Annabeth

Someone shook my shoulder.

"Annabeth, twenty minutes until we pack up." It was Hazel.

I nodded slightly, showing her I was awake. I had been awake for the past two hours or so. I only got about an hour of sleep, and even that was just dozing on and off in a restless slumber. Events from the other day kept me awake, screaming for attention, demanding me to go through and watch them all again. Luke capturing me and all that, but even more recently, and more disturbing, was Percy's reaction when I told him he needed to just talk about his sister.

It really helps, talking to someone about something that's has been bothering you. When the Forbiddance Law was passed, and I was stuck in Athena's temple just missing Percy, I didn't know that. Someone had to convince me. Soon enough, I spilled to Thalia and Piper about why I was in such a bad mood all the time, and wasn't getting enough sleep. It really did do something. I felt a weight taken off of my shoulders, I had shared the burden with my two best friends. I was even more grateful that they were with me when that happened. I hope they're doing alright, my thoughts voiced in my head as I remembered what Percy told me. About how he couldn't really communicate with Poseidon, and I was scared something would happen with the gods that might harm the people around them. After breathing a quick prayer to the gods that my two friends were okay at Athena's temple, I carried on with my thoughts.

After I felt how nice it was to talk about it, I realized that even though it's really hard to make yourself do, you have to confess to someone. They'll help, they truly will.

I wanted to help Percy. I really wanted to, but he shot me down, saying that there was no way I could. Ouch. Yeah, that hurt me a lot. I know he was probably just mad that I brought his sister up an all, but still. Did he not realize that I cared about him? Well, I did. I knew he was hurt from what happened, and I believed him when he said that the worst thing that happened to him was his sister's death. I know he's devastated, but that's why I want to help him. I don't want to ever see the same look I had seen on his face last night again. He looked so lost, broken and sad. Maybe I had no right to step in and try and help him, but I didn't want him to be sad. He makes me happy, so I think I should do the same. If he would let me.

I groaned inwardly, not wanting to face the day. But I got up out of my warm covers and started to get dressed. I saw something in the corner of my eye, and my gaze was drawn to that. It was glinting in the small light of the morning, and it brought back memories. It was the hairpin that Lacy had given to me to pin up my hair on the day of the council. According to Jason, Piper had packed most of my belongings and given them to Jason to give to me when they rescued me. She had no doubts that they would be able to, I guess. Extra clothes, armor, and a notebook had been in the pack, along with this hairpin. I looked down on it with wistfulness. It seemed like an entire lifetime ago that that council had taken place. Memories of it were little more than things in the past. I hadn't realized it, but my life had been pretty good. I really had no worries, for I lived in Athena's temple so I was pretty much safe from everything (except for the assassination, but that stuff doesn't really ever happen in a god's temple), and having no worries is extremely rare in the life of a demigod. Sure, I might have small things that shoot up every once in a while, causing me to worry, but they weren't life-changing or eternally damaging things.

But then Percy came trotting into my life, and wow, did he change it up quite a bit. Never again would I look at the gods the same, thanks to his opinions that have somehow molded mine into similar ones, and never again would I be the same old Annabeth. Since that Forbiddance Law was decreed, I was forever changed. That wounded me, more than I could imagine. I never dreamed one person could mean so much to me, even when I had only known that person for a week or so. When you put it into those terms, it seemed really silly and shallow, but I can't explain it. After knowing Percy for a day, it felt like I had known him for a century instead. He understood me, I understood him. We evened each other out, and we sharpened each other's dull edges in our life. For once, I felt completely whole, noticing that before something had been missing. I know, that sounds extremely cheesy, but it is truly what I felt like.

So when we were forbidden to see each other, well, you can imagine what that did to me. Then the War Games started, then I got kidnapped. Now here I am. And look, me and Percy are fighting and I just know this day is going to be incredibly tense and awkward between us. I wanted to make things right, but how? Should I apologize for trying to help him? I could try, but I don't want him blowing up on me again. Actually, maybe it would be good for him to blow up, because then I could talk back. And I couldn't find anything to apologize for, he's the one that has to apologize. Not trying to be mean, but he was the one that hurt me, not the other way. I just sat there and took it all, letting stab my heart again and again. I should be angry at him. But it was so hard to stay angry at Percy.

I sighed. What a mess I am.

I tore my eyes away from the simple hairpin that brought so many thoughts, continuing to get up and move outside. Once in the fresh air, I stood and stretched my limbs, taking a deep breath and scrutinizing my surroundings. It's strange how different a place can look in the daylight compared to the moonlight. For instance, I couldn't see as much last night, so my mind imagined things. Now those imaginations were put to rest as my eyes looked upon the actuality. Instead of the clearing being fully enclosed within a canopy of trees on top and sides, there was a break in the trunks, and in the break flowed a small creek that went through the edge of the clearing. Smart, because we'd have water. Above, the blue sky was perfectly visible, no branches interfering with the view as there were at Luke's encampment. I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing I could just go back to bed. Not for sleep, just so I wouldn't have to go through this day.

Steeling myself, I walked over to the where the fire had been last night. A crowd had grown around it, and I could feel a buzz in the air. I reached the outside of the group of Questers, and I heard them all talking quietly and nervously. Curiosity overwhelming me, I pushed forward in the crowd to see what was going on. Turns out I didn't have to forge my way through the throng of people, they parted for me. I walked briskly past them to the center. The fire was only dying ember coals now, letting off a wisp of smoke that curled into the air like hair in water. Percy stood next to the fire studying a piece of paper intently.

Ugh, I groaned mentally. Why does have to look so good when I'm mad at him? Or trying to be mad at him? Yeah, I sounded like a boy-obessessive girl. But I couldn't help it. His constantly messy jet-black hair looked windblown, as if he had just come back from a long walk at the beach, his tanned skin showing more reasons of the walk. He was gently biting his lip as he studied the paper. Curved eyebrows deepened into a frown, his sea green eyes narrowed. Those eyes were crazy. Not, like, insane madman crazy. More like they were lit up with burning knowledge and fierceness, power engraving itself in the irises of his eye. Wit and sarcasm danced around in his gaze. They were waves of green and blue mashing together and making swirls that caused me to just stare and follow the pattern. They could make your knees weak, and whenever that trouble-maker, sardonic smirk came on his face, I was done for. But there was no smile right now.

A frown that matched Percy's was evident on my face as I moved forward to see what was wrong. Jason and Nico stood by him, and they both glanced up and nodded shortly at me, which I returned. When Percy finally noticed I was there, he looked first at my shoes, then seemed to gain enough strength to bring his gaze up. I clenched my jaw as his eyes met mine directly. Green ocean against grey clouds. For a moment I swear I saw regret and guilt painted across his countenance, but then they were gone and an expressionless face greeted me. He gave me a terse nod, to which I just looked down at the ground, chewing on the inside of my mouth. Awkwardness pooled around us, and I bet everybody was thinking, what in Hades' is going on?

I looked back up, and Percy quickly averted his eyes, looking back at the paper.

I cleared my throat, then spoke up. Anything to break the thickness in the air. "What's wrong?"

Percy took a breath, then held up the crumpled parchment in his hand. "Looks like Chris just left on his own." He sighed, still not meeting my eyes. "Well, I can't say I don't prefer it this way. I didn't really look forward to telling him we had to take him as a prisoner and such." He finally looked at me, his face bleak. His hand came towards me, offering me the paper that was held loosely in his fingers. I glanced at him before reaching out to take it. My hand touched his briefly, and as that happened, I saw a flicker of guilt flash in his eyes. Did he regret all that he had said last night? But just like before, the expression was wiped off his face just as quickly as it had appeared.

I felt the smooth paper in my hand, and I turned my eyes to it, unfolding the letter. It was addressed to Percy.

Percy, I no longer call you "captain." I haven't said it truly for a long time.

I do not regret my choices, for I believe Luke holds the correct way to approach the world.

I will certainly see you soon, on a battlefield, where you won't leave unscathed.

No longer your friend, servant to the one and only Master in this world, Luke.

Chris Rodriguez

Ouch. I bet that didn't feel good. Chris basically said he didn't believe Percy was good anymore, and the next time he saw Percy, he would hurt him, maybe even kill him. At least Silena hadn't written that to me when I figured out she was a traitor. I met Percy's eyes, who were looking at me with a distant gaze, not quite seeing everything before him. There was a sadness in his eyes, and I felt bad. I wanted to comfort him, but I didn't know how. And I definitely wasn't going to do so after we had just fought with each other and now were mad.

I handed him the paper, and he took it. But he didn't hold it for long. He tossed it into the dying fire, and the hot coals eagerly consumed the helpless parchment. I watched it burn slowly, lost in my thoughts.

"What now?" I heard Nico ask, causing me to look back up. Percy's fingers drummed against his sides anxiously as he tried to figure out what to do. We needed a plan. We knew where Luke was headed, a small island called Antikythera. When I say small, I mean it. It's about eight square miles. That's almost as big as Athens. So, yeah, pretty small. Plus, nobody lives there. Kythira is an island just north of Antikythera. Kythira is a popular place, with a good trading system. So people believe that Antikythera, which literally means the opposite of Kythira, is bad luck or something. I don't get it, it's just a name, but mortals and even demigods fall prey to those superstitions.

Anyways, we know that Luke's headquarters is most likely set up on Antikythera. He probably has a good sized amount of demigods, and maybe even some monsters that he has bent to his will. We have the Questers, which is only about twenty men strong. Things don't look too good, huh?

"We need more people, more fighters," I said, looking at the three demigods in front of me.

Jason nodded, "Of course, but where can we find some? It's not like people will be begging to go and fight Luke and some very well trained demigods. It's not going to be safe."

"We could offer them some reward for helping us," Leo suggested.

Next to him, Hazel shook her head, "Like what? Leo, we don't have enough riches or even gifts to give them."

"You could summon gold, right?" The son of Hephaestus asked.

She rolled her eyes. "My gold won't be much help, unless the person that wants my gold is willing to be cursed after touching it." I pursed my lips. She was right. Hazel had explained to us that the gold and riches she commanded were instantly cursed, and whoever touched them other than Hazel herself would be cursed as well. So we couldn't hire anybody.

"Does anybody know of a group of fighters that would even be willing to help?" Frank piped up.

I snapped my fingers. "The Hunters. I bet they would, because Thalia is on our side and she's their lieutenant. We just have to get Thalia to lead them."

Percy dipped his head slowly, fingering his chin, "Yes, we could do that. But even that won't be enough. Antikythera is an island, so I bet Luke has something guarding the waters around him. Since I'm the only one who could go fight underwater, that won't be very good. I doubt I could hold my own against a bunch of underwater monsters.

It clicked in my brain. An incident from what seemed like so long ago. "The mermen," I breathed, jerking my head up to look at Percy urgently. He raised an eyebrow, a quizzical look on his face. "The merpeople, like Shar his and followers!"

The eyebrow came down into a frown. "Annabeth, he's not going to help us. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he joined Luke."

"No," I said, holding up a hand, a signal to for him to let me finish. He quieted with a large breath being exhaled. "I didn't Shar. I wast just remembering the merpeople. You said that there were many other mermen who were loyal to Poseidon, so won't they help you?" Images came back from that day. Shar and his men leading me to their village, then Percy rescuing me. Percy told me that Shar had around a thousand followers, but claimed that that was a minuscule number compared to the amount loyal to Poseidon. If we could get them to help, we could turn the tables in this fight.

Percy was looking at his boots, thinking intently. I could tell he was on the same track as I was, for when he looked, the spark of understanding in his eyes burst into fire, like the tents in Luke's camp from last night. He turned to Jason.

"How far are we from Corinth?" He asked sharply.

Jason frowned, "Probably about a day's ride if we left now. Why?"

Percy either ignored the last word Jason said or didn't hear it. He was still deep in thought.

"This could work." He looked at me, and almost smiled, me as well. But then last night came crashing down on us, and the tension returned. He scratched the back of his neck, and I shuffled my feet. This only added to the confusion of Jason and Nico. Many of the Questers were muttering bewilderingly, wondering what was going on. Percy started to explain.

"When Annabeth and I had to fight that drakon to get into Mount Olympus, Annabeth fell into the ocean. I went back up to scout around after encasing her in a bubble of air. Mermen, ones that were bad, against Poseidon, captured her and we barely got out." He narrowed his eyes, still pensive. "But that's not the point. The point is that there are several mermen who are loyal to Poseidon and would probably help us. They could easily-"

"-take care of whatever Luke has in the water." I finished Percy's sentence for him and he nodded. The Questers were now even more excited, albeit anxious about the fight to come. We could stand a change if we got them.

"Why Corinth, captain?" Mark asked.

"That's a major city where my dad is the patron god. It's on the sea as well. Not too far from it is the main city for merpeople. There's hundreds and hundreds of mermen, and that's just the fighters. Women and children are present also."

"We need to get to them," I said. Percy nodded again.

"Let's leave as soon as possible. Everybody, get packed up!"

Ten hours later we had reached the edge of Corinth. There were maybe two hours left of daylight, and we decided to go for it. We couldn't afford to lose anymore time. With each hour, Luke could've gotten more people to join his group. This afternoon we had planned that Percy, Nico, Jason and I would go down and figure out if the mermen would help us. At first, I had protested, saying that just Percy and his two second-in-commands should go. After all, I wasn't even a Quester. But somewhere along all this journeying with the group of Questers, they had started to see me as a leader. I don't know how, but it was probably because I tended to take charge of things and plans. They looked up first to Percy, but then to me. I felt privileged, but also a little self-conscious. I knew I could be a leader, seeing as any child of Athena could, but I just didn't feel comfortable. I couldn't solve everything (yes, I just admitted that), so that made me feel not good enough.

Nevertheless, I accepted the role and agreed to go to the merpeople's city. The rest of the Questers were going to stay at the edge of Corinth and wait. Percy was hoping we wouldn't take more than a few hours.

Without anything else, Percy, Jason, Nico and I set out for the ocean. We had chosen to stay out of Corinth, as to try and keep Luke from knowing what we were planning. A surprise is a very nice advantage to have on your side when in a battle. So we went around Corinth. The moon was bright, and I could make out buildings in the city. Lights were plastered randomly about, and even at night I could hear people talking. It was a busy trading port, therefore ships arrived at all times of the day and night to sell their goods. We had to find a place to avoid the ships as well, so that led us to a place far from Corinth. The horses we had chosen cantered tirelessly. Percy and Blackjack sailed overhead, searching for a place on the shore hidden from prying eyes.

Jason and Nico had taken up positions on each side of me, and their eyes were trained on our surroundings for any sign of danger. Mine were as well. It was risky traveling in daytime, but we had to take that risk.

I powerful wings above me, beating at the air. My neck craned as I looked up at Blackjack descending to us. Jason, Nico and I slowed our horses to hear what he had to say.

He landed softly, and Percy reported what he had seen. "We aren't very far from the ocean, about a mile or so. We should probably leave the horses here, we can walk the rest." We nodded, then dismounted. We didn't have to secure the horses or anything, Percy just told them to stay put until we came back. They would obey him. We set off walking. The grass muffled our footsteps as we walked quickly but stealthily forward. We were still alert for any hostility that could be present, but nothing came. In some ways, it was a relief, but it felt weird. Like the calm before a storm.

It was eerily quiet, and I could tell the other three demigods with me felt the same way. They kept looking over their shoulders like someone was watching us. An unspoken command made us all walk faster. Soon we were jogging, just anxious to get to the sea. When the forest line broke and permitted us sight to the ocean, Percy sighed in relief, slowing his pace. We followed his actions, not even breathing heavily from the short run. We were all pretty capable runners.

"Gods, I could've sworn something was following us," Nico breathed, rubbing his hands together apprehensively.

Jason nodded in agreement, "I know, I felt it too-"