416Hi... I'm a day late... In my defense, I really wasn't into this chapter as much, because I have so many ideas for the next (last) chapter in my mind and I can't focus on this one. Whoops. But I did go over this one and I'm pretty sure it makes sense...
Also, I don't remember who said this, but someone said the demigods don't seem like they completely understand each other yet. And I kind of agree, though I didn't plan it this way. So that's where this chapter came from.
300 REVIEWS! Thanks to everyone who's ever reviewed this story! And everyone who's read it (a ton of people, judging by the view counters), followed it, or favorited it! I honestly can't believe my story made it this far.
Luna: 300! Thank you so much!/Yeah, I did... I was trying to warn you guys XD/You'll find out about Nico... muwahaha.../(only slightly stalkerish. Don't worry, I sound very stalkerish in person :P) Projects? Sounds really cool. Heck of a lot better than a bunch of tests, anyway. But I did get an A for math, so not bad :) Thanks! I had fun writing in Piper's POV.
awesomeninja09: Oh yeah? Well... I'm quadruple divergent, so ha! And, uh... I'll just jump out of the way of Avada Kedavra, then! AND I SHALL LIVE FOREVER. The element of surprise is my favorite element!
BlueOrangeJuice: I LOVE YOUR USER (NOT REALLY USER) AND THANK YOU SO MUCH AND NICE CAPS LOCK AND... I have no idea what the plural of series is. Just series? No idea. And enthusiasm is fine, because IT WAS NICO'S (admittedly, unconfirmed) BIRTHDAY!
MaxHomlet: Oh, wow. That quote... thanks! I might use it, and I'll credit you if I do.
OwlGirl2000 (I know right?), jk just Keegan: Thanks!
Guest: All of them will! I'm not that cruel...
SuzuBells: Yep! It was actually pretty fun to write that bit at the end. And it seemed very OOC if I didn't have Piper try to do something. Will they remember- perhaps... you'll find out :) Will I keep writing awesome stories- I'm flattered, and I wouldn't dream of not doing that! Thanks for your reviews, they really brighten my day!
Dorian Havilliard: I personally like ID/FOB slightly better, but P!ATD are amazing too. My fanfic is getting so mature... *sniff* It already has a son!
CrazyBlueOwl: I wonder if Nico got a blue cake courtesy of Sally :) And, well, they are kinda crazy without a flaw... did you notice who I chose to pick not wanting a flaw? I spent HOURS (minutes, more like) deciding! XD I wanna get me a dam T-shirt! *helps you up, but then lets go* Whoopsies! :)
Geek Without Glasses: Thanks! And yes, he will. See the announcement at the bottom A/N.
Frank
Frank was going to throw up, and it wasn't going to be pretty. Bright, flashing spots that looked suspiciously like Hazel's golden eyes danced in front of his vision, making it hard—no, near impossible—to see. (Not that there was anything to see.) Everything was divine, golden. Briefly, Frank wondered if Hera had shown her divine form. Any moment, he expected to be vaporized and reappear in the Underworld, being judged by the dead. Frank could imagine everything then—Praetor, son of Mars, Gets Blasted to Bits by Hera! Awesome headline for New Rome's newspaper.
Wait. Frank's mind reacted sluggishly—he could feel his eyelids fluttering. He wasn't dead.
Trying to blink, the son of Mars wondered where the heck he was. He wasn't standing. Somehow, he'd collapsed flat on his back, with his head lolling to the right after he'd been sucked into a tunnel of golden light. There was grass beneath him, but he couldn't tell much else without his sight. The little slits of light he did have we obscured by the afterimage of the light. Where am I?! Did Hera mess up somehow? I swear, if she pulled another stupid stunt…
The golden light suddenly cleared from Frank's eyes. He expected it to be soothing, but apparently the Fates had decided to make his life as hard as possible. It hurt. A lot. It—it was like being burned; at first, nothing, but then—all at once—ow! And then after the burnt body part was pulled away, it throbbed painfully. Not that he was going to pull his eyes away… Frank somehow managed to lift his arms, rubbing at his eyes with vigorous movements. The searing pain was clawing its way through his body, not just his eyes, not giving him a chance to recover before sending a fresh jolt of hurt at him. But somehow, it felt different. It wasn't burning pain; instead, it felt more like a stinging prick of a needle.
And then, just as suddenly as it had come, it was gone. Frank tried to open his eyes, but a vision danced on the inside of his eyelids before he could do so. It was gold, with blurry images like those of an Iris-message. It felt… unsettling, to say the least. The praetor felt a familiar, yet strange, sensation in the pit of his stomach. What was going on? Why couldn't he open his eyes?! Wait a second. I'm… panicking. So what? That's not—Good. I have my flaw back! I have Insecurity! He tried to grin, but his face hurt. And he still had no idea about what was happening.
Don't worry, hero. Hera? The voice echoed inside his mind. You are safe. The flaw has been returned, yes, but the process hasn't yet been completed fully. The process… the "painful" one? I'm afraid so. Are you ready? No. This is the first part. And everything went crazy. Frank had already done enough bonding—enough with it all! I'll take that as a yes, Hera said smoothly. And then the gold was the only color Frank could see. Gold.
Everything was in some shade of gold, but he recognized Hazel and Percy battling alongside himself in Alaska. And there was Annabeth discussing Chinese handcuffs with him, and Piper grinning ferociously as she fought, and Jason helping Frank practice a sword-thrusting technique, and Nico, talking to Frank at New Rome, though he ignored everyone else but Hazel, and there was Leo, grinning playfully as he teased Frank, but without malice. Frank hurtled though a tunnel of memories—both his and others'.
And then it got really weird, as if it wasn't already. There were Annabeth and Percy… bleeding. Lying there. Dead. But then there were those same two, beaming happily as they got married. Frank was one of the groomsmen, and the others were all there. Except Leo. And then there was Nico clutching a picture of Hazel and crying, an anguished howl that rattled Frank's nerves. But then there was Piper, laughing with Jason as they laced their fingers together— and Jason, begging Reyna to forgive him, and Jason, marrying Reyna—what?! Yet there Reyna was, slinging a sisterly arm over Nico, who laughed—laughed—with Leo, who seemed a lot older but still as impish as ever. And then Hazel was there, gazing adoringly at a buff, Asian man—Frank? Was that… him? But the next vision showed that same man, with tearstained cheeks, sobbing as he knelt before a fire, lit up by burning shrouds. And an older Piper screamed as a small stick of firewood fell into that fire… and then the gold was gone.
Frank tried to open his eyes once more, but they felt heavy as weights. Gradually, he became aware that there was a thrumming in the back of his head, and people were scrambling around him. Who was it? Ow… his head really hurt. Like he'd been hit with a brick. (But that was Jason's job, right?)
"—from the Roman camp?" a concerned male voice said, and Frank felt a cool hand touch his forehead. Then the hand moved away. "This is the praetor, right? Frank?" he continued.
Yeah, that's me! Frank wanted to sit up and say. But something was off. Who was this guy? He tried to muster up the energy to speak, but found himself losing consciousness again. "… Can't imagine how he got here. The rest of the Seven and that son of Hades flashed here too… strange things…" a female voice sounded puzzled, slowly fading away. "Bring… infirmary…"
No, I'm fine… Well, that was rather a moot point, considering that Frank was rapidly approaching unconsciousness—what? No! He had to stay awake… what were those images? Glimpses of possible futures? Ugh. He wanted to sleep. He didn't understand—where were the others? Who were those people? What had happened right before the gold flash? Why— Frank didn't get to ask any more mental questions, as he soon descended into the realm of Hypnos. But of course, it couldn't be a normal sleep, oh no. (Now he didn't want to sleep.)
Stupid demigod dreams.
Frank stood in a painfully bright, sterilized white room. It was utterly generic, and completely featureless, to boot. The only thing remotely interesting about it was that… well, that there wasn't anything interesting about it. To be quite honest, it was about as exciting as one of Annabeth's (well-meaning, but boring) lectures on architecture. Even his grandmother's (smashed) china collection was more attention-grabbing.
At least, it was boring until Frank noticed seven other figures in the room, all separated from each other by a little bit of space. Frank furrowed his brow. That was weird, even for a demigod's dream. And oddly enough, he could actually move. And… were those the rest of the Seven and Nico? Where were their flaws—oh, right.
It had worked! Frank was almost embarrassed for not having remembered it before. Everything added up—the unfamiliar voices, the discussion about where Frank and the others had come from (since Frank had originally been at Camp Jupiter), the absence of the rest of his friends. So Hera had basically unfrozen time, and the flaws had rejoined the demigods. But of course, there'd been a catch. A painful process… and then, during the unsettling glimpse into the future, she'd told Frank that it had only been the first part of the process, implying that there was a second part to it. So this was the second part… anyway…
Frank was extremely glad. He hadn't felt like himself without Insecurity. It had been… scary? Wonderful? Relaxing? Nerve-wracking? All? Without his flaw, he could do anything, be anything—without any reservations. That was amazing, yes, but also very dangerous. Now, Frank recognized that. He hadn't before—in fact, he'd even opposed joining back together with his flaw. He felt his face begin to warm. He'd even tried to convince Leo to not join back together with his flaw, for Mars' sake! Not very smart of him. He had to see the big picture.
But without Insecurity, he'd lacked the very ability to do that. He'd only agreed to reunite with his flaw after Grudge (the flaw had looked as if he'd like to brutally injure him) had knocked some sense into him. Having his flaw… his fatal flaw… that was, well, fatal. But not having his flaw was equally deadly. Frank knew there was a word for that sort of thing—irony? Oxymoron? Paradox?—but he couldn't remember it. Oh well.
Shaking himself out of his temporary stupor, Frank glanced around the room more curiously, and saw Hazel, Percy, Piper, and Nico on one side of the room;Annabeth, Leo, Jason, and himself were on the other. The funny thing was that none of them seemed to notice the others' presence, other than Frank, of course. And their faces—their bodies, even, were wispy, like steam or smoke. They weren't transparent, exactly, but just… blurry. Suddenly, a thought struck Frank. He looked down.
Sure enough, he was wispy too.
And then, lower murmurs filled the blank white room, though Frank kept staring at his… blurry… form. "Pressure… Reyna… Piper… Greeks and Romans… the gods' shrines… beat Percy… giving leadership… Frank…" Frank started and glanced up at the sound of his name, looking around to find the source. Were one of the blurry demigods talking? It was Jason. He was really… blurry. Like a hologram or something. If Frank stared at one part of him for too long, it began to fade away, yet he seemed solid enough.
"Everyone expects me to be the perfect leader, a good fighter, a role model, an example! What if I don't want to do that?! What if I just want to relax? Let loose?" Jason continued his tirade, anger radiating off of him. Frank shifted uncomfortably; this was personal—very. It was like Jason's inner thoughts. "But I can't! I just can't! It's so hard, and I just have to keep on going, to be that perfect leader! I want to just live. That's literally all I ever wanted." Blurry-Jason coughed hoarsely. Suddenly, Frank felt terrible. Because he'd never really bothered to get to know the guy. He'd just assumed things. Jason—he just wanted to be normal, but he couldn't. Neither could Frank. None of them could. Saviors of the world or not, they were just teenagers, really.
Teenagers who had seriously weird dreams. Frank knitted his eyebrows together; what was going on in this dream? It seemed like the demigods had their flaws back, finally, but then… the visions. The dream. The voices.
Another voice startled the son of Mars. It was Leo, whose face was indistinct as well. "Sorry, mama, sorry, everyone… I'm sorry that I'm not a hero. For gods' sakes, I sent our most important members to Tartarus! I put everyone in danger!" Not true. Leo had saved Frank's and Hazel's lives by using that fortune cookie, and it wasn't his fault anyway. And he was the bravest person Frank knew—he'd gone through so much crap and still managed to smile. "I'm a jerk! To Frank, Hazel, Jason, Piper, everyone…" He had been a jerk to Frank. But… "I'm a useless seventh wheel!" No, no. He wasn't! Never. He was an amazing genius who was pretty freaking awesome, even if he did have his faults. Whatever else Leo was, he wasn't useless. If anyone was, it was… no, stop it, Zhang. Frank watched as blurry-Leo glided to one of the blindingly white walls. And suddenly, someone else spoke.
"When I want to cry, I do it alone. It's hard." Frank got the feeling she was talking about more than just crying. "I don't want to be alone, but I choose to, because how else can I get anything done? And my stupid pride landed Percy in T-Tartarus with me… g-gods…" Blurry-Annabeth choked. No, you're not alone. You don't have to do everything. We can help. "I… why couldn't I have been a mortal?! That would've been so much easier!" But then the demigods would be in big trouble. They needed Annabeth.
Frank had no idea what was going on, but he knew it was important. So he stepped closer as blurry-Nico began to speak. "Everybody leaves me eventually. So why even bother making friends? Oh, forget it. I haven't got any. I'm just the son of Hades; the son of death. No one wants me around. Gods. I'm a freak." Frank blinked. Furiously. But some disobedient liquid leaked out of his eyes, and he felt the urge to go and hug Nico. He only stopped because he instinctively knew that wouldn't do anything—wait.
Frank's mouth suddenly felt very dry. These things, what they were saying—were their worst nightmares, their deepest insecurities, their darkest fears. It wasn't really them saying it, but it was true all the same. Those simple words… Frank was stunned. He knew all this about the others. Wow.
"Everyone else is more useful than me. I'm just a pretty face, an unreliable one at that. I'm too emotional…" The blurred figure of Piper said softly. "I don't trust myself, I don't trust my instincts, I don't—I just—I don't. I got the ship blasted off course, I got everyone frozen. I don't do anything." Not true! Frank wanted to scream. Your fears are normal—they're good, they can help you, just let them! "I'm scared." They all were, probably. Frank smiled without humor.
"I'm too changeable, too fluid, too set, and too solid. Different. I never wanted to be a demigod, but here I am! One day, my loyalty's gonna be fatal—for others, not just me. But loyalty—ha. I haven't got any! Explain about… Bob, Damasen, Silena, Beckendorf, Zoe, Bianca… why?!" Percy's voice was filled with so much anguish Frank just wanted to go hug him. Percy—was—awesome. "Bob… I said hello for you." Frank pinched himself. He wanted to wake up, to not learn all these things, to not know. Sometimes, that was better. What was that saying? Right, ignorance was bliss.
Another voice joined in. Hazel… "Nico shouldn't have taken me out of the Underworld. I killed so many. I'm cursed. Diamonds and rings are nothing. My first life, I killed a lot. Raised a giant. My second, I still am. And I caused so much pain. For everyone. Schist, I don't deserve Frank." No, Frank didn't deserve her. "I didn't deserve Sammy or this second chance, either. I'm sorry for everything I've done."
Silence. And then, as one, the seven others turned to Frank. For the first time, there was a flicker of something alive in their eyes—and they were solid. Slowly, it dawned on Frank. It was his turn, and his friends were listening.
"I…" he faltered, then took a breath. If they could do it, so could he. "I—I'm really self-conscious. Compared to you guys, I'm a complete clown." The words flowed out of him more smoothly, like they'd just been waiting to be said. Maybe they were. "I honestly don't know why I was part of the prophecy. I'm a clumsy doofus. Gods, I can barely get anything right!" Then he paused. It wasn't true. Not anymore.
A sudden, shockingly blinding flash of pure gold light enveloped him, and everyone else too. When it cleared, Frank found himself lying on an infirmary bed. He sat up and glanced around—the others were sitting up on adjoining beds. Solid. No flaws. Just them.
"WE'RE BACK!" he leaped up and tackled them with a giant group hug, dragging even a confused-looking Nico in. They were back. Finally, they were back.
"What—Nico, you shouldn't be up—neither should you guys—" a tanned, blond guy who was probably a son of Apollo rushed over, but Frank ignored him. He hugged everyone even harder. They really were back.
Thank the gods— and Frank never thought he'd say this, but—thank Hera.
Did I spell Damasen wrong? I think I might have... whoops. And that son of Apollo was Will :)
Anyway, some things: Nico WILL be making an appearance in this fic. In fact, guess whose POV you'll be getting in the next chapter? Will he remember? Frank and the others do, but only Grudge was there... hmm... you'll just have to find out.
Also, the chapter formats: Each member of the Seven got 3 chapters in their POV, except for Percy. I'm sorry Percy, but Nico will get your chapter. So this story will have 21 chapters, which means it's almost over. Wow. I can't believe it.
The final chapter shall be posted on Friday next week, and I promise I'll post it then! But in the reviews/or if you want to PM me, tell me what kind of story you want me to write next, because sadly this is ending. I have a few ideas... do you guys like AUs? What kinds? Stories that fit into canon? Collection of one-shots? A specific ship? I'll make a poll to put on my profile after this story is finished, based on what you guys say, and you guys can vote/review next chapter to pick. Thank you all for bearing with me through this insanely long A/N!
See you next week!