Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The light was what woke him. The cabin shouldn’t be so bright. Not since the Battle of the Labyrinth and certainly physically impossible since the Battle of Manhattan. Will sat up still groggy and half asleep. Glancing out the window he saw the sky was pitch black, it was still the middle of the night. So why was it so bright in the cabin? 

Finally turning his head towards the other bunks he found the source of the light. Or rather he supposed, sources. His siblings were back. All the ones that had died in the Titan War were in their beds softly glowing. Sitting there blinking he didn’t know whether to scream or laugh. Cry or jump for joy. At least one thing was for certain though, he had been sent back in time. 

Slowly exiting the cabin so as not to wake his siblings Will wondered if any others had been brought back.

~~~

As it turned out several people had come back. Annabeth had found Will in the amphitheater and after a few pointed questions dragged him to where the others were gathering. They all sat around the Athena table in the pavilion. It was strange to see only twelve tables again after the constant shift of adding new ones after the Titan War ended. Will’s eyes widened when he saw Silena and Beckendorf sitting there with Clarisse, the Stoll brothers, Pollux, Drew, and Katie. “You’re all back too?” He breathed as he sank down onto the bench.

“Yep,” Connor said, popping the ‘p’ narrowing his eyes at the table and scrunching his nose in the way he often did when a monster had managed to piss him off enough he wasn’t going to bother to play with them before killing them. That’s how they all knew he wasn’t going to bother with any jokes or messing around about this situation they had found themselves in, if the person who did this bothered to show themselves any time soon they would get a sword in the gut. The last time Will had seen him this pissed off was during the Battle of Manhattan when an empousa dared to bite Travis. Safe to say that particular monster did not live long enough to get a second taste.

Katie smiled softly from where she was leaning against Travis who waved with a subdued smile before holding Pollux’s hand. Pollux looked shell-shocked. Will supposed he looked a little the same way from the way Silena was looking at him, he guessed seeing previously dead siblings was having a toll on him and Pollux the most out of all of them. 

Annabeth cleared her throat, giving them all a sympathetic look. She said, “We need to discuss how we’re going to go about this.” They just never could get a break could they.

Chapter Text

Yancy. He was back at Yancy. In his twelve year old body. These three thoughts had been going around Percy’s head in a loop for the past few hours. He’d been woken up by Grover that morning as he hadn't had any dreams last night. This was so out of the ordinary he almost told Grover about it, but just as he opened his mouth was when his brain caught up and reminded him that Grover was supposed to be in California, not in his room in mom and Paul’s apartment. That was also when his eyes took in where exactly he was. Yancy.

A few hours later and Percy was on a school bus on the way to the museum field trip that started it all. He was staring out the window contemplating how he should go about this because clearly he’d been sent back in time and he was twelve again. Grover clearly hadn’t come back too if the concerned glances he kept sending Percy’s way was any indication. As they slowed to a stop Percy figured he would just have to play the day out as much the same as possible until he could gather more intel on his situation. 

The tour was the same as Percy remembered it. Chiron led them all the way to the Greek and Roman section and started his speech. The other students were talking but Percy didn’t mind as much this time, nor did he make a scene as he already knew the information and stories Chiron was telling them. He didn’t need to pay too close attention. Instead he studied the three most important people in the room trying to gauge if they could tell something was off about him. Grover was watching the other students instead of listening to the lecture. Percy had to hold back a laugh at the abysmal acting his best friend was doing, he was a little surprised he hadn’t noticed the first time around. Silently thanking the fates that Grover had gotten better at lying over the years, Percy then turned his attention to Chiron.

Chiron looked the same as last time with his wheelchair and tweed jacket. He was currently reciting the story of Kronos eating his children. Another thing Percy hadn’t noticed last time this happened was the sheer amount of glances Chiron kept sending his way. It was subtle enough that the mortals and Percy assumed Mrs Dodds couldn’t tell, but Chiron was definitely looking at him more often than anyone else. The centaur didn’t seem particularly worried about Percy, it seemed almost unintentional what he was doing, so Percy felt it was safe to say Chiron couldn’t tell.

Turning slightly to Mrs Dodds Percy felt a wave of mental exhaustion crash over him. He didn’t want to do this again, he didn’t want to deal with two wars again, he didn’t want to watch his friends die again. As he watched Alecto fiddle with the sleeves of her leather jacket, looking bored, Percy was filled with a steely resolve. He would do all of it again, even though he hated it, and he would keep as many of his friends as possible alive. He didn’t know if he was alone in coming back, he really hoped he wasn’t, but if he was then it didn’t matter, he would still try his dam hardest to keep them all safe. Percy realized in the back of his mind that that line of thinking was probably his fatal flaw talking, but unless some of his friends had come back too he probably would have to cave to his fatal flaw more than once to keep the others safe, to keep them from experiencing what they had experienced the last go around.

Heading back outside for lunch Percy felt the harsh winds of a storm rolling in. His uncle was so dramatic. Sighing he slowly bit into his apple waiting for Nancy to come up to them. As much as he would like to ignore her and her friends, Percy really needed this to go relatively the same. He had sent her a harsh glare as they had gotten on the bus which had thankfully kept her from throwing things at him and Grover. It however did not extend to the museum itself as Nancy was now headed their way with her friends flanking her and her lunch in hand.

“Oops,” she sneered as she dumped her lunch in Grover's lap. Percy felt the familiar tug in his gut as the water came out of the fountain to grab her. He tried not to be too violent with it, she may be a bully but she was still just a child. As Nancy screeched about Percy pushing her, Mrs Dodds appeared next to him. Percy blinked at her but stayed silent as she hissed at him to come with her.

Grover the same as last time tried to defend him which made him feel all warm inside. Telling Grover that everything would be fine he turned and followed Mrs Dodds back inside.

As he reached the Greek and Roman exhibit he heard her growling. Looking behind him to see if Chiron was on his way yet Percy decided just to play along. “You’ve been giving us problems honey,” she hissed.

“Yes ma’am,” Percy said quietly, trying to appear scared and not a threat. At least before Chiron got here to give him Riptide. 

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. “Did you really think you would get away with it?” Percy drew his eyebrows together playing up the scared confused boy as she prowled closer. Thunder roared outside. “We are not fools, Percy Jackson,” Mrs. Dodds said. “It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain.”

Now Percy’s eyebrow twitched up. He never understood why monsters said that, why would they ever think someone would take that offer. Have people taken it before? Surely not in Ancient times, so when? It made no sense. Maybe monsters all just assumed everyone was as stupid as they were and would think that offer was a good deal. He didn’t know. “Well?” she demanded.

Percy glanced quickly to the side to see if Chiron was there yet. He wasn’t. Ugh, what was taking him so long. He tried the scared act again, “Ma’am I don’t-”

“You’re time is up,” she hissed, lunging for him as she shed her disguise. He side-stepped her talons as she attempted to rake them across his face. Chiron! Hurry up, he shouted mentally. Finally he rolled down the hallway holding a familiar pen. Percy let out an inaudible sigh of relief as Anaklusmos came flying at him as Chiron shouted, “What ho, Percy!”

Alecto lunged as the hilt landed in the palm of Percy’s hand, “Die, honey,” she screeched.

Swinging the sword he heard the familiar ‘Hiss!’ of a monster disintegrating. The yellow powder quickly started disappearing and Percy relaxed his shoulders as he glanced around. Chiron was gone again, he was completely alone. Percy remembered what happened next, he was gaslighted for about three months. If he was going to have to go through that again, he might as well take some petty revenge. Looking down at the pen in his hand as he slowly left the museum, taking his sweet time an idea struck him. If he just never went to Chiron, he might be able to get away with keeping his and Zoe’s sword. Reaching the doors Percy took a deep breath, preparing to put on the show of a lifetime just so he could have an actual weapon to fight with before he left on his quest, and pocketed Riptide. 

Stepping out into the rain he felt the slight boost of energy that came from water, it wasn’t as strong as salt water would be but it helped all the same. He was tempted to let his scales show just so he could hydrate them a little, but that would give the game away way too early. Instead he went right up to Grover ignoring Nancy and sat back down. Grover asked if he was alright and Percy plastered on his most convincing smile and said, “Of course I’m alright G-man. Why wouldn’t I be?”

~~~

A few weeks later Percy was getting bored. He only had about five weeks left until the end of the school year but the gaslighting whenever he tried to talk to Grover about what happened was getting ridiculous. Thankfully Chiron hadn’t asked for his ‘pen’ back. Percy had no idea why but it didn’t really matter, as all Chiron had really spoken with him about since that field trip was just schoolwork. The storms were getting worse and he was trying to keep his fathers mood from affecting him. Given the amount of times he was getting in trouble in class, it was working only marginally better than last time.

Finally a week before the start of summer a letter was sent to Sally telling her that Percy would not be invited back next year. Percy didn’t mind, he hated the school and never wanted to come back.

After the three hour Latin exam Percy was called back in by Chiron. At first he thought Chiron had finally remembered about Riptide, but as Chiron started speaking Percy remembered he had gotten an infamous Chiron pep talk last time, and it seemed he was going to get it again.

“Percy,” he said. “Don’t be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It’s…it’s for the best.”

His tone was kind, and Percy knew what Chiron meant this time, but the words were still embarrassing. And even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips. Percy nodded as Chiron continued, “I mean…” he wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn’t sure what to say. “This isn’t the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.” Despite hearing this speech before Percy's eyes still stung. When Chiron looked away trying to think of how to explain things Percy just turned and left.

As he packed he ignored the one attempt at conversation his roommates made with him. He didn’t feel like speaking to entitled rich kids today.

Getting on the bus with Grover, Percy closed his eyes and leaned against the window. He didn’t question Grover this time, he knew Grover wouldn’t explain what was going on so instead he thought through the next set of events. The Fates, Montauk, Minotaur, then camp. He didn’t think there was much he could risk doing differently. He had to let his mom be taken again, but at least he had an actual weapon this time. The bus suddenly jerked beneath him and the driver limped it over to the side of the road.

Exiting the bus with Grover, Percy’s eyes were immediately drawn to the fruit stand the Fates were sitting at, knitting. All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. All three of them were staring right at Percy, he tilted his head slightly to the right and smiled at them before turning to Grover who said, “Tell me they’re not looking at you. They are, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?”

“Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all.”

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. Percy heard Grover catch his breath.

“We’re getting on the bus,” Grover demanded, “Come on.”

“What?” Percy cried, using the confused act that worked on everyone, “It’s a thousand degrees in there.”

“Come on!” He pried open the door and climbed inside, but Percy stayed back. He knew what was going to happen, he didn’t necessarily need to see it again but he figured the Fates wouldn’t fix the bus until he did. Across the road, the old ladies were still watching him. The middle one cut the electric blue yarn, the color of Luke’s eyes, and Percy swore he could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Immediately the bus driver pulled a chunk of metal out that fixed the bus. Percy imagined the Hephaestus kids having aneurysms if they ever saw that, just from how obvious it was that an engine should not work that way. Waving at the Fates, Percy climbed back on the bus. 

Percy shivered as he sat back down. Grover looked the same, leaning back and looking as if he would be sick any second, his teeth chattering. “Grover?” Percy figured he might as well try to get him to give some kind of information, so it wouldn’t be as weird that he knew things once he got to camp.

“Yeah?”

“What are you not telling me?”

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. “Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?”

“You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They’re not like…Mrs. Dodds, are they?”

His pupils became slits for a split second, so quick Percy was surprised he even saw it this time. He said, “Just tell me what you saw.”

“The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.”

He closed his eyes and made the warding off evil gesture. He said, “You saw her snip the cord.”

“Yeah. So?” Trying to still act confused even though he knew it was kind of a big deal, and he knew more than Grover did about that string.

“This is not happening,” Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. “I don’t want this to be like the last time.”

“What last time?” Percy pried, trying to get the information out of him early.

“Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.”

“Grover,” Percy said, “What are you talking about?”

“Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.”

Knowing he was going to break that promise he simply nodded. Percy hated promising things out loud if he didn’t think he could keep it. He’d learned that mistake with Nico and Bianca years ago. “Grover– that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?” 

He looked mournful, like he was already picking the kind of flowers Percy would like best on his coffin.

~~~

Pulling up to the apartment building in the taxi brought back awful memories of his first stepfather. Gabe was up there he knew, and despite having years since he last saw the man Percy did not want to go up to the apartment. He stood there rooted to the pavement for a few minutes before forcing himself through the doors.

Entering the mess of a place, he saw Gabe and his buddies sitting playing poker, hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, “So, you’re home. Got any cash?”

Percy took a deep breath, “No.”

He raised a greasy eyebrow. “You took a taxi from the bus station,” he said. “Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?”

Percy was tempted to just walk away, but he knew that wouldn’t end well, his twelve year old body didn’t have the muscles or training eighteen year old Percy had. And that was only if he had the courage to stand up and hit Gabe back. Percy wasn’t sure he would. He had fought monsters, titans, giants, and primordials, yet this human mortal man never failed to make the two time saviour of Olympus falter. Even the memory of him years after he died had often sent Percy into a spiral, he hated it. He should be stronger than that. Percy blinked back to the present when Gabe cleared his throat, looking up he saw Gabe was getting impatient with him, he had that look in his eye that always made Percy’s heart race with fear and his stomach drop. Quickly pulling out the cash in his back pocket he dropped it on the table and scurried to his room. 

He leaned against the door taking deep breaths and trying to stave off a panic attack.

~~~

An hour later he was packing the car to go to the beach with his mom. He couldn’t wait to get to camp, even though his mom had to be taken first, at least she wasn’t actually dying.

After they cleaned up the cabin and started a campfire Percy stared out at the ocean as his mom brought out the marshmallows. He wanted to dive right in. His scales were getting a little itchy which meant he would need a salt water bath soon so that they wouldn’t crack. The two of them spoke for a few hours. His mom brought up camp and Percy had to restrain himself from reacting to the subject. He couldn't wait to see his friends again even if they wouldn’t remember him. 

The dream happened just as he remembered it. It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse’s muzzle with its huge talons.

The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle’s wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

Running toward them despite knowing they would keep fighting no matter what he did, he knew he had to stop them from killing each other anyway. Percy saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse’s wide eyes, and he screamed, No! Waking with a start Percy shook off the terror of the dream. It was storming outside. His mom wasn’t awake yet so Percy packed a backpack with the essentials as quickly as possible. She soon gasped awake and said, “Hurricane.”

Ten minutes later Percy, Sally, and Grover who had shown up exactly when he had last time were in Gabe’s car speeding down the road toward camp. Percy asked a few questions to get some answers out of the way so it wouldn’t be weird that he already knew this information when he got to camp, like monsters and gods being real and him currently being hunted. As Percy was going to ask how Grover knew Hades was hunting him the car was blasted right off the road. 

Carefully climbing out of the car Percy reveled in the boost of energy he was receiving from the rain. “That’s the property line,” his mom said as she reached his side and pointed towards Thalia’s pine tree, “Get over that hill and you’ll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don’t look back. Yell for help. Don’t stop until you reach the door.”

“Mom, you’re coming too.”

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

“No!” Percy shouted, “You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover.”

“Food!” Grover moaned, a little louder. He would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious. The Minotaur was getting closer with each passing second. Thalia’s pine tree was still way too far – a hundred yards uphill at least. Percy glanced back. The Minotaur hunched over the car, smelling for them.

“Food?” Grover moaned.

“Shhh,” Percy told him.

“His sight and hearing are terrible,” his mom explained without provocation, “He goes by smell. But he’ll figure out where we are soon enough.”

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe’s Camaro by the torn roof, the metal creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded. Again Percy almost laughed, but was able to hold it back at the last second as he figured his mom would think he’d gone insane if he had laughed.

The Minotaur made his way over as they were struggling up the hill. Letting his mom take Grover, Percy backed up and leaned against Thalia’s tree. “Hey cousin,” he whispered. His hand drifted to his pocket wanting to take out his beloved sword but he couldn’t yet, his mom had to be taken. Moving away from the tree so the monster wouldn’t run into Thalia he waved his arms and caught the bull-man’s attention. He ran right at Percy, his horns pointed straight at Percy’s chest. He quickly sidestepped then ran as fast as he could – which wasn’t very fast yet as he had no training – to check on his mom and Grover. Finally reaching the top of the hill Percy saw his mom had already left. He turned just in time to see her get picked up by the monster and dissolved into gold dust. Even though he knew she wasn’t dead he still felt the mix of anger and adrenaline he got whenever someone he cared about was hurt. Pulling out Riptide he shouted out to get the monster's attention and ran at him. He could hear both Thalia and Annabeth in his head calling him idiotic for this but at the moment he didn’t feel like coming up with a clever plan to kill it. He just wanted it dead.

The two of them charged at each other, the Minotaur holding out its arms just like with his mom. Instead of jumping like last time, he slashed at the bull-man’s legs as he reached the monster. The Minotaur screamed as Percy continued to slash and stab at everything he could reach, dodging out of the way of every hit the monster threw at him. 

The bull-man finally got a hit in as Percy stabbed him in the chest throwing Percy hard into the ground. He hit his head on a rock and he had dropped Riptide, but that didn’t matter as the monster had disintegrated from the last stab. Collecting Riptide as he went, Percy struggled back up the hill and carefully draped Grover over his shoulders like a fireman’s carry. The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. His head felt like it was splitting open and he felt weak and scared, trembling with grief. He knew his mom was okay yet he wanted to lie down and cry. He wasn’t sure how but he somehow managed to stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the Big House. Crying, calling for his mother, and holding on to Grover.

The last thing he remembered was collapsing on the porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of Chiron and Annabeth. They both looked down, and Annabeth said, “He’s here. He must be.”

“Silence, Annabeth,” the centaur said. “He’s still conscious. Bring him inside.”

Chapter Text

Annabeth wasn’t supposed to be here. Will would have her head if he saw her, but this is what she had done last time and they had all agreed to act as they used to, as accurately as possible. And that meant sneaking into the Big House to question Percy. She did feel bad about it. Percy deserved his rest whether he had come back with them or not but she needed to know.

Percy groaning pulled her thoughts away from the unfortunate possibility that Percy might not have come back. “Annabeth?” he croaked. Relief flooded her body.

“You remember? Everything?” she whispered, leaning closer. She ran through the events of the last timeline in her head as she tried to find something he would know about if he really did remember. Finally she settled on naming some of the most important people in his life that came after this summer, “Thalia? Nico? Hazel? Frank? Estelle?” He nodded weakly, struggling to open his eyes to look at her. She carefully scooped some ambrosia onto a spoon and murmured, “You need to eat a little.” He slowly opened his mouth and allowed her to feed him just as there was a loud knock on the door. He groaned as his eyes slid shut. Gently scraping bits of ambrosia off his chin Annabeth barely looked up as Will entered the room, an unimpressed eyebrow raised. Honestly for a sixteen year old stuck in a ten year old body he had a crazy level of sass and judgement exuding from him at the moment, it was nearly Percy-level. She almost laughed but she knew he would not take kindly to it especially not after what he had just found her doing.

“Are you serious?” He hissed quietly, his arms folding across his chest as he stared her down with a look so judgmental that Annabeth knew for sure he must have learned it from Drew.

Sighing she muttered, “Sorry. But in my defense this is what I did last time, and we needed to know if he remembered.”

“You could have waited,” Will pointed out as he pulled out a pen light and started checking Percy’s pupils.

Annabeth nodded. She stayed silent as he continued his check up, knowing he wasn’t done speaking to her yet, he was just focused on his current task.

Finally, Will straightened and nodded reassuringly, “He’ll be fine, just like last time. Now I think we should gather the others. We really need to start nailing down a plan on how we’re handling all this.”

Nodding Annabeth continued, “Or at least have a few ideas of different directions we could take this. I know Percy will want to know all the options to make a well informed opinion. And in the end it is his decision what we do. He’s the leader, our general, and,” she paused, sighing, hating what she was about to say, knowing how much pain was in store for Percy because of it, “And it is his prophecy that may be affected.”

“Which prophecy,” Will asked as they both left the room.

“Both.”

~~~

Annabeth had forgotten how lonely she used to be before she met Percy, before she got Thalia back and gained more friends through the years. Now as she sat around the ping-pong table in the war room she felt like she was missing an arm. Percy was usually right there, and now he wasn’t. She comforted herself with the knowledge that she only needed to wait a few more days to have Percy back, she’d have to wait for Thalia another year.

Clarisse dropped down onto a chair across from Annabeth and threw her dagger down on the table, her dog ears twitching as she complained about one of her brothers pranking her earlier that morning. Annabeth knew that Clarisse was working on straightening out her cabin and stopping her siblings from bullying people. She didn’t think it was going as well as the daughter of War had hoped. Feeling the feathers on her wings ruffle Annabeth glanced behind her. The Stoll brothers had come in and were now standing behind her. “What are you two doing?” she hissed, narrowing her eyes as they threw their hands up and gave her identical innocent looks.

“Nothing,” Travis insisted.

Before she could finish interrogating them however, the others filed in and sat in their usual seats. The chairs had been moved slightly to make room for people they didn’t have yet. Percy’s spot at the head of the table farthest from the door, Annabeth to his left and Clarisse on his right. He’d be filling it soon enough. There was an empty spot without a chair between Annabeth and Will waiting for Thalia to fill it. Though it would only be permanent for a year until she became a Huntress, then she would only be in that spot whenever the Hunt came to camp. Or whenever they were at war and called on their allies. An empty chair had been moved into a dark shadowed corner behind Percy’s that Nico preferred to sit in so he could shadow-travel in and out during the meetings with ease when needed. As well as keep a close eye on everyone in the room without them noticing. Another empty chair at the other end of the table that would only be occupied by their allies from Camp Jupiter, usually Hazel or Frank, occasionally Reyna. That chair would sit empty for about another six years. Annabeth knew Percy would be devastated by that reminder, he and Nico were the closest to the Romans out of all the Greeks, but she just couldn’t get herself to make someone move the chair away. It was a reminder of what they were missing, all the empty chairs were, but they were also reminders of the people, the friends and allies they gained later on. Reminders that their future wasn’t always something to despair over. It may overall be quite bleak but there were moments of light and love too, and they all needed to remember that, even if it was only through plain plastic folding chairs.

Clarisse cleared her throat looking a little lost as to how to start this. It was usually Percy who started a meeting now, none of them had done it in a long time, they were out of practice. Annabeth took pity on the girl and started by giving her report. “Percy seems to remember. I spoke to him a bit ago and he recognized me and several other names of people he will meet and be friends with in the future.” Will shook his head disapprovingly but kept his mouth shut for now. “Luke?” Annabeth asked the Stoll brothers.

“He doesn’t suspect anything,” Conner said as he fiddled with his dagger.

“He’s definitely working with him though. He’s been having dreams. We hear him muttering in his sleep about being better and making it up to his ‘master’,” Travis ground out through clenched teeth.

“What about Percy’s health?” Silena asked.

Will’s eyes cut to Annabeth briefly before he answered the daughter of Love, “He’s healing well, the same as last time. He’ll be properly awake this time tomorrow. Though we should all leave him be until then.”

“What about the forge?” Clarisse wondered, finally putting her dagger away as she turned to Beckendorf.

Beckendorf shrugged, “We still don’t have a lot of people. My cabin doesn’t get that big influx of campers until the summer of the Labyrinth.”

“That shouldn’t matter too much other than making the quantity of weapons and traps made at one time increase,” Katie pointed out, her brows furrowed.

“No, our numbers don’t really matter, but I also can’t have my brothers help mass producing weapons as if we’re at war when we’re not. That would raise a lot of questions and suspicion from the camp as a whole, but most specifically Chiron and Luke. The two people so far we want to suspect something is going on, the least,” Beckendorf sighed tiredly, “I wish we could though. It would help in the long run of this war if we could start stock-piling those things now.”

“Speaking of,” Drew muttered, “The quest for the bolt.”

Pollux nodded slowly as he sat forward, his fingers entwining in Travis’, “Yeah, what’s the plan? I mean we already know vaguely what the prophecy was and how it went the first time, so…”

It was quiet for a minute before Clarisse spoke, “It will mostly have to go the same, won’t it,” she glanced at Annabeth for confirmation.

“I think so,” Annabeth hummed, “We can’t change much outright for many reasons, but there may be a few smaller things we can change this time around. Like, the Arch, the Casino, the Underworld.”

Everyone around the table nodded, then Drew tossed her braid over her shoulder to hang down her back as she suggested, “Percy will want a say on anything definitive, we should wait for him.”

“And deciding too many things now about how the quest will go may change the prophecy,” Will warned as he scratched at the small horns hidden in his bright curls. Annabeth forgot how small they used to be. “If the prophecy changes too much we might not be able to prepare properly for what’s to come. This is part of why we’re always warned that knowing too much of our future is bad.”

Annabeth sighed and nodded. There was a lot they needed to take into account when changing things, it was very frustrating, but she understood why. She wasn't sure how they would handle all this, but she just knew she and Percy would be at each other's sides through it all. She was about to ask Silena how her plan to infiltrate Luke’s army and Drew how her plan to get most of the defectors to stay on their side this time were going when the door opened. When they were all younger, still children, not yet war veterans they may have jumped and blushed at getting caught doing something they shouldn’t. They may have shuffled their feet and cowered under the disappointed glare of their activities director as they stammered out half-baked excuses and lies. Instead Silena took the lead to distract Chiron from asking anything of substance to any of them as they all made a hasty retreat, splitting up as soon as they were out of the Big House.

Annabeth, as one of the last to leave, was the only one to catch the bewildered and suspicious stare of their camp director as he watched them all come spilling out the front door on his way to play pinochle with a few satyrs.