I'm guessing you probably want an explanation about that little note before, right? I would too. You all think I'm some great thing, your magical savior waiting for the perfect moment to lead our armies into battle to defeat Gaea. 

I'm not. Everyone thinks I am. But I'm about as far from a hero as one can get. Maybe at one point I was. Before the end of the Titan War, certainly. Perhaps before I jumped into Tartarus to save Annabeth. Wait, you guys don't know who Annabeth is, do you? I almost forgot about that, sorry, let me explain.

Annabeth Chase was the love of my life, my best friend, my one and only savior and the person I counted on. Ironically, she was a daughter of Athena. I'll elaborate on that in another note. I jumped into Tartarus for her. I don't know if I would do that for her now though, knowing what I do. She was the reason I made my choice that prolonged this war.  So sorry about that. 

Now, don't get me wrong. Don't blame her for everything going wrong. It was me. And Hera. And the gods overall pretty much. Although, you guys haven't even met your parents, have you? I hadn't met my dad until a war between him and Zeus was about to break out. The gods are pretty childish. The fact that they've been ignoring you isn't my fault. I made them swear on the Styx to pay attention to you guys after the Battle of Manhattan, I promise. They didn't stick to a lot of my requests. 

Anyway. There's that. I can't give everything at once. That would be too overwhelming. My advice right now? Just hold on a little bit longer. You're tired, you're sick of war. I know. I'm sorry. Just, please, don't break your line of defense. That's all I ask. You wouldn't deny someone's dying wish, would you?

Sincerely,

Percy Jackson

"Jason! Come here!" Piper yelled, tan hands shaking as she held the letter. A blond, about 5 foot 10, walked up behind her. 

"What is it Pipes?" Piper shoved the letter into his hands and stared at him intently. His blue eyes scanned the paper quickly, widening at the end where Percy's messy signature stared back at them. "Do you think-"

"That that is from Percy? Yes. I don't know how, I just... have this feeling."

Jason smiled weakly at her. "That's all we can rely on anymore, huh?" Piper's laugh held a bitter tone. 

Piper took Jason's hand and leaned up against his shoulder. They remained silent, gazing across the valley at the training demigods, the children not even eight, wielding swords and learning to fight in a war that they should have no part in. "This isn't his fault. None of this was," she finally whispered.

xxx

Jason sat at the head of the table, representing Zeus. The seat next to his right was empty. To his left sat Katie Gardner for Demeter, Malcolm for Athena, Thalia Grace for Artemis, Piper McLean for Aphrodite, and Pollux for Dionysus. To the left of the empty seat next to Jason was Clarisse La Rue for Ares, Will Solace for Apollo, Jake Mason for Hephaestus, and Travis  Stoll for Hermes. The ten demigods sat around a table made of an oak tree, a three dimensional map carved into the top. 

"Why exactly are we here?" Clarisse asked. "I need to be training campers for the war. If you don't have a good reason for calling us in here, I swear to anything that I can anymore-"

"We might have word from Percy."

The entire room suddenly fell into a deafening silence. The demigods stared at Jason in disbelief. "We are talking about the same Percy, right? The son of Poseidon, the one that Annabeth-"

"Yep," Piper said. "That's the one. I woke up this morning with this underneath my pillow. I don't know who could've gotten into my cabin without me knowing. Maybe one of Gaea's minions? I don't know, and I haven't really got the slightest clue."

 The mock-Olympian council continued to stare in shock. No one had heard from Percy Jackson in months. 18 months to be exact. An entire year and a half without their leader. Jason had to eventually step up and take his place. "What did the note say?" Katie asked quietly, as if afraid of the answer. 

"We couldn't get a lot out of it. Just that he thinks that this is his fault and that he thinks he isn't a hero. There's a lot of apologies," Jason explains, passing the note around the table. While the demigods were reading it, Jason drummed his fingers on the table quickly. "Does anyone have any ideas on what we should do now?"

Clarisse stood up and slammed her palm down on the edge of the desk, making the miniature version of New York shake. "We obviously need to send out a search party and find him! No offense Jason, but Percy is our leader. Not you." Even though she had said "no offense", she didn't pretend like it wasn't true.

"We can't just launch into a search without looking at different strategies for this, especially since we are currently surrounded by the enemy," Malcolm pointed out. "We should wait here for at least another week or so, see if another letter shows up. Then, depending if we get one and what it says, we decide what to do from there."