Explaining to Annabeth and Chiron about Luke being the Lightning Thief(which meant he'd framed Percy, given him cursed shoes to drag him to Tartarus, and then acted like they were besties)and a traitor went about as well as Percy could have expected– which is to say it went terrible. It involved Annabeth punching Percy across the jaw and running out of the Big House, saying she needed time to process the information.
Yeah, she was definitely in denial. A deeper denial than when she had been crushing on Luke.
Chiron, thankfully, believed Percy. "Oh, Luke." The old centaur sighed. "He just was never the same after his quest to the Garden of the Hesperides."
Percy snorted. "Yeah, not to mention his raging Daddy Issues and other mental problems that everyone but me ignored." He pointed out.
The centaur winced. "Yes, I will admit that I was concerned, but I had hoped after you got here and got close to Luke, he would get better mentally. I should not have assumed you could work miracles. You have only been here a short time and he has been bitter for a long time." He apologized.
Percy shrugged. "We all make mistakes. I could always feel his turmoil, but bitterness is common in demigods if I'm reading the vibes of the Camp right." He sipped at the nectar Chrion had provided when the scar on Percy's hand started puffing up and turning green. It seemed that sticking it directly into the water as soon as he acquired the sting had saved it from getting too bad for water to heal it, but Pit Scorpion venom was incredibly strong and normally killed the victim within 60 seconds. Damn, Luke was packing some messed up shit. And he'd saved it just for Percy. How sweet.
"I'm sorry Perseus. I had hoped that you would want to stay here and take it as your home." Chiron gazed across the strawberry fields sadly. Percy frowned as well.
"I....I wanted to." He admitted with difficulty. "I want to. But, for now, I think it would be best if I went to school. I'll be in Manhattan, so I won't be far, just in case." His mother had offered for him to go anywhere, to any school he wanted. She'd even offered to let him go to school in France. "I don't really know how I feel about everything right now and I'm hoping torture by essays and dealing with stupid mortals will let me clear my head about everything in this world. Separating myself from this world seemed to be like a nice break, even with all the difficult schoolwork and bullies to deal with this past year."
Chiron nodded in understanding.
"Chiron?" Percy called. The centaur looked at him. He fidgeted.
"I....I never had a good man to really teach me anything or try to help me." He said, looking down at the slowly-melting ice in his nectar.
"ButIthinkyou'retheclosest I'llevergettoadad,soyeah." He rushed out.
Chiron took a moment to decipher what he'd said–mainly because he'd slipped into French halfway through–before smiling warmly. "Thank you, Perseus. I'm glad to be a positive male figure in your life."
They sat there on the porch together, watching the few campers left mill about. Dionysus' sons were year rounders and they were growing the strawberry fields to milk sales as best they could before summer ended. They still sold strawberries during the other seasons, but they weren't in as high a demand as when summertime hit.
Clarisse was also a year rounder and she looked to be taking broken weapons from her cabin to the forges to be repaired or used for scrap.
The cabin with the most year rounders was actually Hephaestus. Percy figured it would be Hermes, but a lot of the unclaimed still had homes to return to, or they just didn't want to be around Camp all year.
Percy left to go say goodbye to his remaining siblings that were year rounders–Silena, one of the new Campers, and Alison. The new Camper's name was Drew Tanaka and she seemed to be kind of a diva. Percy hoped she didn't think she was too good for Camp Life and get prissy while he was gone.
Silena and Alison smiled at him, enveloping him in a warm, sisterly hug. "We'll miss you, little brother." Silena whispered to him.
"Don't get into too much trouble, okay, Perce?" Alison teased when they let go.
He snickered. "No promises."
Someone cleared their throat and Percy looked at Drew. She looked a bit awkward, but held her arms open. He stood there in confusion before realizing she wanted to hug him too.
He brightened and wrapped his arms around her. She was only about a year and some months younger than him, but she had more meat on her bones than he did, and she looked older than he did too. She was awkward while hugging him, but it still felt nice.
"I hope we get to know each other better next Summer?" The girl offered.
Percy grinned. "Maybe sooner. I'll probably come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. See you then?"
She smiled brightly. "Yes!"
Good. Now there was just one last thing.
§~•~§~•~§
Annabeth and Percy stood on the Porch of the Big House together.
"I'm going home for the year, Percy." Annabeth told him suddenly.
He stared at her. "You mean, like, to your dad's?" He asked.
She pointed toward the crest of Half-Blood Hill. Next to Thalia's pine tree, at the very edge of the camp's magical boundaries, a family stood silhouetted by the sun–two small children, a woman, and a tall man with blond hair. The man was holding a backpack that looked like the one Annabeth had gotten from Waterland in Colorado.
"That's great, Anna! That took guts." He said, nudging her with his shoulder.
"I wrote him a letter when we got back, just like you suggested. I told him....I told him I was sorry. I'd come home for the school year if he still wanted me." She explained. "He wrote back immediately. We decided that we'd give it another try."
"I'm proud of you."
She pursed her lips as she looked at her family. "You won't try anything stupid during the school year, will you? At least not
without sending me an Iris- message?"
Percy managed a smile. "I won't go looking for trouble." He promised. "Though I usually don't have to."
"When I get back next summer," Annabeth said, "We'll hunt down Luke. We'll ask for a quest, but if we don't get approval, we'll sneak off and do it anyway. Agreed?"
"Sounds like a plan worthy of Athena."
She held out her hand. Percy shook it.
"Take care, Pretty Boy." Annabeth told him. "Keep your guard up out there."
"Always, Wise Girl."
He watched her walk up the hill and join her family. She gave her father an awkward hug and looked back
at the valley uncertainly one last time. She touched Thalia's pine tree reverently, then allowed herself to be lead over the crest of the hill and into the mortal world.
A lonely breeze passed by and blew Percy's hair out of his face. "Hello Zephyrus. Tell my mother I'll be ready to go in just a moment, please?" He greeted. The wind got warmer and blew off.
Percy began making his way across the Camp.
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Holy shit I finished it. God, it took so much work. It still does. There's so much plot I'm either improving from Rick's design, throwing out completely bc there are parts that are just absolute bogus, And I'm also completely changing a lot of things from Canon. I hope you guys enjoyed this book, I'll start on the second one soon.