Chapter Twenty-Five

A/N: one of my favorite pieces of fan art, ngl. Also, watch the video! Even my brother, who doesn't have a sense of humor, laughed at it.

Btw, sorry for the long wait!

You drool whenyou sleep

-Annabeth Chase (The Lightning Thief)

I wish I could say I slept like a baby. Unfortunately, this couldn't have been farther from the truth.

After walking in on Will and Nico (yes, I will be teasing him about that later), I went back to my child-invested bed. Throughout the night, toes and skeleton rats dug into my sides every time I shut my eyes. The poking got so bad the only way for me to get decent sleep was by sleeping on the floor.

Good sleep was out of my league. But then again, as a demigod, good sleep is disrupted by nightmares anyway.

A groan from the bed caused me to turn towards the bed just in time to see Parker falling from it. I didn't even attempt to hide my amusement.

"Fuck!" Parker whisper-shouted, my snickers stopped. "That is not a nice way to wake up."

"Watch your language," I said, Parker only stuck his tongue out at me. Axel rested peacefully next to him, completely unaware of what was going on. Good, I thought, still have a chance to have a polite kid.

"C'mon, lighten up. People say worse things here every day." He stopped and pointed at me. "Even you!"

I just rolled my eyes. "I know that; I've been here way longer than you." I paused. "While we're on this topic, don't challenge Clarisse in cursing."

"Can't anyways, she broke her jaw in the battle."

I winced, feeling bad for the monster; Clarisse must have ripped them apart with her bare hands. That girl could rival Tartarus himself in terrifying nature.

We carried on with our conversation until Axel woke up. Leaving and risking him wandering around with no idea of what was happening, was not an acceptable idea.

Despite Will's medical advice, the kids and I left the infirmary to get back into daily routine. As I walked out, I noticed almost everyone stood in groups speaking among themselves in a confused manner.

I watched the confused groups before looking around for someone that had a grasp on the world around them. Needless to say, I couldn't find anyone.

Luke and the rest of the Elite army, minus Percy, came up to me seeing the confusion that set in with me.

"Our leader seems to have disappeared," Star, who I learned was actually Zoë Nightshade, explained to me.

"Percy's gone?" Parker asked with a worried tone.

"You know what?" I said, bringing a fake smile to my face. "Why don't you go teach Axel a few English phrases. It will help him feel more at home."

He matched the fake smile. "Perfect! I'll start with the good old saying about fathers and the time it takes to get milk!"

With that, the kids disappeared to the infirmary. I found myself pinching the bridge of my nose and shaking my head. "He got attached and now Percy's gone."

"Hey, lighten up!" Luke tried for a smile. "It's not like you haven't done this before. A kid comes into play, he disappears, you wait a decade and a half, and he's back!"

It was like my body went on autopilot. One minute, I'm standing there narrowing my eyes at Luke, and the next, he's on the ground groaning about how he thinks I broke his back.

Hey, all's fair in love and war, and I love my family.

Bianca pulled me aside as the other Chaos members helped Luke hobble over to an Apollo camper. "Luke's done some pretty stupid stuff over the years, and probably lost brain cells, so I wouldn't take anything he said to heart."

"An evil Titan, who treated his fellow titans as subordinates, convinced him that he would be better suited to rule Olympus," I said flatly. "Luke has always been like that."

"Zeus does that too, though."

I opened my mouth to argue but shut it after realizing she was right. Not only was he an egotistical king, but also a huge pain in the ass.

"Look," Bianca started after a short silence, "after every mission, Percy returns to Chaos's planet for about a day before coming back. If he really isn't staying, which I highly doubt, then he'll explain himself when he comes back."

The topic of our conversation changed as we walked through the woods. Bianca caught me up with everything on Chaos's planet, and everything between her and Nico. When I asked if she was staying with Nico, Bianca explained that her duty and life source was tied to Chaos. Even if the primordial was on board with the idea, the power of his planet was the only thing preserving her second life. The longer she was away, the larger her chance of dying again.

"But I don't think it applies to Percy." Bianca began before she was cut off by a gasp.

"Holy shit!" Thalia yelled, staring at Bianca with wide eyes. "Annabeth, I think my mother had an affair with Hades because I see dead people."

I rolled my eyes at her. "No, you see a previously dead person. Bianca was brought back to life by a primordial named Chaos, remember?"

"Oh yeah, Chaos! I remember him," Thalia said, I felt an eyebrow raise, "he was weird."

"You met Chaos?" Bianca asked before I could.

"Oh yeah," Thalia said, turning to face me. "Remember the bonfire from fifteen years ago when you kissed Zeus?"

"What?!"

I simply nodded.

"Chaos offered something to Percy that day and I was with him. I pushed for Percy to accept Chaos and leave with him."

"Thalia! Why didn't you tell me that he went with Chaos! People wanted to burn a shroud because of the scene." My eyes burned with tears. "That scene... I thought he was dead and—"

She cut me off. "Why do you think I set the scene?!"

Her words shocked me to silence. About three months after the banishment, I launched my first group search. At the time, Zeus still refused to lift the banishment allowing Percy to return, so we organized privately. Not even an hour in, we came across the clearing with Riptide.

Only then it had been covered in what we believed was Percy's blood. All I remember of that day now is standing at the end of the bloody clearing, hoping I only imagined Riptide's symbol.

Even with my knowledge about how much blood a person could lose, I still, thankfully, forced Nico to travel the entirety of his father's realm.

He never found Percy, obviously, so I refused to burn a shroud. Until the day with Omega in the woods, I hadn't been back to the clearing. Water nymphs washed away any fake blood remains.

"Look," she continued, after a silence, "Percy was in danger here. He needed to leave this place and faking his death was the best way to make sure the gods wouldn't follow."

"Thalia," I cried. "I thought Percy— or someone else— suffered a terrible death when we found the blood." I threw my arms around her and leaned against her. "Gods, you scared me."

"My only intention was to protect him," Thalia said, shocked as to why I wasn't yelling at her for keeping the information away from me.

I gripped her tighter and let out a weak laugh. "Stop talking before I flip you. I'm just glad that blood was fake."

Hopefully, the blood was fake... you never really know with Thalia, I thought.

(A/N: I honestly feel like I just created a bunch of plot holes, but whatever because I wanted Thalia in here.)

The three of us continued talking through the woods about anything and everything. Bianca shared memories about the hilarious pranks the members pulled on one another. Apparently, Percy and Luke, while the best pranksters, made worst pranking duo. Once, they joined forces to make one mega prank only to have it blow up in their faces. Quite literally too, the huge water balloon they planned to use on Beckendorf and Silena popped while they were carrying it. Instead of revising, they blamed each other, and the harmless collaboration turned into a disastrous prank war.

Thalia talked about her time with the Hunters, and I explained everything they missed at Camp Half-Blood.

"Of all people," Bianca chuckled after hearing a story from one of my quests, "I never expected you to be a heartbreaker."

I winced slightly, but my smile never fell. "It wasn't meant to be anything more than a drunk hookup! How was I supposed to know he was the clingy type?"

"That's what happens when you get down and dirty with someone with a—" I threw a stick at Thalia before she could finish.

"Shut up, Grace," I said. "And for the record, I did not get 'down and dirty' with him. I was drunk and he was there. We did nothing more than kiss."

"Okay, whatever you say then."

"I'm—" the stupid horn blew, cutting me off to signal lunch. On the way back from the woods, Thalia and Bianca made fun of me. Roasting me at every corner. I tried to defend myself by explaining how I've never touched alcohol since.

By the time we reached the pavilion, their insults had processed to acting out what they thought happened. I debated telling them the reason I drank in the first place was because it was Parker's fifth birthday at the time, but decided not to go through with the guilt trip.

"Oh, baby!" Thalia said in her version of the guy's voice. In her version, his, apparently, squeaky voice cracked at every word he spoke. "Uh, what's your name?"

Laughs erupted from Bianca and I rolled my eyes.

"You're so funny," I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice. Thalia was only encouraged and kept going. A few campers glanced over, not believing their ears.

I walked over to the Athena table and rested my head against it. I considered banging my head on the table too, but instantly vetoed the thought in fear I'd lose more brain cells.

When I heard the campers suddenly go silent, I thought it had been resulted of Thalia saying something completely outrageous. Coming to the conclusion, I kept my head down and took the opportunity to close my eyes.

A fierce jabbing in my shoulder brought me to reality. I swatted at the hand away, but the person was too stubborn to realize I didn't want them touching me.

"Stop." I hit their hand again.

"No, get up." The person, who I identified as Parker, said as he continued to poke my shoulder. I ignored him only to have another set of fingers poke me.

"Oh my gods, let me sleep!"

One set of fingers stopped. "Some weird guy showed up out of nowhere."

Axel.

I lifted my head up slightly to look at them. "Is camp under attack?" I asked Parker in English.

"No."

"Then let me sleep." I laid my head down. My action was only followed by more obnoxious poking. I groaned and got up. "Fine, you win, but don't be surprised if you find worms in your clothes when you wake up."

Together, the three of us ventured to the large surrounding of demigods. In the middle stood the man Axel described as seltsam with the Elite troop.

Percy, of course, a no show.

"Quit your idiotic nonsense!" the man exclaimed. Beside him, Luke snickered as Beckendorf, Silena, Zoë, and Bianca expressed their annoyance by shaking their heads or rolling their eyes so far back they could see brain material.

"Chaos, this is Camp Half-Blood," Silena said, ignoring Luke. "Camp Half-Blood, this is Chaos. The primordial that can create entire universes, yet not tell the difference between shit and chocolate."

Everyone laughed at this joke that seemed to surface at every corner, minus Luke whose eyes widened in disbelief. "Seriously? When I tell a joke everyone gets annoyed, but when Silena does it it's fine?"

"Face it, Luke, you've become obsolete." Zoë dissed with a smile spread across her cheeks. Thankfully, Axel was too short to see the middle finger Luke gave her.

As their time at camp slowly ran out, the Elite member made rounds hugging friends of old and new. Originally, I wanted to sort out some form of plan to keep them here, but their smiles about finally returning home forced me to ditch the idea entirely.

The leave, of course, was bittersweet, but the wink Chaos sent in my direction was nothing less than strange.

"He could've come back to say, y' know, goodbye." Parker said a few minutes after everyone returned to lunch.

"Dick," I said under my breath. Not really worried if one of the boys heard me because in German dick meant something completely different.

"Damnit," I heard someone say suddenly. My hand instinctively went to my dagger. "I wanted to catch them before they left."

We turned around to come face to face with none other than the son of Poseidon himself.

"Percy?" I said, somewhat worried I was experiencing hallucinations. The only thing keeping me from running to the infirmary was the lack of wanting to. "What are you doing here?"

"Ouch, you wound me, Wise girl." He said back, feigning hurt, but stopped and smiled after I glared at him. "Camp has really grown on me, so I decided to hang around for a while. I was just got back from visiting Poseidon and filling out final reports."

"Really?" Parker asked.

"Yeah," he softened. "Is that okay?"

"More than okay," Parker said walking up to Percy and hugging the daylights out of him. Percy didn't complain but instead motioned Axel to follow in suit. To an outsider looking in the situation would have looked comedic— a grown man managing to hug teenager in front of him and a child behind him.

A few minutes in, Percy took notice of my staring. He smirked and whispered something into Parker's ear while simultaneously maintaining eye contact. I looked at him, a little confused, as Parker translated what Percy said for Axel.

The evil smile on their faces as they ran towards me made me question if Kronos spilt his soul in two and now embodied the kids. Too late to react, they knocked me over and tickled me half to death.

"Percy!" I managed to laugh out. The boys, including Percy, just laughed like manics. "Make them stop!"

"Alright, alright," Percy said. Funny, they stop at his two words, but not when I am laughing myself to death. "Why don't you guys go steal me some blue pancakes, yeah?"

Without hesitation, Parker smiled and began to drag Axel back towards the dining pavilion.

Percy offered me a hand. I debated pulling him down with me, but the idea of being crushed was not very appealing.

"You're really back?" I asked him. Hey, he gave me a ring and then disappeared for fifteen years, so you cannot blame me for being a little skeptical.

He walked towards me so their was only a shiver of air between us. "I seem to recall wanting a life with you in New Rome. I think it's been long overdue now."

"Promise never to pull a stunt like that again?"

"Never." He promised, closing the distance.

Best welcome home kiss... ever.

***

A/N: hey guys! It's been over a month now since I've updated. I wish I had a better excuse but honestly I was lazy and got addicted to Sims 4.

I do truly apologize for delay, but I hope to get the Epilogue out within the next two weeks so keep your eyes on lookout!

Word Count: 2654 words