ερείπια

ruins

• • •

New York City was a ghost town.

The streets, once filled with chaos and noise, were completely vacant. Trash littered the sidewalks, helping to conceal the abandoned vehicles that lined the roads. Not a soul remained in the city; it was the first place to be wiped out.

Thalia remembered that day well, the day that Gaea took over the world. Greece had been the epicenter of her chaos; she had rose there. But New York City took the brunt of her anger. Giants had stormed the Empire State building, destroying several buildings and killing hundreds of people along the way. And once Olympus had fallen, Gaea had killed every single person living in the city. Thalia had watched the news once the shock of the loss set in, and she still had nightmares about the devastation of it all.

Since then, no one has dared step foot in the city. It was cursed, more so than any other place. Every city was practically empty now, but that was to be expected. How much of the world was dead because of Gaea? The latest reports anyone dared to run reported more than 3 billion people were killed in the initial aftermath. That number didn't include the suicides and deaths since.

Thalia stood in the center of Times Square staring at the blank screens, most of which were cracked beyond repair. She had never seen the place so empty.

"When I was young," Reyna said from beside her, "my sister and I dreamed of visiting this city. We played a game where we would say everything that we would do here. Visit the Statue of Liberty, buy hot dogs in Central Park, ride in a yellow taxi. It seems none of that will ever happen."

This used to be home to Thalia. This is where she ended up with Luke and Annabeth. But Luke was now dead, and Annabeth was missing. How was Thalia the last of them? Luke was the one who was supposed to be the golden child, the perfect hero. How many nights had Thalia stayed up, watching Luke keep watch over Annabeth and Thalia while they were on the run? How many times had he sacrificed his portion of whatever meal they had been able to find to give to the two girls? He was selfless in that sense, but his selfishness won out in the end.

Nico stumbled to stand beside Thalia, apparently oblivious to the somber mood. He ran a nervous hand through his hair.

"Percy's going to freak when he sees what happened to his city," Nico muttered darkly.

"I'll add that to the list of things to be pissed off about," responded Thalia, "right above him disappearing for two years."

"Somehow, I think he'll have a good excuse for that one," said Reyna, her eyes not leaving a crushed taxi cab.

"Have you heard from Jason?" Thalia asked Nico, turning her back on the dead screens.

He shook his head while biting the cuticle of his thumb, a nervous habit that Thalia remembered from a much younger version of Nico; the sight of it was almost enough for her to smile. "It's been radio silence on their end. But chances are that Percy will either go to Camp Half-Blood or the Empire State Building; we'll find him one way or another."

"Yeah, well, we better," muttered Thalia, absentmindedly checking the arrows in her quiver, "or else I might just kill him myself."

But that wasn't the issue. No, the issue was that Annabeth was still missing. Percy was like Thalia's other brother, but Annabeth had been her sister for far longer. Annabeth was her chosen family, more than anyone else.

The radio hanging from Nico's hip suddenly crackled, and Nico jumped at its sound. He raised it to his ear, and the sound of Piper's voice came through.

"I think we see him."

Thalia's eyes met Reyna's, and the other woman nodded. There was a silent communication as their hands reached for each other.

Thalia smirked at Nico, "do your thing, shadow boy."

Nico made a disgusted face. "Shadow boy? Really?"

But he grabbed Thalia's hand and shut his eyes in concentration. Reyna, who was very experienced in Nico's shadow-traveling ability, also closed her eyes. But Thalia kept her's opened; she couldn't help herself. So it was only her that saw Nico's form waver, then disappear altogether as the shadows collected around them and swallowed them whole.

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Piper was less than thrilled to be back at Camp Half-Blood. Sure, it had been her home for a significant amount of time, but the last time she had seen it, it was drenched in flames and smoke. And the evidence of that was still here. Cabins, burned down with only their skeletons remaining. The volleyball court was a pit of broken glass and ashes, and Piper didn't even want to think about the state of the old home of the Oracle.

The current Oracle seemed to sense Piper's anxiety; Rachel glanced over at her while chewing on her lip. There was no comfort in Rachel's green eyes, only an ancient wariness.

"Heard anything from Nico and the others?" Jason asked from his place beside Piper. Piper clenched tighter at the walkie-talkie and shook her head. "He's more likely to come here, right? It's connected to the water, and he spent most of his life here."

"Or maybe he's dead and has been for years," muttered Leo from his place on a rock on the beach.

Piper and Jason shared a glance; life had been lonely without Percy and Annabeth, but even more so without Leo's sense of humor. He'd been nothing but melancholy silence and late nights in his tent, unwilling to let anyone inside. He'd lost weight and there was a hollowness in his dark eyes that had never been there before. The destruction of the world took a heavy toll on all of them, but Leo seemed to suffer the most.

"He'll come here," said Rachel, her eyes fixated on the horizon, "and if not, then maybe the Oracle inside me died."

Rachel's attempt at humor crashed and burned as no one recognized that she had just spoken. But the girl didn't seem fazed; her expression was stoic and almost completely blank. It was worrisome, but it didn't even make the top fifty worrisome things in Piper's life at the moment.

"He'll come," said Jason, a hint of his former confidence back, the confidence that once led armies. Leo just rolled his eyes at the former Praetor of New Rome and poked at the sand with a broken stick.

Piper scanned the horizon once more, but the cloudy sky made it difficult to see much more than the crashing waves and rolling storm clouds. "Hand me the binoculars," she said to Jason, who wordlessly obliged.

Piper lifted them to her face, and took a moment to focus them. There was nothing but waves until a blurred shape occupied the lenses. Piper frowned. "I might be seeing something, guys."

Jason leaned in, his hand resting on her shoulder. Piper pressed against him, unsure whether or not she was more scared of seeing Percy or finding a piece of driftwood on the open sea. She focused the binoculars and held her breath.

It was a raft. And there were two people on it.

"Holy shit," Piper said aloud, "holy shit."

"What do you see?" asked Jason anxiously.

She ignored him and raised the walkie-talkie to her lips. "I think we see him."

Piper didn't wait for a reply before dropping the hand-held radio. "It's a raft with two people on it. At least that's what I think I'm seeing. Dammit, why won't this thing focus?"

She twisted the ends of the binoculars until the raft came into clear view. "Oh my gods," she said right as Nico, Reyna, and Thalia materialized out of the shadows.

"Is it him?" Reyna asked immediately.

It was him. Percy Jackson, alive and well, floating on the Long Island Sound. He was obviously older, even at the distance. There was happiness at seeing him again, but the last time Piper had seen him. . .her hand drifted towards her throat, the memory of the blood that had once been there stained in her mind.

"It's him. There's a girl, too," she said as a means to distract herself from memory, "I've never seen her before."

"Let's hope she's not trouble," grumbled Thalia as Piper lowered the binoculars and passed them to Reyna.

Jason's hand found Piper's, and she squeezed it without looking at him. Because Percy was visible from here, the raft moving at an impossible speed. He'd be on the shore within minutes, and it was clear that he had seen them.

"How do we tell him about Annabeth?" muttered Reyna, glancing nervously at Thalia, "that kind of news could send him into another rampage."

Piper ignored the concern look given to her by both Jason and Thalia, identical blue eyes staring at her. "Don't worry, I won't attempt to charmspeak the son of Poseidon at the beach; that would be suicide."

"Holy shit," Leo exclaimed, sitting up suddenly from his perch on the rock. Sand flew up as he ran towards the water. The raft was at the point where the waves began to swell, but that didn't stop Leo from running into the water.

"Leo!" yelled Jason, but he was ignored by his recently rejuvenated friend.

Surprisingly, it was Nico who followed Leo down to the water. He looked like a shadow on the sand, and even more so when he entered the water. Reyna was next, with Thalia closely behind. Rachel trailed after, a faraway look in her eyes.

"What is happening?" whispered Jason. But Piper didn't answer; she merely followed suit and walked into the water, ignoring the chill.

Leo was waist-deep, only a few meters away from the raft. But it wasn't Percy that he was looking at; it was the girl. And she seemed to know him too.

"How are you here?" asked Leo, his attempts to run through the water almost a mockery of the activity. "How are you even here?"

The girl jumped from the raft, and stumbled towards Leo. She looked at him for only a second before slamming her lips onto his.

"Percy," Nico said, almost breathlessly. Because, impossibly, Percy Jackson was standing in the water only five feet away from them, the storm around them swelling like he was the eye of it.

But the weather wasn't the only thing that was stormy; Percy's gaze settled on everyone's face before he spoke. "Where's Annabeth?"