Hello readers this is my first fanfic so tell me what you think. I came up with this idea almost as soon as I had finished the book series and will update as often as I can. This story is going to have a dark feel to it and shows the other side to war that alot of people dont want to see. I wont spoil it so please. Read and review.

Beginnings

After a long time looking out of my bedroom window I let my gaze fall back down to my lap. A creased newspaper was shrivelled and battered from re reading and overuse but I could still make out each and every name on the list; the list of the dead. It's been two weeks since the war and I can still hear the screams of the dead and dying, the last look in Lukes face as he said his goodbye and defeated Kronos. I can vaguely remember cheering as the world was saved but I suppose I had no cheer left in me. The destruction left behind was monstrous. The locals put it down to a massive earthquake but I know different. All half bloods do. I read the newspaper yet again even though I had memorised every word over and over again. Man why do I have to be so fucking depressed I thought and then realised the answer was easy.

I was16 and I've seen more fighting than most soldiers do in their lifetime. I've seen friends die, betray me, and hurt me and my...family? I suppose you could call everyone at Camp Half Blood my family. Apart from my mother who I love more than anyone else on the planet they are the nearest thing to family I have. Of course my father sometimes drops a visit. Hasn't been here much lately due to the rebuild of his underwater palace. Apart from the "Earthquake" in New York

Things had been pretty strange lately. Since Kronos fell the world seemed to have fallen into a perpetual sleep where nothing seems to be happening yet things seem slightly different if that makes sense. Life continued as normal for some, others suffered with mourning. From time to time campers dropped by my house to say hello and I did the same in return. I loved my friends. The other night Grover dropped by with his girlfriend and invited me out to the pictures with him to see some movie. Normally I would be embarrassed going out with a couple just on my own but now, now I had Annabeth.

Annabeth. Every time I think her name I have to smile. All these years we went through everything together, returning the bolt, Sea of monsters, the labyrinth etc brought us closer and closer together. She was my best friend and I thought the world of her, even if she can be a bit of a smart arse sometimes. I suppose if she wasn't like that it wouldn't be Annabeth though. I called up an image in my mind of the time we had a fight before we went on the quest into the Labyrinth. I almost laughed. Almost…what did make me smile I closed my eyes and took a moment to steady myself. Cant think about that now I thought. I exhaled slowly and put the paper back down onto my nightstand. I was just about try and make sense of the thoughts in my head when I heard a loud bang on the door.

"Percy! Percy are you in there?" My mothers voice rang from the other side. To say that noise made me jump was an understatement. Trust me if you had been fighting monsters for the best part of 4 years then you'd be jumpy. I jumped back into my bed and nearly went head first into the wall, my newspaper dropping off the side of the bed. I had to steady myself using my bookshelf. It took me a few seconds to calm down. I heard a chuckle from the other side of the door. Apparently mom found my reaction amusing. I can't blame her to be honest.

"Relax it's only me haha". I could just see her head poking through the side of the door as she gradually opened the door and let the light come in through the window to breathe on her kind face. She slowly crept in the room holding her arms out in a mock "look I'm unarmed" pose. She was wearing a pink and blue dress flowery dress and had a radiant smile on her face that made her shine. She has changed so much since she met Paul. More…confident and self assured. She finally realised that she deserved to have a little good luck now and again.

"You fancy some dinner dear? You look starving". Truth was I hadn't been eating much lately. I had too much on my mind. I still wasn't particularly hungry but I accepted her offer regardless. I didn't want her to worry.

"Yeah sure" I said. My mom gave me a quizzical glace and started smirking smugly. I realised I still had a dopey smile on my face from when I was thinking about Annabeth. Mom came up closer to me and tapped me on the shoulder still grinning.

"You got it bad" she teased

"Shut up!" I said irritably. I tried to be annoyed but I couldn't stop myself from sniggering from embarrassment. All the colour went into my cheeks and I tried to back away from my moms smug expression

"You got it real bad!" She laughed and she could stop after that as Id just flushed completely red and sat down in a petulant sulky position on my bed.

"Are you done?" I asked still trying to keep a straight face.

"I think so. Is Annabeth coming over later?" she said quizzically

"You know I'm seeing her later mom." I said rolling me eyes. Lately she seems to be asking a lot of questions about me and her. It's quite annoying actually.

"Oh I remember…have fun". She let the smirk stay on her face and walked out the room. I swear to the gods I could have heard a laugh as she closed the door. I just stood there staring at the door. My mind was starting to wander again when I heard a bang downstairs that brought me back to earth.

"Percy!" my mom's voice rang Oh Yeah.

I quickly stuffed the paper under the bed. I can tidy that up later I thought then ran out the room, down the stairs into the kitchen. At the bottom of the stairs my mom was waiting with my arms crossed.

"Took your time" she said simply. She turned towards the dinner table where Paul was already sitting.

"Its beef lasagne I hope you don't mind". She walked over to the seat next to him fiancé and kissed him on the lips. She patted him on the back and got sat down. I jokingly jabbed my fingers into my mouth.

"Does it have to be over dinner mom?" I asked. To her it probly sounded more like a whine.

"Don't act like you don't do it" she chided then stuck her tongue out. I chuckled

"Fair point" I said then I sat down opposite and picked up a fork. I then absently started to eat my meal. I tasted it but it held no satisfaction.

We ate most of our meal in silence only pausing occasionally for idle chit chat. 'How was your day?' 'What have been up to?' 'How has work been?' were type of questions that got asked. Most of the talk was aimed at me. I answered the questions when asked but I tried to keep it short. I really wasn't in the mood to talk. I just wanted to be left alone. I could see that both of them were worried. That just made me even sadder. Neither of them would understand. Not even I do. I should be celebrating shouldn't I? There is no more fighting is there? Sure there will still some clearing up to do after all there is a bit power gap left behind; supporters of Kronos's cause might decide to take advantage of his absence but we have Rachel for that. She has come in quite handy so far and has deterred two attacks that could have ended disastrously. I suppose there are advantages to having someone who can see problems before they happen and let the Chiron know.

Every time either my Mom or Paul met my eyes I involuntarily looked down knowing that she could read my face almost too easily. After a silence of about ten minutes I stood up.

"Mom may I go now please I have to…err get ready for tonight?"

"Erm…ok Percy sure go on up…you sure you don't want pudding" she asked.

I turned and briskly ran up the stairs.

"I'm fine I'll eat later" I managed to rush out on the way up. I bounded into my room and quickly closed the door. I walked towards my bed and laid myself down like I had been everyday for the last few weeks.

I had a date with Annabeth to some restaurant in town. My mom helped me with the reservation. She thought it would be romantic which was the exact reason at first I didn't warm to the idea. I didn't have Annabeth down to be the type of person that liked all that mushy stuff. I thought I would humour her and ask anyway. Hey what's the worse that could go wrong I thought. To my surprise she said yes almost straight away and didn't make fun of how sappy I sounded…well almost didn't. I was walking her back to her dads place when I asked her. We stopped to sit down briefly and watched the sky. It was nearing dawn my mom was going to kill me; I could see faint light coming from the east. I left my house at eleven and if I'm slow it takes me about 40 minutes to walk to Annabeths place. We had been out for more than 3 hours and almost none of that was spent walking.

Anyway as I was saying I had been putting off asking for a few hours but she was nearly home so I though…well I had to get it over with

I was just starting to try and put the question out but I kept stumbling over my words.

'Spit it out Percy I do need to get home eventually' she laughed knowing that

'Ah err…would I was just wondering if you would like to come out with me tomorrow…to err…well there's a restaurant near where I live…so…you know…you want to…just me and you?' She gave me a questioning look and stared at me for a few seconds with her striking grey eyes. Feeling she might say no I quickly tried to save myself from embarrassment and back out but this only made me look more pitiful

'Sure-if-you-don't-want-to-go-there-we-can-always-do-some-…' the words came so fast out my mouth I could barely catch a breath but before I could finish Annabeth held up her hand and lit a mocking grin form on her lips. I could tell she was trying hard not to laugh at how wet I sounded simply by the fact she was covering her mouth and shaking forward and back quickly. She knew how hard it was for me to ask her this it took almost a year just to get the courage kiss her for Zeus's sake. 'Sure Seaweed Brain…ha…it'll be sweet…what time shall I meet you?' My jaw hit the floor 'What?'. She laughed againshowing her brilliant smile. 'Why you look so uncomfortable? You did want me to say yes right?' she looked hopefully into my eyes…almost doubtful. Realising she thought I was trying to blow her off I hastily added.

'No No not at all…just didn't think it was your thing…your not exactly a girly girl are you?'

She smiled and gave me a face of mock hurt. She then stopped walking and I could see mischief in her eyes; a sparkle I thought I'd lost during the war. It was satisfying to see. She slowly leant into me, her eyes never leaving me face she leant in slowly, my heart thumping hard against my chest. I was aware of every part of her body that was touching me and if Athena could of heard the thoughts I was having right then about her daughter then I'm pretty sure I would have been blasted into a crater. My eyes went to her lips in anticipation. Just as she was getting nearer she pulled back and stuck her tongue out.

'I hate you sometimes' I joked

'No you don't Seaweed Brain' she said

I starred at her for a few seconds then shook my head back to reality.

'So…you actually want to come?'

I could feel my face heating up. She shifted uncomfortable and her eyes moved around her head, focussing on almost anything but me.

'What? Did you not think I'd like a romantic meal with my…boyfriend?' I let an unwilling laugh escape my lips. She was never one to express emotion and her saying the word 'boyfriend' out loud was one of the hardest things she has probly done in a long while. Yes that does include the numerous monsters at the battle for Olympus and yes that does including rebuilding the place, which by the way she started a few days ago…well she finished drawing up the plans anyway. For the last week she had almost never left the bedroom. She had been up all night drawing scale drawings measurements blah blah blah I will probly fall asleep if I think about it too much. The annoying thing is that for the best part of a week the only way I have been able to talk to her is by phone (and all demigods know what happens when we use phones). Twice in the last 3 days I've had to fight off an attack. It's a good job I'm invincible.

Watching her floundering here was one of the funniest things I have witnessed. I was about to laugh when she looked at me with dagger eyes and said 'shut up' in a low was gradually letting her composure back and let a neutral expression enter her face and moved her hands down to her sides and she looked evenly at me.

'What time you want to pick me up then' she asked. Shit I forgot about that. How was I going to meet her? Not wanting to sound like an idiot I had an idea. I hope Paul wouldn't mind.

'Er…seven?...I'll borrow Paul's car he shouldn't miss it for one night'. She raised her eyebrow.

'Remember what Happened last time you borrowed his car'. I vaguely remembered a large black Pegasus swooping through the clouds and nearly flattening it. I blushed as I came out of that memory.

'That isn't going to happen every week wise girl…besides I town Blackjack to land on the street next time…' I got lost in nostalgia again and my thoughts flashed back to that day…it saddened me to think about it. All those lives lost…a lot of them younger than I was.

'Percy you ok?' Annabeth asked. She could obviously read the expression on my face. I took a deep breath and tried to force a smile.

'Yeah sure why wouldn't I be…'

She kept her gaze on me but didn't pursue it. She turned towards the path and the morning sunrise caught her face, illuminating her features and reflecting in her eyes. Her hair moved silently in the breeze and breathed a light glow. She grabbed me hand.

'Come on seaweed brain. My dad will get jumpy'. I rolled my eyes.

'Fine let's go'. With that we finished the rest of the journey mostly in silence…

My consciousness gradually came back to the present and I went into my ward robe .Sure I had gone out a few times, but not if I could avoid it. In fact tonight was the first time I would be out in a long while. I generally tried to avoid the outside would. Constant reminders to the past were pinned everywhere. Torn up pieces of road, Building wreckages even small things like a hole in the wall where a Huntresses arrow had found purchase just brought back flashes of the fight before I didn't want to see again. I carried on rummaging through until I found what I was looking for, a plain black collared shirt. I then went to the dresser and picked out a pair of jeans. As I put them on a sudden thought came to me. Why am I making so much effort for this girl? Its not like I usually care about my appearance that much. After I was ready I scooped up the watch Paul had given me for my 16th and put it on. Not realising what the time was I stole a glance at it and read out the time. Crap its quarter to 7! If I was late she would kill me. I hurriedly picked up my phone and wallet and bolted down the stairs. "I hope your appreciate this wise girl!"I grumbled to myself.

While my mom and Paul were talking in the kitchen I grabbed the car keys and hoped he wouldn't be too mad when I got back. To save time jumped out the window and became water, a trick my dad had taught me shortly after the ward. I can't describe the feeling. Its like my whole body turns cold and I have no senses in my body yet I know exactly where I am and where I'm going. To the outside observed it would have looking like someone had thrown a bucket of water out of the window. I reformed just before I touched the floor; I could feel the molecules in my body knitting themselves together again. To me it felt just I had simply walked down a step on a stairwell. The evening light shone on the parking lot; cars making elongated shadows across open ground. I aimed my jump so that I would appear just next to where the car was so I wasn't too surprised when I turned to my right and saw the Prius. Not the same one as before (can you imagine explaining the hoof marks to the insurance company) but a different one. I pressed the button on the key fob and the car unlocked. As I bounded inside the car I closed the door so hard it made the vehicle shake.

I looked at my watch. Ten minutes. I turned the key in the ignition and heard the engine roar to life. I stared ahead of me at my mom's apartment. Paul was standing in the window shaking his head. I mouthed the words Sorry and silently drove the car out of the car park and onto open road. I looked at myself in the car mirror and smiled despite my strange mood. As much as I hated going out these days I needed it. So I'll force myself to enjoy it I thought

I shook my head. This should be an interesting night.