Chiron was waiting for them next to Thalia's tree when they arrived. Annabeth tumbled off Blackjack right into his arms, hugging him tight and trying to rush through an explanation of what they'd been through just to help those last few worry lines vanish as fast as possible.

He held her just as tight and only released one arm to pull Percy into the same hug, making him laugh and hug both of them too. It felt good to be home.

"Rachel?!" Percy asked the moment he stepped back.

"I have not seen her, though we were expecting her arrival days ago," Chiron frowned. Percy and Annabeth exchanged freshly concerned looks and knew what would have to be done next. "We've tried sending messages to her, but they never go through anymore than they had for you," he finished with a miserable smile of relief to give them one last hug.

"And who is this?" Chiron asked kindly, as he finally released the two to look pleasantly at Jason. He didn't seem surprised at the stranger, he in fact kept looking about as if expecting others, and they realized Leo would have explained as best he could that they should be right behind him, and Annabeth had promised on the phone she'd found Will to bring home too.

Then Chiron got a good look at him, and the worry lines instantly returned. He opened his mouth, choked on something, then quickly closed it again as he looked at Annabeth and Percy.

Jason had only spared the centaur a brief look, for some reason he'd imagined him with horns up to this moment, but that didn't feel important anymore as he studied the pine tree with familiar sad blue eyes. His fingers hovered over the bark as if it was enameled with the secrets to his life. Mindless of Peleus watching him with steady eyes, ready to bite, fry, or scream at him if he posed a threat to the glimmering golden threads he hoarded, Jason felt his sisters absence like his phantom memories in this 'gift' from their dad that disturbed him the longer he looked.

He somehow knew Jupiter would never do something so merciful for his son.

"Jason," Percy gently knocked his shoulder, causing the books to jostle his weight around and nearly falling into Jason's arms. He turned back to see Chiron looking at him as if studying a walking corpse studded with pigs feet in a tin foil hat.

"You are welcome," Chiron had never said that so nervously though, Annabeth noticed. "Come," he said to all of them. "The other head councilors are expecting us."

They met up around the ping-pong table, sans cheez whiz or Mr. D. It was a relatively small group considering it was still winter break and not everyone had elected to send someone if their head councilor wasn't present. The Stolls, Katie, Butch, Lou-Ellen, Clarisse and Pollux all arrived on short notice, Drew fashionably late. Nyssa only made a brief appearance to assure them that Leo had been claimed moments after arriving and was spending a lot of time in the woods already before leaving just as quickly. Chiron stayed in his horse form, his head resting on the roof in a delicate balance of taking up just enough space.

"That hasn't gotten any better?" Annabeth sighed in disappointment for the hectic Hephaestus cabin, though she wasn't surprised nothing had really changed in just a few days time. The world felt permanently altered to her, but the world rarely agreed with what she expected to see. She had to make it, or let it go.

"Where's Will?" Connor asked into the slightly awkward silence of everyone waiting for someone to start. There was certainly no cake and cheers for Percy's return with Jason in tow leaving them all on edge. "That new kid never got anyone's names, but he described Will, and um, Nico." He said his name with a nervous smile like he expected to be plagued with a deadly curse just for mentioning him. Percy had never noticed that before.

"They made a pit stop, but they'll be here soon," Annabeth promised. "Where's Clovis?" Her eyes swept the floor and even ducked down to check he hadn't fallen asleep under the table. "I was hoping he'd be here." It was a half-hearted hope to help Jason she was already pretty confident wouldn't work, but whatever chance she could use to help him she'd take.

The others looked vaguely around as if just realizing the problem, leaving Annabeth to sigh and deal with that later. The Stolls were already shifting impatiently, she wouldn't hold their attention for long.

Percy only hesitated a moment before he slammed the books down on the table, rattling a paddle with its weight. It was a relief to get off his shoulder, literally. He rummaged for a moment before coming up with Jason's and skipping to the fourth chapter so they could all see for themselves, the familiar and the strange of these things as Annabeth explained as briefly as possible what all had been happening, again.

"I'm out," Travis said at once, passing it straight to his brother.

"We're not asking anyone to read them," Annabeth agreed. "Honestly, I'd prefer if nobody else did, we-" her voice hitched and Percy took her hand. Chiron gazed at her with those deep, soulful eyes and somehow knew she'd lost someone even if he couldn't imagine who. "It's about our future, our home, yes, but it's about Jason and Percy more than anyone. We," she gestured to the two boys specifically, "would like to discuss this before anyone else feels the need to nose in, no offense."

"Offended all the same," Drew sneered at her, eyeing Jason like a slice of the richest crembroule'. "You just show up here with this hunk on your arm and tell the rest of us to piss off while you hog him to yourself. You said it was our home, well we should-"

Jason interrupted bluntly, if not unkindly. He'd come prepared for her specifically. "We're going to be working at this every day until we know all we can, I was hoping Chiron would agree to let us out of our practices and chores, and we'd make it up to him double when we're done," he finished with a respectful look at the camp director, though Drew's face instantly fell from insolence to disquiet when she realized the terms. Percy wasn't looking much happier either, but Jason knew he'd get over it when Annabeth tag teamed it all with him.

"We can keep that an open discussion." Chiron agreed, still studying Jason as if he were the strangest thing he'd ever seen. It was far from the comforting and usually direct centaur he'd been hearing about. "This may not be a sanctioned quest, but it may not be in your best interest to, ah, lock you away from the world in the meantime." His tail flicked to give away he was nervous as he glanced at all his campers barely meeting Jason's eyes.

Drew fell silent with a peevish look, but Butch and Clarrise exchanged a glance before raising a fairer concern.

"You can't just say there's a war brewing and we're harboring a potential enemy and tell us to sit out Annabeth," Butch said calmly, while Clarisse eyed Jason like she was itching for her spear. He'd almost rather look back at Drew's prettily sculpted eyes undressing him.

Yet back in this room full of strangers again, Jason had dawned that look of cool, icy blue stare as he watched everything around him with a disturbing intake. A calm predator taking in his surroundings once more. None of the campers would look at him for long before their eyes darted to Percy and Annabeth in reassurance.

"Jason is not our enemy, if I believed that I'd have never invited him here," Annabeth reminded calmly, but it was enough that the others trusted her, believed her and remained silent. "I'm not saying we shouldn't be shoring up our defense and being prepared for the worst, but it won't come from Jason."

Jason tried not to blush, breaking him out of his mask. He was remarkably touched at her absolute confidence when she had every reason to blame him for everything that had happened to Magnus.

"And where is our 'guest' going to sleep while you guys read about the end of the world?" Conner asked, a look on his face like he was already guessing he'd have to roll out the old sleeping bags they'd had packed away since their cabin was mostly cleared out.

"That's up to him," Annabeth shrugged, not entirely sure how to slide him into the Zeus cabin without anyone asking about that. A problem for, not now.

Lou-Ellen had been holding the book the longest, studying the binding with sharp hazel eyes that disturbed anyone who looked at them too long. "Where are you going to read these?" She asked. The girl had a gentle voice, she was the youngest at the table barely gracing nine with youthful round cheeks, thin, wispy black hair known to sway in nonexistent breezes, and a mischievous smile once she stopped blushing. She spoke now with an eerie calmness holding it like a sacred ancient artifact. "In here?" Something in her tone disapproved.

It wasn't an ideal place, though it had enough space. The chairs would leave something to be desired on their posteriors though.

"I was just thinking in my cabin," Percy shrugged. "Nobody to disturb there but me. I'll happily kick them out when they get on my nerves," he was grinning at Jason.

"How about up a tree where I can knock you out when you won't shut up," Jason rolled his eyes good naturedly, though the others looked astounded at their easy banter.

"Yes, I'm sure your sister will love that," Percy snorted, though winced when he got a lot of puzzled looks. Annabeth hadn't mentioned that part, though he wasn't sure why it was a secret.

"I was thinking in the attic, or Rachel's cave," Lou-Ellen kindly turned the conversation back. "Or I could locate a few places in camp that would be adequate, for this sort of gift."

"Can you tell who sent them?" Annabeth asked eagerly. She'd been assuming Poseidon, but she wasn't entirely sure anymore with the dream Percy had described about Neptune. Something else felt at play.

"I couldn't unless I did a few spells and studied them, but, you seem in a hurry for me to hang onto it like that," she shrugged as she passed it back, "and I can't even guarantee you'd get it back. I'm still practicing, and more often than not stuff goes up in flames in my cabin as often as it does Heaphestus or theirs," she gestured at the Stolls, who didn't bother looking repentant.

Annabeth nodded, trying to hide her disappointment as she took it back and tucked it away into the satchel, then handed the bag to Chiron. "We need to go back out," she said in a voice dragging with exhaustion already. "We have to find Rachel, who knows where that crazy Titan sent her, and, and we made a promise to someone else I intend to keep."

"It's past curfew my dear," Chiron urged caution, looking only at her. "You're all more than burnt out from exhaustion for your travels this far. I expect you'll leave at first light?"

Annabeth sighed, waited for Percy to give a weary nod before his eyes sunk closed, then agreed as they helped each other to their feet.

Jason followed them to Cabin Three, taking in everything he passed with a weary look of noting which building would collapse on his head first.

He stepped through the door and took in the scene of how, domestic the place was. Percy had left three sets of bunkbeds in here, his was nearest the door. The sound and smell of the ocean seemed to pour right off the walls giving him the creeps. The bathroom door was left open and had a leaking faucet, which he wasn't sure was a joke or not. It felt so familiar and so unwelcoming all at once, just like every other experience he'd had up to this point. "I shouldn't have come here," he murmured as Percy and Annabeth sunk down into his bunk at long last.

"Nonsense," Annebth said at once.

"I'll kick your ass out when you want," Percy said with a wry grin, before looking blankly at his made up bed in surprise and shrugging. Those covers would never be so pressed and straight again most likely. That used towel he kept slung across the bathroom door was missing and he'd have to figure out later who the heck had done laundry around here. "Until then, get some sleep wherever you'd like." He even gestured to the bunk above where Tyson had left a dry grease cloth on his pillow.

Jason nodded and thanked them, promising to meet them at the Big House porch at sunrise instead. He knew he should head for the Zeus cabin, but well...he didn't want to. Somehow, just seeing it, huge and looming and white, the faint sound of thunder making the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, no. He would get zero sleep in there. He didn't see the point in bothering. Nobody was going to force him in there, and he sure wouldn't be volunteering.

He went up the Big House instead, which looked more like an open grave with his name carved in shadows to his building anxiety, but Chiron didn't seem surprised to see him as he showed him to a room in wheelchair form. Jason smiled to himself, wondering if he'd taken the time to put his tail in curlers tonight as he sunk down onto a bed. It still didn't feel like what he'd hoped to find, but he had a feeling as he'd left the Poseidon cabin, at least Annabeth may be having the same doubts for a while. At least until she could wake up again and not fear him gone. It didn't feel like home, but nothing had since he woke up, so it was a strange feeling to be used to.

His bed might feel foreign, but he still fell into a peaceful sleep with the knowledge that if he woke up with his memories wiped again in a strange land, at least his friends would never stop looking for him.

...

*Reyna stood looking at Michael Kahale for a long time in her pajamas. There was still a dent in her door where he'd been knocking too hard, but she'd have a probatio fix that later.

"You're sure it was him?" She asked not unkindly. It had been dark, with strangers all around according to his tale.

"I remember Jason Grace well ma'am," Centurion Kahale said confidently, meeting her eyes without hesitation. She didn't have to long for her dogs to be here, she believed he was speaking the truth. "As well as the strange vow he said along with some other girl, with his full name, as I mentioned."

Reyna took a careful breath to stop herself whistling for Skipio and bolting after him this moment. He was alive.

She'd thought him dead.

What other explanation could there be?! Jason would never break rank and go on some foolish quest with, with these strangers...without her. What Graceus trick had been done to him to put him in such a position...

"There will be a Senate meeting at first light," her voice was remarkably calm for how hard her heart was beating. "You will tell us all again and we will come to an understanding of what must be done next."

"Yes Preator," he gave her a proper salute before turning to leave, his face still lax with his own confusion of what he'd just seen.

She finally released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as the door tried to shut, then wobbled and remained half open from its dent. She saw his eye peep through in confusion, then widen. "Leave," she reminded, and the thundering sound of retreating feat would have scared off Hannibal.

She sunk down onto her sofa, staring at the blank wall and wondering vaguely if this was what relief felt like. She'd thought him dead...

Nobody had batted an eye at the alarm going off, summoning someone to the Wolf House for another recruit surviving Lupa's training. It was a task all members of the legion did with pride, eagerly escorting the young down the valley and explaining what they'd find in New Rome.

His room was still waiting for him at least, she'd preserved that much despite Octavian having the gall of trying to move someone else in only two days after their city being turned upside down had turned up nothing.

One of his suggestions had in fact been Centurion Michael Kahale. She didn't know if he'd come to her first or Octavian was already scheming something else with this information, but at the moment as she twisted her ring around, she couldn't bring herself to care how their Augur would twist this to his advantage.

Jason was alive. The next time she went to knock on his door, that empty stretch of wall that kept the two preators apart, he'd answer.

HOOPJOHOOPJOHOOPJO

*So, I made a little whoopsies in Ch. 4 proclaiming it was Frank as the Roman kid in the background of that scene. It's January. He's not due to arrive until April, and nobody's going to go trotting up to Canada to tell the poor guy his mom's going to die early and skip Lupa training because we have better trauma to share here for the books. So let's just ignore that going forward. I did rewrite it to be Micheal Kahale, but I'm acknowledging it here so nobody thinks they're crazy the name has changed.