Saviors of Chaos

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Annabeth Pov

When we got out of the cave system we were surprised to see Blackjack, Festus, Arion, and Tempest waiting outside for us. I felt relieved to see them all. Hazel had woken up from her short nap on Frank's back and immediately scrambled over to Arion accidentally bringing up bits of gold in her excitement. Arion soon ate those nuggets and nuzzled her shoulder in an affectionate way.

Calypso ran over to Festus with Leo following, she immediately hugged his head as he clanked out what I could only assume were affectionate words. Leo's face told us that Festus was very happy to see her.

I walked over to Blackjack happy to see him once more. Percy had told me that he asked for his immortality as well when I left. Apparently he was near death after a particularly nasty battle with a couple Cyclopes. "Hi Blackjack, I missed you" I said stroking his neck to say hello. He whinnied back at me.

"He says he missed you too. But probably not as much as I did." Percy translated for me. I smiled at his small joke. I looked over at my friends; they were each mounted on their rides, except for Nico and Will. I cocked my brow at Nico; he smiled back at me and put his fingers to his lips. He blew his best taxi cab whistle, and out of the shadows came the one and only Mrs. O'Leary.

Will's eyes widened realizing that they were going to go through the shadows. "Uhh, Nico can we not go through the shadows, you know that I will throw up. Just like I did the last twenty times we shadow traveled."

"Oh, relax. This is just punishment for leaving, so deal with it. Otherwise you're going to walk home." Will's face pale noticeably as Nico climbed up and held his hand out to Will.

Once we were all settled and ready to go we all went our separate ways. Nico and Will ran towards a large tree with Will trying not to scream. Calypso and Leo took to the sky with Piper and Jason not too far behind. Hazel spurred Arion forward and Frank held on tightly never really liking the magical horse. Percy looked back at me and smiled, I smiled back and he took that as the ok to go. Blackjack spread out his dark wings and started running, he lifted off and we were soon on our way back to camp.

We arrived at camp and saw golden dust all over the hillsides. Few people were around looking for who knows what. We came to the big house and burst inside. Chiron was there in his wheel chair with the camp counselors around the ping pong table. When he saw us he smiled and looked relieved.

"Good you've found them. I'm glad you're all right." he rolled towards us and took us all down for a hug. I looked around once again and noticed that there were Romans here as well. So they did get my message in time.

"Yeah, were all ok. How did it go here? How many casualties?" Percy asked resorting into a leader role.

"It was hard but the Romans got here just in time and it ended quickly. There would have been more casualties if they hadn't come." He replied looking back at the full table.

"I'll go help at the clinic," Will said going to the door with Nico trailing behind.

I looked at the campers at the table; they all seemed taken aback at our arrival. "Chiron, where's the rest of my team, I'd like to talk to them."

"They should be in your cabin." I nodded and left with Piper, Calypso and Hazel. "Calypso can you go get Will for me? It's urgent. But if he's saving a life let him." She nodded and jogged over to the wooden structure we call the clinic.

"What's up Annabeth?" Hazel asked moving to my side with Piper sliding up to my other one.

"I don't know where we're going to go after this. I want to stay with Percy but I don't want you guys to have to stay here with me." I said looking to the ground as we made our way to the cabin that we made so long ago.

When we entered the cabin the rest of the team was sitting on the couches and chairs surrounding the living room. "Hey guys, we need to talk" I said sitting on an unoccupied reclining chair. Just as I said that Will and Calypso came through the door and sensing the heavy atmosphere sat on one of the free spaces. "So, there's the thing about staying here. On earth." I took a deep breath. "I want to stay, I really do. If you don't want to stay with me that is ok, you don't have to. I just want to know who does so we can tell Father."

I looked up at them, none of them looked surprised. They looked at each other and had a silent agreement. "We all would like to stay Annabeth. But I don't think it would be right for all of us to stay." Luke said, I looked down in sadness, he meant I would have to leave I know it. I heard footsteps approach me. Luke's hand tilted my face up to meet his. My eyes teary as he told us what he really meant. "I meant that we dead people will have to leave; it's not right for us to stay like this. On a planet we're supposed to be dead on. We'll visit, I promise but we won't stay. I'll tell Father about you guys staying though he probably knows already. He'll want you to visit though he can't really come down here anymore." He paused. "We love you guys so much and will miss you forever." He looked to all of us. "Just promise to remember us and to visit, ok?" I nodded and heard movement around us. Soon many arms were surrounding me, each of us knowing we were each like family to each other.

"Yeah, I promise."