So, maybe it didn't all suck in the end.
Three days after the defeat of Gaea, and the camp had much of it's old spirit, despite the fact that it still felt empty after the Romans left.
Jason and Annabeth worked together on designing temples for the rest of the gods, of which would be scattered between the two camps.
Aside from that, Annabeth battled completing her designing of Olympus, (funny how she had started the redecorating an entire war ago) and planning for her senior year of high school. Jason didn't know how she managed it all.
Then again, it seemed like nothing compared to just a few of the things she was forced to endure in the last year.
As for the others, Hazel and Frank returned to Camp Jupiter with Reyna and the other Romans, while Nico stayed behind to redesign the Hades cabin, or so he said.
Just thinking about Nico made Jason giddy. The son of Hades had accepted him- he'd even let Jason hug him. How often does that happen?
Just the fact that he was opening up to people again made Jason happy for him. With Will and Reyna, Nico would have a hard time pushing people away.
The real surprise came the next day during dinner. Jason and Will both decided to start sitting with Nico at his table, since Jason was alone anyways. Luckily, Nico didn't even protest, and no one else even seemed to care. (Except for a few Aphrodite kids who thought it was adorable.) Ever since they made peace with the Romans, Chiron had dropped the rule of campers sitting only with their cabin mates.
The sun was setting a little earlier than usual, but the sky brightened as the campers turned towards the sun, and, from that direction, Jason heard a long, high pitched scream.
He turned to Nico to see if he had heard it too, and he locked eyes and nodded, then looked back to the source of commotion.
Gradually, a shape appeared- like a giant golden bird. As it got closer, it became clear that it was a dragon.
Festus.
However, there were two figures on the dragon- and one was glowing with a strange whitish aura.
Jason thought it too good to be true. He must've been hallucinating due to grief, imagining things. Then again, there was a logical side of him. Sure, he was hoping for this to happen, for Leo to jump off of the dragon and start cracking jokes and laughing at himself again. A part of Jason knew that there was no way his mind would make the scenario like this.
The dragon settled to the ground. In the darkness of the setting sun, Jason couldn't clearly see their faces, but Jason knew anyways. He would recognize that scrawny figure anywhere.
The first figure hopped off, and patted the dragon, who contently blew out steam. His clothes were so ripped, there was more exposed skin than there was covered- probably more than Jason would ever want to see on his best friend. He was absolutely completely covered in soot, but he was still Leo, and he was still alive.
He offered the second figure, obviously a girl, his hand to help her off Festus, and she slapped his hand away and jumped down, waving to a few campers who somehow recognized her.
Leo stood before the camp, his hips cocked and a smirk on his face. Every single camper was silent.
Jason knew Leo was rolling his eyes. "Yo? You guys in there?" He knocked on the head of the nearest camper, who actually happened to be a daughter of Hephaestus.
Not intending to be dramatic, but ending up being that anyways, Jason stood, climbed over the picnic table bench, and punched Leo in the shoulder, then pulling him into a hug as the girl watched in amusement. "Idiot. You freaking idiot."
Leo laughed. "If I had told you, you wouldn't have let me, and it was the best way."
Jason glared at him, ignoring the rest of the camp cheering and swarming him. "How did you even survive?"
Leo explained how he had been constantly adding to the Argo II- rebuilding Festus inside the ship, and re-enforcing him so he could withstand Gaea. Lastly, he put the cure inside Festus, so when Leo died, he could inject him with it, and hopefully, Leo would live. It worked.
As Leo said this, Jason managed to find Nico in the dense crowd around them, and Will came with him, literally. Will's hand was wrapped around Nico's wrist, and was dragged along for the ride.
Hoping Nico wouldn't kill him, Jason screamed over the commotion, "GROUP HUG!" And nearly tackled Leo, with Calypso, Will, and Nico caught right in the middle.
The one moment Jason remembers best is hearing the sound of Nico's laughter ringing over the shouting.
