Okay my darlings, I just came back from a driving lesson where I had to wear a mask, and tbh I think it improves the energy in the car when my instructor can't see the pure panic on my face as we hurtle round a corner at two hundred and twelve miles per hour. Also friendly reminder that in this house, we hate A-Levels and how they're marked. Yeah I ended up with three Bs, so i got into my uni, but,,, y'all, that was not what i should have received. F in the chat for my homies crying tonight, I'll drink to that.

I had a list of possible epilogues, and thought 'haha imagine if I did them all' and then I opened this word document and was like 'but what if I did do them all', so here's them all. Big up my homie Reuben for getting me to write bc god i needed it.

And another friendly reminder that in this house we do not stan cyberbullying, harassment, plagiarism, impersonation, or little bitches.

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Chapter 68

Epilogue

Percy had a difficult time choosing a therapist.

The files Annabeth had sent him contained everything he needed to know about each therapist: their name, their age, their gender, their specialties and a vague description on what they looked like. While some of those wouldn't affect their knowledge, it helped to find one that would be the right fit for him. Most were legacies and a few were demigods. All were capable and regularly inspected by officials in New Rome. Any of them would be a good choice.

But things got complicated once he tried to imagine himself alone in a room with them. He took one look at Maureen, a kind-looking old woman, and instantly saw Gaia in disguise.

Her file was gently frisbeed onto his cabin floor.

Sat cross-legged on his bed, he reached for another file.

A slightly plump and mostly balding white man called Bill had a photo attached too. Percy blinked and could almost smell the beer and fried food wafting off him. He wouldn't trust himself to not turn on the defensive with a man who looked like he did. Too familiar.

His file slapped to the floor too.

Percy picked up the file of a younger man, and tilted his head. This guy Jake didn't seem too bad- he was young, a son of Venus, and didn't look too threatening. It was clear he hit the gym sometimes, but there wasn't a single blond hair out of place in his picture. Percy could see the two of them getting along, maybe sparring while talking, getting takeout for sessions that ran over. Then he frowned. This guy looked too much like Jason, like Luke, like Apollo. He wasn't looking for an older brother figure; he was looking for a professional.

He tossed it.

A young woman's file caught his eye. Her name was Angitia, she had a focus on PTSD and was a centurion in the second cohort when she was younger. She looked to be in her late twenties, early thirties. She had a long scar across her cheek. He looked at her photo and, other than seeing her as maybe a slightly older version of Hazel, drew a blank on any doppelgangers.

He placed her folder to the side.

"Angitia Martin." Annabeth read aloud, before skimming the notes underneath. "She sounds good."

Percy nodded a little nervously. "Hopefully," he said, "How's yours coming along?"

At this, Annabeth frowned and looked away. She plucked a daisy out the grass and flicked it into the distance, before rolling onto her side.

"I haven't really found the right one," she said, "They all just seem… like strangers. They are, so that makes sense, but I just don't like the idea of spilling my guts to someone I don't know. They haven't gone through the same things, they didn't know what it was like. What if I react in a way they wouldn't expect for the scenario? How could they understand when they weren't there?"

Percy frowned. Annabeth was raising some very valid thoughts of his own. "I don't know." he said.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "But those are my problems." she said, "We're both still going, no matter what. If you wanna get out of it, get your own excuses."

Percy laughed. He wrapped his arms around her, glad that both of their fading bruises no longer hurt.

"Let's just hope we don't want to get out of it." he murmured into her hair.

The room was big, but not too big. That was good. Huge windows too, very light. Floorboards. Little statues and things in the room. All very nice. Percy shifted in his seat, awkwardly uncomfortable, Riptide digging into his leg, which he was surprised he'd been allowed to keep, though he guessed it was because it didn't work on mortals. Not that that really disarmed him. Why was he thinking that?

The leather creaked slightly and he froze. He tried not to move again.

Over the coffee table between them, Angitia (Call me Angie, she had said with a smile) didn't bat an eyelid.

"So," she began calmly, "Here's what I was thinking for this session. If you're uncomfortable with the layout or topics, please tell me and we can change it. I thought we could start with a little chat, setting out expectations and results. Then we could start to address something, if you want to talk about it, or simply continue talking. I understand you may not want to start talking with someone you may not trust yet."

"Oh." Percy said. "Yeah, sounds good."

"Great," Angitia smiled, "So, Percy, what would you like to get out of these sessions? Do you have any goals or problems that you wish to tackle?"

"Well-" He scratched the back of his neck- "I think- I'd like to sleep better, you know? And there are some things I can't really talk about- literally- that I would kind of like to. And, um… yeah."

"Those sound good to me." Angitia replied, nodding, "You can add or take off things whenever you want, but we'll handle those for now until you're happy. How would you like to continue this session? We have fifty minutes left."

Percy considered it. Angitia was nice enough, he thought, looking her over, but he didn't trust her to be poking around in his head yet. She regarded him with warm brown eyes, completely judgement-free. She looked very professional. But he wasn't ready yet.

"Maybe just talk?" he asked, wincing at his own voice, but Angitia simply smiled, putting down her notebook.

"Sounds good to me. Now, I hear you're quite the canoe-er?"

Percy felt a smile tugging at his lips. "Wonder why?" he asked rhetorically, and her own smile grew wider.

As soon as Percy descended the slight decline to the beach, it was like there was a missile targeting system pointed straight at him.

"Big brother!" Tyson bellowed, and the sand began to shake underfoot as he barrelled over.

Percy grinned, despite the slight jolt at seeing a cyclops run towards him, and opened his arms. Tyson slammed into him a second later, physically lifting him off the ground. He felt tears on his neck soak through his shirt instantly, like multiple water balloons bursting on his skin.

"Hey, little brother," Percy grinned as Tyson set him down.

His brother beamed at him happily. "I am so proud of you! You beat Dirt-Woman! We won!"

"Yeah man," Percy shrugged, "But I saw you too, leading the others. You were large and in charge, bro. I'm proud of you too."

Tyson sniffled. "We could not have won without you. Daddy said so."

Oh, did he? Percy smiled a little. Tyson wrapped an arm round him, and the two of them walked over to the shore before sitting down. The waves were rhythmic and calming. Percy needed that, especially if he was going to do his 'homework' that Angitia had set him in their last session. He breathed in.

"Hey, Tyson?"

His brother looked at him, big eye blinking.

"There's- there's something I gotta tell you."

Tyson nodded, looking excited. Percy prayed for his ribs.

"My mum is pregnant." he told him.

A beat.

Then-

"A sibling!" Tyson cried, pitching forward to practically envelop Percy, who wheezed as his sternum was crushed only a little bit. "A third, another!"

"Yeah man," Percy said, grinning once he could breathe, "You're going to be a big brother too now!"

Tyson blinked. "I shall be the second best big brother ever." he said solemnly.

Warmth flushed Percy's cheeks. "Oh, you big softie," he said, patting Tyson on his big arm.

They stared out towards the horizon.

"I missed you for so long." Tyson said suddenly. "You were there and then you weren't, and big brother was gone."

Percy felt his heart clench as Tyson's eye overflowed with tears, and he wrapped the cyclops in a hug as best he could. "Hey, hey- I missed you too, buddy. But I knew that when I got back, you'd be right there, kicking butt and taking names."

"Didn't take names." Tyson sobbed.

"Ah, you don't need them anyway. Kick 'em out the way, they aren't worth your time." Percy poked him in the chest while rubbing his back, "You're General Tyson- if they want you to know their name, they take a ticket and get to the back of the line, yeah?"

"Long line." he sniffed.

Percy grinned. "Longer than a conga line of snakes." he agreed.

Tyson giggled.

They sat like that for a while, brother's arm slung around brother, just watching their father's domain ripple and flow. Percy felt something in his chest knit back together a little more.

"Can you recount your dream?"

"No!" Percy snapped, pacing about the room.

"You don't wish to think about it or you don't wish to analyse it?"

"Both! Neither! I don't get a choice!"

Angitia tilted her head at him, and Percy felt bad. Then he felt angry that he felt bad. Then bad that he felt angry.

"Ugh!" he practically roared, running his hands through his hair.

"Can you draw it for me?" Angitia asked behind him.

He turned around, and she slid a piece of paper and some wax crayons over the table.

"Draw it?" he asked incredulously.

Angitia simply nodded.

"You don't have to talk about it or show me." she stated.

He found himself nodding. He sank back down into his seat and looked over the crayons. He reached for the red and black ones, and almost felt like laughing at the bright blue, green and yellow crayons. Yeah, right. The paper was the wrong colour too. White was never a thing down there. Nothing was that clean.

He placed the blunt tip on the page before spiking it downwards, leaving a violent slash down the page. Halfway through, he realised.

"I can't draw." he told her.

"That's okay." she said, "So long as you see what you want, it's all good, Percy. Art is subjective, anyway."

He blinked at her then back at the page, before going back to drawing quietly.

The stalactites were too triangular. He had coloured himself in too red. He didn't know how to draw the face of either of them.

The black was a stub by the time he had finished. The red was smeared with black and lopsided from how hard he had pressed. He let them roll back towards the untouched pastel colours, and silently pushed the page across the table.

Angitia looked it over then regarded him.

"A memory or a construction?" she asked.

"Memory." He tapped his fingers on the underside of his thighs, before recognising it, and placing them inbetween his knees and breathing in and out like she'd recommended.

"Where does this fall on your timeline?"

"Pre-Labyrinth. Like, right before."

"Fear out of twenty?"

He didn't hesitate.

"Twenty."

Angitia didn't move a muscle, but that was what gave her away. He felt the blood rush to her muscles to stop them contracting, to stop her from making an expression. She was good, but he had the advantage.

"Twenty?" she repeated calmly.

"I thought I was going to wet myself." he said bluntly. "I wouldn't be surprised if I did and just didn't notice."

"Why was it scary?" she asked, jotting something down absently.

They were only around eight sessions in, but Percy would kill to be able to see that notepad. She had offered to let him see, but he didn't want her to avoid writing things that might upset him. He didn't want to pull an Annabeth. Her last therapist's notes hadn't gone over well, he'd been told.

Oh right. Question.

"I mean- I thought I was going to die."

"You said before that's regular for you?"

"Well, yeah, but this time it was genuine. I knew I was going to die. Either by Adephagia, or by falling to my death, or having a heart attack from stress, or- or he would have got me."

"Mr T." Angitia provided.

Percy snorted. "Yeah. Mr T was about to probably eat me alive." His smile cracked a little at the thought before dropping quickly. "I hate Mr T." he said under his breath.

"Why?"

Percy laughed humourlessly. "He's the embodiment of evil and I pissed him off. And then I didn't finish the job. Right now, I just hate him for existing."

Percy ducked as a china mug sailed over his head.

"Woah!" he said, "Watch it!"

Annabeth laughed. "You shouldn't have been in the way!" she said, but angled her next projectile somewhere else.

This was a cross between her own idea and her newest therapist's idea. Marina was lasting longer than the rest, but Annabeth still had her doubts about her. She wished she could clone herself to fix herself, but her other self was just as messed up as she was. It would be the blind leading the blind. It was a conundrum. She needed to blow off steam.

Hence, the crockery smashing.

"Ha!" she said, launching a plate at the Big House.

It shattered against the stone harmlessly, but the noise and the feeling breathed life into her veins. Veins that hadn't always had life in them.

She threw another cup and didn't think about it.

Which was why she needed therapy, her mind supplied.

Shut up, she responded.

"How's Marina?" Percy asked her, frisbeeing his own plate.

"Better. She went to Harvard, but that doesn't always mean anything. There are plenty of rich people in Harvard who shouldn't be there."

"Is she rich?"

"Well, no, but you know what I mean. The standardisation is already on the floor. But… she's okay. She said this is a good activity to do once. Get it out, but don't rely on breaking things as a crutch."

"She sounds smart." her boyfriend replied, lobbing a mug so hard that the fragments almost reached the edge of the tarp they had laid down. "Is she helping any?"

Annabeth shrugged. She'd found it hard to open up to strangers, but Marina's no-nonsense approach, while grinding on her issue with being bossed around, had made it easier to just say things without beating around the bush. Their conversations were very flat. Full of short statements. But it was… getting easier?

She looked at Percy, angry at her jealousy. He had picked a good therapist, and had really started smiling more lately. She was happy for him.

Why couldn't she do that?

Kessna sprinted inside the bar, slamming the door behind her.

The music scratched to a halt, the ogre behind the bar giving her a confused look.

"Kess-ssna?" the nearest Scythian dracaena asked, "What is it?"

She could barely get the words out; her hearts were slamming against her chest. She flipped around, and scrabbled at the locks until her claws pushed each and every one into place, twisting the final one with a slightly reassuring and firm click. Door was shut. No getting in.

No getting out.

"Kessna!" a cyclops waved a hand in front of her face, his drink swaying in his other hand. "What is it?"

She looked around the small bar in fear, and saw the dawning realisation on the faces in the booths and on the floor.

"Godkiller." she choked out.

Cards flew into the air on the poker table. Pool cues were snapped and handed round. An empousai moaned and held her head to her knees.

"Where?" the ogre behind the bar grunted, pulling out a wheat scythe from behind some bottles.

"Hold on!" she said, before slithering over to the door and peeking through the top window.

It was pitch black outside, lit only by a flickering streetlamp. She could hear the waterfall in the distance and cursed. Oh, why had they built this bar by water? Why hadn't they built it in a desert? Or- or just not in America? Stupid place, she grumbled under her breath, stupid, stupid-

Outside the streetlight smashed into darkness.

She jumped with a yelp, propelling herself away from the door. She span around searchingly, and pointed at the biggest cyclops in the room.

"You!" she cried, "You do something! You're the biggest here! And he claims a cyclops as his brother, he might claim you too?"

The cyclops went pale and shook his head. "No, he won't! I heard what he did to Daum in the Pit! I'm not having that done to me, I-" He seized a squirrely-looking dracaena next to him and shook him- "-if he tries to do that to me, you gotta kill me! I'm not his family! I'm not going through that!"

"Yeah, yeah, I have you, my friend-"

"Cowards!" Kessna spat at them, in an attempt to keep her own fangs from clattering together.

She went back to the door while the others turned over the furniture, creating barricades against the windows and doors. She nibbled at her claws. It wouldn't stop him.

She went over the bar and poured herself a drink; the ogre didn't even stop her. She added a little virgin blood and topped it off with some absinthe. Maybe it would hit her before he did. Clambering onto the top of the bar, she scanned the room.

Monsters flurried everywhere, stacking chairs against the windows. Some hid under tables. One at the back had just simply pulled his black hood over his head. She let her gaze flick over them all before lifting her cocktail glass into the air and calling out.

"Any Gods in here?" she asked.

Everyone slowed and looked around. None. Not even black hood in the back spoke up.

"Ah," she said, "That's a shame. Maybe they would have slowed him down. But I suppose we'd all be in the same boat regardless."

Kessna chucked her drink back, uncaring of the little dribbles out the sides of her mouth. It burned like the Phlegethon river and she relished it. She'd be feeling that familiar burn again soon enough. This was where the fun began.

"There has to be something we can do!" an empousai wailed. "I could mind trick him?"

"Not before he kills you." the ogre shook his head. "He's too quick."

Kessna strained all of her ears. She realised she could no longer hear the waterfall flowing.

It was just dead silence outside.

She poured another drink.

"I heard he can move through walls!" a particularly exuberant dracaena exclaimed, fuelling another wave of panicked mutters.

"No, he uses doors! …Doesn't he?"

"He can shadow travel!" one piped up.

"I heard he stops any heart he feels!"

"Even his own?" a smaller monster asked, all four eyes wide.

The larger one leaned forwards.

"I heard it doesn't beat in the first place. I heard he traded his life for the daughter of Athena's, and Lord Hades uses him as a puppet to destroy the Gods' enemies!"

"Wow!" Fear rolled through the room.

"No, that's not what I heard!" a smaller cyclops at the back piped up, instantly overwhelmed as all eyes turned to him, "I- I heard that the Titans tortured him until he forgot who he was, then the God of the Pit took pity on him and trained him! Then he remembered Chase and betrayed him!"

Another round of gasps and jeers.

She watched with a raised eyebrow as the hooded figure stood abruptly, causing silence to fall. It wasn't a cloak, as she had thought it was. It was just a hoodie.

"I heard…" the mystery man began, before flipping his hood down.

Green eyes of death bored into the terrified room, alive with a feral spark. Familiar black stripes ran down his face. He held no weapon. They all knew what that meant.

"…well," said the Godkiller, "…everything, I guess."

Kessna didn't even get the chance to run. She heard breaths being sucked in to scream around the room, but heard no screams. She tried to move, but her legs suddenly weren't hers to control. Her vision whited out with a flick of a hand.

It must have only taken a split second. But that split second felt an eternity.

Her body was stretched, compressed-

-painpainpainpainpainpain-

-everything on her insides fought to get on her outsides, pushed and pushed and-

-PAINPAINPAIN-

-pushed until she burst-

Kessna didn't open her eyes. She couldn't. They hadn't reformed yet. But, on the inside, she sighed.

It would be years before she got out the Pit again.

"No!" Percy shouted.

"Yes!" Grover shouted back.

"I won, fair and square!"

"Best of nine!"

"Take a dip, Goat Boy!"

Grover pouted. "Perce, please… Juniper took half my strawberries. Not my fault I'm still hungry."

"You're always hungry," said Annabeth, and lying next to her on the picnic blanket, Juniper nodded. Strawberry juice lined her mouth.

"I was born this way and I will not apologise for it." Grover said haughtily, before swiping a strawberry from Percy's tub.

"That's it!" Percy shouted, tackling the satyr, and Annabeth watched bemused as the two rolled around the grass, grappling for a strawberry that had now been very firmly squashed against Grover's shorts.

"Do you think they know?" Juniper giggled.

"Not in the slightest," Annabeth replied, "Want a strawberry?" She picked up Percy's tub and offered one.

"Ooh, yes please."

A healthier makeshift popcorn, it was the perfect snack to accompany the view of Percy and Grover, who had now stopped wrestling and were now giggling like children on top of each other, Grover's hoof behind Percy's head and Percy sat on Grover's hand.

It was hard to believe this was the same Percy that had relapsed recently. After he had locked himself in his cabin for a few days, the ground shaking periodically, he'd gone straight back to his therapist. He'd been relatively stable after that.

Whereas she felt lighter than she had in months. Years. Marina was right. Sometimes, she just needed to look at the big picture and leave out the details. The world was okay. They were okay. She was okay.

She hadn't dreamed about the underside of that boat in over a week. It was the little things. She would wake up in the morning and smile.

Any day she didn't dream was a good day.

Which was an absolute Marina was trying to drill out of her. But it was true.

She didn't remember being dead, and the memory gap was the thing that bothered her the most. Dying was a blur, though the panic remained clear. She remembered the burn in her throat. But it was the knowledge that for days and days… she had just been empty… that was what got her. Her body had been carted round and moved and cleaned without her knowledge or consent or- or anything on the inside that had been her. And then she'd just been thrown back into a dead body.

She wasn't rotting or anything, she was in perfect health, everything had been reversed, but still… just blackness where memories should be. Had she gone to Elysium? Asphodel? Would she get back into Elysium? She didn't know.

But regardless of it all, she was happy to be alive. She thanked Percy in her mind every day. And at least she could talk about it now. She'd overtaken Percy in that regard, not that it was a competition, her mind reminded her.

She was just grateful for Marina.

"T-ta- Ugh!"

Percy threw his head back into the back of the sofa. Angie watched him with her ever patient eyes, and even her heart was steady. He reckoned she was on to him on that regard.

"I can't." he said.

"It's psychosomatic." Angie shrugged, "Physically, you have no problem with it. Do you want to try the repetition again?"

"Fine." He sat up.

"Tarmac is made with tar." she started.

"Tarmac is made with tar." he repeated dutifully.

"On fish, I have tartare sauce."

"On fish, I have t-tartare sauce."

Di Immortales, he hadn't been trapped in a sauce, why was he stuttering on that? He balled his fists, then released them and worked on his breathing. Angie took the leap.

"There's a place in the Underworld called Tartarus."

He breathed in.

"There's a place in the Underworld called T-tar-tar-trus." he forced out, practically gritting his teeth. He held his hands out, palms up to the ceiling. "I think that's the best we're gonna get." he said.

"You've made great improvements," Angie said warmly, "You've done very well."

"Thanks. I'll get it one day," he said, and it actually wasn't as far off a dream as it had been so long ago.

"I believe in you." Angie said with a smile.

"Come on slowpokes!" Jason yelled at the rest of the group, his voice reverberating through the forest. "We're only on lap two!"

"Jason, I'm about to throw up on my fancy new trainers." Leo groaned. "There's gonna be barf all over my laces so I won't even be able to take them off. They'll call me puke shoes for the rest of my life."

"Do you want me to carry you?" he asked.

Leo seriously considered it, but before he could speak, he was overwritten by Piper.

"If anyone's getting carried, it's me." she said. "A run? A run? What were you thinking?"

"It's fresh air!" Jason rolled his eyes. "Good for you?"

"There's air indoors." Leo moaned. "Nothing changes from one foot outside the window to one foot inside the window."

"Have you smelled the air in the Hephaestus cabin?" Percy asked in disbelief. "It's like socks… made of hair…and metal… on fire… in grease… and McDonalds chips."

Leo closed his eyes and breathed in dramatically.

"It is a combination of the Gods. I'm sorry your nostrils aren't as advanced as mine." he said.

"No, you're just noseblind." Annabeth said. "Your neurons have been smothered in smoke for too long."

It was probably true, but she didn't have to say it.

"Ugh." he replied, in lieu of an actual response. "Your palate just isn't as refined as mine."

"Leo, didn't you say the other day that you've never eaten an onion and never plan to?" Hazel asked.

Uh…

"Maybe?" he replied. "Uh, anyways- what was that about a lap two?"

"Right!" Jason clapped his hands together. "Second one to the finish line wins!"

Leo wrinkled his nose.

"Second one?"

Jason turned round with a smug smile, the slight wind causing his hair to flutter. Show off.

"Well, we all know I'll be first."

Piper and Frank exchanged a look.

"Oh, you will, will you?" Frank asked.

"I don't see how that's possible when you still have to redo your laces." Piper said, her voice becoming melodic at the end.

Leo watched with a grin as Jason nodded firmly, before crouching down and redoing his already perfect laces. Piper and Frank grinned and sprinted off into the distance. Hazel followed with an apologetic tilt of her head.

"Sucker!" Piper threw over her shoulder.

He saw Percy and Annabeth share a glance before they ran off too. Sometimes it felt like he was getting to know the both of them from the start. Who they were now was not who they had been when they'd met, stressed and desperate to reunite, and certainly not who they were after the war was over.

He looked around. He didn't think any of them were.

But that wasn't such a bad thing, he thought, as he tossed a handful of leaves onto Jason's back, sat on a fallen log. They all seemed a lot happier now. Their cuts were scars and their scars were fading.

Slowly, but they were all getting there.

He placed his foot on Jason's back and shoved him over, then ran away from the indignant cry that resounded behind him with a smile.

"My name is Percy Jackson. My mother is Sally Jackson and my father is Poseidon. My girlfriend's name is Annabeth Chase. I survived Tartarus twice and defeated Gaia."

Percy looked into his bathroom mirror, hands gripping either side of the sink, and smiled.

The spoon clinked delicately against her mug as she swirled the sugar into the tea. Sally tapped it once on the side before lifting it to her mouth for a sip. It was warm and sweet.

"Sorry, can I just-?" A waitress appeared nervously at her elbow, hands hovering at her table.

"Oh, yes, thank you." Sally said, stacking it all onto the biggest plate before handing it over. The waitress took it gratefully with a quirk of her lips. "Thank you." she said again.

As a former waitress herself, she knew there was nothing worse than the general public. It was a warm day in the little cafe, her uniform looked boiling hot, and she knew that someone could never say thank you enough. She'd drilled it into Percy and she'd drill it into the new baby too, she thought, with another sip of her tea and a rub of her stomach. Don't mess with the people who serve you food.

She was waiting for Percy to finish another therapy session. He said he'd felt bad leaving her out here to wait, but she didn't mind; it was nice to sit with a cup of tea and simply melt into the background. She got to hear conversations she could use as writing inspiration, she had good food and drink on hand, and the weather was sunny outside. In a buggy near the window, a baby smiled at her, and she smiled back.

Across the table, the other chair was roughly jerked out.

A rugged-looking fisherman dropped into the spare seat. Sally raised an eyebrow, but continued to drink her tea.

"Hello." she said.

Poseidon smiled at her.

"How's he doing?" he asked.

"A lot better nowadays." Sally replied, catching a bead of liquid with her thumb before it dripped off the mug. "Nightmares are less frequent, he speaks clearly of events. He's on sleep medication now but the plan is to wean him off of it once he's settled down. He seems a lot happier."

She observed the man her son would one day grow up to resemble. They had the same hair, same eyes, though Percy now shaved to avoid being a complete mirror image. The memory of him and Paul stood in the bathroom, laughing themselves to death with cuts all over their foamy faces, still brought a smile to her face. And he'd sworn off Hawaiian shirts. She wondered if she should buy one for him as a joke.

"Good." Poseidon said, sounding relieved, "That's… good."

"Olympus?"

"Mostly fixed. Trying to just sort things out now. Percy really has… shaken things up again."

"He's good at that." Sally nodded. "I'm proud."

She finished her tea.

"So am I." Poseidon said quietly, as she lowered her cup to the table.

When she looked up again, he was gone.

"Glaring at me won't kill me, you know?"

"Oh I know. But a guy can dream."

Pasiphaë laughed. Percy didn't. Chiron's eyes flicked between the two.

She sat on the grass on one side of the border, Chiron and Percy on the other, a small tray of drinks between them. Pasiphaë gestured to them.

"I'll take some lemonade, if you will, Godkiller." she said.

Chiron watched as Percy didn't even move, but the fizzing liquid climbed out of the jug and into a cup. The cup, condensation clinging all around it, then floated over to her. Pasiphaë took it out of the air and drained it. She smacked her lips obnoxiously.

"So." she began, "Business. I have found myself in quite possibly the luckiest position in the world."

Chiron switched his gaze to Percy, who just kept glaring. He decided to intervene. "Care to explain?" he asked.

Pasiphaë bared her teeth in a smile at him. "I'd love to. See, once upon a time, Mr Steroids here and I made a deal. I won't kill him if he won't kill me-"

"-Which you broke!" Percy interrupted.

"Ah, no I didn't!" She pointed at him. "I told you I wasn't going to kill you, then merely attacked you. Then you did the same. But the oath is still in place, since neither of us are dead, and I don't see either of us breaking it any time soon."

"So?" asked Percy, and Chiron had to agree; where exactly was she going with this?

"I'm the only being you can't kill. No matter what I do, you can't kill me. So let's start talking deals."

"Deals." Chiron repeated flatly.

He could see Percy's hand slowly clenching into a fist and placed his hand on his shoulder. He'd been healthy and in control for so long, he wasn't about to let this witch ruin it.

"All I'm saying is: I give you a name, you give me a head. I leave everyone you love alone. We're quite the team."

"No." Percy said bluntly, and Chiron nodded. Good boy.

Pasiphaë smirked.

"Oh please," she said, "We both know you can't do anything."

Percy paused, then laughed. He stood up, dusting his shorts off. His teeth glinted in the lowering sun.

"You're right." he said, "I can't."

Chiron felt like rolling his eyes. Of course.

"But she can." he finished.

Pasiphaë's grin dropped, and she launched herself to her feet, torn red dress swaying. She turned-

-and came nose to nose with a very annoyed daughter of Athena.

Chiron sighed. Kids.

It was fiddly and he hated it and it was stupid.

Another bead rolled across his cabin floor and under his bed. He spat as far as he could and used the saliva to push it back into his little pile. It was 'gross' according to his girlfriend, but it was funny how she didn't mind it when he was turning out the lights at night without jostling them. At least Nico was on his side- he'd told him it was cool. He may have been making fun of him though. He counted it as a win.

Percy threaded another bead on- a centaur in a prom dress? How had he been here for years and still never heard that story?- and held up the necklace to the light. The little beads clicked together.

He placed it on the floor and lined up his necklace, Annabeth's coral pendant and her new necklace. Okay, it was all coming together. The beads he had remade for her were a little smudged and a bit scruffier than they should be, and he'd had to practice his breathing techniques while doing the empire state building bead names, but they'd turned out alright.

It was getting harder to work in the dim light, especially seeing as how his fingertips didn't really show up in shadows. The black was permanent, it seemed. He'd touched the void, and the void had stained him. He wasn't too bothered actually, seeing as how his fingers had been consistently ink-stained for years before he even knew he was a demigod, but his mum had bought him some fancy gloves to wear if he needed them regardless.

He wondered what the bead for this year would be. Hopefully not him. Maybe a little caricature of a dead Gaia?

A beep went off on his watch, and he jumped. You'd think he'd be used to it by now.

Leaning over to his bedside table, he pulled the little orange capsule of pills off the top and popped one in. it wouldn't hit him for half an hour or so, but he'd be a bit drowsy and giggly until then, so he tied off the necklaces and placed them to the side. He'd finish them in the morning. Annabeth would see if she came into his cabin tonight, but he didn't mind; she probably knew he was doing it as soon as he'd asked her for her pendant.

Maybe that would be the bead this year, he mused as he slid into bed. A small picture of a pill bottle and a therapist's notepad. The year they all got officially diagnosed with PTSD and got treatment.

He still wanted to know what the centaur was doing in a prom dress though.

She could do this, Annabeth told herself. She could do this.

The water reached her waist and she sucked in a breath.

This was fine. She'd been in and out of these waters practically every day since she was seven. She knew them like the back of her hand. Her boyfriend was the son of the sea. He'd protect her if she couldn't.

Marina's voice swam into her head. Once you've done it, you'll have done it, she had said, and once you've done it, you'll know you can do it again.

It was alright for her to say that; she hadn't run away screaming the last time she tried.

She lifted her chin and marched straight up to her armpits in the sea. She clenched a hand around her new camp necklace. It was cold.

"It's cold." she said aloud.

From where he was sat on the top of the calm waves, Percy winced sympathetically.

"I can try to make it warmer?" he offered, but she shook her head. She needed to just get used to it.

She let her fingertips sink into the water a little, her arms held high above the surface. She swirled them about a little. She was in charge. She'd be fine. She'd kill anything in these seas and drag it back onto land. Reyna had said she believed in her, and she held onto that tightly too.

She could feel Percy watching her, and sucked in a breath before diving under the surface.

Everything muted as she submerged. Eyes scrunched closed, she let herself dive deeper a little. Her legs kicked freely, her weightless arms just feeling the water surround her. She poked the sand with her toes, then signalled Percy and gestured to her eyes.

Instantly, she felt the water leave her face. It was like she was now wearing a scuba diving mask. She blinked and opened her eyes.

The water was clear, if a little green, and tiny schools of fish milled around in the distance. Percy was watching her, just casually breathing in the water, and flashed her a curious thumbs up.

She returned it and they grinned at each other. Victory burned powerfully in her veins. She made a note to give Marina the best gift she could think of.

She'd done it. Death could kiss her ass.

"Not bad down here." she said, and it echoed around her little air bubble.

"It has its moments." Percy replied.

She held a hand out to him. "It's tradition, right?"

He grinned and swam over to her, and when their lips met, she felt like they were kids again. Her hair rose up around them like blonde seaweed. His hand splayed across her back.

She could feel his grin on her own.

"And how did you feel at that time?" Angie asked.

"Honestly? Terrified. But I also know they needed me alive, so… maybe around seventeen?" He leaned back in his chair and propped his chin up on his hand. "Koios had it out for me because I'd ruined his chances of getting out the first time- and this time too, I suppose. Krios just seemed to have that generic Titan versus demigod hate. That's probably why he didn't knock me about as much."

"And Koios?"

Percy pulled a face.

"Yeah, he beat me up a lot." he said, his hands moving as he tried to convey his feelings, "And time is different in Tartarus, so he'd let me drop, walk out, and then he'd be back in before I even stopped bleeding. And I did beg, I did. Because it just didn't stop, and I wanted it to. Sometimes I can still feel my face being all broken after a dream."

"Most likely psychosomatic, but that doesn't reduce how you felt. Psychosomatic pain can hurt just as much as physical. It's why you see some soldiers with canes to walk, despite being physically fine. Have you seen a reduction in bad dreams?"

At this, Percy's face split in a wide smile. "Yeah," he said, "I actually had just a normal regular dream the other day. Well- kinda normal. I was back in the Lotus Casino- remember I told you about that?- and Grover and I were playing Guitar Hero, but his turned into his reed pipes, so I called him out for cheating, right? And he told me to look down, and I had Riptide in my hands, but it had all the buttons on it. So we were both playing but without the actual guitars."

Angie smiled. "I'm glad you're back to… normal… dreams like that."

Percy laughed. "I didn't even win!"

They watched the sunset go down most nights, but there was something different about tonight. The fireflies were a little brighter, the sky more vibrantly orange, the grass softer. The air was cool and curled around their horizontal bodies. The kids back at camp weren't exactly loud, but they could hear laughs and shouts in the distance.

Annabeth shifted in his arms to look at him.

"You okay?"

He smiled down at her.

"Yeah." he said, almost surprised. "I am. You?"

She nodded. A little smile pulled at her face. "Yeah."

"Good." he replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

She let her head rest back on his chest, and they resumed their gazing into the sky.

The End

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Well, the end but not exactly THE end, bc the sadists out there are still waiting for the next chapter AU where percy actually still was in tartarus at the end of chapter 66. We finna be angsting yall.

But for those of yall who are leaving the train at this station? I love you and appreciate you so much. Remember when this little runt of a story was like 2k with 6 reviews and no plan in sight? Ahhhh,, the good old days. Then idk what happened, it suddenly became,, this. I blame everyone but me. Massive thanks to bmftas for the first review, ekse123 for being the first favourite, Aixor for being the first follow and AbyssalDaemon for adding me to my first community. This fanfic literally taught me how to write properly, and I'm sorry about all the initial chapters... and the massive gaps inbetween updates... and my early authors notes I WAS A CHILD pls ignore haha xx.

From the bottom of my heart, thank all of you. May we meet again.