στρατηγική

strategy

• • •

All in all, Piper would call Percy's return a relative success. He did not attempt to hurt anyone, and he only yelled twice. As she reached the top of the hill, Piper inhaled deeply, already feeling impossibly lonely despite the small crowd of her friends that trailed behind her. There was something empty about standing at the front of a crowd.

And there was something more empty about Percy returning without Annabeth. A large part of Piper had hoped they were somewhere together, safe, even if that place was not with the rest of them. If the two of them had to be missing, she had prayed to the lost gods that they would be missing together. But the gods were lost for a reason, and apparently not very receptive of their children's prayers.

"I'll take care of Nico," said Reyna, somehow having stepped beside Piper without her noticing. "Try to knock some sense into him and all that."

"How long has this whole disappearing thing been going on?" asked Piper, only slightly afraid to hear her response.

"I caught him recently, completely transparent while healing someone in his tent," Rachel piped up, "and he promised it wouldn't continue. Obviously, that was a lie."

Piper sighed, not quite sure when she became the de facto leader. "Right. Well, there's nothing we can do until he wakes up, and I'm sure Frank and Jason will talk to him. But we'll need someone to stay with him at all times, so we'll each take shifts, okay?"

"When did I sign up to be a babysitter?" asked Leo, but there was no malice in his voice, not with his hand interlocked with Calypso's.

But Piper rolled her eyes anyway, thrilled to resume to some form of normalcy between her and Leo. "I'll give you the last shift, let you catch up." She turned to face Calypso, suddenly aware that no one else had introduced themselves to her. "I'm Piper, by the way. Daughter of Aphrodite."

The other girl smiled warmly. "I'm Calypso."

"You two can go off somewhere private," Piper continued with a smile that she didn't bother to hide from Leo, "I'm sure Leo's tent is empty; someone will come get you if we need you."

Leo looked almost grateful with the smile that he gave her, and for once, Piper felt almost happy. But then Leo walked away with Calypso, leaving Piper. Which was fine because there was still people around her, people that she had fought and killed for. And that was fine.

"What are we going to do about Annabeth and Hazel?" Reyna asked softly. "There's no way we can get there in time without Arion, and we don't even know exactly where they are. We don't even know what kind of danger they're in."

All very good points, but those were the only points that Reyna tended to bring up.

"I know," said Rachel, causing Piper to dramatically turn to face her. Rachel's face was completely expressionless, and not for the first time, Piper missed how the girl used to be. Vibrant and insanely artistic, and never afraid to speak her mind. But Rachel had not been like that for a very long time. A lot had strayed from normal over the past two years, but something about Rachel's personality had seemed concrete. Apparently not. "I had a vision. That's when I saw Nico disappear."

"Why haven't we heard about this?" asked Reyna with a slight frown.

Rachel turned her emotionless stare onto Reyna. "I could not tell if it was from the past or present or future. And we've had bigger things to worry about."

"What did you see?" Piper interrupted, too stressed to listen to arguing of any kind.

"War," Rachel responded, apparently having no qualms about being vague.

How did both Jason and Percy both manage to lead camps of demigods without going completely insane? "Right. There's a lot of that going on. Do you have any specifics?"

Rachel closed her eyes in apparent concentration, her thin eyebrows knitted together. "Drew Tanaka, injured. Clarisse la Rue, freshly injured with an arrow in her stomach. Chris Rodriguez, not noticeably injured. Grover Underwood, Cameron Skyes, Hazel Levesque, and Annabeth Chase, all fighting. Against an army of monsters, and a girl. But it isn't a normal girl; she's from somewhere much darker than here."

Piper sighed. "Great. So seven against an army? Drew is useless in a fight, and I don't know who Cameron is, and last we knew, Annabeth has no memories, so she most likely doesn't know how to fight. So really, there's four against an army, which is way worse than anything else. We need to send help as fast as we can."

Reyna frowned. "I thought we were waiting until tomorrow."

"Yeah, well, plans change."

Thalia and Percy reached the crest of the hill. The smiles faded from their faces at the tension, and Thalia removed her arm from Percy's shoulders. "What's wrong?" she asked, her eyes immediately seeking an answer in Reyna's eyes.

"Time table has moved up," was Reyna's response. "We should move as fast as possible."

Piper took a step away from the group, fully aware that somewhere far away from her was Annabeth, lost and fighting for her life, almost completely alone. And she was here, comfortable on an island that was protected. It was not fair, the way that war had separated people and given them the very last thing that they deserved.

"I'll go tell Jason," said Piper, walking away before anyone else could respond. Olympus was hardly empty, but many of its inhabitants were inside tents, or training by the beach. There was no time to lounge around or do anything more than train and strategize and worry.

It was silly, but the thing Piper missed most about staying at Camp Half-Blood was the camp-like activities that were available. If she had been able to tell herself two years ago that she would miss the campfires and volleyball courts, Piper would have laughed. There was so much more she missed; Annabeth, her father. . .but normalcy creates safety, and Piper missed feeling safe.

Now, Jason was the only person that made her feel even slightly safe. Piper opened the tent flap, and quietly snuck into the tent that she had only recently vacated. Jason and Frank were both kneeling on the ground, talking softly to a very pale Nico di Angelo.

"You can't keep pushing yourself like this," Jason was saying, not looking over towards Piper. Her footsteps stilled as she stood to listen.

"I'm fine," Nico insisted. He attempted to stand up, but his knees gave out before he could reach a squatting position.

"You're the furthest thing from fine," Frank said seriously. "If Hazel were here right now--"

"But she isn't," Nico interrupted, rubbing at his temple. "Neither is Will. And the only way I can help anyone is by doing this. What I'm doing is good; I'm saving lives without even leaving this island! People would be dead without me to save them."

"Killing yourself in the process isn't going to help anyone," Jason told him softly.

Nico's dark eyes were almost wild as they darted from Jason to Frank to Piper, and she felt unnerved at being noticed.

"I'm not trying to die," he said, his words sounding more like a plea than anything else.

"Okay," Jason agreed with a slight nod. "Then you won't disagree with healing no one except for yourself for at least a week."

"If we're going to save Hazel and Annabeth, you're going to need me to heal whoever gets hurt," Nico argued.

"We have other healers," Frank countered with a pointed look.

Nico's expression was almost murderous. "Other than me, your best healer was Will, and he's gone, so unless you want more people to die that I could have saved, then you're going to need my powers."

"We're not trying to punish you," Jason said calmly, as if he were soothing a wild horse. "We just want to help you."

"I don't need to be helped; I need to help."

"Nico," Piper said, causing the boy's gaze to snap to her. "I know that you're worried, and you've done so many amazing things for everyone. But we'll need you strong in the future, and we can't risk you passing out or completely disappearing on us again; we have to be smart here. And I know that neither Will nor Hazel would forgive any of us if something bad happened to you. Do you really want that on your conscious?"

"Guilt-tripping me isn't going to work," grumbled Nico, but he accepted Frank's hand, and Frank pulled him to his feet.

"I don't need it to work; I just need to get you to Will and Hazel in one piece."

Piper and Nico had never been close, but he gave her a slight smirk. "That might be harder than you think, McLean."

"I've been taking care of Leo for the past two years," Piper countered with a small smirk of her own, "how much harder could you be?"

• • •

"What's wrong?" Thalia asked Reyna, gently tucking a loose piece of her long hair behind her ear.

Reyna leaned into the touch, and smiled at the other girl. It was a sweet, simple act, but it was the most intimate touch that Reyna had felt in days. "I'm just worried. About Annabeth, about Hazel, about all of our futures."

The two were alone on the same hill that Reyna had been on moments before Thalia had returned. The other demigods had gone off somewhere, taking Percy on a tour around Olympus. The Sun was beginning to set, casting a golden glow on the two girls. Reyna did not feel safe or happy, but she felt closer to those emotions when she was next to Thalia.

"There's a lot of that going around," Thalia smiled, taking Reyna from her thoughts. "Percy's stressed beyond mortal belief, and there's nothing I can do to help him. I didn't even know how to comfort him. It's funny; I've known him for years and he's like family, but when I saw him today. . .it was almost like he were a stranger."

"He's been missing for two years," Reyna gently reminded her, "of course he's changed. You've changed, haven't you?"

More than that, Reyna has changed. She was no longer scared of being known, truly known, by everyone around her. She was no longer scared to show her love, even if that love was for someone like Thalia Grace, a Huntress who had sworn off romantic love.

Thalia made a soft sound of agreement. "I couldn't have done this before."

Reyna turned to Thalia with a question in her eyes, but Thalia answered the unspoken question by leaning forward and kissing Reyna. She stiffened in surprise, but gently melted into the kiss.

Kissing Thalia was not at all what Reyna expected; the girl had lightning in her veins, but there was nothing dangerous or harmful about the kiss. It was slow, gentle, and tasted like citrus. It felt more right than fighting did.

Slowly, they pulled apart, staring at each other wordlessly. There was something resting in the air between them, something invisible and delicate. Reyna wanted to pull Thalia in and kiss her again, but she did not move, afraid that she would shatter whatever was standing between them.

But it evaporated when Thalia smiled, and Reyna smiled back from pure relief. "I guess kissing is as good as everyone says it is."

Reyna laughed, feeling the blush on her cheeks gently fade away. Her hand found Thalia's, and she held on like the other girl was her only anchor.

• • •

"I fear that we are rapidly running out of time."

Olympus was in ruins, and the gods were only reflections of their place of residence; even Aphrodite looked more disheveled than she had in eons, although no one dared to say anything to her.

"I have a plan," Athena said calmly.

"We are running out of time!" Zeus protested. "Tartarus will be opened in three days; our children will not be prepared to fight whatever comes out."

"They will not need to be," Athena countered, her stormy grey eyes distant. "I have faith in my daughter."

"Are you truly prepared to risk everything and leave it up to a mortal to save us all?" her father asked, his words more electric than any lightning bolt.

Athena straightened and stared the king of the gods directly in the eye. "Annabeth Chase carries my mark, and I can communicate with her through it. What do you think I am doing at this moment? She is battling the demon created by Tartarus and Gaea as you stand here and ask me these pointless questions. You know what we have to do; even gods cannot rule forever. We have had our chance, and it has been glorious. But glory is fleeting, and our time is fading."

"Our saving draws near," the goddess sitting beside the hearth said, pulling father and daughter out of conversation. The goddess appeared to be younger than twelve-years-old, but her eyes reflected both flame and age. "My heir is leaving to meet Annabeth Chase."

"All will be well, father," promised Athena. "Our heirs will not disappoint us. With the return of Perseus Jackson, we are another step closer to victory."

"Or another step closer to damnation," muttered Zeus, but no one paid any attention to the once almighty king of the gods.

Miles below them and the earth was a dark presence. It stirred at the swelling of emotions from the gods, and if it had a mouth, it would have smiled.

"What is it?" the demon called Willow Livingston inquired, shadows clutching to her figure.

"I have grown stronger than even the gods," Tartarus said. "The time to free me is drawing soon."

"I will not disappoint you, Father," the girl promised, kneeling before the half-formed shape of Tartarus.

"Lead the ones called Annabeth and Perseus to me," Tartarus responded, "only then will you have earned the right to immortality."

"They escaped you before," Willow said uneasily, ignoring how her shadows darted away from her as if she had become the Sun, "what makes you so sure that they will not again?"

"This time, there will be no gods or titans to assist them. They will only find me and their own darkness."

• • •

author's note
shoutout to @Holysoydora45 for being the first to comment last chapter! i wrote this chapter while drinking champagne (happy new year!) so hopefully everything makes sense. maybe that explains why i went from cute kissing to actual hell.