I do not own PJO.

Epilogue

You wait for many years in the sparkling city of Elysium. Wildflowers bloom in the meadows and the air is heavy with their rich fragrance. You have a little cottage in the village at the bottom of a grassy hill at the top of which the looming entrance gates sit cold and silent and closed.

Your wounds are long since healed and a heavy peace has settled over your soul. Acceptance comes slowly, but the horrors and pain that your short life brought have been dulled and polished, like a stone on a river bed.

You think of those you left behind often, wonder if your mom is all right, wonder if Annabeth has forgotten you, wonder if she's moved on. Sometimes a wide smile lights up your face, and sometimes the tears drip from your eyes, and sometimes the injustice of it all breaks over your soul and your skin itches and you scream until your voice is gone. Sometimes, as you wander through the thick grasses and the artificial sun bakes over the ground, your hand reaches to close around another hand, one that you haven't held in much too long.

The years stretch by and the Seven age slowly, their hair silvering and their skin wrinkling, and still you wait patiently for them to join you.

Piper is first, never fully recovering from the last battle.

You watch from the small white window of your cottage as the great black Stygian iron glide apart and the grey nothingness of the Underworld shimmers into view. A small figure appears at the cusp of Elysium and you jump up, run through the village and race up the hill, bare feet pounding on the smooth yellow cobblestones and heart racing in your chest. Could it be? Your breath is billowing from your chest and then you see her.

Her feet are bare and her kaleidoscope eyes sparkle as she steps onto the yellow paving stones of the path to the city. Her choppy brown hair is braided and fastened with many colored elastics and her face splits into a wide grin when she sees you coming towards her. She is exactly the way you remember her all those years ago, before the battles and the wars and the fear, still very unaware and green to the harsh world of demigods.

"Percy!" she exclaims, running forward to throw her arms around your neck and bury her face in your shoulder.

You hug her tight, but some part of you sighs, whether in relief or disappointment you don't know. She smells like bananas and it's like a blast from the past, a message in a bottle from long ago, and it awakens feelings of aliveness you've not felt in quite some time.

Finally she releases you and stands back, hands on your shoulders. She looks into your eyes, and the level of intensity held there is startling. The last time you'd laid eyes on her, the war had taken her somewhere safe, deep inside herself that no one else could find. Now she is all here with you.

"Percy," she says, but it's different this time, softer and sadder, and the look she's giving you has changed, and her hands move to cup your face. You can't find it in you to deny her this and stand still and silent.

"I've missed you," she says finally, but there is so much she's not saying, hidden behind many layers of meaning.

"Piper," you say. "It's okay. It was a long time ago."

"I'm sorry," she says. "It wasn't fair. You deserved a chance more than any one of us."

You dislodge her hands from your face and smile at her. "Piper, it's done now. Annabeth got a chance. That's what matters to me."

You take her hand. "Come down to the village with me. We have eternity to catch up. And..."

"What?" she prompts.

Your voice comes more plaintive than you intend. "Could you tell me about Annabeth?"

Her laughter echos over the hills. "Of course, Percy!"

Leo is next, the victim of an explosion in his workshop.

You're with Piper, walking up the paving stones to her cottage next to yours. You're soaking up the stories about Annabeth that she shares with you. You will never tire of them even after hearing them dozens of times, and images of sunshine hair and sparkling grey eyes dance in your mind's eye.

Suddenly, whooping erupts from behind the two of you, the laughter of someone who can't quite believe something wonderful has happened. The voice sounds familiar to you but you can't quite place.

Piper's reaction is much more pronounced. She spins around, almost tripping, and flings herself at the small, elvish, machine oil fingered boy dancing in the street. He hugs her back, then turns dancing, clever eyes at you and gives you a beaming smile that lights up his whole face and a thumbs-up.

"Hey man," he says. "Fancy me making it to Elysium! Never thought I would. It's a place fit for heroes, that it is."

You cross to him, clasp his hand over Piper's shoulder, and say, "You are a hero, Leo."

He looks sheepish. "Don't know 'bout that..."

You shrug, smiling.

Piper has released him, and is talking quickly and asking questions. He answers a few, then looks at you.

"'S good to see you again, Perc. You too, Pipes, but I haven't laid eyes on Percy for a long time."

Your smile crinkles your eyes up at the corners. You haven't the heart to ask about Annabeth, even though the question eats away at your soul. You doubt much has happened that Piper hasn't said, and Leo is unobservant.

Piper slings her arm around Leo's shoulders and they lead on, Piper still chattering away.

Frank and Hazel come together, after a monster rampage takes out their house in Wisconsin.

Their arrival is less dramatic than Piper's and Leo's, but no less welcome. Hazel's smile lights up her whole face and Frank swallows you in a hug. They are healthier than you've ever seen them in life. Their skin glows and their eyes shine and that gaunt, haggard look all too often seen in demigods is missing from their expressions.

Life in Elysium is richer than it ever was, as people who you love come to frequent the glades and villages of Elysium.

Your mother has joined you, along with Nico, Clarisse, Reyna, and many others. There is an undefinable something about them, something you don't understand until your mother explains it to you. "Percy, there's wisdom gained the longer a person is alive and learning."

Ripening like a fine wine is something you haven't had the luxury of, ever.

Jason is next, a long time later. He appears as slightly older than the rest of you, who died fairly prematurely for humans but practically ancient for demigods. His shoulders are broader than you remember, his fingers thicker and shorter. His thick blonde hair is shorn close to his head and the worry lines etched around his eyes in life have smoothed and eased. He wastes no time before wrapping Piper up in his arms. She seems quite happy with this.

You all spend long hours just sitting around tables, walking through the endless meadows, Jason filling you in on the years past, reminiscing, sometimes silent.

Time is elusive in Elysium, but the more time goes by, the more your heart aches for the one person that hasn't arrived yet. Is she missing? Did she not make Elysium? Thoughts like these send cold chills of fear down your spine. After everything, how could she not make Elysium? All you want to do, more than anything else in the world, is to see her again.

Elysium is loud today, spirits chattering loudly in anticipation of the arrival of a new spirit. Your nerves are jangling as you watch the Stygian iron gates swing slowly open from your cottage, surrounded by your friends and family. Piper's nails are bitten and Jason's hair is mussed. Your mother rubs softly at the base of your neck.

Something clicks into place suddenly, the last piece of an almost forgotten puzzle. A figure steps into Elysium and the gates close behind them.

You're up and out of your seat, running up the hill. Something inside of you is so, so sure.

You call her name and she turns, shaking sunshine curls away from her tanned, angular face, and looks at you. A warmth spreads across your whole body, soothing the years and years of missing and longing and-

She is standing in front of you now, every inch a princess, and your body refuses to obey and you stop in front of her. You're afraid to touch her, afraid to breathe or speak for fear it's a dream and she'll fade away into nothingness. A tiny smile graces the corners of her lips, and your heart is beatingbeatingbeating.

"Percy..." she says, and the spell is broken.

As your arms wrap around her, you can't help the tears and your breath is hitching in your chest. It's real, she's real, and everything is suddenly okay again.

"Oh Percy," she says. You shush her frantically. There will be eternity for talking, speaking all the words that have been left unsaid and then saying them again, but for now it is enough. She is enough.

As your lips meet, something inside you is finally healed. She's here, and your soul is at rest for perhaps the first time. You have found your way home.

First of all, I'd like to say how incredibly sorry I am that this took until now to get uploaded. RL and starting college has made it very difficult but hopefully I'll be able to begin writing Fanfiction again!

Thanks for all your support:)

Tack

Review!