Chapter Text
Katie was awoken by someone poking her cheek. That wasn't unusual, her siblings had nightmares as a consequence of the past two wars, they all did, and she was used to one or two of them waking her up and climbing into her bed.
What she wasn't used to was a twelve-year-old Annabeth Chase staring down at her.
She jerked up, smacking their foreheads together. "Ow! Annabeth, why'd you poke me?"
"I thought you were dead." Annabeth said, picking at her cuticles, a habit she was trying to break. "I don't know where we are or where everyone else is. But the air smells to clean." She was right, of course she was, the air smelt to clean for New York. Even at camp the air wasn't this clean
"Everyone else? Where's Percy?" Katie asked, reaching for her necklace and luckily finding it there. While she had more than enough in terms of magic abilities, having almost full control of the earth, she felt her shoulders drop their tension slightly. Her necklace was a gift from Travis, not long after the Battle of Manhattan. He had gotten a Hecate kid to enchant it, so the charm turns into a scythe.
She hasn't taken it off since he put it on her.
"I don't know where Percy is. One minute we were finally asleep after more nightmares of…that place and the next I'm twelve years old again thrown in the middle of nowhere and you were seemingly dead 10 feet away from me. And I also don't have any weapons on me." Annabeth responded, beginning to hyperventilate.
Since their fall and the battle that followed, Annabeth and Percy even more hellbent on keeping at least two weapons on their person at all times. All the veteran campers knew about their fall into the pit. They, the head councilors especially, had gotten even more codependent since Gaia's fall.
Was it healthy? Gods no! But they had already buried too many too small shrouds over the past three years, so the survivors were extra protective of each other which led to them being clingier. Not that any of them were complaining.
Katie didn't really want to think about the aftermath of Percy's disappearance. Clarisse had been the one to discover it and that was a shitshow.
Katie grew a sprig of lavender and shoved it under Annabeth's nose. It wasn't much but it was the best she could do in a pinch. It slowed her breathing though, enough to where Katie wasn't any more concerned than normal.
Katie pushed herself to her feet, feeling her back pop as she did so. Katie walked to the edge of the clearing, Annabeth following behind, and placed a hand on a tree. The tree responded, not literally, no nymphs came crawling out of it but the spirit, for lack of a better word, responded to her. Younger than the ones at camp yet ancient in a way she didn't understand.
Katie belatedly realized that she also had been de-aged back to twelve years old. She was missing a scar on her forearm that she had gotten at thirteen but still had the one on the back of her hand that she had gotten at eleven.
"Beth, I don't think were in camp anymore." She said, turning back to Annabeth. "I don't think were in America anymore."
Annabeth zoned out for a bit, hand twisting into her shirt right above her dagger used to sit. They both were still only wearing their pjs. She looked around for a bit before turning back to Katie. "These trees are native to Greece, right?"
"Yeah. You don't think?" Katie asked hesitantly.
"I think we can't rule it out yet." Annabeth whispered.
Thalia woke with the sun.
Which was weird because the tents the hunters used didn't have any windows. Cracking open her eyes, squinting against the too bright sun that poked through the trees, she saw that she was still in the woods. Though the trees looked different. Was that a laurel tree?
Turning her head to the left she saw a familiar body laying curled towards a gently flowing river.
"shit! percy!" she yelled, only slightly frantic, as she crawled over to him.
He was breathing, thank the gods, but he was still sleeping and looked a lot younger than she remembered. God, he looked so young.
"Percy? Percy?!" She said, shaking him awake.
"Thals, what the fuck?" He grumbled as he rubbed his eyes. "Where are we? Why do you look so young?"
"Me!? Look at you!" She exclaimed. "You look twelve again!"
Percy scrambled towards the river and looked at his reflection before freezing. "Six months. I just wanted six months where my life was my own, but I can't even have that." He mumbled, rubbing a hand down his face.
And wasn't that depressing. Thalia had come to the conclusion that she too was de-aged, though not as young as Percy was. If she had to wager a guess shed say she's now around fourteen based on what scars were missing and which ones weren't.
"Ok, so we're on a quest. A weird one of the de-ageing stuff is anything to go off but we still don't know where we are, what the quest even is, or where the third person is." Percy said, standing from the riverbank. They were both still in their pajama's. An oversized camp shirt and blue sweats for Percy that he was swimming in and black sleep shorts and an old band tee for her which thankfully still fit relatively well.
Before either of them could say anything, a loud sob sounded from the other side of the river. Her hand went to her bracelet, which she still had, that turned into her spear while Percy's went to his pocket, reaching for riptide. He came up empty. "Thalia, I don't have riptide."
"Shit." She said as more sobbing sounded in the distance. "Ok. Ok, stay behind me. We need to investigate whatever that it. It might be the third person for this mystery quest."
Percy nodded, still fidgeting with his hands, and followed behind her as they made their way through the river. Cold as it was, it was more of a creek than anything. It didn't even reach her knees. The crying got louder as they got closer until they broke through the tree line into a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing was Nico, it could be no one else despite how young he looked, hugging a familiar looking girl.
"Bianca?" Percy called from behind her.
The girl turned and Thalia gasped. It was Bianca, whole and alive, holding a crying Nico.
Bianca smiled. "Hello."
They were in the forest. Which forest? Clarisse didn't know. Why? well, she didn't know that either, but she could guess it had something to do with the gods.
She had woken up in the middle of nowhere, suddenly fourteen again, with a seven-year-old will staring at her.
Yeah, that was the other thing. Will was here and was seven years old again and had no weapons on him. She only had the dagger she kept on her ankle; she didn't even have her spear. She had been pacing for twenty minutes when will started talking.
"I don't think were in New York." He said suddenly, causing her to stop her pacing.
"What do you mean?" She asked, unintentionally softening her voice slightly.
"The sun feels different." He said, pulling his knees to his chest.
"The sun feels different? How?"
"I don't know how to explain it, but it just feels…heavier, I guess?" He mumbled.
Something snapped a twig near the tree line. The trees rustled as the person broke through. All three of them froze when he finally did.
"Castellan." She sneered as he took off running back through the trees. She was right on his heels, Will following close behind her as fast as he could. When they broke through the other edge of the tree line Luke stopped and she saw her opportunity. Off the edge of the small hill they had ended up on was a river. Clarisse didn't stop, instead tackling him down the hill. They rolled and ended up in the river, just as she expected.
She shoved her palm up and his nose made a satisfiying crack. The river wasn't very deep, coming to about her knees if she were standing, but it gave her the advantage. While he might have been the better swordsmen, she was better at hand to hand combat than him, always had been. That along with the fact that in this position he was under the water made it much easier for her to break his face.
Tapping into the rage that simmered under her skin at all times, the rage that in this case was mixed with grief, she let the punches fly. After every punch, she dunked him back under the water. Was it a bit much? she didn't think so, he deserved all of it and worse.
She pulled him up by the collar and put her dagger to his neck. "Did you do this? Your little titan friend?"
Luke coughed out the water he had inhaled and started stuttering. before he could put together a full sentence, something rustled in the trees near them. A monster, no doubt. They've had no encounters with them since they've been here, that was suspicions in and of itself.
She gave him another punch, this time knocking him out, and dropped him on the riverbank. She wanted to kill him, truly she did, but she needed answers first, so this was the best she could do for now.
"Watch him." She said, turning to Will. "If he wakes up again, punch him."
Travis was woken up by sobs. That wasn't the unusual part, however, sobs often accompanied the nightmares his campers, all the camp, had after the wars. What was unusual though was the sobs didn't belong to anyone in his cabin.
Turning to the sound of the sobs he saw two blondes hugging each other and sobbing. To his left was Connor, still sleeping.
"Connor, Connor wake up." He hissed, pinching his brother on the elbow.
"Wha-" Connor stated before cutting himself off. "Travis, where are we?"
It was then, Travis realized they weren't in their cabin, not even at camp. Part of his skillset he'd inherited from his dad was travel. He had a pretty good grasp on where he was most of the time. Not this time however, this time Travis didn't have a clue as to where they are. it's like something was clouding his senses.
"I…I don't know. it's like something is blocking me from coordinates." He said, turning back to the other two as their sobs slowed into sniffles.
"Pollux?" Connor asked from behind him.
Travis then realized that no he wasn't seeing double. "Castor?!"
"Hi, Travis." The man in question laughed, wiping the tears from his face.
Pollux barked a laugh. "So, I'm not hallucinating?"
"Nope, we both see him." Connor said, going to hug Castor.
"Wait a minute, why are you guys fourteen again?" He asked as he went in for his own hug.
"Us? You should see yourselves!" Castor laughed.
"Were all de-aged?" Travis asked again.
"Yeah, you're like thirteen so Connor would be twelve then." Pollux said, twisting the ring on his pointer finger. It turned into a sword if Travis remembered correctly. A gift from Dionysus for his twelfth birthday. Castor had a matching one.
"What kind of quest is this then? Not that I'm not happy to see you but why would the gods not only de-age us but take you from your paradise for one quest." Connor asked.
"I don't know but something feels different." Pollux said, still twisting his ring.
"I can't tell where we are, it's like something—someone—is hiding out location from me." Travis said as he threw an arm around Connor.
"Well, isn't that lovely." Castor said before turning back to him. "You're handling this a lot better than I would think."
"Oh! I've had more than enough mental breakdowns this past year. I don't think I have it in me to have another one."
"What happened this past year to cause those?"
"Oh, you know. Battle of the Labyrinth, Battle of Manhattan, the closest thing I had to a father causing said battles, romans—"
"Romans!?"
"—the whole Gaia thing, and the other stuff I'm missing." Travis said, counting down on his fingers. "So, a lot of things."
"Alright, then." Castor said, throwing his free arm across his shoulders.
"Guys, we should probably find shelter before nightfall." Connor said.
And with that, into the woods they went.