but it reached the place where all your stuff landed. At that point I met him in a dream. I suggested the same tactic I used two years ago: Heat up water, blow some schist up and escape" "That's not really a tactic, just a list of random things you did that happened to work out" "Don't interrupt me wise girl. Anyways, Beckendorf used the grabber arm to type out a message on the computer. He told them to boil water with the heat from the phlegeton and make an engine. Then Beckendorf tossed all your stuff to the swamp where the two found it."
Bob continued. "Once we found it we got to work designing the engine. My favorite part was when Damasen got the phlegeton to us. He used your Knife to make a small crack that the fire could flow through. Celestial bronze is really effective down there. We ended up mixing the phlegeton with the Lethe, just because it seems to help against curses. We thought it might break the curse that bound Damasen to the swamp and it actually worked. Or maybe the curse is still effective and it just doesn't work when going up." "So, how exactly does this engine work?" I asked. Once I had fully realized my friends were here, the sciency part of my brain had taken over again. "I can show you the blueprints, they're on the laptop." I reluctantly gave the laptop to Bob. Not that I didn't trust him with it, I just didn't like giving things away that I had just gotten back. Bob found the correct file and showed it to me.
It was really interesting, mostly consisting of a large leather sack with a hole in the middle. Around the hole was a small elevation, creating a space around it where water could remain without flowing out. There were two pipes leading into this structure, one for the Lethe and one for the phlegeton. The phlegeton then heated the water to around four hundred degrees Celsius which created an immense pressure, just below of where the water would become hypercritical. This steam now had a very low density while still being pressurized to around two hundred atmospheres, meaning that standing below a hole in the leather that had a surface area of one square meter would be like being crushed by 2200 tons (Been there done that. 0/10. Would not recommend. I didn't actually remember holding the sky, but the fact that I didn't was evidence enough that it was uncomfortable to say the least.) however, the hole wasn't actually that big, only about 5 centimeters in diameter, but the pressure was still enough to lift twelve tons of leather, bone, giant, titan and skeleton saber tooth tiger. The water itself was kept in the part of the drakon that was already made for this job: its bladder. The combustion chamber (which technically did not have any combustion taking place within it, just boiling) was made from outside leather though. Even though a bladder is made for resistant increased pressures, that goes for ones around 1.1 atmospheres, not 200. The pipes were created from hollow bones and the phlegeton's fire (of which only a tiny amount was necessary since it was extremely hot) was stored within the skull of some smaller monster, neither Bob nor Damasen remembered what exactly it was. That was science/ engine explanation hour with Annabeth, now, back to the results of the engine's usage, aka the fact that Bob and Damasen were here. And small Bob, how could I forget about small Bob. Speaking of him, he and small Damasen had just come back. "Who's that cat?" Damasen asked. "That's lil dam" Percy interrupted. "He's named after you, dam is short for Damasen. And the lil is actually small, so technically he's also named after small Bob." "That's so nice of you" Damasen said. "Well, you saved our lives. Twice in Percy's case. It was the least we could do in your honor." "You're right. It's just that in Tartarus, honoring someone, or just doing anything that isn't to your own benefit is super rare." "Same for me. Ever since I could remember, which isn't very long, I've been nothing but a poorly treated janitor. The only person who was ever nice to me was Nico." I looked around, trying to find him. He had said that Will wouldn't want him to fight after shadow traveling, so maybe he was with him in the Infirmary. I went to check.
When I reached the Infirmary, Nico and Will were alone talking. Nico seemed a bit awkward reminding me of my first conversations with Percy. Was Nico catching feelings for Will? This would be his first romantic interest that was neither taken nor straight, so it actually might work out. I just hoped neither of them would be as oblivious as a certain other big three child. "Hi Nico" I said, slightly scaring the two of them. "Hi Annabeth, what do you want?" isn't it amazing how welcoming and happy Nico can be? "There's someone here you might want to see." Nico looked at Will. "Can I, it's only like fifty meters, I'll be fine." "Fine, if you insist." Nico grabbed my hand and for the second time today we shadow traveled to half-blood hill. When we arrived, Nico took a few seconds to orient himself before noticing Bob. "Nico, my friend" Bob exclaimed before running towards Nico. He might have hugged Nico, had that not likely lead to broken bones. Now that I thought about it, broken bones might be about as problematic for Nico as a spilled drink was for Percy. (I couldn't think of any medical problems that are solved by moving water around, which would have made for a slightly better comparison) since he could perform necrokinesis aka bone bending. If Percy could control fluids and Nico could control bones, did that mean that they together could control a person? I was about to suggest it, but then I realized that they'd try it out on the nearest person, which was me and I really didn't want to be their test guinea pig. That was Percy's job. Maybe I could suggest it the next time I visited my dad when I was far away from Percy and Nico.
Anyways, back to the reunion. It was pretty much over by now, there wasn't that much the two didn't know yet. "Oh btw, how was the salt bath? I forgot to ask." Percy said. "Oh, it was amazing. The relaxation actually helped me discover new aspects of my system. Turns out I have a small world in my head. I didn't get to explore that much, but there is this massive tree. It's a pine tree, but the bark is black, like Thalia's clothes and hair." "A massive black tree? Sounds scary." "You'd think so but that is not at all the case. It's actually extremely comforting to be around, like the comfort a child would get from their mother. Imagine having a proper maternal figure." I let out a I-pretend-this-is-funny-but-I'm-actually-deeply-emotionally-scared laugh and was slightly concerned that I actually had a distinct way of laughing for that exact kind of situation. Well, not having good parental figures does kinda suck, just like most of my life, and it is part of the reason why I even have DID. "But honestly, you're almost the only demigod here who has a mom who is not a goddess who doesn't care about you, dead, or insane." "Well technically, my mom has died a few years ago, but we got her back." "Well well technically technically, Sally didn't really die, Hades just teleported her into his realm or something" "Fine, she didn't technically die, but it doesn't really make a difference." "So, what do we do now? I'd say first of all we deal with this thing because I don't really feel comfortable with having a connection to that place here at camp." "Yeah, that sucks. Gonna be hard to close it up it we can't even think about what's at the bottom without risking a flashback. Because apparently all the physical hardships that come with being a demigod aren't enough, we also have to have trauma constantly almost killing us." This reminded me of a question that I had wondered about, but never dared to ask. "Percy, what would you do if I died?" He thought about it for a moment.
"I'd swim to LA and force the water to dig a tunnel almost all the way to the elevator shaft of DoA records. Then I'd Iris Hades and say something like 'Hi, I have the entire Pacific Ocean at my disposal and IF YOU DON'T GIVE ANNABETH BACK IMMEDIATELY I WILL FLOOD THIS ENTIRE REALM AND TA'-you know what I'll say 'and that would probably not be good for anyone in this universe except maybe some monsters, so I would strongly advise you give her back' And if that doesn't convince him I'll just get Piper for charm speak" without really noticing, I had taken a few steps back. Percy can be really scary when he wants to. And also when he doesn't want it. Actually, it's usually when it comes to protecting me. I love how he is always protective enough without making me feel like I can't protect myself. Because that definitely isn't the case and often, I'm the one protecting. Who knew taking fighting classes from a palikos would actually be useful. I had defended us quite well until Percy had started controlling poison, speaking of which, "Calm down seaweed brain, we don't need another Luke. I hereby add ocean water in the proximity of interdimensional elevator shafts to the list of things that must not be controlled" "But controlling ocean water is literally what my powers are for, you can't ban that." "That's why I mentioned elevator shafts, all other water is fair game. But if all else fails and I stay dead, and only then, I will allow you to execute that plan. But if you do, for the love of the gods, start small. Like, you can flood a few rooms and if he still won't give me back, do a little more" "Well, that question is answered then, where were we again?" I traced back our conversation in my head. "We were at the part where we're worried about the massive crack leading towards you know where and how we couldn't think about it" "Yeah, we should leave that to the others. Where were we before that?" I traced back further. I honestly didn't understand how this guy could lead a conversation with someone who didn't track anything that was said. "Uh, I was talking about the tree and how I didn't have a maternal figure in my life." "You're right. As always. So, was there anything else you saw?" "There was, actually. I went back to fronting after a short while and in that time I didn't get to see much because it was a bit foggy in there. But I met two of my alters. One was basically a mixture of the people who have given me the strongest feeling of comfort and safety, You and Thalia. The other one was a child named Annie, I think you met her today while unpacking." " I did. She was sooo cute and built up the Lego set. I was wondering, will she still be seven in like 2018? Because then she and my sister could be great friends." "I honestly don't know. This is sort of becoming a common thing I I'm not so sure I like that. But as far as I know, Annie has been seven since our body was seven, so almost ten years. If she hasn't aged since then, why would she now. But then again, DID is such a sparsely researched and understood topic that I can't say anything for certain. For all I know, she could shoot up to 13 tomorrow to deal with our quest for the master bolt and the bits of trauma associated with that. Did that quest even have that much trauma? Sorry, amnesia." "You don't have to apologize for not remembering that stuff. There was some bad stuff. Robot spiders, lots of robot spiders" "Okay, then I guess she might process that. Or maybe she'll stay seven forever. Who knows?" "So, two alters, anything else?" "Like I said, I was pulled back to fronting relatively quickly, at least it felt quick, I think I blacked out a bit during that moment, but I think I saw a small cabin from where I assume everything is controlled. The inside looked a bit like a cockpit" "A cockpit? Like in a plane?" "Kind of. As you might have noticed, my dad likes planes." "I think I noticed, especially when he actually flew one to mount tam and shot at Kronos' army." "So, you've noticed. Well, I often saw the insides of planes while growing up, so it made sense to have the "fronting place" of my inner world look like that." "I don't think I can follow that logic 100%, but whatever" "To be honest, neither do I. But the thing with DID is that everything happens for a reason, but that reason doesn't have to be apparent or logical." "Well, when are our lives ever logical? But that inner world sounds pretty cool. Too bad I can't see it."
So, here's the new chapter, only one day too late this time. I decided to be nice to Annabeth and give her her stuff back. Losing her knife was a very bad realization, so getting it back probably helps with the trauma, at least a little bit. And the return of Bob, Damasen, Small Bob and, most importantly, the Panda pillow pet probably helps as well. I had actually planned for the PPP to return and trigger a little a lot earlier, but then realized that in the scene where I wanted too put it, the romans could not have sent it to Percy since they were still in CJ, but I didn't want to scrap the little scene, so I replaced the scene where she got triggered with the one where Piper had to resolve the pride-flag-nail-polish-situation, making her return right after the unspecified trigger had happened.