The Ambassador of Athena

It was a beautiful summer day, almost as if the weather was mocking us. The whole camp seemed less cheerful, and even the Nymphs and Dryads were calmer and stayed out of sight.
Johanna hasn’t been in Camp Half Blood for more than a month, but she promised to spend her last day here. She arrived in the early morning, silently, like a shadow. She looked the same as usual, with her blonde hair tied to a knot, her Jeans and T shirt clean and her sword by her side. She just appeared at breakfast and sat down at the Athena’s cabin table. The whole pavilion fell silent, but after a few stern looks from Chiron everyone continued eating. I stood up from the Hades’ table I’ve been sitting at with Nico and sat next to her.
I thought of something to say, but all I could manage was
“Hey”
She smiled at me and took a bite from her toast.
“Hey”
Again I had no idea what to say, but Annabeth on her other side jumped in for me.
“I know it sounds quite insensitive, but what do you want to do on your last day among the living?” She cracked a smile while talking, but nevertheless I only laughed half-heartedly.
Johanna looked thoughtful.
“Well, I want to conquer the climbing wall one last time, and I would kill for a last game of capture the flag, literally.”
Annabeth nodded and stood up. While she was talking to Chiron I sat awkwardly alone next to Johanna. When I finally found the courage to say something I was interrupted by Chiron.
The Centaur stood up and the pavilion fell silent.
“Since today is a special day, not just the summer solstice but also a… last day for one of us we will change the program for today: Instead of the regular activities we will now play a game of capture the Flag.”
The campers were surprised, but no one spoke up, but nobody cheered either.
Next to me Johanna sighed and stood up. I looked at her in amazement when she began to speak:
“This is exactly what I expected this day to be like: Everyone is depressed and sad, but that’s not what I want you to be like! This is the last day that I was given, so make it a big party! Let’s celebrate since there is no tomorrow, at least for me! Let’s be happy, crack jokes about me passing away, but holy Hades, the next camper that looks at me with a face full of sorrow can call himself lucky if he can stand tonight for the solstice.”
I looked at her in awe after her speech, but she wasn’t finished.
“If I got it right the blue flag is in the possession of Aphrodite, who snitched the flag by asking nicely, and the red flag is held by the Children of Hecate that overdid it a bit with their mist magic.”
Cheers from the campers came up and a few comments fell like “yeah, they really know how to ask nicely with their charmspeak” or “they really overdid it, it took me more than 3 hours to get out of that mist”.
Johanna sat down again and Chiron looked at her with a smile. He then clapped his hands and the leftovers from the breakfast disappeared, instead the usual sight of the swords, shields and helmets appeared. I spotted my ox hide-leatherjacket and my vembraces slash bow and quiver among the blue-coloured helmets at the Athena’s Table, so I would fight today with them. We all dressed up and took off to the woods.

One of the best games of capture the flag later the results were the following:
We had three injured, 2 of the Hephaestus cabin that got burned when one of their pots of Greek fire exploded in their hands and a child of Demeter got bitten by their latest creation, a giant flesh-eating plant with a liking for fingers. The red and blue team battled hard for more than 3 hours, but in the end a vicious attack from a strike team from Team Red ended the game. Under the leadership of Monique Wulf, a daughter of Mars, so a roman legionnaire, already 7 Years in service at the legion and way too god when it comes to unarmed combat they broke through our defence lines, locked the defending Athena campers in combat and left me and Johanna alone to defend the flag.
To our defence, we fought brave, and if it wasn’t for my impenetrable jacket I would have lost an arm or two, but in the end Johanna got a pretty bad hit on her head and I got knocked out cold by Monique. She stayed with us until we recovered and apologised a thousand times for knocking me out, but loosing hurt nevertheless. She promised to make up for it by inviting me to dinner back at New Rome, which made Johanna snicker, I have no idea why.

Lunch was more like a giant picnic, everyone just got a sandwich or in Percy’s case 7 and sat down on the hills. Dryads brought freshly picked strawberries and fruits, Nymphs brought drinks and the fauns played a few of their best songs. I sat next to Johanna the whole time, smiling and laughing with her, as if there was no tomorrow.

The afternoon was less action-packed, the campers went swimming while the roman guests decided to have a little sea fight with the micro-ships the Hephaestus Cabin built for them. It was fun seeing two teams of 10 legionnaires fight in close combat on ships, one of the falling in the water occasionally only to be spit back on board by a wave made by Percy.
I caught myself cheering when Monique trashed 2 of her enemies by throwing them over board.
“She likes you, you know?”
Johanna sat down next to me, her hair and swimsuit still wet from the water.
“Why would she?”
Johanna smiled.
“You know, under all your self-doubts you are a really sweet and caring boyfriend. I can tell, I could call myself your girlfriend once, you remember?”
I couldn’t tell if she was mocking me or she was serious, but I decided to not bring up my trauma of our breakup up. Instead she did.
“Look, Flo, I have to apologise. I saw how much it hurt you when I broke up with you, but, you know, my mother…”
I nodded.
“My mother just told me what to do, and she didn’t care about any fatalities along the way. But I am guilty myself for blindly following her advice. I am sure if I refused to break up with you I might live longer than until tonight. I was happy when you showed up here at camp, Flo. I wanted to tell you that I am sorry, that I didn’t want to end our relationship, but I never found the courage. And just starting over again didn’t seem right. It would have been awkward just pretending the last few years didn’t happen. We both have changed, for the good I hope…”
Her voice trailed off, and I looked at her.
“I fell the same way. At first I wanted to get you back, but just for the sake of owning you. It was wrong to think the way I thought, and I have come to senses when you were brought back. Instead of overthinking all my mistakes I made when we were together I decided to focus on the god moments, when we were happy. And for those memories I wanted to thank you, and apologise for blocking you after you tried to reach out to me as a friend.”
Johanna smiled and nodded, tears in her eyes.
“We both made mistakes that led us here, but we can accept them and learn.”
I hugged her, and it was the first time in more than 6 Years that I was so close to her. It was as if all the bad thoughts that were left disappeared in that moment, and all the good memories came back. After what felt like an eternity we split apart, and looked at each other. Johanna broke the silence.
“I… I don’t know if it is too much to ask for, but may a dying girl get a last kiss before she has to go for good?”
I smiled and shook my head.
“Not at all. It would be awful to deny a dying wish.”
And I kissed her a last time, a kiss that would stay in my memory as the last happy thought of her, the girl that shaped my life that much. Even later, as a married man with children and grandchildren I would think of her as someone who would always have a special place in my heart.

Finally it was time for Johanna to say goodbye. When the sun started to paint the sky red and the first stars appeared Johanna changed into the dress she wore when she came back from the dead and walked around camp, saying goodbye to everyone. When it was finally dark we all gathered at the campfire-place, waiting for something to happen. Johanna stood at the fire, next to Chiron, looking into the flames.
Suddenly one of my tattoos started to itch. I was not surprised when it was the skull that represented Hades. Nico at the other side of the fire must have sensed something too since he looked around alarmed.
I stood up, cleared my throat and announced:
“Campers, please sit down. I announce, Lord Hades, Lord of the dead, King of the Underworld, Manager of the Souls and Keeper of the Riches of the Earth.
The fireplace split into two, and out of the flames came Hades, accompanied by his wife and a hooded figure I didn’t recognise.
The campers were dead silent when I walked over to Hades and bowed deeply.
“Lord Hades, what an honour to have you here among the mortals.”
Hades smiled at me and looked around.
“The circumstances of this special case made me think of handling it myself. I am here to claim back the soul of the daughter of Athena, to bring her back to the underworld where she will face the judges of the dead that will decide if she will be allowed to reside in Elysium.”
He looked directly at Johanna.
“Are you ready, Johanna?”
Johanna looked one last time at the crowd, at Chiron and finally at me, smiled and nodded.
“I am. I will face the judges.”
Hades nodded and the hooded Figure next to him moved forward. He extended a hand and Johanna placed 3 golden coins in it. So this must be Charon, or one of his minions, I thought.
The hooded figure took Johanna’s hand and together they descended into the fire and down to the underworld.
Hades looked at the campers that followed the spectacle silently.
“Demigods, I am sorry to take one of you to me but the ancient laws that are older than the gods have to be followed. I will see you all later at Mount Olympus.”
He winked at me, and together he and his wife left the same way Johanna and the Figure did.
The fireplace resealed himself and the fire burned again, this time in a deep blue, reflecting the mood of the crowd. But out of the fire a silhouette rose that was familiar.
The fire-Johanna turned towards us and smiled.
“Campers, remember what I said: One sad look and I will come back from the dead and kick your asses, so be cheerful and smile.”
With that the figure burst into flames and the last trace of Johanna disappeared into the night sky.
“Goodbye Johanna.” I murmured before I turned around and walked over to Rachel, Monique, Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Leo and everyone else that grew close to me thanks to her.

Notes

Thank you so much for reading my 54k - long Fanfiction! I hope you really liked it, please let me know what you liked best! It took me more than two years to finish it, but at least I managed to hold on till the end. Maybe i will write something again and post it on here ;)
Thank you again, and have a nice Christmas break ;)

Flo