Hey everybody! I'm back! I hope you guys don't hate me too much *ducks in fear of tomatoes*

I am sorry. I am truly sorry that I haven't updated this fic for so long. If I didn't know better, I would say that school is actually hard now, my schedule feels like it's trying desperately to prevent me from writing, and that I'd forgotten all about my library of unfinished fics. But nobody wants to hear that!

I hope you enjoy this fic anyways, despite the time it took me to post it.

One word of warning before I unlock the gates and let you read. I still have not read the newly released Son Of Neptune that Mr. Rick Riordan has so generously decided to publish. So if this does not fit in with the new plot of S.O.N., it's my fault and my fault entirely.

I also added one or two hints of the earthquake and Hurricane Irene that'd happened this summer, as they were the main reason I even started this story. Try to find them if you can

"Jason! We could use a little help here with the storm spirits!"

"There's too many! I'm holding them off the best that I can!"

"Leo! Do you have any tools that could help us – look out!"

A huge explosion rocked the camp, cutting off what the demigod was about to say with a violent ZZZZZZAP! of lightning. Annabeth heard the resulting cry in accordance to the bolt, but she was too busy fighting off the enemy anemoi thuellai to even check to see if it came from their side or the enemy.

"Piper, we need help with the harpies!"

"Jason! Please, man, there's too many!"

"Annabeth, Chiron's hurt!"

The last comment immediately caught Annabeth's attention. Without even bothering to glance at the opposing storm spirits, she sunk her blade into one, and then the other, not feeling any satisfaction for managing to catch them at the right time as they both howled in pain, essence dissolving as they were sent back to the atmosphere. Before the deaths could even register, she was already halfway across the battlefield, dagger out and ready to defend with a shield held up high in front of her, slashing and cutting at whatever was in her way. She managed to make it to Chiron unscathed, with only one final anemoi to destroy before she finally reached her mentor.

"Chiron, are you alright?" she said urgently, taking in the sight of Chiron on the ground, legs folded beneath him as a boy from the Apollo sat beside him pulling out different supplies and ointments that Annabeth couldn't even name.

"I'm fine dear." he said tiredly. "Only a flesh wound, you needn't have to worry about me."

Annabeth hurried to his side anyway, eyes taking in the large gash he had right between his forearm – er, leg – and flank, to the packet of bandages that the child of Apollo (Andy, she remembered) had out and was ready to apply. She immediately grabbed another packet herself and opened it hurriedly, pulling out the spotless white gauze and prepared to apply it to his injury.

"If only Percy were here." Chiron sighed besides her as he watched the battle rage on in front of him, wincing as he watched a camper get thrown across the clearing by the winds the anemoi were churning up. "I have to admit that I really miss that boy."

Annabeth nodded tersely, not taking her eyes off the bandage as she replied, "Yeah, another child of the Big Three would be really helpful. Nico and Jason and Thalia may not be enough."

Chiron was quiet besides her for a long moment, his eyes holding a faraway look as both Annabeth and Andy of the Apollo cabin hastily applied ointment and bandages to Chiron's side. It was only after they were done and Andy had run off did Chiron finally point out, "I'm sure that's not the only reason you miss him right now, isn't it?"

Annabeth's head snapped up. "What?"

With obvious difficulty, Chiron unsteadily rose from the ground, brushing away Annabeth when she tried to help him as he continued, "Annabeth, there are many demigods in camp who wish Percy hadn't been taken, but you're the only one here who truly misses him." His eyes grew soft as Annabeth blushed beneath his gaze. "It's understandable."

Annabeth was quiet for a moment, her hands reaching for her knife and shield on the ground before she finally admitted, softly, "I just hope he still remembers me."

Chiron's mouth turned up a little at the corners, and he rested a reassuring hand on her shoulders. "I'm sure, with his head, there wouldn't have been a lot of information for him to forget in the first place."

Annabeth chuckled at the jibe at Percy's nickname Seaweed Brain, but then she looked away as a sudden pang in her gut wiped away her smile. She shrugged Chiron's hand off her shoulder before saying tersely, "I need to help my siblings, Chiron."

The twinkle in his eyes faded away as his face turned grave once more, and he nodded. "Go." he said.

Running toward the midst of the fighting, Annabeth grimily cursed the gods for allowing the battle to happen. The followers of Gaea weren't pleased when Khione fell, and they immediately responded with a resulting army of earthpeople and other creepy crawly monsters that she'd only heard of through the pages of the books she'd read. The demigods of Half Blood had no problems fending off the armies of monsters for a while, but they were beginning tiring out from the constant skirmishes the Gaea followers were sending. Only last week, demigods near Mineral, Virginia had gotten sloppy and set off an huge explosion, immediately startling mortals and forcing the campers there to make a quick retreat despite the Mist. While the people there wrote off the explosion as an earthquake, she knew that at this rate, the campers would be too tired out to prevent anymore attacks from happening. It would be like when Thalia's tree was poisoned all over again, with everybody on high alert and camp being more of a battle ground than a kids sanctuary. She shook her head in disgust.

Nico ran up besides her just as she was about to launch herself in the middle of the fight. "What is this?" he said indignantly, "Like, the third battle in less than two weeks?" He shook his head. "It almost makes you wish for the whole Kronos thing all over again. At least he limited his major fights to one."

Annabeth snorted, the sardonic humor a welcome relief to a long day of nonstop battles and fighting. There had been no casualties yet that she'd heard of ever since the Gaea followers had sent the monsters, but at this rate, something major was going to have to happen. Two weeks ago the constant skirmishes had convinced all the different cabins to pitch in, and only a few days ago a Hecate camper nearly died from a head injury from the storm spirits. This wasn't even close to their previous battle with Kronos, but it was still memorable in its own way.

A bloodcurdling scream cut through her train of thought just as she prepared herself to enter battle once more. Annabeth and Nico swiveled around in unison, both ready to defend whoever was in trouble, but instead saw a group of campers huddled together, staring into the distance in shock. The daughter of Athena and the son of Hades were besides them in seconds.

"What's going on?" Annabeth had to yell to be heard over the battle around them. "What happened?"

Clarisse tore his eyes away from her vantage point and fixed Annabeth with a stunned stare. "I think…" she said in disbelief. "I thought…"

A younger camper, who hadn't yet been claimed, wasn't nearly as tongue tied. "Oh my gods." he said excitedly. Grasping Annabeth's and Nico's hands in his little ones, he cheered out happily, "Percy's here! Percy's here!"

Annabeth's face immediately turned from anxious to stone hard. The younger camper let go of her hand, confused from her sudden change in expression. Nico stared wide eyed into the distance, searching for any sign of his missing friend.

"Are you sure?" he said with uncertainty. "I don't see Per – him anymore."

Annabeth was still silent as the younger camper fixed him with a grin. "Of course! It was him! I swear to the River Styx that he was there. I think he was doing something with the weather."

As if that flicked a switch inside her, Annabeth's face immediately looked up. The clouds above were swirling and angry, but they didn't seem as if any more storm spirits would be raining down on any of them. Everybody around her breathed a sigh of relief. The battle was over. But Annabeth wasn't nearly as relieved.

"He's not there." she said bluntly, her voice emotionless as she looked back down at the campers, her face immediately falling in disappointment. "He never was."

The young camper opened his mouth to protest. "He was!"he insisted. "I saw him! I swore on the River Styx that I saw him!"

"Tyler, shut up." Clarisse said quietly, her voice rough but not harsh. She placed a hand on Annabeth's shoulder while throwing a quick glare to the camper. "Even if it was him, he's not here anymore."

All the campers gathered around them shared similar masks of disappointment, only marred by the silent relief they all felt that the battle was over. Muttering amongst each other, they all turned around and walked away to assess their own cabin, not a single topic straying away from their mysterious sighting of Percy and what it could mean. Before long, only Annabeth, Nico, and Clarisse were left standing in their original spots, not taking any notice to the rest of the camp as they all pondered the possibility that Percy could have been there.

"Did you…actually… see him?" Nico asked hesitantly as Annabeth simply stared at the ground again.

Clarisse's face scrunched up with indecision, but finally admitted, "Yeah, I think I might have."

"What was he doing?" Annabeth's quiet voice surprised both of the demigods, as she'd been quiet the entire time after she realized that Percy couldn't be there anymore. Her face was a blank mask again as she looked up. "Was he really affecting the weather?"

Clarisse nodded. "It looked like him, that's for sure. But if it was him, he was just standing there with this weird face, staring at the sky like he was doing something to it." She let out a deep sigh. "Even if it were him…I figured he would be at the Roman camp."

Nico nodded. "Jason never had a chance to go back to his old camp, let alone stay at this one for so long. How would Percy be able to come here?"

None of them knew how to answer that. Annabeth could feel herself sinking again, the last ditch flutter of hope she'd tried not to let grow wilting once more, leaving dead bits of it inside her reminding her of the fact that Percy still wasn't there. She remained silent even as she trudged toward the battle scarred camp, her eyes never leaving the ground even as handfuls of her friends gathered around her and spoke words of comfort she'd already heard before.

"It's okay, Annabeth. You'll find him as soon as we finish making the ship."

"I'm sure that it wasn't a coincidence. Percy must not have forgotten everything."

"Annabeth, don't worry. We'll find him."

Annabeth shook off her friends politely, choosing to walk alone toward her cabin to wash off the dirt and goo that'd accumulated on her armor during the fight. The way there, she spotted the group of three demigods that'd come to camp when the whole mess with Gaea had started.

Piper was attempting to clean her dagger, the task made more difficult by the fact that Leo kept pulling random things out of his tool belt and distracting her. The sound of her laughter wafted through the camp, almost making the burden of battle a little lighter and the day seem a little less dark. Annabeth knew that it was mostly Piper's Aphrodite magic causing her to have her affect, but in this case, a little happiness wasn't unwelcomed to the camp. Jason was sitting beside her, nursing a wound he'd received on his arm as he kept sending quick, discreet glances at Piper that Annabeth couldn't help but remind her of Percy.

Percy. The little, dead flower of hope inside her almost seemed to grown thorns as she was painfully reminded of her failure to bring him home. The image of Leo, Piper, and Jason so happy together, with the unbreakable bond of familiarity and companionship that she and Percy had once had dug the thorns deeper into her being, and she swiftly turned away, the sight of them unbearable now.

Without a further comment, she opened to door of the Athena cabin, paying no mind to the disheveled appearance of her home and immediately beginning to find a task that wouldn't remind her of Percy. She berated herself for stupidly let herself grow the seed of hope when Chiron had mentioned the MIA Son of Poseidon, and now she was paying the price for it.

A picture of her and Percy together caught her eye by the side of her bed. Without a second thought, she immediately crumpled it up and threw it angrily out the window. Forget about the Romans and their camp. Why did they even have to exist anyways? Why did they have to have such a conflict with the Greeks, so bad that even the gods were cowering in fear?

Why did Hera have to take her stupid, seaweed brained Son of Poseidon to exchange him with Jason? Why did Percy have to show up today, of all times, during a battle, instead of like most other, normal boys who would probably arrive dramatically on a sunny day with a bunch of flowers, some cheesy background music playing as he and girlfriend embraced in slow motion and everything in the world would be alright again?

Annabeth's mind buzzed tiredly as she suddenly realized that she was too exhausted to ask why anymore. Percy was gone, and there was no logical reason as to why he could have shown up today. She figured that even if she'd actually seen him with her own eyes, he still wouldn't remember her, and she still would have been just as crushed as she was right now. Still dressed in her battle armor, she leaned against the wall of her bunk as she finally allowed her mind to drift off, and let her eyes slowly drift shut, the image of Percy slowly fading away as she drifted into the quiet, peaceful realm of unconsciousness.

She would see him some other time, she promised herself before she truly fell asleep. And next time, before Percy could let her down again with his amnesia and Roman camp and the overall stupid problems of the Greek and Roman world, she would be more prepared. She'd promised herself that.

I am desperately trying to stop myself from going on Wikipedia right now and searching up the full story summary of The Son Of Neptune right now. Mainly because I really want to see what I wrote that doesn't coincide with Rick Riordan's story, and then fix them immediately. The agony of it is killing me!

Don't be afraid to flame me. I really do want to know your opinion on this fic, as it had presented me with a difficult dilemma of whether or not I should even post it. But if you have any nice comments, please don't hesitate in telling me those either! *Cheeky grin*

I was a little miffed about making Annabeth cry in my fic where she meets Percy, as she doesn't seem like the kind of girl who would burst into tears quite often. So I ended up trying to spin a tougher version of her, one who doesn't let her emotions overwhelm her. Feel free to tell me if I did a good job of it or not.

All in all, I hope you enjoyed this.

~Emma