If you've already read this chapter, skip to the second section.

Reyna walked into the Fifth Cohort without preamble. There was a small scramble as Romans clambered out of bed and stood at attention for their Praetor.

"At ease," she said gently. Some of them relaxed and flopped back into bed. Others relaxed and looked at her strangely. She never used that kind of voice. "Although you might want to pay attention, since it's about Percy Ja-"

Reyna was abruptly cut off by a multitude of voices. "QUIET! Hear me out."

Everyone shut up. "Thank you. I know Percy's tight spot is a sore subject for you all, espescially since I was the one who put it into play that Percy swore on his life that everything would be fine. One of you in this Cohort knows that I was insincere about executing Percy."

More grumbles broke out, and then her words sunk in.

"Yes, if he chooses to stay, he will be punished for the rash promise that he could not keep and going into Mare Nostrum, as well as Jason will be for clunking Dakota, but they and their friends will not be executed. They will not be considered traitors, and they will not be driven out." Reyna said into the stunned silence.

Reyna was then tackled in a hug. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you," Gwen whispered breathlessly into her ear.

The Fifth Cohort went up in cheers, which was heard throughout the camp.

The Argo II landed at the docks mostly gracefully, despite the damage to it. Leo, at the helm, carefully maneuvered the Argo between two other ships. Annabeth and Percy stood at the where the plank would be put to help them disembark, leaning on each other. In a horseshoe-shaped semi-circle, the rest of the Seven circled around Annabeth, Percy, and Nico protectively.

There was dead silence as the plank was put into place. Leo joined the semi-circle as the Seven and Nico descended from the Argo. Annabeth stumbled, and the rest of crew surged forward. The camp was growing increasingly worried about their leaders, and overall, the crew. But it was the leaders that got the campers.

The way the crew came down the ramp was terrifying. Annabeth and Percy leaned on each other, Piper supporting Annabeth and Jason helping Percy. Frank and Hazel were in the back, also leaning on each other and yet ready to catch Nico, who insisted on standing by himself with the help of his Stygian iron sword, and Leo was last, wary, slightly jumpy, and prone to having his fingers burst into flames at inopportune times, scaring the campers, but apparently not the crew.

Chiron trotted forward as they walked down the plank, looking worried. The crew reached the bottom of the ramp.

Some of the older campers thrust their way through the crowd: Clarrise, Katie, Chris, the Stolls, Juniper the dryad, Grover, even Thalia and some of the Hunters were there. Will Solace from the Apollo cabin and Nyssa from the Hephaestus cabin also came forward.

A Nike girl started clapping slowly, the sound echoing through the suffocating silence. As people shook themselves out of their reverie, they started clapping as well. Soon it was applause, then roaring.

Chiron came up, and Piper and Jason backed away from Percy and Annabeth. Percy and Annabeth themselves straightened. Chiron murmured something to Annabeth that no one else heard except for Percy, then hugged her. Annabeth willingly hugged him back.

Chiron invited Percy in, and the three of them stood in the midst of roaring applause, a war-ravaged camp, and campers who have battled for their lives. The trio stood there, one acting as their rock, the other two practically collapsing. Chiron gently picked up Annabeth and put her on his back, carefully avoiding jarring her broken ankle. Then he put Percy up as well, and galloped off, leaving the rest of the campers to wonder what the Hades just happened.

Jason waved tiredly and said, "Ok, thank you, all that crap that I don't feel like saying right now, and now me and the rest of the crew are gonna go pass out somewhere comfortable for a week or so." Weak laughter flew around the crowd.

The older campers that were closer to Percy and Annabeth formed a jagged circle around the crew, and the younger ones formed a ragged honor guard.

When Jason made to go to the Zeus cabin and found that Clarisse was blocking the way, he was too tired to even protest further than, "Why?"

"I think we can all say that the Poseidon cabin is easily the most comfortable and welcoming cabin, even if it is Prissy who inhabits it, Jason," she said in a rough voice that could even be described as gentle (for Clarisse, that is).

Jason managed a tired laugh. "I take it that you have no daily insult for me today, eh, Clarisse?"

"You look like you got run over by a Lastrygonian soccer team in cleats," Clarisse immediately supplied.

"You're too nice," Jason said sarcastically. "Who are you, and what have you done to Clarisse?"

She punched him in the arm. "You earned my respect, that's what you've done, Superman." Jason scowled at the many-mentioned 'blond Superman' joke. "Get in there. It's no fun thrusting someone's head into a toliet if they can't fight back at least a little bit."

Jason figured that was as nice as he was going to get. He stumbled into the Poseidon cabin and flopped onto the first bed he saw and wasn't occupied.

"Hey Jason?" Piper asked sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"You actually got Clarisse to be nice," she muttered.

"Percy told me once that your sister was a best friend to Clarisse." Jason's words were slurring.

"Which one?"

"Silena. Silena Beaugard."

Just before he really did pass out for six days, he saw that one of the beds was occupied by two people: one blond, one black-haired, both of them looking peaceful for once.

I keep seeing the horrible things shown to me in Tartarus. I keep being plunged into memories, to surface trembling and blinking back tears. Every time, it feels like I've had a bucket of ice water dumped on my head and someone executed a perfect roundhouse kick to my ribcage, knocking my breath out of my lungs. Every time, a little part of me dies from fear and heart break.

-Annabeth Chase's Dream Journal

Camp in flames. Camp torn up. Camp collasped. Chiron buried under the rubble of the Big House. Leo crushed in Bunker 9. Piper missing. Malcom somewhere under the ruins of the Athena cabin. Percy-Percy.

A lock of black hair is all that's left of the great reign of Perseus Jackson.

I fall to me knees, trying to move the slab of rock that crushed him, but I couldn't. I started to scream in frustration and greif, and started to shake, more and more, and I felt cold, like I was having an epileptic seizure, and I kept screaming and kicking and thrashing and punching whatever I could reach, mad with grief.

"Annabeth! Annabeth! Annabeth, it was just a dream! Wake up, please!"

Percy's voice drew her back into the waking world. She was in his arms, bridal-style. Annabeth was soaking wet and shivering, her throat raw from screaming, her knuckles bleeding. There were several dents in the wall, one of them was very obviously a foot, which explained why her still-mending broken ankle was practically screaming at her to stop moving.

Annabeth realized that it was a dream, and Percy was here, safe, even though she had punched him hard in the nose, and otherwise not-crushed. She burst into tears, something very un-Annabeth.

Several months had passed, and they were back at Camp Half-Blood. Even though it was technically not allowed for two campers to be alone in a cabin, Chiron had decided that it was best for the Athena cabin (after she had pulverised the lot of them in her sleep) and her to sleep in Percy's cabin, since Percy was very capable of handling himself. The Hephaestus cabin even set up an alarm in the Poseidon cabin to the Big House to alert Chiron so that one could punch it if the other was having their night terrors and pulverising the cabin. It had happened more than once.

The alarm wasn't going off, so Annabeth curled up in the fetal position and trying to get the terrifying image of a crushed Percy out of her head.

Percy picked her up again, and put her in his bed, then climbed in. They always had no nightmares if they slept together, even if it was a twin bed. The only nightmare they ever had was falling out of bed, which always amused the other, since normally it was Percy who fell and Annabeth who snickered.

It would take until their early twenties to never have a night terror, but then, they got married at twenty-two, so they still slept together.

A satisfying end to the terror they often called their early lives.

"They say time heals. It does, but it always leaves a throbbing scar." -The Writer of This Three-shot