Percy Jackson, The Missing Hero.

42. Reunions and the Ramblings of Rotten Soul.

"Percy?" Annabeth flinched back, as if the very sight of him had burnt her.

"Good to know I can still surprise you." Percy nodded, though there was a slightly bitter edge to his tone that he couldn't disguise. He didn't know how to feel, emotions at war in his chest.

"You've certainly surprised me!" Hazel's words were the only warning he was given before she collided with him, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing so hard he thought he was about to be gifted a one-way ticket to visit her father. He ignored the fact that Annabeth was trying to make eye contact with him over Hazel's shoulder, looking away and letting Hazel squeeze him to her heart's content.

"Let the man breathe, Haze," Frank chuckled as he came closer. Percy thought he was just going to observe until Hazel released him, so he was slightly surprised when Frank simply wrapped his arms around the two of them.

"You're contradicting yourself," Hazel informed him, slightly muffled from speaking into Percy's shoulder, though her vice grip had thankfully scaled down from bone-breaking potential at Frank's suggestion.

They both stepped back and gave Percy matching smiles.

"We were really the last to know, huh?" Frank commented when he registered the lack of shock on the faces of their other companions.

Percy ducked his head and felt slightly sheepish. "I was planning to talk to you but it's been a bit hectic between your arrival in Camp and us leaving."

"You don't need to make excuses, man, I'm just happy to see you," Frank assured him. "I can't quite believe you're here but I'm glad."

"Ouch!" Percy yelped, rubbing his arm. He looked at Hazel who looked far too smug about the fact she had just punched him. "What was that for?"

"Do you realise how horrible it was when Nico turned up at Camp Jupiter looking like someone had stuck him in a microwave and pressed the 'heat death' button?" Hazel asked. "And then he was the one who had to inform us that you were gone?"

"We didn't know if you were dead or alive, Perce." Frank shook his head. "And that's not a great state to live in."

"When Zeus and Hades said they'd answer all questions about my disappearance, I didn't expect them to fake the scene of a murder and leave it at that," Percy confessed. "And apparently, between the God of Death and the God of Drama, they could make a career out of staging convincing crime scenes for procedural dramas. Zeus and Hades, CSI: Olympus."

"We found Riptide, bathed in blood that we thought belonged to you," Annabeth finally spoke up, her voice filled with distress. Percy stiffened as she spoke. "What else were we supposed to think?"

"You were only supposed to think I was gone, not that I was dead," he answered without meeting her eyes. "I couldn't stay and watch any longer, I didn't want to wait around and see how many more people succumbed to Nathan's charm."

"Did you even think before you left?" Annabeth asked and Percy finally looked at her, shocked.

"I literally just explained that Zeus and Hades were the ones who set up the murder scene, I was already long gone when they came up with that idea." Percy shook his head. "I left a few notes behind for the friends I still had, I thought that you'd all just figure I'd gone off to Alaska or somewhere else out of the eyes of the gods. I didn't ask them to stage my death. I didn't think that they would," he held up his hand to show off the ring Hades gave him, "Hades gave me this. Any letter I seal with it, goes to him. He said if I wanted to send any letters home, send them to him and he'd find a way to pass them on. I didn't think for a second that they'd fake my death!"