ᴾʰᵒᵇᵒᵖʰᵒᵇⁱᵃ [ᴶᵃˢᵒⁿ ᴳʳᵃᶜᵉ]

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"No," Annabeth shook her head, her curls bouncing across Aza's chest at the motion and leaving a slightly warmed feeling. "No, I want to remember how scared I was when I kick his ass."

Aza allowed a smile to pull at her lips and she nodded gently. "Makes sense."

There was a moment of silence where it felt like it was just Aza and Annabeth in the world - just the two of them, like it had been so many years before Percy joined their group. Whilst the thought did cause her heart to warm slightly, it saddened and froze as she remembered the hole that remained in both of their hearts that Percy used to fill.

Then, Piper stammered, "That's - a dragon. That's the actual Golden Fleece?!"

"Yeah," Aza said, returning back to the present moment as she nodded gently and felt Annabeth do the same. "It was a real bitch to get. Y'know, Cyclops, traitorous friend, amusement park. It was a whole big ordeal." The daughter of Athena's shoulders drooped, and she brought her left hand up to rub her face, taking in a shaking breath that seemed to rack her entire body. Piper's kaleidoscopic eyes widened, and she looked taken aback. "I'd love to hear that story, but is... she okay?" Piper pointed towards Annabeth, her eyes narrowing in a pitiful manner that Aza was glad Annabeth didn't see.

"Sorry. A little tired." That was Annabeth's standing excuse - whenever she didn't want to explain her emotions or didn't want people to worry, her excuse was always that she was tired, and Aza rolled her eyes as she nudged Annabeth and shot her a look that clearly said, you're not fooling anyone.

"You look ready to drop," Piper agreed, nodding her head gently in a motion that still somehow managed to cause her sloppily braided hair to flop around. "How long have you been searching for your boyfriend?"

Annabeth yawned, covering her mouth with her left hand. Her words were muffled as she said, "Three days, six hours and about twelve minutes." Aza rolled here eyes, playfully tugging on one of Annabeth's curls and teased, "But who's counting, right?" Trust Annabeth to count the exact amount of time for anything, specifically because the blonde-haired girl took pride and joy in being a know-it-all.

"And you've got no ideas what happened to him?" Piper questioned.

"Not a singular one,' Aza sighed.

Annabeth sighed and shook her head miserably. "We were so excited because we both started winter break early, and wanted to get the gang back together. Aza's from Arizona, so she and I get to see each other a bunch throughout the year, but Percy lives across the country from us, and so it's the only time we can get to see each other. That and during the summer. Percy and I met up at camp on Tuesday, Aza was scheduled to come in on Thursday, so we figured we had three weeks together and it was going to be great - plus, Grover was supposed to come in for a couple of days. Then after the campfire, he - he kissed me goodnight, went back to his cabin and in the morning, he was gone. We searched the whole camp. We contacted his mom; we've tried to reach him in every way we know how. Nothing. He just disappeared."

Piper's brows furrowed, and she formed the picture perfect definition of sympathy. "How long were you guys together?" Without any hesitation, Annabeth said, "Since August. August eighteenth."

Piper nodded, brows lifting slightly. "Almost exactly when I met Jason. But we've only been together a few weeks." Annabeth winced, and Aza sucked her teeth gently, exchanging a glance with he curly-haired friend. Neither of them wanted to break the news to the new girl, but it was the right thing to do. "Piper... about that. Maybe you should sit down."

Almost like a switch flipping, Aza could feel the fear begin to build up inside of Piper, swirling like a gale-force wind. Her kaleidoscopic eyes shifted to a deep brown color, widening as she began to chew heavily on her bottom lip. "Look," She explained, as if trying to dig her way out of the hole. "I know Jason thought - he thought he just appeared at our school today. But that's not true. I've known him for four months." Piper's voice sounded slightly aggressive, yet desperate, almost like she was half-threatening, half-begging them to believe her. Aza felt bad; she definitely didn't want to tell Piper that the fairy-tale relationship with Jason was one she had built up in her mind, but it would be crueler to let her believe it was real. So instead, Aza said, "Piper, it's the Mist."

"Missed... what?" Piper questioned softly, her head tilting slightly to the right like a puppy.

"M-i-s-t," Annabeth filled in, her voice softer than normal. "It's a kind of veil separating the mortal world from ours. Mortal minds - they can't process gods and monsters and the like, so the Mist bends reality. It makes mortals see things in a way they can understand - like if they look here, at camp, they'll either see one giant strawberry field, or they'll just skip over this valley entirely like ti doesn't exist. Or they might look at that dragon and see a pile of cables."

"No," Piper swallowed thickly, almost spitting out her words. "You said yourself I'm not a regular mortal. I'm a demigod!"

Annabeth nodded. "Even demigods can be affected; I've seen it lots of times. Monsters can infiltrate some place like a school - that's where they find the majority of demigods - then they pass themselves off as human and everyone thinks they remember that person. They believe he's always been around. The Mist can change memories, even create memories of things that never happened—"

"But Jason's not a monster!" Piper's voice raised and she stomped her foot like a petulant child. Aza winced, not expecting a lash of anger from Piper. "He's a human guy, or a demigod, or whatever you want to call him. My memories aren't fake. They're so real - the time we set Coach Hedge's pants on fire, the time Jason and I watched a meteor shower on the dorm roof and I finally got the idiot to kiss me..."

Piper began to ramble about each memory she had of Jason, from the time the two got their revenge on Dylan and the rather mean girls at Wilderness Survival School to the time Jason and Leo pranked her. Aza nodded and listened, adding interjections where she felt fit in order to try to comfort the girl, but the fact remained that Piper hadn't truly known Jason for that long.

Once the girl had ended her rant, Annabeth pursed her lips and shook her head with a gentle shrug. "I'll admit, Piper, your memories are sharper than most - usually Mist memories are muddled and sort of foggy, and I don't know why you're are most astute. But if you do know him so well—"

"I do!" Piper insisted, nodding like an insistent child.

"Then where is he from?" Annabeth asked, arching one of her thin blonde eyebrows ever-so-slightly, almost in a challenging manner. Piper recoiled slightly as though she had been slapped, her eyes widening as they shifted from a deep brown to a more bright and shining hazel. "He must have told me, but—"

"Did you ever notice his tattoo before today? Did he ever tell you about his parents, or his friends, or his last school, or—"

"—Annabeth," Aza interrupted, giving her a sharp glance. "I think Piper gets the point." Annabeth waved a hand in the air, but her voice softened considerable as she continued, "Piper, what's his last name?"

Piper's eyes went blank, and Aza could feel the girl's panic rise and rise, steeping upwards steadily until her - now lilac - eyes began to well with tears. Piper plopped her body down next to Aza on the rock like a dead weight and fell apart; once her tears started, they didn't seem to want to stop. Aza unhedged her right arm from between the two and placed it over Piper's shoulder as she had done to Annabeth earlier, allowing the girl to cry gently into her shoulder. Aza didn't think she was the most comforting of halfbloods - after all, her grandfather was Ares - but Piper seemed to appreciate her gesture.

"We'll figure it out," Aza soothed, squeezing her shoulder gently. "Jason's here now. Who knows? Maybe you two will end up dating!" Piper nodded, her choppy chestnut hair flopping wildly across Aza's body. She brushed a tear from her cheek and choked out, "You guys brought me up here so no one would see me blubbering, huh?"

Annabeth shrugged, but a small and comforting smile tugged at her lips. "That and myself. I figured it would be hard for you - I know what it's like to lose your boyfriend."

Piper sniffed gently. "But I still can't believe... I know we had something, a connection. And now it's just gone, like he doesn't even recognize me. If he really did just show up today, then why? How'd he get there? Why can't he remember anything?"

Aza chuckled lightly. "Those're some good questions. Rule one of being a demigod - get used to having hundreds of unanswered questions. But we give them to the wisest guy - er centaur - around. Hopefully Chiron can figure them out, he almost always can. But for now, we need to get you settled. Ready to go back down?"

Piper gazed down at the valley, looking over the cabins - her new home. "Yeah, I'm ready."