2015, 28th of March

GUYS GUYS!

YES I STILL LIVE! HELLO! GOOD TO READ YOU AGAIN!

I'm so excited. And sorry, to be frank. So, so sorry that it took me basically two years to get this done. But I guarantee you that I still put all my heart into it and I hope it is to your satisfaction. I promised there would be an end and here is one. I know, I suck for taking this long and again, I'm sorry. But I'd rather take my time and dedicate everything when I'm in the PJO mood again instead of halfassing it and giving the story no proper ending.

So here, finally, is my epilogue. It is the end of this story and hopefully explains a few things the last chapter left open for suggestion. If there are any questions left feel free to ask. I was opting on a bonus chapter so if there are any open questions I may put the answers in there :3

Unless you're tired of me now of course, then I won't :D

I hope you can forgive me at least a little bit. I'm just glad that I can click on the "complete" button for this now and I hope there may be some people who enjoyed the ride with me so thank you to you guys! *hugs you all*

Epilogue

„You sure about this?" Percy asked warily. Around him, a group of people consisting of Lupa, his Greek friends and his new Roman friends of the first legion had gathered. They were standing in front of the black temple of the Roman 'Oracle'. Though Annabeth was telling him otherwise.

"It's the only explanation I can come up with." The daughter of Athena assured him. The last three days were a blur. Percy was bandaged around his stabbing wound and just got out of the infirmary. The Romans had done an amazing work of rebuilding everything that had been destroyed and they had buried all that had fallen –which were all a great loss. But Gaea's trick had been awful and evil indeed. They had only figured it out and pieced together after it was already resolved. Maybe they would have sooner, maybe Percy could have been prevented from being stabbed –if Annabeth wasn't the one to be the main victim. Because usually, Annabeth was the one to save Percy's ass. Not be forced to be the one to bring it into danger in the first place. Percy was still a little terrified about the fact that Gaea figured this out, that she knew how to get to him so easily. But he tried not to freak himself out over it too much.

After the battle, Jason and Piper had done an amazing job to calm everybody down and bring them back in order again. Jason knowing the Roman way and Piper using just a slight bit of her Charmspeaking to get them all back to their senses and stop them from fighting again because really, they had been tricked. Nobody had turned against anybody at their own choice. The Apollo tent had done their best to treat the wounded and Percy had been with the others in the infirmary for far too long for his liking. Annabeth had been at his side constantly, wanting to hear everything now that she knew he actually remembered. Even the bits he didn't really recall, she now filled up for him together with Grover, who would actually have nothing much more to do than stay with Percy. And she may have hit him for not telling her he knew about her in the first place. May.

Grover was pretty freaked out by the wolves anyway, so he rather helped healing the wounded, handing out Ambrosia and Nectar or just sit by Percy's side when Annabeth was actually gone researching in the gigantic library they provided here. It had been one hell of a discovery for the daughter of Athena, Percy recalled Dakota telling him how she had actually squealed aloud upon seeing the giant hall full of books. Percy hadn't been able to stop laughing, just upon hearing about it. Annabeth's blushing face and her playfully angry punch to his shoulder didn't really help either.

Digging through the library, Annabeth had searched for a solution regarding the mysterious change that Zoe had gone through. Finally, she had told all of them to gather around the temple, even Lupa. Percy sure hoped that she was right, because he wanted to know what was going on. Zoe had been looking through the library together with Annabeth and she was really exhausted. Right now, the mortal was standing in front of the altar or the oracle that was visible to all of them through the open entrance. She took a deep breath and finally, upon giving a final nod to Annabeth –the two of them got along really well by now- she turned around to face the…thing (Percy didn't like to call the giant, creepy face stone a person at all).

"Alright. Let's do this." She said. Gwen was by her side, ready to intercept in case anything went wrong. Zoe reached out with both her hands and touched the face stone with them, first fingertips, then the full hand.

Suddenly, a light flooded all of them. It was bright and white and blinded them for a whole few seconds. Not only Percy was panicked, he could sense Annabeth beside him stifling, her hand pressed his far harder and she was about to run forwards blindly but Percy held her back just in time for the light to subside again. Gwen was at Zoe's side already, panic in her voice as she asked if Zoe was okay. But the girl was fine, in fact, she was actually glowing. Her hands were on fire like the time she had touched Annabeth's neck and it was bright, hot flames. She didn't seem hurt though, staring at them in fascination. Then, before their very eyes, the temple itself changed.

Starting with the statue, white spread over the black marble as if the building was repainted completely. Black turned to white, spreading around Zoe and finally enveloping all of them and the whole temple. From the floor up, Zoe's clothing changed and she was suddenly standing there in a white tunic that went to her feet with a red accent around her shoulders. It looked really pretty on her, so did the red highlights that appeared in her hair. Finally, the statue changed. It wasn't a face any more. It stretched and bent magically until finally, it was a pillar, a simple pillar in the middle of the temple, and Zoe was stunned when the flames from her hands appeared there, on top of the pillar, magically floating in space.

"The temple of Vesta", Annabeth whispered next to Percy, completely mesmerized like the rest of them. Their stunned silence and stares at Zoe were interrupted by Lupa, who had started laughing out of the blue.

"Hahaha. Of course. Vesta. Always the little sneaky thing. Ahaha I should have known!" she cried out, not being able to stop herself from actually laughing out loud. At the sight, Percy couldn't help but join her. It just looked too ridiculous, the wolf goddess throwing her head back as if barking at the moon but laugh-like sounds coming from her mouth.

Annabeth had explained it to him this morning when he was just getting dressed after his final examination in the infirmary.

"There was a temple of Vesta in Rome on top of the Forum Romanum. It was extremely important to the Romans and their rites and always had 6 women, virgins, protecting it. They were called Vestals and performed sacred rituals, had high status and kept the sacred, eternal flame running."

"Sacred eternal flame?" Percy asked, as always having no clue what in Hades Annabeth was talking about.

"Yeah. The hearth, so to speak. The offerings to her were very important. Vesta always had six Vestals, human mortal Virgins to serve her. They were upon the only woman in all of Rome to be treated as royalty and carried around the city instead of walking. There are some scripts that say they were gifted with a long life and the gift of foresight, like an oracle."

"ooooh." Percy nodded slowly. "Yes, that explains so much!" he said while drinking another small sip from his Nectar. Annabeth smiled and took the glass away from him gently but firmly.

"That's enough."

"But…aww, they taste like my mom's cookies. I want more." He said, pouting dramatically. Annabeth rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smile from slipping to her face. Oh how she had missed him..

"When we get back I bet she'll bake you as many cookies as you want. She misses you like crazy." And is worried about you…."

"And I her! I'll have to call everybody and explain…don't I?" he asked and his girlfriend nodded. She leaned onto his nightstand with her elbow and sighed.

"Yeah, we'll try for an iris message tomorrow after the ceremony."

And that they did. Surprisingly, after the ceremony was over and Zoe got her own place in the white marble building, the Castra was relatively quiet again. They found a fountain to throw a drachma in and Percy went through the longest iris message sitting he ever went through. Everyone wanted to know what happened and where he had been. His mum was the worst. She was in tears and so relieved but at the same time furious because he didn't call sooner. Percy didn't know if he wanted to be there to hug her or run away as fast as possible to avoid her. Chiron was also relieved and told him he was welcome to return to Camp over New Year's if he wanted to. They said they would think about it. After all, traveling across the whole country wasn't going to be cheap OR fast. Since he still couldn't fly…

"I'll ask on Olympus for a portal" Lupa said when they told her about that problem. "Maybe it is time to rejoin forces against evil." And she told them to leave her cave again. Outside, Percy shrugged.

"Well that was surprisingly easy." He admitted and Annabeth nodded in agreement. Then Percy suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Wait. I want to show you something. We're pretty close." He said, voice excited and grabbed Annabeth's hand, dragging her with him.

"What- Hey, where are we going? Seaweed Brain!" she didn't like being dragged around like a doll but he shamelessly ignored her until they reached a lake. It was gigantic and Annabeth wondered if the Romans knew about it. Probably. It wasn't far from the borders. Its surface was clear and lay before them like a giant mirror, surrounded by only trees.

"I found this when we returned. Water seems to be surrounding the Castra now ever since we placed the seal. It's protecting it like a second layer of magic. Sea power!" he grinned and Annabeth shook her head at his stupid comment. But it made sense. The seal of the ocean had expelled Gaea from entering here. Were there other seals like this? Maybe it was their quest to find them? But Percy was apparently not here just to show her this.

"Come on, I've got a surprise." Still her hand in his, he took her to the very edge of the lake where the water was licking the earth on the shore gently. With ease, the son of Poseidon stepped onto the surface like it was the most normal thing in the world. He still dragged her with him until she stopped at the very edge.

"Percy what are you doing, I can't walk on water." She reminded him, slightly annoyed that he would think so. Her arm was outstretched since he was already that far on the surface and her jaw was set.

"No, you can, really! I have tried it before." He stepped a little closer, taking her other hand too and then he looked her in the eyes directly, almost gently. "Trust me?" he requested and of course she did. She always had. So with a sigh and a very intense prayer to the gods that he was right, she stepped forward onto the water.

To her surprise, Percy was right. Her feet me the surface like it was just regular ground. It felt really weird but she let out a surprised sound similar to a laugh and looked up at her boyfriend.

"Wow. How are you doing this?" she wondered, taking another step while holding his hands firmly. If she let go she would probably plummet into the water below.

"Hardening the surface beneath your feet." He answered as if that was the most normal thing in the world but at the same time, a smug smile crowned his face.

"Showoff." She whispered before she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. The blonde could still feel him smile under her touch but he quickly caught himself and returned the kiss softly, then stronger. Her hands snaked from his and around him and she felt his encircle her waist as well.

Suddenly, the ground –well, water- gave out under her. She suppressed a surprised noise and let go of Percy's lips, instead burying her head in his shoulder, awaiting sudden cold and wetness.

Of course, again, it didn't turn out as expected. She heard Percy laugh and looked up only to find herself inside one of those bubbles he's done for them multiple times in the lake at home. They were floating underwater, both still dry, however the hell he did that again. Annabeth roled her eyes and after she punched him in the shoulder for tricking her she joined his laugh and hugged him again, so glad that he was back and they finally had a moment to themselves without anybody to bother them.

"I missed you." She whispered and Percy's arms closed around her tighter. The daughter of Athena felt his face in her own neck and she smiled at the smell of salt water filling her nostrils. Yep, she'd really really missed this.

"You too." He returned quietly. "Even before I knew what I was missing I just knew something wasn't right." This only widened her smile and she snuggled against him more comfortably. For a while they just stayed like that in silence, enjoying each other's company. The thought made her content somehow, that he had missed her even though Hera had tried her best to take Percy from her once again.

"We still don't really know how Gaea did it, do we?" Percy disturbed the silence suddenly. He was playing with her hair unconsciously, twirling the lively curls around his fingers and letting them spring into position again over and over. Annabeth was curled around him, enjoying the cool surface of the bubble beneath her and the warm skin of her boyfriend around her.

"Mh?" she asked, maybe she had been a little dozed off there. She hadn't felt this comfortable in quite a while to be honest.

"Actually, we do. Or at least, me and Hazel have a guess." She murmured. Percy's eyebrow drew up, she didn't even have to look to know.

"Oh really? What is it?" he asked and Annabeth lifted her head a little to look at him. She rolled around so her stomach was half on him and smiled.

"Well, there was this thing on my neck, right? Well, it turns out it was there ever since we were at Cece's place, which makes sense." Percy nodded but his face was darker. He was still angry he hadn't been there. Damn, he hated that witch and her being back hadn't really been one of the good things to happen. Annabeth remembered how he'd reacted when she told him about it and still didn't know if she was amused or disturbed by his outburst.

"Anyway, we think that Gaea placed similar signs on the back of the soldiers one by one through your weak borders and the constant monster attacks. It's a pretty powerful spell actually and it involves that monster you fought, Keto. It had to be freed for it to work and I think us being trapped on that island was also part of the plan, as well as the animal transformation and the snowstorm. I even think there were more parts of that seal in the north of the US and in Sacr-"

"You know what?" Percy interrupted her mid-sentence.

"Suddenly I really don't care. We beat it, isn't that what's important?" he smiled and stroked one of her curls behind her ear. Annabeth rolled her eyes. It was typical of him to get bored when she explained stuff and sometimes it annoyed her but right now nothing could really dampen her mood. So she just sighed, shook her head and didn't even feel like telling him that this might still not be the end of it.

She just curled up against him again and closed her eyes.

"I guess, yeah." She answered, twisting Percy's necklace between her fingers, fascinated by the new golden cord. A smile spread to her lips when she reached the little crystal she had given him back at Camp.

"All that matters is that we're together now. We'll be stronger and more prepared this way."

"Mhh, exactly. As long as you're with me we can defeat anything.", Percy said, grinned and drew her up to him, kissing her again. She broke away, grinning herself.

"Uuuh, cheesy, are we?" she chuckled.

"Shut up." The son of Poseidon joined in her laugh with a grin and drew her down towards his lips again.

And that was pretty much the end of that discussion. But Percy was right, if she thought about it. As long as he was at her side and she at his, all the obstacles didn't seem so bad any longer. Whatever Gaea would throw at them next, they could take it.

And then they would have the peace they all deserved.

Finally.

Dududun. Had to do that one last time.

I hope you liked it. Please please leave feedback on this last chapter, I would really like to hear your overall opinion of this fanfic. And yes, you can hit me for being late. ;P

I love you guys :3

Goodbye~ :*

Kat