The speakers of the yarn meet the keepers of the yarn

Jules the driver and his Porsche limo had been overturned by the Minotaur near Congress. No one seemed to notice, oddly enough. Just this single zombie man trying to flip his car back over. My dad ended up picking it up with one hand and flipping it onto the sidewalk. Then, Jules was able to park it properly and Annabeth retrieved the polias and the yarn out of the back.

"I'm sorry I tried to steal it from you," Grover told me while Dr. Annabeth and Annabeth and Athena put the polias in the middle of a large sideway and began unraveling the yarn in a large circle around it. "I realized… when you were talking about morality… I guess I was so angry at the Gods that all I could think about was sticking it to them."

I watched Annabeth and Athena nod together about the placement of the yarn. I didn't feel that it mattered – it wasn't like we measured out how to come here. But Athena smiled at Annabeth and Annabeth looked extremely happy, so I didn't say anything.

"My mom got after me once, for doing the same thing to Smelly Gabe," I admitted. "It's not easy. Trying to destroy a monster… getting all that blood on your hands…"

"Who are you calling a monster?" my dad asked. I just laughed him off.

Jules returned to the underworld with Nico, and then Nico shadow travelled back. "My dad says that the fates are on their way," he said. "They apparently didn't realise we had the yarn. They'd like it back."

"Probably for the best," I said. I looked around at everyone. "This has been a decent amount of crazy for a year, don't you think? I should have hit my crazy quote a few days ago. At this rate, I'm due for a boring trip through middle school."

Percy guffawed. "Yeah, best wishes to you, little me," he said.

"Not in your dreams," Piper laughed. Her Legend glow was back. Still not as strong as Percy or Annabeth… but was anyone?

Annabeth brushed off her hands on her Air and Space Museum T-shirt. "What will you all do?" she asked.

They all exchanged glances. Poseidon was the first to laugh. "I guess I'll go down to the bottom of the ocean and keep doing what I've always done," he said. "Maybe send Percy some siblings."

"You have been joking about that for years," Percy said, "And I still can't tell whether or not you're joking."

Poseidon winked at me.

"Well," Dr. Annabeth said, exhaling. "I assume we need to find a place to live… maybe look into moving…"

"I just got word that the palace was delivered, Sally," Poseidon interrupted Dr. Annabeth. "Right beside your beach house. And the library Annabeth designed is intact. Now that it's in New York, I have a feeling it will become a haven for demigods. They'll be able to visit much more frequently."

Dr. Annabeth's mouth dropped. "You moved our house?" Percy demanded.

Poseidon frowned. "Palace, Percy. It is one of my palaces. And yes, your mother asked for it to be put beside her home."

"It has forty-foot thick walls!"

"We're working on it."

Dr. Annabeth jumped and hugged my mom tightly and kissed her on the cheek. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!"

"That's good news," Athena said, pleased. "I suppose I'll have to visit often. That library is truly a wonder…"

I thought Dr. Annabeth would implode with joy.

"And, in a few years, hopefully my grandkids will live next door to me," my mom said, looking up to the sky and smiling mischievously. "You know… in a year or two or…"

"Mom," Percy said, "One thing at a time." But he seemed to be enjoying the joke privately.

"So you'll live next door to each other," I said, "and no more monster fighting-"

"No more!" Grover echoed.

"Or prophecies…"

"I'll let Rachel know," Piper said,

"or anything else?"

Dr. Annabeth smiled. "Just helping demigods on their quests… fixing good food… designing good buildings… Gods, it'll be so mundane we won't know what to do with ourselves!"

"Oh yes we will," Percy disagreed. "We just spent seven years in isolation. Mundane didn't even begin to cut through how boring that was."

They laughed. Even Nico, who didn't seem much like a laugher. I smiled, then looked down into the circle of yarn. I started to step over the barrier, but Percy yanked me back. "Aren't you going to say goodbye?" he asked. "That's it? What will you be doing, okay, bye!"

I laughed. "Well… I don't know what I'll be doing. Hopefully not all that you've been doing… Isolation doesn't sound fun."

Percy shrugged. "You'd make it work," he said. And then he pulled me in and hugged me. I hugged him back. He smelled like salt air. Sea smell. Haha, that could be a rhyme. Sea smells, sea smells, by the seashore…

I got passed around from person to person. Dr. Annabeth kissed my head again, but I didn't correct her. When all was said and done, I stepped into the circle.

Annabeth was having a harder time leaving. Her eyes were big and full of tears. She hugged everyone as well, but spent more time with certain people. She hugged her mom, Athena, for almost a full two minutes. Then Percy for an equally long time. I hadn't realized she'd felt so close to him, but I remembered him walking with her in the library. Maybe she'd latched onto him as some sort of short-term dad figure.

Then, Dr. Annabeth leaned down and hugged her. Touched her hair in their hug the same way Percy did to Dr. Annabeth. I guess Percy couldn't just stand back after two minutes – and I mean two minutes – of their hug. He hugged them both around their shoulders and kissed both their heads. Then he said to Annabeth, "Be good, Dory," he told her. "Life is pretty great. Enjoy it."

"Dory?" Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "All the ocean creatures out there, and you pick Dory for me?"

"Tamatoa, then," Percy said. "Wait, he's a he… You can be Moana."

Dr. Annabeth sniffed and wiped a tear out of her eye. "I'll miss you," she said. "Chances are, you'll end up with my face no matter what does or doesn't happen to you. So… see you in the mirror, I guess."

Annabeth squeezed her tighter. "I won't forget you," she said. More tears were going down her face. I knew not to point it out, or I'd get punched.

Someone he-hemmed behind them. They broke apart and I saw the three old ladies who had been knitting the socks of death dimmed outlined in the darkness. One of them pointed to the yarn. "Who lost the early 2000's?" she demanded in a croaky voice like a toad. She bent down with her nose almost to the pavement and began reading the yarn like a book. "This is what happens when the Fates aren't in control! Oh, look here! 9/11! And here… Kanye West renamed himself? Housing market crash… Notre Dame on fire… the President is orange… Twice?!" She shook her head, utterly amazed. "You're lucky we're here to take it back. Maybe this runt will have a calmer life now!" She jutted her finger at me.

"Erm, that would be nice," I said. "But… 9/11 already happened."

"Really?" The old fate looked amazed. "Did I read this wrong?"

She bent back down, but Dr. Annabeth put a hand on her shoulder. "How about you just tell us how to send them back?" she said and held Annabeth's hand as she stepped over the yarn and into the circle.

"Before I forget," Grover said, huffing. He'd run to pay the parking meter at the museum and was holding the hoodies Annabeth and I had tossed to throw him off. He held them high for us to see. "Want these? Can they take them back?"

"I don't mind," Percy said. "Now that I can walk to the store and grab a new one." He smiled broadly.

Annabeth reached out and Grover returned the red hoodie to her hands. She clutched it to her chest. Mine he balled up and threw at me. I caught it and narrowly avoided being swept away. My hand hit my esophagus. "Thanks," I croaked.

One of the Fates began explaining to Dr. Annabeth, "Just speak to the yarn. It'll listen to you like everything else. Tell them where they need to go. The Polias should pull them on course. Go on then… nice and loud."

Dr. Annabeth nodded. She took one side and Percy took the other. She cleared her throat. "Yarn," she said, and Percy paused, waiting for her signal. "…and polias…" She looked over at him nervously.

Then together, they stumbled through saying, "We want to send these two back to when and where they came from."

Then they went still, as if waiting for something to happen. Annabeth and I waited too. Then Annabeth reached out and tried to take Dr. Annabeth's hand one last time. But when her hand left the circle, it disappeared, like she'd stuck her hand inside a drape. "Oh," she said, "We're here." She stepped out of the circle and disappeared from sight. The sidewalk outside the Smithsonian had become an illusion surrounding the yarn circle.

I took one last look at everyone. My mom, my dad, my stepdad. Grover with his long hair and goatee. Dr. Annabeth with her red shirt. Me, looking like I was getting into trouble.

I tried to freeze it in my memory.

Then I stepped out of the circle and saw the room at the Big House around me. The table was where I had moved it. The polias was on the ground, tipped over. And the yarn wound haphazardly around the table leg. I saw our spider friend in the corner, creeping towards the door. Before Annabeth – who had paused in front of me – could see it, I pushed her out the door and shut it behind us.

The sunlight through the hall window warmed our legs. My hands seemed to pick up every grain in the wood. And for the first time in days, we were still.

5/3's chapter will be the final chapter, and it will be called "I stand trial for my charges and am sentenced to community service."