4. Reminiscing the past

Percy's POV

Flying to camp was terrible.

When Blackjack landed on the pavement in front of the Empire State Building, not only did he freak out a dozen random mortals, but he chewed me out for not seeing him for almost a year. He didn't think that getting kidnapped by the Queen of the Gods, fighting a few giants and falling into Tartarus was a good excuse.

Normally riding on top of Blackjack would have been fun but the constant pestering of my pegasus for donuts as payment for not seeing him kind of ruined the mood.

Blackjack was not the only thing bothering me during the flight. Calypso was holding onto me so tight that I thought I was in the hands of Enceladus again. Her face was buried into my back as her arms wrapped around my chest. At first, she was pretty excited to ride on a pegasus for the first time in her life. Turns out, she has a problem with heights.

Cough Thalia Cough

By the time we reached camp, my oxygen had been depleted for ten minutes and I also most likely gained two or three broken ribs. Blackjack cantered off to the stables, saying that he had a late-night date with a 'hot lady pegasus'. Thankfully he left the details to himself. Like what he found hot in a winged horse.

I brought Calypso to the Big House to see Chiron, praying to all the gods I know to make sure he doesn't answer the door with curlers in his horsetail. Fortunately, the gods answered my prayer because when I opened the door to the big house, Chiron was in his wheelchair form sitting in front of the fireplace looking at something with his back towards us.

'Uh, Chiron?' I asked carefully. It was pretty late already and I was surprised he wasn't asleep yet. He should be even more tired after the battle a few hours ago.

When Chiron turned around, I stopped in my tracks. He had dried tear streaks on his cheeks and his normal brown eyes were red and puffy. It looked like he was crying for a while. When I saw what he was holding, I felt tears threatening to spill from my own eyes.

In my mentor's hands was an old picture frame. I looked at the image with sad eyes when I realized who was in the photo.

In the frame was a photo of Annabeth standing on Half-Blood Hill. I was standing there next to her with Grover and Clarisse, all of us with tired expressions. We had just come back from the quest for the Golden Fleece and saving Grover from being married to a cyclops. The Golden Fleece was hanging proudly on the lowest branch of Thalia's tree, glittering in the sunlight. I was standing between Annabeth and Grover, an arm around both their shoulders. Clarisse was beside Annabeth, a small smile on her face.

Those were one of the very few times I have ever seen her smile.

I silently walked over to Chiron. I leaned down and pulled him into an embrace. I felt his arms around my torso as I held my mentor. Thankfully he wasn't crying anymore. I would have most likely joined him if he was.

'Thank you, Percy.' Chiron whispered.

I pulled away and smiled at my teacher, one of the people who made me who I am today. Besides myself and the rest of the Seven, Annabeth's death hit him the hardest. Chiron had known Annabeth for almost a decade. Seeing her die must have been terrible. She was like the daughter he never had.

'You should get some rest, Chiron. We had a long day,' I turned back to the doorway where Calypso was still standing 'I'll show you to your room.'

She simply nodded.

I watched sadly as Chiron rolled his magic wheelchair to his room on the ground floor as I led Calypso up the stairs to one of the guest rooms of the Big House. I bid her goodnight as I made my way to my own cabin.

When I walked outside, I took a deep breath and looked around. Camp looked so peaceful now. No nervous campers, no weapons stacked everywhere, no feeling of war in the air I knew too well then I care to admit. The stars shone brightly as if the constellations were celebrating the victory of the war. Despite everything that happened, I smiled at the night sky.

'Bob says hello.'

I was halfway to my cabin when I noticed a dim light at the amphitheatre. Who was awake at this time? I cautiously made my way there and saw four people sitting together on the front row seats next to the campfire. The fire was low and the colour was almost black. I looked carefully and saw who the people sitting there were. Frank, Hazel, Piper and Jason.

Since I was already standing there, I might as well go be with the rest of my friends - no, family - that I have bonded with during my time with them travelling the world. Not really a vacation when we were trying to save the world, the second time for me. I tried to imagine myself as a normal teenager, travelling the world with my friends and going sightseeing all over Europe, oblivious to the mythological world and the impending doom.

As I neared the group, I was tackled in a hug by Hazel. As soon as I regained my balance, I was pulled into a bro-hug by Jason, and then Frank. Piper also pulled me in a tender hug. We all sat down without a word, just enjoying each other's company and finally being able to relax after months of being on edge.

Knowing my luck, I would never be able to relax. Not without Annabeth.

It was silent for a while with only the crackle of the fire to be heard until Piper spoke up.

'I had the Physician's Cure ready. I could have-'

Jason cut her off. 'You couldn't have gotten to him without being burnt to a crisp, Pipes.'

'I could have gotten to Annabeth in time.' she argued.

I looked over to Frank and Hazel and was surprised to see they were crying.

'Piper,' Hazel said between sniffles 'Can you bring out the cure?'

Piper reached into her belt pouch and pulled out the cure. She unwrapped the cure from its cloth packaging tentatively.

It was empty.

I, along with Piper and Jason, stared at Hazel and Frank in shock.

'Wh- How?' Piper stammered.

Through tears, Hazel and Frank explained everything: Leo's plan to sacrifice himself to defeat Gaia, their conversation in Delos, how Hazel had switched the real vial of the cure with an illusion made from the Mist. They said that Leo was sure that nobody would survive the explosion, which was why he had dragged Gaia so far up in the sky.

At first, I was angry. I was pretty sure Piper and Jason were too. But after listening to everything our friends said, our anger lessened and was overrun by another wave of sadness. Leo's plan was ridiculous, with a high risk of it not working and possibly causing the death of over 200 demigods.

That was exactly what Leo's plan always was.

'Hazel...' I looked over at her and Frank who was comforting her as best he could 'It wasn't your fault.'

Hazel looked at me shocked. 'How can you say that? If I hadn't switched it, we could have used it to bring Annabeth back.'

My heart twisted painfully. I had not thought of that at all. Annabeth would be beside me right now if Hazel didn't switch the cure for an illusion.

But could I really choose? Could I choose between saving Annabeth or Leo? Could I have let either of them die?

I wouldn't be able to choose, but the cure was meant to be for Leo, not Annabeth. Being Leo, he would have built some elaborate machine to inject the cure into himself. We had known for a while that either Leo, Jason or myself would fall victim to the prophecy. Annabeth's death was unexpected, could not have been predicted.

'Nothing could have been done, Hazel,' I said as I tried to hold in the tears 'Nobody - not us, not the gods - would have known that Annabeth would have...died.'

'But it could have-'

'No Hazel,' I stopped her 'Would you have rather let Leo die?'

When she stopped speaking, I continued. 'If the Fates will her life to be over, then there is nothing we can do about it. Annabeth is happy now. As happy as a dead person can be. She is in Elysium with everyone else who died in battle. All we can do now is to move on and honour her memory. She is gone, and there is nothing we can do to change that.'

After my little rant, I stayed silent for a few minutes. After a while, I realized how quiet it was. The whole time I was staring into the embers of the fire. When I looked up, I saw one of the most peaceful sights I have ever seen. Frank was leaning against the back of his seat with Hazel snuggling quietly in his arms. Piper's head was resting on Jason's shoulder and one of his arms was wrapped around her shoulder. They were all fast asleep in each other's embrace, listening to the crackle of the slowly growing fire.

I smiled slightly and noticed how relaxed all my friends were, none of the stress and tiredness that they usually bore on their faces. None of the burden of the whole world on their shoulders. Despite their slightly puffy eyes and dried tear streaks on their faces, this was the most peaceful I have ever seen them been after Leo fired on New Rome.

Although I was a bit mad that they were not listening to a thing I said since they were already asleep, I couldn't blame them seeing as how we had such a tiring day. Even my own body was about to shut down. I took the time to carry each of my friends gently towards the Big House and put them into a guest room each.

I did not want to go into either the Zeus or the Aphrodite cabin in the middle of the night, nor did I have any interest in getting skewered by a sleepy Nico or being wrongly killed for entering the temporary legion barracks.

After carrying everyone into their respective rooms (Frank was heavy when he wasn't a bulldog), I returned to Cabin 3 to see my cabin looking like Tyson had cleaned it. The floor was clean except for the thin layer of dust on it after not being used for about ten months. There were no clothes or food wrappers on the floor and all the beds were made. The cabin must have been cleaned when I was in the eight-month-long sleep Ms. Peacock Lady put me in.

Sighing, I walked in and plopped on my usual bed. It was way past midnight now and the day's event had finally started to take a toll on me. I didn't even bother cleaning myself or changing. As I laid back onto my pillow, I found myself thinking about everything that had happened in the past two months.

I apparently disappeared off the face of the world for eight months only for Jason to reappear in my place. For some absurd reason, Hera decided to not wake me up the same time Jason arrived at Camp, forcing me to stay asleep for a few more months. Throughout the whole time I was in my slumber, everyone at camp had tried to look for me, especially Annabeth. When I woke up from my power nap, I arrived at the wrong camp and managed to get myself into another quest, this time to Alaska, the land beyond the gods, to free Death himself. The only thing that managed to get me through the whole ordeal was the memory of Annabeth and the thought of being able to see her again.

After finally being reunited with Annabeth and meeting up with the rest of the prophecy members on top of a giant flying warship, we had to flee from Camp Jupiter all because the stupid eidolons possessed our late Supreme Commander to fire on New Rome, causing us to fly away with angry Romans on our tails.

After a long and tiring journey to multiple hotspots of death, Annabeth managed to retrieve the Athena Parthenos, the giant ivory and gold statue that is standing proudly next to Thalia's pine tree. Arachne, being a cruel monster and not recognising the hardships Annabeth had gone through to retrieve the statue, decided to drag her down to Tartarus, the literal hellhole of Greek mythology.

I shook my head. No matter what, I would not want to think about what happened down there. Despite how hard I try, I would never be able to forget what we had been through. I don't even want to think what would have happened if I didn't jump in with her.

Now, she is gone, gone to the realm of the dead with other fallen friends throughout the years. Silena, Beckendorf, Michael, Lee, Luke, Ethan. Those were just the ones I was the closest to. Thinking back to the first war, it reminded me of how many friends I lost. I reached my hand out to my face and felt a lone tear escape my eye. Times like these I wish I wasn't a demigod. Sure, we get cool powers and somewhat heightened senses but the drawback is that we almost always lose the people we love, especially during wars.

That is something I wish I never had to have experienced in my life.