The Afterlife (HoO Fanfiction)

Under The Sea (UPDATED)

~Annabeth~

It was the worst of ideas to embark on this journey. I hated Percy for forcing me to risk my life here. For the moment, it was not very dangerous, but it was totally chaotic. We had left only two days ago and the morale of the crew was already at its lowest.

Piper was still mad at Jason

Jason was trying to be forgiven, but Piper wouldn't hear a thing

The submarine was too small for the group

Leo has too much to do, so he had no time to cheer us up

I terribly missed Silena and Luke

As I said, Leo and Calypso's house wasn't made to contain 11 people. The half of us slept in the living room, some in the rooms and the rest in the workshop (oh joy!). Even if Leo tried to make us smile, Calypso told me we wouldn't cross the Atlantic in the submarine. We would have to find another vehicle.

I was walking to Piper's "cabin". If she forgave Jason, maybe it would help the moral. I knocked on the door.

"Come in..."

Piper was lying on the bed. She was reading. Her hair was a mess, but she still was gorgeous (lucky her.)

"Hey!" I said.

"I know what you came to tell me: 'Why don't you give him a chance?' Well because it is really hard to forgive, and that..."

I cut her off.

"Piper, what I came to say is: 'What you're doing is worthless because you know that you love him. You're hurting yourself, right now.'"

She looked at me and started to cry.

"I know, but he abandoned me! Do you realize it, Annabeth?" She continued. "You know, Jason and I went through some rough patches at the beginning of our relationship with the fake memories put in our heads by HEra. We even took our distances for a moment, I think it allowed him to ask himself many questions about his true feelings. But we realized that our relationship deserved a second chance and we worked together to make it work. And look, we've been together 12 years now! I know he has been agitated lately, but you know that what we have built, we built it together with the trust we have in each other. I don't know if I could forgive him this... Would Percy do the same thing?"

I thought about it.

"No, Percy wouldn't, because he wouldn't have enough courage to do so. Percy needs me too much. Even though we grew up and we are now adults, Tartarus still hunts us. Never we would be able to part ways again. Jason was courageous because it is incredibly difficult to do what he did. He protected you, Piper. He thought about you. What do you think about when you see him?"

"I think about that time when he brought me to see the stars on the roof of Cabin 1 at Camp Half-Blood. I think about that year we went together to Oregon for the holidays. I think about all those times he told me that he loved me..."

She took a deep breath.

"Very well, he deserves a chance."

~Leo~

That night, Piper and Jason insisted to eat in their room. Not that I wasn't happy. We had a bit more breathing space. Everyone was talking to their significant other, leaving Rachel alone. She was eating her meal by small bites, leaving most of it. I walked to her.

"Hey, is everything alright?" I asked her, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah! It's just that I don't like chicken soup a lot..."

"Don't lie to Uncle Leo, sunshine. Besides, you have a magical plate. It only serves you what you wish to eat."

She smiled helplessly.

"Look at yourselves. You are all in happy couples and I'm all alone. But it's fine, I'm used to it! Go eat, Calypso is waiting for you."

I did as she said, but it wasn't over. I needed to find a way to make her feel part of the crew. Calypso glanced at her, understanding the situation. Rachel was not alone.

~Rachel~

When my meal was over, I quickly went back to my cabin before Hazel and Piper came back. I was sharing the already small room with them. On the wall was a map of the world. I looked at it and realized how much we had to travel. We weren't even in the right ocean.

Why did I accept to go on this quest? I seriously had doubts about Jason's intentions. But since the Oracle had disappeared, I was more than useless in this demigod world.

I sat on the bed, looking at the sea. Fishes were swimming by, but it was too dark to see them clearly. Suddenly, my vision blurred. I started to feel dizzy. If I wasn't already seated, I would have fallen. 

I first saw a young boy. He had dark hair and blue eyes. He looked very young, but something told me he was older than he looked. He was running in a dark street, two boys following him. They were laughing.

Then, I saw a blonde girl carrying books in her hands. She entered a small apartment, kicking the door open. She threw her books on the small bed and proceeded to stuff clothes in her bag. She exited the house as fast as she came in.

Last, I saw a girl with black hair walking with a big brown dog at her side. She was throwing anxious looks around her as if she was being followed.

The vision ended but left me with a weird feeling. I saw these kids for a reason. I didn't know why yet, but I needed to find out. I had no name, I didn't know the places I saw, but I felt like I would know soon enough.

I went back to the small kitchen and found Calypso. She was doing the dishes. Actually, she was just moving her hand in the air and the dishes were washed, dried and stored all by themselves.

"Need something?" she asked.

"I had a vision."

She stopped moving her hand, making a few plates crash and break on the floor.

"You had?" she said in a gasp. "I thought you lost all your powers!"

"Apparently, they're back. Well, part of them."

She invited me to sit at the table. She called our friends and in a matter of seconds, they were all listening to my story.

"It is weird..." said Jason. He was, as the others, lost in his thoughts.

"Can you try to draw them?" Percy suggested.

"Yes, I can do that," I said. At last, I was going to be useful!

I spend the night painting the three kids. Piper and Hazel ordered me to go to sleep, but I refused to do so before my work was finished.

I didn't see the three for a long time, but their picture was printed in my head. I just needed to close my eyes to see them. At dawn, my work was completed. I was very satisfied with it. I placed the three portraits on the kitchen table and went back to my cabin to sleep for a few hours. It was four in the morning.

When I woke up, the girls weren't there. I looked at my watch. It was two in the afternoon. I stormed out of my room and ran into Will.

"Gods, I'm so sorry!"

"Why, hello!" he exclaimed. "I saw your paintings, they are pretty impressive!"

I blushed. I always did when someone complimented my work.

"Thanks. Sorry again!"

"Look, the others are in the kitchen. Leo is explaining how we'll reach Europe. You should go."

"What about you? You're not going?"

"I don't feel like I deserve to be there. I prefer to leave the legendary Seven together to figure out a plan."

He walked away, leaving me alone. I decided to go see what the others were up to.