Chapter Text
It started out as usual, the head counselors gathered around the ping pong table, arguing over teams for that week's capture the flag game.
It wasn't a significant meeting, thankfully they hadn't had any of those in a while, no threats of war or world-ending quests.
The only thing that was any way notable about this game, is that it would fall on the summer solstice. No one really said it outright, but they were all aware of it. Aware that this was the first summer solstice in years that there wasn't a dangerous quest or a war.
There was a part of both Percy and Annabeth that couldn't quite believe they had no quest this year, no solstice deadline. Still, the campers all knew better than to tempt the fates by saying so much aloud, so they carried on as usual, content to enjoy the hard won peace.
That's what brought them here, to the ping pong table, arguing around it like they had so many times before.
“If I take Hecate, you can have Nike, Iris and Hypnos,” Clarisse was saying, to which Annabeth rolled her eyes at the bad deal, but seemed unbothered.
“Fine,” she agreed, “I'll take Apollo and Hephaestus, you can have Hermes.”
Clarisse considered it, before nodding.
“Wow,” Travis muttered, “glad we're so valuable.”
“You guys remember when we chose who's side we were on?” Will asked, though it was mostly a joke. They could still choose their own teams, but it was fun to watch Annabeth and Clarisse fight over it.
The two girls were the usual leaders of Capture the flag, just like Percy's very first game. It wasn't always them, of course, other cabins often captured the flag and mixed things up a bit, but Annabeth and Clarisse led the two war cabins, and they were two of the best at camp. It was usually them.
“Now, let's talk about Nico and Thalia.”
Clarisse sighed. “You can take Thalia, I'll take Nico.”
The demigods in question both considered this.
“I'm okay with it,” Thalia finally agreed with a shrug, "I like being on Annabeth's team.”
Nico frowned, and looked at his boyfriend. “That means we're on different teams,” he said.
Will took his hand, smiling warmly. “We can swap?” he offered, thinking how sweet it was that Nico wanted to be on the same team as him.
“Nah,” Nico said with a shrug, “I'm cool with it.”
The others snickered at the affronted look on Will's face.
Thalia was the only huntress here at the moment, and given that Jason and Hazel were both in New Rome, it meant Percy and they were the only big three kids at camp. There was always a fight over them for capture the flag, but they knew what team Percy was usually on.
As if on cue to his thoughts, Clarisse and Annabeth both turned to him, fixing him with steely looks.
“What team are you and Tyson gonna be on?” Clarisse demanded, looking resigned, as if she already knew the answer.
Percy grinned sheepishly and pointed at Annabeth, who smirked.
The rest of the campers groaned.
“Seriously? Again?” Connor demanded.
“Typical,” Piper said.
Even Malcolm looked annoyed, and he was on the same team as them.
“What?” Annabeth asked, looking at her second in command. Why he was here when it was supposed to be a counselors meeting, Percy wasn't sure.
“It's just,” Malcolm said, “you two always win. Like always, when you're on the same team. It's getting kind of annoying. We want the challenge.”
“Yeah,” Katie agreed, “I think we need to split you two up.”
“New rule,” Leo suggested, “Percy and Annabeth aren't allowed on the same team for capture the flag anymore.”
Everyone else voiced their agreement without giving the couple any say.
Percy and Annabeth exchanged a slightly amused, slightly embarrassed look. They both knew they'd become a bit of a force to be reckoned with when they worked together. They'd face armies during the wars, they'd walked through Tartarus, they'd saved the world more times than they could remember. And it was also true they'd become a bit of a legend in the younger campers eyes, but they hadn't realised it was to the extent that they weren't even allowed to be on the same team anymore.
“Fine,” Percy finally relented with a shrug, “I'll be on Clarisse's team.”
“Now hold on,” Annabeth said, “I'm fine with that, but if you're getting Percy, we want Nico.”
“No,” Clarisse argued, “you tried to get Percy and Thalia.”
“And we both know if Percy ended up on my team, you would've taken Thalia too.”
Outside, the Conch horn sounded for dinner. The campers filed out, heading towards the dining pavilion, still discussing the teams.
By the time they'd gotten there though, the discussion had developed into an argument and all the progress they'd started to make inside seemed to have come undone.
It was reasons like this that they'd started letting the two team leaders pick the cabins, because with so many new ones it had become difficult to organise fair teams if the cabins just decided for themselves. They still needed to make alliances and trade chores to get each cabin to agree, but it helped make things a bit easier to organise.
Now was one of those times that no matter what anyone offered, it just didn't seem to be working.
By now, the rest of the camp was also in the pavilion, and they started giving their input, but all the voices chiming in were only making things worse.
Chiron stamped his foot on the tiles, causing everyone to jump and quiet down.
“Perhaps,” he suggested, “if you could all take your seats and begin your dinner, we can discuss the teams more calmly afterwards?”
No one was going to outright disagree with Chiron, and it was possible that their hunger was fueling their argument so the campers agreed, Percy taking his seat opposite Tyson who was visiting for the summer, much to his delight.
It was after they'd all started eating and a silence only formed by a crowd who were too distracted by good food to talk had fallen over them, that Lacy from the Aphrodite cabin shyly raised her hand, as if in class.
The campers who noticed looked at her quizzically and amusedly, because it wasn't a common occurrence for someone to raise their hand. Things at camp were more chaotic than that, they usually just shouted out whatever they wanted everyone to hear. But Lacy wasn't hugely outgoing, especially for an aphrodite camper, and the red tinge to her cheeks told them she was already embarrassed enough without anyone making fun of her.
“Yes child?” Chiron asked, when he noticed the girl.
“Um, I was just wondering, well for capture the flag, I think I kind of had an idea…”
“Yes?” Chiron prompted again.
“What if we, um, did something different. You know, instead of just cabins all on the same team. Like girls against boys or couples or something?”
The campers exchanged looks, considering.
“This is the way we've always done it,” Clarisse said.
“Yeah,” Annabeth agreed, “but it's still a good idea. The change could be interesting.”
“Not girls against boys,” Percy said, “you lot are too scary, there's no way we're going against you.”
“Yeah,” Connor agreed, “that's not happening.”
“Agreed,” said Travis, “I like to have at least a fighting chance.”
“Yeah, something more fair,” Malcolm said, as the rest of the guys started voicing their agreement, much to the girls’ amusement.
“What about counselors against the rest?” Laurel Victor suggested.
A few protests rose from the counselors of the newer cabins.
“No way, we’d be way outnumbered,” said Lou Ellen.
“What about old timers versus newbies?” Chris suggested. It wasn't as common to see the glimmer of mischief in his eyes as it was for other Hermes kids, but right now, he fit right in with his siblings.
“That's pretty much just counselors and their seconds,” Katie said, but not in a tone that was necessarily disagreeing.
“How's that any different?” Valentina asked, “you'd all still be outnumbered.”
The older campers who'd been at camp since the first war exchanged looks, a hint of grimness, a hint of sadness, but also determination and confidence.
“Let's just say, we're pretty good against bad odds,” Clarisse said.
“So what, all counselors and some of the others against everyone else?” Butch asked, trying to figure out what team he'd be on.
“No,” Annabeth decided with a smile, “how about everyone with two beads against the rest?”
The majority of campers, the ones who'd arrived after the Titan war, had only one bead from last summer, of the Argo II.
The others, the original twenty-four survivors of the Battle of Manhattan, each touched the bead of the Empire State building, a touch of melancholy, of grief.
“So, even if you're a counselor, you're with the others if you don't have that bead?” Piper asked.
Drew smirked. “I guess I'm usurping you for this one,” she said.
“Yeah, sorry man, I'm taking back the title for a while,” Jake said, grinning at Leo.
“But wait,” Holly Victor said, “that's basically the same numbers as counselors against everyone else. There's only like what? Twenty of you?”
The effect the words had on the others were obvious, the gaiety of the discussion suddenly seeping away, leaving the older campers looking like a heavy weight had been placed on each of their backs, smiles replaced by hard lines of grief and exhaustion, eyes suddenly tired.
“Twenty-four,” Katie said, voice soft, almost a whisper, yet heard easily by everyone.
The newer campers exchanged looks of discomfort, not meaning to make this such a heavy topic.
It suddenly hit them in a way it never had before, how many had been lost. They looked around at their friends and siblings, knowing that once camp had been this full before, and then suddenly it had been reduced down to only twenty-four survivors.
They couldn't imagine it, being one of only so few and seeing all these others disappear or leave or betray or die. It was unfathomable, yet it had happened. It had happened to the very people they were looking at, people they'd looked up to and admired but also just considered regular old campers. It suddenly hit them just how much they'd all been through.
“Well,” Piper tried, voice forcibly upbeat, “we can decide something else, maybe male gods against female gods?”
“No,” Annabeth said, voice coming out sharper than she'd meant it to, “the numbers aren't an issue. We've faced worse odds.”
The others nodded, not sure why they were so determined to see this through, but now that the idea had been spoken, it felt like something they had to do. For themselves, and for the others that should've been there with them.
This was still their camp, in a way. Even though they were outnumbered by all the new faces, it was them who remembered what it used to be like. They remembered only having twelve cabins, they were the ones who'd spent nights on the floor of the Hermes cabin, wondering if they'd ever be claimed, they were the ones who were taught that Glory was all that mattered, and they were the ones who'd fought and sacrificed for the changes that these others knew about, but would never really be able to appreciate, because they'd never understand what it used to be like.
It wasn't that they had anything to prove to anyone else, they'd proven themselves more than enough. It was more, they had to prove to themselves that after all the war, all the loss, they could still come together for fun, they could still enjoy a simple game of capture the flag. When they united, it didn't have to always be for war.
“That's twenty-four against ninety-two”, a younger Athena camper, said, doing the maths.
“As we said,” Will reminded them with a smile, “we've faced worse odds.”
The other campers exchanged looks of confusion, disbelief, awe and a little apprehension, because not only did these older campers not look daunted by the odds, they looked confident, assured.
“Alright,” Chiron agreed, “it's decided. The twenty-four of you, against the rest.”
He looked intrigued, sad too at the reminder, but also excited to see it play out. It was only the older campers, the ones who knew him well enough, who noticed the glimmer in his eyes. He knew as well as they did how good they were against the odds. If Chiron was going to place a bet on this game, it wouldn't be in favour of the bigger team.
It was later, as they were planning for the game, that the teams gathered. The larger team took the dining pavilion as their base, given it was the best spot for such a large number to assemble, while the smaller team gathered around the ping pong table once more.
There was a heavy sense of nostalgia in the room as they all gathered around, and though it was tinged in sadness, there was also a lightness as they remembered the happy times with the others too.
“Right,” Annabeth said, standing at the head of the table and addressing the others as they all sat around, “let's plan.”
It wasn't a question, who their captain would be. They knew each other's strengths and weaknesses well, and Annabeth was the obvious choice.
Percy sat to Annabeth's right, Grover beside him, and Tyson on the next seat, then Thalia, then Nico, then Will, Austin and Kayla, followed by Miranda and Katie, Travis, Connor, Chris, Clarisse at the opposite end, then Sherman and Mark, Rachel too, because like the others, she'd been given a bead after the battle, she was one of them, Drew next with Mitchell, then Pollux, then Jake and Nyssa and finally Malcolm on Annabeth's left.
Afterwards, as they stood outside the big house, Percy couldn't help observing them all, his oldest friends who'd come so far with him.
They were all silent, and Percy knew, like him, they were wishing the others were still here.
Nyssa was the first to speak of it. “We could really do with some Beckendorfs's contraptions, huh?”
The others exchanged smiles. “Or Michael and Lee's bows.”
They may have kept reminiscing if it wasn't for Nico suddenly straightening up, like Thalia had shocked him, but she was standing feet away from him.
“Nico?” Will asked with concern, placing a hand on his boyfriend's arm and drawing the attention of the others.
Nico stared at them for a moment, eyes wide, before schooling his expression back to normal.
“It's nothing,” he assured, “I was just thinking… but probably not,” he muttered to himself.
The others exchanged concerned looks, before Nico shook his head, and relaxed back to his usual self.
“Nothing,” he said again, “I just need to run a quick errand.”
“What?” Will demanded, “where?”
“Just something small,” Nico said, “nothing important. I'll be back soon, just all of you wait here.”
He took a few steps away from them, ignoring their chorus of questions and “what's?” and “why's?” and “where's?”
“Just wait here,” he said again, “no one go anywhere, I'll be back soon,” and with that, before anyone could stop him, he ran into the shadows and disappeared.
“I've told him he's not allowed to do that anymore,” Will grumbled, as the others stood around, unsure of what just happened, but their curiosity kept them in place like Nico had requested.
After about an hour, with no sign of Nico, they started to get worried, wondering if something had happened to him, and annoyed at him making them just stand around here.
They were about to disperse, Percy and Will planning on calling Mrs. O'Leary and seeing if she'd be able to take them to Nico, when the boy himself reappeared, staggering with tiredness but grinning ecstatically.
“Wow,” Will said, steadying him, “where'd you go? What happened?”
The others gathered around, distracted by the uncharacteristic delighted smile on his face.
“Guys, listen, listen,” he said, cutting across their questions with urgency, “I have to warn you all before they get here.”
“Who?” A number of voices asked.
“Warn us? For a fight?” Clarisse demanded.
“No,” Nico said, “Not enemies, friends. Just listen-”
“Romans?”
“No, not Romans, would you all just listen!”
The volume and urgency of his voice quieted them down, as Nico took a deep breath and spoke again, more calmly.
“I was just in the Underworld,” he said, “I went to see my father. We, uh, made a deal, for me to, uh visit and help out more, if he, um, did me a favour.”
The others listened raptly as he stumbled through what he was trying to say.
“That's not important, the important part is um, well, it's not permanent. You all need to remember that, ok? They can only stay until midnight. It's just a visit.”
His tone was serious, bracing, but the others still didn't understand what he was trying to tell them, exchanging more confused looks.
“Capture the flag. The rest of our team,” Nico said. “The ones who should be here.”
It was like he'd sucked the breath out of every one of them, they stared at him with shock, with hope, with disbelief, with awe.
“Nico,” Annabeth asked softly, “are you saying…”
“Hades agreed, just for this game, to let the others visit, the ones who haven't chosen rebirth. For you all to see them.”
“The others…?” Percy asked, thinking he knew what Nico was saying, but knowing it couldn't be true.
“It's just until midnight,” Nico reminded them again.
Before any of them could say anything else, a voice behind them drew their attention.
“Well,” Charles Beckendorf said, standing flesh and blood before them, looking the same as when they'd all last seen him, grinning in the sunlight, “you lot are all a sight for sore eyes. And man, you've gotten old.”
There, standing only a few feet away from them in front of the big house, stood Beckendorf, Silena, Michael, Lee and Castor.