What If

Coming Home

71 Years Later – Percy's POV

Elysium was in fine form today. The sun was shining when I woke up, and I could already hear the sounds of my friends through my open windows. I woke up, went for my swim (as usual), ate my blue pancakes and said hi to my neighbours.

Things had changed a bit over the years.

Jason was back with Piper, and their reunion had been like something out of a movie.

One thing you should know about Elysium: when you die, your ghost stays the age that you died at all during your trip through the Underworld. If you go to the Fields of Asphodel or the Fields of Punishment, your ghost stays that same age. But with Elysium, once you cross through those gates, you revert back to your young adult years. So like, I'm seventeen forever. I'm not complaining...

So one day, Jason and I were hanging out in the middle of the road for some reason, and he just stops talking. Like mid-sentence, just quits speaking. And for some reason my first thought was that he was dying or something, which in hindsight, made no sense cause he was already dead. His eyes started to water, but he wasn't sad. In fact, I'd never seen him smile harder in my life. Or... death. I dunno man, the terminology is all messed up now.

I followed his gaze and saw the gates of Elysium open, and on the other side was an old lady slowly making her way towards us. Her hair was much lighter than I remembered, but it was still braided and laced with feathers, and the small knife on her hip looked just the way I remembered. She was smiling too.

And then Jason was running.

Running to her like Aeolus was pushing at his heels. She crossed the border and Jason reached her just as light flashed around her. For a moment, they had both vanished. But then, the light died, and I saw a young Piper hugging Jason with all her might. After all those years apart, these two souls had waited for each other. And now they were reunited.

I greeted Piper joyfully, and it was wonderful.

I couldn't help but wish it had been Annabeth who walked through those gates though.

That wasn't the only thing that had changed though.

Most of my old friends from Camp Half-Blood had come to join us, so it was like being home again.

Hazel and Frank had come to join us as well, and they were joyfully living across the street from me. Nico and Will were actually living their happily ever after at Hades' palace for some reason, but they came down to visit all the time. I guess the "Ghost King" could live wherever he wanted. Every time I saw him, he looked happy. Really happy. And he would stay that way as long as he was with Will.

Reyna had snagged the house beside Beckendorf and Silena, and Leo was in the house beside Reyna. He spent a lot of his days making annoying machines that buzzed in my ear, but I was just happy to be back with all my old buddies.

Even Clarisse was there, living her best war-filled afterlife. She tried to stab me a lot, but luckily she couldn't kill me again, so I was fine with it.

From the eyes of a mortal, this might seem like a somber story. But from the eyes of the dead, we were all just happy to be back together. I felt like I was back at Camp with all my friends, something I had been sorely missing over the years.

So anyways, after my breakfast today, I went on a walk with Leo and Jason, and we just chatted about our quest wa-a-a-a-a-y long ago. I laughed at Leo when he talked about finding Calypso again and how angry she was to see him, and it was nice to just... talk.