Home Is Where The Heart(h) Is (Rewritten)

Chapter 2: What They Always Wanted

Percy found himself back in the throne room, fighting Kronos, the two of them locked in a deadly dance of sword and scythe. Their blades clanged with a screech of revolt as Percy swept Riptide up in an arc. He wasn't even trying, Percy thought, his teeth gritting, as he leapt backwards just in time to dodge a swing from Kronos. He kept his sword level as Kronos strode up to him, not even tired.

"What chance do you stand against the strongest Titan?" Kronos sneered. "You're nothing. You'll die like he did." He pointed with his weapon at the crack where Ethan Nakamura had made his final decision and died for it.

Percy lunged forward for another bout, the fury at Kronos' words turning into renewed energy that surged through his muscles. Kronos grinned and parried his strikes before he slammed the butt of his scythe into Percy's gut.

His vision went blurry, stomach exploding with pain as he the feeling of weightlessness spread through him. He was flying away from Kronos...Another burst of pain at his head. Head – hit something hard. Someone screaming his name? He saw someone charging the figure coursing with golden liquid within. And something...something pink above? Spots dancing in his eyes...

"Annabeth!" He was screaming, before his dream faded into darkness and he bolted awake. He blinked twice, then placed a hand on his thumping chest.

In. Out. In. Out.

He looked outside and found it to be...evening? How long was he asleep for?

Leaving the cabin, he was surprised to see everyone hard at work, not training, but building the new cabins. Some were carrying bricks, others lugging buckets of cement. He spotted Nico ordering a small army of skeleton workers around and walked up to him, ignoring some of the looks the other campers were giving him.

"Percy," Nico greeted. "Annabeth's over at the Hecate cabin I think." His face was tight with concentration on holding control over his temporary servants.

"Uh, I don't need to see her now. What's going on here?"

"Building all the new cabins. We started after the unclaimed campers got, well, claimed. You missed a lot while you were knocked out."

"Right. Why was I asleep for that long again? What even happened last night?"

Nico looked at him and a few metres away, a skeleton carrying a stack of obsidian bricks dissolved. "Guess you must have been that tired, with the curse of Achilles and all," He finally said.

"And you guys just let me sleep for almost an entire day?"

"Hey, hero of Olympus and stuff. You probably deserve it."

Percy frowned. Nico wasn't telling him something, but he knew the son of Hades wouldn't share if he didn't want to.

"Percy!" He turned and saw Annabeth jogging up to him. "How are you?"

"Fine, I guess, except I don't know what happened yesterday. Everything's kind of...blurry."

"Well, we didn't exactly want to wake you up."

"Yeah, yeah I know. Curse of Achilles and everything," Percy grumbled. He didn't know what he was complaining about. If he had an accepted excuse to sleep in, it wasn't really a curse, yet he could tell Annabeth was smiling a bit too warmly.

"There's some dinner left if you want some, maybe some food will clear your head," Annabeth suggested. Percy nodded and headed to the mess hall, leaving the two demigods behind.

"He asked you too, huh?" Annabeth asked Nico when Percy was out of earshot.

"Yeah. I couldn't tell him. He doesn't have to know."