Chapter Text
“Thalia! Wait!”
Annabeth runs after her up the hills, away from the cabins and the big house. She is relatively sure that Percy will follow them in less than a minute and she has to talk Thalia out of this. It’s not going to work. Annabeth has tried herself and even if Thalia gets Luke away from the others to talk to him, she’s not sure he’ll listen to her either. The wound the arrow caused has healed without a scar, thanks to cabin 7 and some ambrosia. Everyone in camp seemed to not be doing too well after the battle. But right now she has to focus on Thalia.
“I already tried to talk to him, I didn’t get through to him. He hasn’t talked to you in years,” she calls after her.
Thunder and lightning streak across the skies above them. Rain soaks through the ground and her clothes, makes it harder to walk. Thalia stops, right beside her tree. Beside the thing Chiron lied about for years and turns around.
“I know. But both of us know the prophecy and why would he not believe I’d be on his side.” She crosses her arms. “I can talk some sense into him. Convince him that he has no reason to fight children if he wants to go after the gods.”
Thalia means more than just talk, it’s clear from the tone alone. “You should come with me. This place is not as safe as I was told and you are not seven anymore. There is no reason to stay here.”
“I have family here too, friends. I can’t leave them and I can’t go with you,” Annabeth tells her. She’d also prefer to not face Luke’s army again in the near future. Certainly not on her own. Or without a plan that she is still in the very early stages of creating. But she doesn't want Thalia to leave either.
Thalia walks towards the camp boundaries, keeps her eyes away from the tree and stares ahead. “I’ll bring him back to his senses, I promise.”
Then she moves to step through the barrier only to be blocked by it. She tries again to no avail, it keeps her in like it keeps monsters out. Grey turns blue as the storm clouds disappear as if they never were there. Annabeth pushes her own hand forward as she closes the distance between her and Thalia. Maybe it is Zeus, if he can’t keep Thalia in a tree keeping her imprisoned might just make the most sense to him. But the barrier stops Annabeth too.
“He’s not, he can’t-,” Thalia cuts her own words off, then tries again. But nothing changes. People have left camp since the battle, it must be a very recent change.
“You can’t just run away, we need to-,” Percy has to catch his breath for a moment when he has finally reached them. He must have talked about something with Chiron or Grover before he went after them. Otherwise there'd have been no need to run this much.
“Percy,” Annabeth says, “please try to leave camp boundaries.”
“Why would I?” he looks confused.
“Just please do it, there is something wrong with the barrier.” It has to be enough of an explanation for now.
“People left after your friend appeared why would-“ His hand touches the barrier like it would a glass window. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“We have to talk to Chiron and Mr. D about this. The gods want us to go on quests and fight monsters, this can’t be their doing,” Annabeth says. It has to be the right conclusion, nothing else would follow any logic.
Thalia does not vocally complain about it but she looks ready to point her spear at just about the next god if they give her any excuse to do so. For her, the night has been hours ago and not years. She won't count the time her friend was unconscious. No one can blame her for it, even if it isn't the smartest thing to do.
Annabeth stops walking once they reach camp again. No one else is outside. The window shutters and doors to the cabins closed. Every single path is overgrown with vines, spreading out from the big House like cracks in glass. Thalia readies her spear, Percy transforms his pen into a sword and Annabeth pulls her dagger from its sheath.
Maybe someone angered Demeter?
But no, that wouldn’t have any effect on the barrier and these things have to be connected. Luckily the vines don’t attack or grab them when they step between them. They look familiar in a way but not quite right. Once they get closer to the big house, they see the utter destruction the plants have caused. The roof has been broken through by vines, the whole building covered in them. Clusters of small round dark orbs hang from the vines.
Grapes.
Mr.D has been at camp for years, nothing like this has ever happened. The door swings open, the one thing not covered in plant growth and Thalia takes the lead. Percy just glares at her which is really weird and makes no sense. It is the same here, the walls and furniture covered in grape vines and the floors with strawberry bushes.
A young man, who looks like he stepped out of an ancient Greek play, lounges on a purple chaise and swirls the liquid in a golden cup around in one hand. Wait, he looks a bit like. Annabeth steps in front of Thalia and lowers her knife.
“Mr. D?” she asks.
The man sips at his drink, then lifts the cup towards them in greeting. “I have seen you in my weird dream, that was a trip”
He points at them with his free hand. His words a little slurred, as if he is drunk. But Mr.D can’t drink alcohol, Zeus forbid it.
Dionysus, because it has to be him, gestures towards his drink. “Would you like some? Don’t worry I’ll dilute it a bit for you, don’t want anyone to pass out here.”
Percy is a millisecond faster than her in asking the most important question, but he likely doesn’t calculate the risk of Mr. D smiting him for it.
“What happened?”
“Something is wrong with the barrier, no one can leave. Quests are impossible right now,” Annabeth explains once it seems clear that no, the god is mostly just amused.
“Nothing bad,” he assures them. The vines move and offer a plate with a bowl of grapes and chocolate covered strawberries. “We just woke up, kind of. Everything will be a-okay for you. We are going to clean this whole place up. Fix some management and organization issue.” He sounds utterly bored at the last part.
“I have to leave, now.” Thalia nudges past her and points the tip of her spear at a god. Annabeth forgets to breathe. Dionysus just laughs and calmly picks a grape to throw in his mouth.
“Don’t worry, you can all stay here and rest. We’ll take care of the little Grandpa problem in no time.”