Chapter 22

3rd pov

The day of the funeral was busy for a lot of people but not everyone. Percy Jackson was sitting on his bed in his cabin thinking about his parents. In his arms he was holding a little baby girl named Atlanta Jackson. She was sleeping at the moment. Percy was wearing a black tux with a sea green tie and black dress shoes. Atlanta was wearing a grey dress with white socks and black dress shoes that fit perfectly on her tiny feet.

Outside the cabin his friends talked quietly. "This is really going to change him." A girl with brown hair and blue eyes said. "I know but maybe taking care of his little sister will help." Said a different girl with blond hair and green eyes. "Yeah but Emily, you and I were tasked with helping him. We can't if he doesn't let us." The first girl said. "Emma, we need to give him some time and space for a couple more days." Emily said. "Fine." Emma grumbled.

Deep in the ocean, standing in Atlantis was Poseidon, sitting in his castle. He was sad. He was allowed to go to the funeral but he had to pretend he was a friend of Sally. The mortals in the family were going to be there so none of the other gods were allowed to come. He was wearing a black tux with a navy blue tie. He was thinking about how Sally asked him to be the father Percy never had. It would be hard but he would make it happen. As he was sitting there a soldier came in. "My lord, It is time for the funeral." "Okay." He answered. The soldier left the room as Poseidon stood up and flashed to Brooklyn, New york.

Percy met up with Emma and Emily at Thalia's pine tree. Emily knew there was no point in asking but she did anyways, "You gonna be okay?" She asked Percy. He sighed, "I really don't know." They got in the camp van and drove to Brooklyn botanical gardens. When they got there they were the only ones there. The place was beautiful. On their right there was a pond with a stone bridge hanging over it. The grass was bright green and the bushes on their left were also bright green but with spots of bright color. Slowly people started to trickle in and give Percy their sympathy. He didn't want their sympathy though. The funeral went past in a blur and he found himself standing alone on top of his mothers grave. "Mom what am i going to do." He whispered. He fell to his knees in his mothers grave, tracing his hand along the writing. "Don't give up." he whispered as he read the words inscribed on the tombstone. "I won't mom. I won't." He answered himself. He got up and went to find Emily as he knew she would have his sister.

What Percy didn't know was that in the woods there was a boy watching him. The boy laughed quietly. "This will work. We finally have a weakness." He walked away and disappeared. He reappeared in a red castle, standing in front of a throne. "My lord." He said bowing. "Percy jackson finally has a weakness." "What is it?" The being that was sitting on the throne asked. "His friends and family." He answered. "Good job. But I have no use for you anymore." The being answered. "No my lord please." The boy begged. The being on the throne waved his hand and the boy started to choke. He was choked to death.

~time skip~

A week had passed and Throughout that week Percy had barely talked. He hadn't eaten much and was usually either shut in his cabin or hacking at dummies. There had been two monster attacks and each time the campers helped decimate the monsters. On both attacks Percy would come out of his cabin, help destroy them, and as soon as there were no more monsters he would walk back into his cabin or the arena. One day he was in the arena, sparing with one of the robots that Emma had conjured from Tartarus when he heard a voice behind him say, "Hey Perce." He spun around.

Percy pov

"Hey Perce." I lost my concentration and spun around to see who it was. Before I could even register who it was I was on my back, looking up at the head of the robot. "You must not lose concentration. Do not get distracted." It said in its weird metallic voice. "Fine. power off." I said, turning it off. It walked away and shut down. I grabbed the hand that was held out for me. I looked up and saw Frank and Jason. "Thanks." I said. "Your welcome."

Frank pov

Hazel, Jason, and I Haven't been at CHB since before Percy's parents died which means we also hadn't seen them in a while. We had been at Camp Jupiter the day of the funeral for Percy's parents. We were still trying to rebuild a few things so we couldn't make it. Afterwards I IM'd the greeks of the seven except for Percy and each time they told me he wasn't getting better. They said he was getting worse and they needed help. Finally I was able to get away from working at camp and went with Hazel and Jason, through the portal and found Piper, Leo, Emma, Emily, Calypso and Annabeth waiting for us. "Thanks goodness you're here." Annabeth said. We greeted everyone and then Annabeth explained the situation. "He barely eats. He never talks and the only people allowed in his cabin are Emma and Emily." Annabeth started. "If he's not in his cabin he's in the arena slashing at everything he can." Leo continued. "I tried charmspeaking him to eat but he usually ignores it. If it does work he eats very little." Piper said. "Emily and I have tried to get him to hangout with everyone but he never does." Emma continued. "He doesn't even go to the beach anymore." Emily added. "We need you guys to help him get out of his shell." Annabeth said, looking at me and Jason. We both nodded. "Where is he?" I asked. "At the moment he's in the arena training with one of our robots." Emma answered. "Got it."

me and Jason both turned and ran off to the arena. When we got there Percy was hacking at a robot. It was something I had never seen before. It was shaped like a human but was silver. It had an antenna on its head. There were a couple buttons on its chest and it had a red mouth and red eyes. It looked like Percy was winning. "Dang Leo probably had a field day when this thing showed up." Jason whispered to me. I just nodded my head in reply. We waited for a couple minutes before we realized this fight was probably going to last a while. "Hey Perce." I said. He spun around but before we could even make eye contact he was on the ground. "Woah." Jason whispered. I nodded my head again. "You must not lose concentration. Do not get distracted." the robot said to him in a weird voice. He nodded and said, "Fine. power off." The robot turned around and walked to the side of the arena and powered off. I stuck my hand out for him to grab. He grabbed it and I pulled him up. "Thanks." He said, dusting himself off. "Your welcome." I answered. He looked up and we made eye contact. I looked into his eyes but they didn't look like his eyes anymore. Sure they were still sea green but the hope was gone. The happiness was gone. Everything we learned to love about him was gone. I could tell Jason thought the same thing.

Jason pov

This is Percy? Everything about him is gone. When the Greeks told us, I didn't want to believe it but now i can't not believe it. That happy, snarky, Persassy is gone. I decided to test my theory. "Dude you just got bested by a couple pieces of metal." I said. Silently I was begging the gods to have him give me a snarky, sarcastic comment but instead he just shrugged. My jaw almost hit the ground but I controlled it and my mouth didn't drop open. "I know you guys are just here cause everyone wants to fix me and they sent you but i don't need that right now. So don't waste your time." He said trying to push past us. We blocked him. "That's not why we're here Perce." Frank said. "We're here because we are your friends and we want to hangout. We won't mention anything that has been happening. Okay?" I finished. We could both tell he was hesitating but finally he decided. "Fine," He said. Frank and I both nodded. "You guys want to go to the beach?" Frank asked. "Sure." I answered then realized something. "Perce your gonna have to ask your dad not to kill me." He looked at me and you could tell he was fighting himself. "K" He answered me.

Percy pov

I know they are only here because the others asked them to help but I really do miss everybody. I am just afraid of getting hurt again. I guess pushing them away hurts all of them more, but just knowing me puts them in danger especially being my best friends and girlfriend. I decided to start small. Frank, Jason and I would go down to the beach and hangout. The only problem with that is I will have to talk to my dad. "K." I answered jason. They both smiled. "We have to go get our swimsuits on. Do you mind if we tell leo? It can be a guys hangout." Frank asked. "Sure." I answered, "While you're up there can you tell Emily to keep Atlanta a little longer?" I asked. "Sure but who's Atlanta." Jason asked. "Oh right. Well she's my little sister." I answered. "Woah dude you have a little sister?" He asked. "Yeah turns out i do. She's not a demigod though. She's my mom and Pauls." I answered him. Wow this was the first time i could say their names without breaking down and balling. "Yeah sure. Go change and we'll meet you down there." Frank said. I nodded and they ran away.

Leo pov

The girls were watching Atlanta on one side of the room while I was on the other side tinkering with a couple pieces of metal. I looked up at Atlanta. Wow a pink bow would look great in her hair. It even matches her outfit- GAH. What is happening to me. I really need some guy time. Just then Frank and Jason came running into the room with huge smiles on their faces. "Emily you need to watch Atlanta a little longer." Frank said to her. Jason then turned to me. "Leo get your swimsuit on we're going swimming." He said.

No one moved, everyone sat where they were, staring at them. Calypso was the first to break out of the trance. "Wait what? You're supposed to be working on Percy not swimming." She said. "And aren't you not supposed to swim cause your dad is Zeus." Annabeth asked. Frank answered first. "We are working on percy." He said. Then Jason talked. "And we found a way around that." I stood up. "YES!" I yelled, pumping my fist into the air. Everyone looked at me with confused glances. "What?" I said, "I have been surrounded by girls for so long I started thinking about what would look good in Atlantas hair." I said. "Well what would look good in Atlantas hair?" Piper asked. "A pink bow. Plus it match-GAH! SEE?!" I yelled. Everyone laughed. "Whatever man just go get in your swimsuit." Jason said. I walked out with Jason and Frank next to me. "By the way. This is a normal hangout. You can't talk about or mention his parents okay?" Jason mentioned. "Yeah sire." I said. We split up and changed, then we walked down to the beach and saw Percy talking to his dad over IM. "Yeah yeah whatever. Can you just let Jason swim please." He said, sounding annoyed. "Fine" Poseidon said, grumpily.

Percy swiped his hand through the mist and stood staring out over the water. "Hey Perce we're back." Jason said. "Finally." He said. He turned around with a slight smirk. "Yeah well Leo had to say that a pink bow would look good in Atlantas hair." Frank said, turning to look at me. Percy looked at me with a surprised look. "You what now?" "Yeah well with you in your cabin all the time and Frank and Jason at Camp Jupiter. I had to spend a lot of time with the girls" I answered. "Wait, where's Nico?" Jason asked. "No one knows. We've looked for him but no one can find him." I answered. "Huh" Frank grunted. We shrugged it off and changed the topic. Eventually we got into the water. I saw Jason at the water's edge and I had Percy use the water in the air to make it look like I was still in the water. It was a trick he had learned right after the giant war. I snuck out of the water and crept up behind Jason. As I went behind him Percy let go of the ilusion. A second too late Jason realized I wasn't in the water and started to turn around. Before he could turn fully around I pushed him into the water. Percy sent a hand made of water and picked Jason up by the leg. He brought him out deeper and dropped him in. Jason came up spluttering and glared at all of us. I saw Percy was laughing. Jason also did and he smiled, but Percy grabbed his leg with the water again and pulled him under. Percy let go of him and this time Jason shot out of the water like a bullet. Apparently he had been trying to fly up out of the hand and when it let go he shot up. Finally after we stopped pranking Jason we had an amazing time.

Two hours later we were surfing on boards of water. We continued surfing and finally ended up sitting on the boards in the middle of the lake. Percy made our surfboards disappear so we fell into the water. We came up laughing but the moment was ruined by the horn blowing three times.

Percy's face hardened and we all shot out of the water.

We ran up to the tree and were joined by the girls a minute later. There were Probably 10,000 monsters. In the front of the monster army was Kyleigh, sitting on top of a thestral. Next to her though, Was Nico.