Ooops, dear me, did that last chapter get cut off?

Ah, yes it did. My fault.

Is this a continuation of that chapter?

No.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

The Athena cabin was the most brightly lit in Camp.

Not Apollo's, whose kids spent to much of their time outdoors or they'd all kill each other. Their music got the best volume and audience down in the amphitheater anyways, and the others dispersed in the archery range or med bay or anywhere else they pleased, like flirting down at the lake. No, the sun god's cabin got the most warmth through the beautifully constructed windows, but the lights inside were rarely on.

The large gray cabin had every light in the house on, often times bright as the crack of dawn in the dead of night. Currently, with one lone occupant in its center. Her curly blonde hair was a tangled mess, her orange shirt was more wrinkled than her bloodshot eyes as she stared down at a test with a B- on it as if it held the answer to all her prayers.

The name at the top said Percy Jackson.

He'd kissed her goodnight with one of the proudest smiles she'd ever seen on his face. He'd been going on about mailing this to his mother and threatening Hermes himself if it didn't arrive, he didn't want to wait for winter break to end to show his mom.

It was just a mock test, they'd come to camp together that winter holiday teasing and laughing each other they wouldn't get anything done, but he'd sat dutifully beside her every day after training. She gave him the test verbally, and it turned out she'd found a very helpful way to encourage him to focus on his studies involving gummy worms.

She'd never seen him smile so bright when she swore on the Styx she hadn't curved the grade for him, that had been his work on that paper, and he'd looked at her and said, "maybe I should go back to slacking off," teasing and squeezing her hand. "I'm worried if this becomes a thing Wise Girl, you'll stop calling me Seaweed Brain."

"I wouldn't dream of it," she'd kissed him gently and promised they'd drive to New York to hand deliver it to his mother. They'd spend the whole drive bickering where they'd spend Christmas. With Sally and Paul, or here at Camp, or maybe even risk finally introducing Percy to her dad as her boyfriend...

There was a corkboard, books, maps, a full plate of food, and more books piled around her than even her mothers temples could imagine holding as she sat in the center. Her siblings must have been staying at the Big House or something after the last time she'd chucked her earrings like throwing stars at the door for Malcolm opening it with worried eyes on her. They were still embedded. Her gray eyes fractured as the fluttering of pages went unnoticed by her from where she'd hurled her last attempt to find an answer against the wall.

He hadn't shown up at breakfast, a worrying thing all its own...

Annabeth felt the presence of someone arriving, but she didn't take notice. If it was one of her siblings crawling through the window for their toothbrush or Chiron again to exchange plates of food and no new answers, they held nothing important for her.

His cabin had been spotless. His bed made, not a speck of dust in sight, the wrappers stacked in the bin rather than ringing it. Somebody had cleaned up.

She was alone again.

Don't do this to me, she wanted to scream in Zeus's face or the universe itself. Haven't I suffered enough?! Please, do not do this to me! I can't take anymore!

The best outcome was a quest, one so time sensitive he had to go before he could tell her, to save someone. The logical answer.

But she was only mortal. It had been to long. There was another solution to this.

He was dead.

Or he had abandoned her too.

When exactly panic had turned into reality he was just, gone, vanished into thin air had been no set point in time. She kept expecting the terror to fade, dull slightly, but it never did. It was always there, like she'd grown a second heartbeat, pulsing away no matter what little sleep her mind claimed from her brain's frantic searches before she snapped awake again in full panic.

Calling Sally had been the worst of it. The dead feeling she knew she could never resuscitate in herself no matter the outcome. Her last desperate chance he'd just taken off to see her alone, and the choking words to explain when his mother was as lost as she was.

Will Solace had threatened to carry her over his shoulder to the med bay and strap her down if he heard of this continuing, and she'd chucked her backpack at him, dislocating his shoulder last she heard.

She'd prayed to every single God, sobbed until she passed out for air into Grover's shoulder as he held her tight, but they were the wrong arms. Pleaded with her mother to give her another clue and she wouldn't fail her again. Demanded of Hera to take her instead if this was some punishment. Waded into the frigid December Long Island Sound up to her chest and begged for Poseidon's help, sacrificing her hat strung onto her beaded necklace into the still water.

There was just a moment. A warm flash. It had felt like a promise her sacrifice had been seen, but dismissed.

She'd stood there waiting until she was blue for more, Chiron had dragged her out kicking and screaming because it didn't vanish. Her most precious object only stayed floating on the surface. He put it on her nightstand for her where it stayed.

The clock on the wall kept ticking. Over seven days. In mere hours it would be one hundred and ninty-two hours. Every second was another moment for her world to fall apart beyond the scope of her putting any of it back together.

Chiron had been beside himself trying to comfort her, trying to get her to sleep and eat. Will had apparently gone missing too, but all she'd heard was that the wisest person at Camp didn't have an answer for her if more were on the way. She hoped she was next.

All she'd found at the Grand Canyon were angry storm spirits as lost as her, empty and chasing their own tails...

Her dreams were a worse torment than being awake. She never knew if the awful pain she kept seeing Percy in was real or her imagination. The whispers of her mother's voice that things were wrong and out of place, like missing chess pieces on a board. She'd felt a presence snatch her away, she'd felt the distaste in that flying sensation and knew it must be Hera, showing her a vision, that a boy with one shoe would be her answer- there had been a fraction of a second, where she'd stopped in a room and looked right at Percy before it all went black.

"Annabeth Chase."

The use of her last name speared something in her, the last dregs of her sanity she'd been clinging to. She was on her feet with her dagger drawn to sever ties with anyone on this mortal world who dared imply she had anywhere to go back to.

"Artemis!"

She sat delicately on a stack of discarded books over Tartarus's many entrances, the number of which people could accidentally fall into much larger than Annabeth had anticipated.

The goddess of the moon and hunt had the same sad, soulful silver eyes as when she'd taken the burden of the sky away from her.

"Thalia," Annabeth's voice came up as her last breath, her knees trembled. "Is, is she..." of course. Of course this had happened. She'd begged for her sister's help that first day and Thalia had sworn she'd find him, slashing the Mist connection with vengeful eyes practically before Annabeth had finished explaining to get started. Now her patron goddess was here to tell her Thalia was dead in the search too-

"My Lueatinent is safe," Artemis said evenly, but there was a tick to her mouth. The kind of anger that a goddess could use to level natural disasters if she didn't smooth out her features again. "I can take you to her, and the one you seek, Percy Jackson."

There was no sense of movement. Annabeth's knife was embedded into the floor point first, she was on her knees in front of her savior once more as she spoke without hesitation, "I swear on the Styx, I'll do anything to help. What do you need?"

No god did anything without wanting something in return. She would pay that price.

There was a rumble of thunder in the distance, and her cold eyes turned warm as she smiled and stroked her hair. Artemis reached for her hand and Annabeth blindly took it without care of what came next. "That answer will suffice."

...

They interrupted the Titan of the Ocean and the Titan of Fresh Water and Nourishment having dinner.

Annabeth landed on the kale chips and heard the disturbing crunch under her rump while Artemis delicately plucked a shrimp out of her loose, brown hair.

The canyon like room was so dark Annabeth couldn't see the walls, the mosaic tiles were grimy and the floor had more tread it in than her favorite book. There was an empty chandelier hanging on by a single bolt above her head threatening to give out any moment with empty candle holders and dripping diamonds. The ceiling's white marble was so structurally unsound not even the best job involving duct tape would fix it. The one decoration that stood the test of time was an enormous, lovely stained glass window above the arched door. The happy couple gazing into each other's eyes in every shade of blue and green. It glowed as the only source of light.

Oceanus's bursting sigh caused it to quiver in its frame and one of the mottled chairs to collapse out of sight from her perch on the center of the long table. "Listening to Kronos really was the worst decision of my existence," he said as he stabbed at his salad. "Those kids don't go five minutes without disrupting my peace, now we can't get through dinner without gods popping in on us?"

"Artemis, it is lovely to see you again," but Tethy's smile was strained even as she pulled out a clipboard and flipped to a new page. "Something we can help you with? Why have you brought this mortal."

Oceanus stared blearily at her like he was seeing her for the first time through the mirky swill. There were cobwebs swaying around on his bullhorns.

"I cannot stay long, my lady," she tipped her head respectfully, but there was still a tightness about her Annabeth wasn't used to seeing in how the gods carried themselves. It seemed as if she was concentrating on her every word. "Poseidon played a dangerous move interrupting Hera's plan," Artemis kept her childlike appearance, sitting smaller than Annabeth in her chair, her forehead only just visible from where Annabeth sat. Her voice carried power in the room. "I do not follow Zues's wishes, and I do not appreciate being kept out of the loop."

A silver fork leapt off the table and flew across the room into the darkness. There was an ominous blue glow of a fish Annabeth couldn't hope to identify coming to life and eating it before the light faded back away.

"My second greatest regret," one of Oceanus's crab claws jutting from his ear started tapping his temple. "Harboring these children has been nothing but a miserable headache! If we didn't share a domain I wouldn't even care to make peace, but the fight isn't worth another pain in my-"

"You have not just dishonored Poseidon," Artemis's voice stayed calm, but Annabeth was starting to wonder if she had better luck against the fish too at the danger in the air. Some of the other silverware was starting to gravitate towards the goddess, and she didn't want to know what Artemis would do with a butter knife. "Typhoon nearly destroyed Olympus, you did us all a disservice by attacking Poseidon's home and keeping his attention from the true battle."

"Poseidon's choice-" Tethys came to her husband's defense.

"Now listen here young godling," Oceanus's flower robes began swirling dangerously around him and Annabeth really wished she hadn't left her knife in her cabin.

"I have come to offer a solution," Artemis smoothly kept talking as if Annabeth's hair wasn't standing on end from the danger crackling in the room. Perhaps the goddess could meld all of the silver to her in defense. Annabeth didn't like her chances as much.

Silence, and then the two Titans finally seemed to remember to look at her.

"Me?" Annabeth squeaked.

"She is a natural leader, she will keep your charges calm. She should have been there in the beginning," Artemis's voice was laced with mercury, it was plain as her forehead she was still angry Thalia had been taken without her knowledge, but the slight rift of movement in her auburn hair meant she probably just crossed her ankles and smoothed her shirt before continuing. "I am offering her to be in your court now to keep the god's children in a more quiet peace."

Silence was her answer, Annabeth felt sweat break out on the back of her neck, but she jumped to her feet with confidence. Crumbs fell from the seat of her pants. Her empty hands wished to readjust the straps of her bag and twist up her cap, but she had nothing but her wits about her. The same she'd always had.

"I will not only do this," she promised, wishing she knew what in the god's grand scheming was going on she was promising to do, "but I will do you one better Lord Oceanus. I will design you a new home, an even better retirement home. With soundproof walls."

That got his attention. He finally stared directly at her, his fractured eyes like a tempest.

The Titan was unfathomably old, and tired. Whatever Kronos had promised him for his services, Annabeth had a feeling it had not come to pass.

"I thought you were already in that room," he finally said.

"No dear," Tethy's voice was still patient and calm, if just as strained as her husband's. "The two that are giving me insurance hell are still in there. I'm still on hold, and haven't gotten a single call back from my representative of claims!"

"Ah," he tapped his chin, or tried to, as he tapped one of the crab claws that tapped back like a strange miniature version of paddy cake. "On one condition Artemis. You must take one of them with you. If you're down here interrupting my dinner, than we may have even less time before the rest of the gods such as Hera herself figure out our ploy and I have been assured I will not be involved in that business. My hands are free of this mess once those kids finish their homework and are gone. Any extra soul is already pushing the boundaries."

"A fair trade I will see to myself," Artemis assured. "I have permission to enter your bathhouse?"

"Yes, yes," he waved, eyes still on Annabeth who mouthed bathhouse with dread. "I have your word mortal? On the River Styx? Soundproof walls?"

"With luxury recliners and the best earmuffs in immortal existence," Annabeth assured.

There was no other explanation before Armies jumped on the table and took her hand again, and the last glimpse she had of one of the first immortal beings was the couple exchanging hopeful smiles again like the picture behind them.

...

They were standing in an empty hallway on the cracked floor right in front of a door that had a massive hole through the middle. Inside was a circular room that gave her heart failure, it was in more disrepair than the room she'd just left, its structure hanging on by divine intervention.

There were people inside sitting on green couches and cushions. Strangely only one of them seemed to be talking, their voice coming to her a bit forced as if they were reading something rather than just speaking. She'd practiced enough speeches in the mirror from her many botched and rewritten battle plans to hear the difference in someone's voice.

That voice, she knew that voice...she'd heard it so many times in her life. Exhausted, strained, about to crack with stress, but forcing a smile like nothing was wrong. Happy, laughing, saying her name in every way possible-

Without another glance at the goddess, she pushed the door open as Percy said;

"So," Beckendorf said, "I'm guessing you don't want me to mention that little scene to Annabeth."

"Oh, gods," I muttered. "Don't even think about it."

"Tell Annabeth what?" Annabeth said from the doorway.

PJOPJOPJO

Did I just end on the same cliffhanger twice? Yes, yes I did. I am evil like that. Feel free to express how much evil that is in the comments.