"So you will not be detecting a hint of minty freshness?" Magnus grinned. He didn't even freak out this time there was going to be a dragon.

"I'll give Grover mad props if he tries to seduce the dragon," Alex nodded along, scrutinizing the book in her hands and wondering how detailed this thing was going to be if the dragon ate someone, or fell for the goats sweat talk. Either way, she was excited to find out.

"I swear you two are certifiable," Percy said in exasperation, mildly concerned why Alex was trying to set his best friend up after his last disastrous date with Polyphemus.

"Hopefully its rank breath is its main attack, which means it can't breathe fire?" Jason offered. Thalia thought it was adorable how optimistic that was but decided not to tell him that.

... we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus." "Mooo," Bessie said.

"He was probably agreeing he didn't want to get left behind again," Will nodded for the poor thing. "I bet he's been mad offended this whole trip Percy never traveled with him before this."

"Do I want to know where he'd take me?" Percy asked wearily. Was Bessie going to drag him off to the alter where he was supposed to be sacrificed for his big choice?

... "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

"I wish more doors had physical limits like that," Alex grinned. "Reinforced business hours."

"The rush would be mad though," Magnus imagined actual murder going on rather than the occasional trampling to get to those sales. Alex, of course, didn't seem very concerned about that part.

"What happens if we miss it?"

Thalia gave Percy the concerned and very confused stare she hadn't managed at the time while running. Like he didn't know the answer to that?

Percy grimaced. "I was hoping she'd say something nice for once, like oh, we can sneak in through the backdoor."

"The girl who has never once started a sentence with the good news?" Thalia confirmed.

"I was being optimistic for her," Percy sighed.

...Or Annabeth will be dead, I thought, but I didn't say that.

He didn't have to. The painful squirming number he did in his seat said it for him. It was quite possible he was being attacked by an invisible assailant and just wasn't screaming out loud.

"We need a car," Thalia said... "what about Bessie?" I asked.

"Would he shrink to fit in a cat carrier?" Alex asked seriously.

"I vote we don't bring the world destroying cow-serpent to their front door," Jason frowned.

"I think he goes wherever he wants," Magnus uneasily reminded.

... he just popped into the water at Hoover Dam, now he's here."

"Could he just pop you over to where the entrance is?" Magnus asked with a frown. "Isn't it a little dangerous to be taking him to where Luke is going to be? I'm assuming it's not just a child of the big three that can use his entrails."

"We don't even attempt to try that," Thalia promised.

... Chiron could help us get him to Olympus."

Jason studied the book with unease. "Is it really a good idea to send Bessie to Olympus?" He didn't think it was entirely his instinctive distrust of these gods that made that sound like a bad idea.

"Do you have any other ideas?" Percy asked, clearly frazzled and still stuck on the other major time limit. "I don't think my mom can keep him in the bathtub for long!" His dad would know what to do with Bessie, he was sure of that.

Jason let it go for now with more pressing matters on the horizon, but he he was worried what would happen about this later.

... He'd almost drowned last summer, and couldn't swim very well with his hooves.

"Goats can swim just fine," Alex said with a weird amount of confidence, as if she spent a lot of time at the Y in more kinds of kid swimming classes than they had.

"Maybe it's his different anatomy that makes it a tad difficult," Percy suggested. He'd offered to chill with him in the Long Island Sound a few times to get his confidence back last summer and Grover had barely wanted to get his hooves in the sand, let alone near the water, so Percy had quickly let it go.

..."I'm the only one who can talk to him, it makes sense."

"Technically we can all talk to him," Will grinned, "we just can't tell what Bessie's saying back."

"And here I thought ASL could be a good universal language," Jason looked legitimately like he was pouting over there he'd never get a chance to talk to the cow.

..."The blessing of the Wild," Grover said.

"So he can use that on himself!" Jason blurted, before breaking out into snickers.

"He's a wild animal at parties only," Percy grinned along.

"Grover's going to shove his reed pipes through your ears," Thalia promised the two idiots.

... monsters didn't travel the same way as humans. I'd seen plenty evidence of that.

Nico winced and was now very glad Percy didn't know about his ability to shadow travel. Just one more thing Percy could associate with him being creepy and weird.

... "A prayer like that needs a sacrifice, something big." ... I took off my coat.

Thalia couldn't help an uneasy feeling at him using the Nemon Lion fur, even though she knew it all worked out. It had already saved Percy's life once, it was very valuable indeed to pass muster for this prayer, but she was more selfish than him and wished he'd kept it to keep her friend safe.

...Hercules, a hero I'd admired all my life.

"Because his life is crappier than yours," Nico recalled with a smile. "Never his attire."

"Or his personality," Percy agreed with a sharp look at the book. He hoped if he ever ruined someone's life like that Thalia wouldn't hesitate to jab him with a bow and arrow to remind him.

Nico sighed to himself even when he said something Percy agreed with he couldn't get a smile out of him.

... "it won't be because I've got a lion-skin cloak. I'm not Hercules."

"Oh that was obvious from the start," Alex grinned in a way that didn't make Percy feel better. "You'd never be enough of a lady's man to convince Zoe to betray her family for you."

"Thanks, it's what I've always strived for," Percy sighed.

...it seemed to dissolve into sunlight on the water.

"What would happen if Poseidon didn't accept the sacrifice?" Magnus asked. "Would he spit it back at you covered in algae?"

Hopefully, the answer wasn't drown Grover, Percy kept to himself as the awkward silence hung. Nobody really wanted to know the real answer.

..."Yes," Grover answered. "Long Island. It's this island. And, it's long.

"Who needs a map when you have a satyr," Percy said proudly.

"You two officially share everything, an empathy link, a brain cell," Jason chuckled.

..."I can't breathe underwater! Just thought I'd mention—" Glub!

"Not the final words anyone should have," Nico muttered. He liked the memory he had of Grover introducing himself at Westover. It was real, and those cheese enchiladas weren't bad.

... I hoped my father's protection would extend to little things, like breathing.

"Hopefully that wasn't a bonus sacrifice we had to give extra for or something," Percy muttered. "I'm all out of bull intestines."

"I'm sure he will, he made those pearls airproof through the ocean," Jason reminded.

"If Oceanus can remember I've got faith in your dad," Thalia agreed reluctantly.

... we, borrow, a car." I didn't like that option. 

"I bet Hermes is so disappointed in you," Will snickered. "He's probably restraining himself from throwing Travis and Connor through the nearest hotel door to teleport them beside you and help move this along."

"Can he do that?" Percy said in awe.

"I don't know, but I'd believe it," Will shrugged.

... "Professor Chase. Annabeth's dad."

"He already moved there!" Magnus somehow sounded more outraged the more times he heard it. "Does he even know Annabeth's missing?!" Or care...

Percy didn't know. It's not like he could have called up and told. If he'd even thought of that himself he would have thought Chiron could somehow send a message, but he'd been a little more preoccupied with getting her back after the go-ahead from his mom.

The awkward silence lingered so long, Alex wasn't sure how to break it. She found herself wanting to hug a stranger she knew quite well by now, promise there were plenty of people who cared. Even Will got a moment of unease on his face before he shook it off, he couldn't imagine a single moment in camp without crossing her.

Thalia finally cleared her throat and offered, "um, no, I don't think he did know." She sounded almost confident about that at least. "He's used to going long bouts of silence from her, and last I heard she was waiting to send him a message if she'd be joining him there, or, err, other options available." Her Huntress threads glimmered as if she carried the moonlight around with her. Percy fidgeted with his camp beads and a grimace.

... I was expecting him to have devil horns and fangs.

"I think I would have remembered that," Magnus muttered as he ran a hand through his hair.

"I thought Athena had a type for blondes," Alex snorted.

... his eyes bugging out through the glasses, we all took a step back on the porch.

"Gods, I hope he didn't wear that when she was little," Nico muttered. No wonder she was always so confident in the face of monsters, if she'd grown up seeing that every day she probably was the bravest person ever.

"I bet Annabeth used to steal it to try and wear," Will grinned, causing the dopiest smile ever on Percy's face. Nico studied Percy for several moments and grew a bit concerned with himself why he'd never felt something like that. He even tried to picture Percy in such a stupid hat for a moment and still nothing.

... "Are you delivering my airplanes?"

"Of course, there's an app for that," Magnus muttered.

"Why is he ordering airplanes and where do I get one!" Jason grinned.

"I'm sure if you ask Annabeth nicely she'll help arrange a ride," Percy tried to say like it was no big deal, never mind the fact he wasn't even sure if she was alive or they were on speaking terms, let alone giving out such favors.

... "I need three more Sopwith Camels." ... I had no clue what he was talking about.

"It's a biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917," Jason cited like he was reading from a dictionary.

"So you're telling me they're not the desert, spitting kind?" Percy asked blankly. "I'm begging of you to get a new hobby than just knowing everything," he sighed.

Jason wouldn't mind that either, considering he still went cross-eyed with no clue why he remembered stupid trivia and that same vague feeling of a library he couldn't begin to understand.

..."Annabeth?" He straightened as if I'd just given him an electric shock.

"Thalia, we talked about this," Percy gave a long exaggerated look.

She smacked him with a hardy zap for good measure, smirking as his hair stood on end and he rubbed the spot.

"Is she all right? Has something happened?"

"How do you even answer that?" Alex mock whispered.

"I think you've already said enough to get the keys and be on your way," Magnus muttered, his foot twitching uneasily like he'd be as good as his word if he had half a chance. It seemed an official good thing he'd never tried to find Uncle Fredrick even if he could bear to leave Boston.

... the kind of place that had been lived in forever.

It was what a home was supposed to feel like. It was no wonder to Thalia he instantly recognized such a thing, having always had one with his mom. She on the other hand had noticed the way one could trip over the wooden floor turning to carpet, which LEGO robot was closest and could be used for the best projectile, how many exits there were and which direction the kitchen was that would have the best knives and maybe a snack to steal for the road.

..."I'm Bobby," the little boy protested. "He's Matthew!"

Percy tapped his pen against his knee as he considered why that bothered him for a moment. It took a second to realize, there was no feeling of a memory returning like he got every few paragraphs. He'd never learned this.

Not once in the two years he'd known Annabeth had she mentioned her half-brother's names. She didn't talk about her step-mom at all, he didn't even know her name, and might have pictured her as Lady Tremaine. The only reason he knew her dad's name was because she'd get angry and say the whole thing when she talked about the time he'd left her dog at the dog park or her at the store.

..."Frederick," she chided. "You forgot to ask them their names?"

"I'm guessing you hadn't sent any pictures to Annabeth," Alex tried at a teasing tone, but it came across more sad. Sally would probably recognize Annabeth on sight without a picture.

"I get the feeling he'd forget our names even if we told him unless camels were involved," Percy shrugged off.

... "Nice meeting you, Percy. I've heard a lot about you."

Percy had woken up in here with such a deep-seated sense of longing, he knew in that moment as he looked blearily around it must have been there long before he'd lost all memory of Annabeth. He was slowly getting them back now, and this most confusing of all.

Just a glimpse, a small piece into her life he'd never have seen if she hadn't been taken.

Had she ever introduced her dad to him? He still didn't even have proof he'd gotten her back, that she was truly safe somewhere while he was trapped here. Was this a part of her life she'd never want him involved in, the mortal family who would never understand her?

Yet in these small, brief moments, they were welcoming and concerned. She'd talked about him to her stepmom, like an actual parental conversation had gone on at some point, at the very minimum a friendly enough one. He desperately wanted her beside him, as much now as ever. To turn and look to see how she thought of all this.

Magnus's surprise and unease was blatant enough, and that made him feel all the more concerned. What the heck kind of family was she always trying to escape? What would Annabeth say to them now for turning to these mortals for help in their desperate hour?

Other than calling him a seaweed brain anyways.

Upstairs, we walked into Dr. Chase's study and I said, "Whoa!"

"Never a good sign," Magnus gave a long suffering sigh. "Who's got the stopwatch until something explodes?"

"Hey," Percy wanted to protest, but his record really was against him.

...tilted at crazy angles like they were in the middle of a dogfight.

"Cool," everybody in the room muttered at once. Jason looked like he'd murder someone to get his hands on the idea of that, and Alex was clearly contemplating the passage to decide how much time she'd have before Dr. Chase caught her messing with a model.

"I'll bet none of you could count the number of times Annabeth was told off for wanting to play with those," Magnus said with a hint of pride.

"I'm proud it was just once," Thalia smirked.

... She'd never mentioned he played with toy soldiers.

"It kind of makes him a lot cooler," Percy said uneasily, like he expected his girlfriend to appear beside him now of all times to smack him upside the head.

"At least you won't picture him with fangs anymore," Thalia snorted.

... "How do you know that?" "I was there," she said matter-of-factly.

Magnus made a pained grimace like somebody had just sucker punched his brain. Again. Of all the battles in history...

... The battle was a complete waste."

"Aren't they all," Magnus said with a shake of his head. He'd only been a dreg of humanity for a few years, but long enough to be familiar with the idea humans would fight over the stupidest things that shouldn't matter in the grand scheme.

... that's not why we're here. We need—" "You saw the Sopwith Camels?" Dr. Chase said.

"Your help about Annabeth," Thalia finished her rudely interrupted sentence with a scrunched up nose. It was hysterically easy to recall her little sister telling her about how easily distracted her dad could be all of a sudden, and how that could be useful when avoiding getting grounded, and very disappointing when he forgot to pick her up from preschool. Again.

...That got his attention. He set the biplane down.

"Now we're on to something," Magnus huffed.

... "My poor brave Annabeth. We must hurry."

"We," Alex repeated with reluctant surprise. She'd been hoping he'd at best hand over the keys when he realized what was going on, at worse they'd get a live play of why Annabeth kept running away from this place.

Magnus was smiling though for this exact same wordage. Mortals still had the makings of heroes in them. He finally realized why his mom had always said that with such a secretive glint in her eyes.

"Sir, we need transportation to Mount Tamalpais," Zoe said.

Jason shivered like his brain was trying to crawl out of his skin through every orifice. He knew, without a doubt, that would be his place to start looking for answers when he got out of here.

It troubled him greatly Percy had woken up knowing the name Annabeth and nowhere to start looking for her, and he had a place with no face attached.

..."I'll drive you. It would be faster to fly in my Camel, but it only seats two."

Percy winced a bit at the thought of that, hoping Zoe would be first to volunteer to be strapped to a wing...and it's not like he'd make Thalia do it, gods that was going to suck-

... He let me restore the Sopwith Camel—"

"I'm starting to wonder how Minerva kept his attention long enough for Annabeth to exist," Jason muttered for himself. This guy was something else. Sally would have put her book down in an instant and had full attention. It was probably unfair of him to be weighing mortal parents, but since he had less clue about his own than even his godly parent, he was certainly riveted by the comparison.

... Dangerous or not,  I can't just—" "Snacks," Mrs. Chase announced.

Thalia winced and released a very tired sigh. Annabeth hadn't eaten in days by the time they'd found her, and then it had taken a very delicate process for her and Luke to convince her to eat at the start. Mrs. Chase had the bad habit of trying to soothe fears and never let anybody get a word in, constantly cutting off Annabeth's attempts to talk or warn of a monster coming by offering snacks. Like she'd been taught playtime was over and food would make it all better, when that had never happened for her.

... I'm not as young as I look. I promise not to destroy your car."

Percy choked on his imaginary cookie he wished he could have been eating, dragged away from nice flashbacks of his mom and plunked into an uneasy feeling of when that promise had been made to Gabe. He swallowed a suddenly dry mouth and hoped history wasn't about to repeat itself.

... apparently it's no place for mortals." It sounded really hard for him to get that last part out.

"Then maybe he's using the wrong word," Alex said slowly. There might not be a right word Magnus's uncle would ever feel comfortable using, but she'd heard and lived through worse parent relationships than she was seeing on the surface right here. Maybe Annabeth was just having a disconnect and could mend this fence.

She kept watching Magnus's troubled face though and sighed uneasily for her suspicion he was homeless just like her, and clearly, this hadn't been a considered option. Not all fences could be mended, and tolerance couldn't make a family.

...Mrs. Chase nodded. "Then they'd better get going."

The relieved exhale that passed around the room gave them all a queasy feeling. They were a bit ashamed, that they were surprised it had gone so easily. Could whatever troubles that had caused Annabeth to run away been exaggerated by the kid? Were they still not hearing something major that Percy obviously couldn't pick up on after being there five minutes? Or was it just little things, that kept building over time Annabeth kept going back and forth on?

Will still sort of wished he could erase this exchange from his mind, getting this private glimpse into Annabeth's house without her permission, he certainly wouldn't be pleased if she was sitting around camp reading a book about how his relationship with his mom had gone.

... Tell her she still has a home here, will you? Remind her of that."

Percy's hand went up to fiddle with his necklace, his mind on a college ring that wasn't there but still resided on hers. Annabeth had never needed Percy to tell her anything, it was usually the other way around. He had a feeling she'd always known that.

He'd always associated her with Camp Half-Blood, where they'd met and spent so much time together. He tried to imagine if Annabeth had got a peek inside that disgusting old apartment with Gabe around and if she'd think he had it made with a roof over his head while she'd run away from this family. Or if she'd look at Smelly Gabe and understand how it felt to have a step-parent that made everything worse despite their parent's best efforts.

Regardless, he knew he'd always follow her lead on what she wanted.

... The sun was going down. I figured we had less than an hour to save Annabeth.

He shivered at the worst time restraint of his life. If he'd even get a chance to open his stupid mouth around her again.

..."You both sound like my mother," I said. "Shut up!" they said in unison.

"Way to make me feel home away from home," Percy chuckled.

"Next time I'll even drive you off the road to get all the warm and fuzzies," Thalia rolled her eyes.

... around the edges of steep ravines. Zoe didn't slow down at all.

"I really hope that's those Huntress reflexes, and not, you know, her vague immortality forgetting we would die on impact," Percy muttered.

Thalia didn't have an answer, but she did feel a tad more smug when she remembered Percy clutching his seat, fingers digging into the cushion like a lifeline just like she was.

..."They love chewing the leaves. Especially dragons."

"Why?" Magnus drew out the word with painful and familiar concern if he wanted to know the answer to that.

"I'm assuming it's not for their high water content and more for the added bonus of being poisonous," Alex shrugged without concern.

"It also explains the bad breath," Will nodded like that was the biggest concern, not how they were going to get past it!

... "if you had dragon breath, you would chew eucalyptus too." I didn't question her,

"You have a really bad habit of doing that," Jason pouted. It was obvious to anyone he'd be interrogating Zoe any given chance if he could.

"The less I have to pretend to remember the better," Percy shrugged.

... Ahead of us loomed Mount Tamalpais.

Thalia was still watching Jason twitch every time that was mentioned and clenching her jaw against blurting out asking if he remembered something. The place obviously bothered him, but he was two when he vanished, how could he possibly have memories of it...

In terms of mountains it was a small one, but it looked huge as we drove forward.

"Are you literally making a mountain out of a molehill right now?" Alex asked.

"In what world is driving up to face the guy who kidnapped a goddess a molehill?" Percy yelped.

"I mean the mountain itself," Alex sighed.

"I think in this case he's making a molehill into a mountain," Magnus offered.

"I want this stupid metaphor to end," Percy groaned, and Alex obliged purely to get to the dragon.

"So that's the Mountain of Despair? Why do they call it that?"

"Because it causes despair," Thalia said grimly.

"Probably a translation issue," Will said brightly, "that's how a lot of things got named way back when."

Percy didn't find either answer very comforting. Couldn't one person just pretend it was misnamed and really it should be called the Fluffy Bunny Mountain of Happiness Where Annabeth Was?

... Kronos's right-hand man was imprisoned up there in the Garden of the Hesperides."

"Why was he put in a garden with sunset spirits?" Magnus asked. "Sounds like he got a great lawyer to get him on community service or something."

"Remember everything you've yet heard in this Magnus," Thalia reminded. "Just because it sounds nice doesn't mean it's going to be." Her face could have been a Mist colored version of the Mountain of Despair to give them all a visual.

...Zoe knew exactly what the clouds meant, and she didn't like it.

"Storm can't be worse than a dragon, right?" Magnus whispered just for Alex this time.

He didn't know why he'd been expecting a better answer. She scoffed and said, "knowing Percy's luck, the dragon's bad breath causes tsunamis."

... I saw something that made me jump out of my seat.

"Your dad sunbathing?" Will asked innocently.

"Godly backup?" Jason asked without hope.

"Beach party full of drunk teenagers," Alex said confidently.

"None of the above," Thalia sighed, which was probably a relief. Any of their three things just would have added to the horror movie cliché of what was waiting at the top.

"Look!" But we turned a corner and the ocean disappeared.

Percy rubbed the side of his face where he'd smacked into the window from that sharp turn. Zoe was a true maniac with that wheel.

...It looked like a cruise ship."

"Only in your world have I ever considered a cruise ship a bad thing," Alex told him.

"Then you have no idea what those things do to the environment," Thalia muttered.

"Huzzah for being memorable," Percy sighed.

...I wanted to say I wasn't sure. It might be a coincidence.

"The biggest honking coincidence I've ever heard," Will frowned, no matter he wished that too.

... It was the only way to sail it from the East Coast to California.

"I'm just going to pause and be grateful he can't make it fly," Magnus groaned.

"I, for one, hope those monsters at least enjoyed such a scenic route. Those trips aren't cheap," Alex sniffed.

Nico resisted the reminder those monsters had probably been to busy picking their teeth with human bones to take in the view.

..."We will have company, Kronos's army."

"Why can't we ever have good company come over," Percy sighed. "It's always, monsters are attacking the camp, or, monsters are invading our rescue! I want a battalion of backup to be our company!"

"What I'm hearing is that you want to make more fwiends," Will said in a disgustingly gooey voice.

"You can be the pawn," Percy rolled his eyes.

Thalia was snickering at them, but as was usual now her eyes flickered to Jason who had a constipated look on his face. She didn't see how Percy's usual sarcastic commentary could have caused that, but she was resisting the urge more every moment to rush through this already and find out what he either couldn't, or wouldn't say out loud.

...Zoe must've sensed something was wrong, she slammed on the brakes without question.

She used those with the same lead foot she had the gas. Percy clutched the seatbelt in memory only. If he hadn't been wearing one then, he probably would have sailed out the front window and gotten out first.

..."Out!" Thalia opened the door and pushed me hard.

She'd reached past him with such speed he'd almost cut her hand off if he'd been able to get Riptide up in time. A pin from her jacket had clocked the edge of his eye and he'd only felt the dull throb of pain long after as he sat there rubbing it now.

...Lightning flashed, and Dr. Chase's Volkswagen erupted like a canary-yellow grenade.

Percy rubbed his neck in the awkward silence that followed and asked, "think this'll make Dr. Chase ban me from dating Annabeth?"

"If he doesn't I might," Magnus muttered without actually meaning it, but it was sort of distressing he'd already lost count of how many near-death experiences Percy had been in.

"You are never allowed near any motor vehicles around me," Alex informed him.

"I don't explode them by proximity!" But Percy's protest was useless to his own ears.

...The smoking hood was spinning in circles.

"It looked like somebody had finally exploded the wrong Barney friend," Percy admitted.

"Little to specific Perce," Thalia told him in concern. "Especially because everybody in here already thinks you're a self-proclaimed pyro."

Percy thought about it for a moment before he said, "looked like I exploded another bus?"

"Vaguely better," she sighed while Alex huffed and muttered some more she'd never even gotten to see one.

"That's what you have to say after a car exploded around you?!" Magnus asked like they were insane. "Not, what the hell!?"

"Oh, err, right," Percy turned back to the book attentively like Mrs. Dodds had just snapped at him, but it still wasn't really that convincing.

I swallowed the smoke in my mouth, and looked at Thalia. "You saved my life."

"I do that from time to time," she agreed casually.

"Now I know I should never go on another quest without you," Percy grinned.

"You'd have to kidnap me to work with you again after this," she lied just as casually.

... He would destroy me? Me?"

Percy didn't think that explosion was such a run-of-the-mill thing in his life now as he turned sharply back to Thalia. He wanted to protest, promise Zeus wouldn't do that to her. He'd saved her life on the dam, and Mr. D just had at the pier. Not to mention Apollo and Athena! They'd had more help on this quest from the gods than his past two put together. None of them were exactly acting like the end of the world was upon them, but clearly Artemis going missing had gotten all of their notice!

He wanted to believe that, he could almost delude himself for a moment it was true, but the troubled look on her face left him breathless with doubt again. Why had it taken the worst possible outcome for a goddess and Annabeth to be taken to get their attention? Where was his dad's help outside of two stupid words?

The unsettled look on Thalia's face wasn't helping to discourage these thoughts. That wasn't a line of the prophecy easily talked out of.

It hadn't worked though, Thalia was still here, very unperished. He had to hope that, like all those other prophecy's, he was missing something.

...that couldn't have been Zeus's lightning bolt. No way."

"Wasn't exactly the nuclear explosion I was promised," Percy insisted.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, next time somebody tries to kill us you can give them an exact radius," Thalia rolled her eyes good naturedly enough. He hoped that meant she was past this little snafu of thinking her dad had tried to kill her.

...Zoe said Kronos's name.

"She did?" Alex muttered, kicking herself as she skimmed back a few paragraphs to check. Damn, she had. They'd been saying all of the god's names so casually in here, she'd forgotten that was a warning. She twitched with stress and glared about the walls for a moment, wondering how complacent this place was starting to make her.

..."Wait," I said. "Where's Zoe? Zoe!"

Percy nearly startled out of his seat. "She has better reflexes than us! She got out right? Right!"

Thalia didn't want to lie to him again and say Zoe made it out of this. Her silence felt just as damning. She couldn't disrespect a fellow hunter by brushing it off as a joke. She was frozen, and hated herself for that indecision. "Zoey's reflexes are better than both of us put together," she finally managed. It certainly hadn't been a lack of skill to get her killed...but she still hated how it felt like lying to him. No answer at all. At least it wasn't a disservice of the old lieutenant.

...I looked down the cliff. No sign of her.

It was like Bianca all over again, Percy shivered. Were all of his friends going to vanish without a trace, one by one until the gods had taken everyone away from him and still expect him to not care!

...Then she was standing right next to me, pulling me by my arm. "Silence, fool!

Alex let out a blasting sigh of relief and shook the green hair from her face. "You could learn a lesson or two from her Thalia. How to jump out at just the right moment." Right on the edge of really feeling like another death had arisen, but before the cliché she was alive all along come-back could have happened.

"Oh, I'm aware," Thalia said, an old smile of regret that had been on her face since Zoe appeared on that cliff where Annabeth fell over.

Do you want to wake Ladon?"

"Depends on if he's a morning person," Alex shrugged.

"Nobody's a morning person," Will shook his head.

"Really? Not even a child of the sun?" Magnus asked in surprise.

"That's a stereotype," Will said tragically. "I drink coffee and smother it better than some of my siblings, but I assure you, morning people are an even more rare myth than seeing Pegasus himself."

Nico started chuckling quietly beside him, and Will felt such an immense glow he checked his arm real quick to make sure he wasn't. Thankfully not, but even that embarrassment would have been worth it to make Nico laugh, even softly like that.

..."Concentrate on Zoe, go straight into the fog and keep her in mind."

"The clearest instructions I've ever gotten in my life," Percy said gratefully. And he still wasn't confident he'd pulled it off without screwing up somehow. He'd blame it on the foggy outlook.

..."You wouldn't actually have, you know?"

Alex scowled and muttered a bit Percy never actually shut his mouth when his friends asked him to. Thalia looked plenty annoyed at him, but was clearly resisting the urge to throw an arc of electricity directly into his brain through his ear so she obviously wasn't that annoyed.

She hesitated. "I was just shocked. That's all."

"And you're usually the one doing the shocking," Jason tried and failed at a grin as the unease lingered in him too. Thalia came across as a cool, confident badass. If she was having doubts, he found his own worry about the kind of parentage he could have go back to rising. He rubbed his tattoo without realizing he was doing it again as he lost focus on the room, searching in vain as always in himself for some sort of clear-cut answer about anything. Why would Thalia's dad trying to kill her, of all things, leave a sort of annoying impression? What on earth kind of life had he led that would make him think murdery attention was better than nothing?

"Zeus didn't send that lighting bolt at the car. It was Kronos.

"Whom you're still casually using the name of," Nico muttered. "Yes, invite more trouble."

"I think that's Percy's middle name," Will snorted.

Perseus Inviting-Trouble Jackson. Has a nice ring to it, Nico smirked.

He's trying to manipulate you, make you angry at your dad."

It had worked. Thalia was still pretty pissed at herself for that. They probably hadn't even needed Luke's insights for the best way to get under her skin, but it still infuriated her to no end how easily she'd been manipulated into feeling exactly what they'd wanted going into this fight.

... "Percy, I know you're trying to make me feel better, but come on. We need to go."

"Do I at least get credit for trying?" Percy asked as he still watched her with troubled eyes. He hoped it was just pessimism making him worried she'd hesitate again. He trusted her to see this quest through, surely that would be enough for her to trust herself, if not her dad, then at least Annabeth.

She stepped into the fog, and I followed.

Magnus felt mildly more prepared for whatever they were about to come across in this place. Couldn't be any worse than a whole sea of unknown Mist, right?

...If it wasn't for the dragon, it would've been the most beautiful place I'd ever seen.

"I can't believe Grover missed out on the second paradise you came across." Jason would feel a lot worse for him though if he hadn't been held hostage on that first one, and the whole dragon thing slipped into there.

A point that Magnus was looking very uncertain about as he gripped his seat to try sinking even further into it. He wasn't screaming and freaking out about the dragon though, so, you know, progress.

... I knew that one bite would be the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted.

"Could you eat one?" Magnus asked. "Or are they just there to tempt the foolish?"

"I bet Grover could eat one," Alex offered.

"Wasn't Luke sent to fetch one of these?" Jason leaned forward in his seat. "Something about a dragon?" His eagerness clearly wasn't abated at the idea of getting details over that.

"The apples of immortality, Hera's wedding gift from Zeus."

"Why would Zeus give Hera a gift to make her immortal? Wasn't she, already?" Magnus interrupted again.

"It's the principle of the thing?" Thalia answered with no enthusiasm. "Their love was supposed to be immortal or something." Her existence proved how well that lasted.

... I don't know what you think of when I say dragon.

"Mountain-sized four-legged scaley snake thing on a pile of gold," Magnus offered.

"Rattlesnake bird mix eating someone who deserves it. With any luck you meet a real one," Alex grinned.

Jason opened his mouth as if to continue the insanity.

"I'm sorry it said anything, that wasn't meant to be an invite," Percy sighed, the last thing he needed was more ideas in his head of other dragons he could meet.

"Peleaus," Will grinned. If you scratched him in just the right spot, his scales ruffled up.

"With the exception of Will," Percy agreed while glancing over.

'Will's the exception to everything,' Nico silently agreed.

... as if a hundred deadly pythons had been fused together.

Jason's mouth was still open in shock and awe and Magnus looked like he wanted to vomit his guts.

"Cooool," Alex was all but drooling at such a pristine monster she could spend ages looking at.

"Luke survived that?" Jason got his jaw working enough to cobble that together. "He came away with just one scar?"

Nobody had actually warned Thalia about that story. The first time she'd seen his scar was this day, when she'd finally seen him in person months after she'd awoken. She'd wanted to perversely know that story from then on, and yet nobody could ever tell it except the person she'd tried to kill.

He appeared to be asleep.

"No it did not make him look cute Alex," Percy said before Alex could finish looking around.

"I was going to ask if he snored?" Alex scoffed.

"No," Thalia said, "which made him all the more dangerous. Means he has great sinuses, the better to kill us with."

"So, even cooler," Alex nodded, obviously satisfied.

The heads lay curled in a big spaghetti-like mound on the grass.

"Only Percy could make spaghetti a terrifying comparison," Nico chuckled.

"I bet his mom tried to slip broccoli into it and he's holding a grudge," Will nodded.

... I reached for Riptide, but Zoe stopped my hand.

"After the sirens, I'm surprised your first instinct isn't to reach for ear wax," Jason said.

"Why is your first instinct to always reach for your sword? You cannot stab all of your problems Percy," Magnus seemed to agree.

"Hasn't failed me yet," he shrugged.

... They looked just like Zoe, gorgeous, and probably very dangerous.

"I feel like Zoe would not punch you for that description," Thalia nodded in approval.

"Annabeth might not either," Magnus chuckled.

"That's how you know you won the prize," Alex snorted.

..."We do not see a sister. We see two half-bloods and a Hunter. All of whom shall soon die."

Whatever humor Percy had, as always, infused was blasted away by those icy words. Magnus in particular was pretty uncomfortable with how easily they dismissed their would be sister and how passive her death would be to them.

Thalia looked like she was trying to swallow dragon breath at those words. Jason was starting to get a really bad feeling about why that would bother her so much. That most damning line of the prophecy still on the forefront of his mind, and his earlier suspicions and clearly wrong assumptions about how Zoe might know so much about the general. She'd been kicked out of her home for loving somebody she shouldn't, a hero.

..."Perseus Jackson, I do not see why he is a threat."

"Thanks," Percy said sincerely. He didn't want people to take one look at him and think that anyways...wait.

..."Tempting sometimes, but no, thanks. He's my friend."

"Thanks Thals, feel the exact same way," Percy and she fist bumped. Their friendship was so casual it honestly made the others a bit jealous, especially Nico. It wasn't hard at all to imagine his dad becoming bitter after centuries watching Poseidon and Zeus hack each other off at all hours but always quickly forgive each other while either outright ignoring, or fearing Hades.

..."There are no friends here. Only enemies. Go back."

"Nice to know there's no delusion of a spa treatment this time," Percy scowled. He wasn't leaving that mountain without Annabeth.

"Not without Annabeth," Thalia said.

Thalia and Percy didn't need to high-five again. The exact same look on their face spoke that action.

...Then Zoe did the last thing I expected. She shouted, "Ladon! Wake!"

"Wow, tell me how she really feels about me again?" Percy asked nervously.

"Confident," Thalia shrugged. If she hadn't trusted Percy, she likely would have just thrown him at Ladon to wake him.

... The Hesperides yelped and scattered.

"Well at least now we know Zoe was the best of them anyways," Jason grinned.

The idea of this place sat like a festering wound in his mind he wanted to pick at. At least these girls didn't contribute, he'd swear he never came across them period. Which didn't track with the very solid knowledge he swore he'd been here. This could not get any more confusing.

One said to Zoe, "Are you mad?"

"Angry, yes. Delusional? Nah," Alex shrugged.

"You never had any courage. That is thy problem."

"I feel like there's a lot of problems going on here actually," Will waved his hand at nothing in here as he gestured at the book. "I can't think of someone in Greek mythology who doesn't need counseling in some way or another though."

"Group therapy doesn't fix everything, especially when dragons are involved," Thalia rolled her eyes.

... tongues flickering and tasting the air. Zoe took a step forward, her arms raised.

"I don't think he wants a hug," Magnus mock whispered.

"I bet he'd love one," Alex sniffed, "and nobody's ever tried."

"You'd need a hundred arms to do it fairly," Will snickered.

Percy got a strange feeling in the back of his mind and tapped his skull to make sure it was still working properly. No way did he have a memory of something about that.

...he should ignore thee." "Should. Not exactly reassuring."

"The first reassurance she's ever given though, baby steps," Will offered.

... I promised myself I would never ask a school nurse for another cough drop.

Thalia was mock waving her hand, but her tone was very serious. "Seconded, and I don't even attend school anymore."

Jason whistled in awe. "Must be one powerful stench to never use an excuse to leave class again."

...Hercules had failed in a head-on assault. I decided to trust Zoe's judgment.

"Hercules would eat his sandal before he'd admit the same," Will grinned.

"Grover would eat a sandal too and he's not a jerk, I don't think that's a good measure," Percy said.

Will thought about it for a moment before he refined, "Hercules would give up his lion skin coat before he'd admit the same."

"Yeah, that I believe," Percy sighed.

Thalia went left. I went right. Zoe walked straight toward the monster.

Percy felt strange. For once it wasn't him charging down to confront death. The last time he'd let a friend go in his place, Bianca hadn't come back. He wasn't used to skirting the sidelines around the monster. Annabeth's hat had still been in his pocket, but he hadn't felt the need to put it on. A cap of invisibility wouldn't have fooled this dragon for long, he'd smell Percy who would have no chance and way less experience than Zoe. Percy trusted her without question to do this, but it didn't erase the sick feeling in him something was wrong.

...Some of the mouths closed. Some kept hissing. Dragon confusion.

"You say that like it's a thing," Jason smiled, clearly fixing to ask for a book on that.

Magnus frowned. "I'm more concerned you've been around enough dragons for it to be a thing."

The Hesperides shimmered and turned into shadows, one still whispering, "Fool."

"I'm starting to think fool is a compliment," Percy smirked. "None of us ever call our enemies fool."

"I can call you a fool if you like," Thalia smirked.

"You've complimented me enough for one day," he waved off.

"And Percy's also implying he doesn't dish out the sickest burns to his enemies, so I don't see his point," Alex grinned.

... "Do you still like lamb's meat?" The dragon's eyes glinted.

"She doesn't smell like lamb's meat does she?" Percy muttered.

"Not unless you two stopped for gyro's without me," Thalia resisted the urge to whack him upside the head.

Magnus sighed and wished he could have a gyro now. It was probably rude or something to excuse himself for some falafel before a fight though.

... spinning on the summit like it was the axis for the whole world.

'About that,' Nico resisted the urge to say, but his nervous laugh still made it through. He'd heard the story a thousand times about how Percy had gotten that faint grey streak in his hair. During those epic retellings of god like proportions he was sure now might have been exaggerated slightly, he'd always felt less like a freak for his crush because of the awe on the Stolls faces when telling it over the campfire.

... Maybe the dragon realized he was hungry. Whatever the reason, he lunged.

"That girl deserves to cuss so much right now," Thalia said with full sympathy. "It's a true shame she missed out on our modern lingo just for that moment."

"I was thinking it for her," Percy swallowed.

... Zoe sprinted past us up the mountain, and we followed.

Alex was starting to feel a little twitchy. That was twice in rapid succession Zoe had almost died or she would have been presumed dead in the following sentence at minimum. She really hoped that was her pessimism talking.

... He hissed and stomped the ground, but was well trained to guard that tree.

"I hope he and Peleus have a playdate," Will said. "They deserve to get some time to stretch their legs away from their jobs."

"Only you Will," Percy told him in exasperation. Nico once again found himself agreeing with Percy, only Will would think the monsters needed more play time after nearly eating someone, but he found it kind of sweet the guy was obviously so considerate about everything he came across.

...The music didn't sound so beautiful now, more like the sound track for a funeral.

Percy tried to tell himself that wasn't ominous going forward. That Thalia and Zoe were now besties off in Huntress lala land bad-mouthing boys and shooting arrows at life-sized mannequins of him or something when he annoyed his friends. Maybe Thalia had that prophecy all wrong and the line had even referred to Bianca...but the burn of having a Di Angelo kid back on his mind hurt to bad to keep trying to pathetically convince himself.

...Statues of bronze that looked as though they'd been half melted.

Jason's mouth went dry, he got chills the moment the first word was said. A ghostly whisper, a memory slipping through the fog of his brain. More powerful than even hearing Hylla's name had been, but so much less...meaningful. He sat quivering in his seat, his blue eyes nowhere they could follow as he strained against nothing to understand. He'd been here, this was supposed to be an important place to him, so why did it feel like another moment he'd passively earmark in a book of his life?

"Jason?" Thalia gently touched his shoulder. She expected to get shocked again, but that didn't happen. He just looked tired, and confused. She wanted to put a blanket over his shoulders and offer to get him a snack. He looked like that lost kid she'd always wanted to find.

Her heart skipped a beat when he didn't shake her off or push her away. Instead, he leaned into her touch, just shaking his head and waving at the book.

..."What's Mount Othrys?" I asked, feeling like a fool as usual.

"You ruined my moment Percy," Thalia huffed, her hand still tight on Jason's shoulder as she addressed him. "Now how can I call you a fool when you're doing it yourself? People will think I'm copying you."

"Gotta be faster Thals, I'll call myself everything under the sun while you're busy laughing at me," Percy tried to keep his smile as light as usual, but the feeling of standing amongst black death radiating from those ruins was leaving him a twitching mess in here. Annabeth had been trapped there for days, and he didn't see her yet. It didn't help the white marble of the walls, floor, and ceiling in here had so many cracks in them by now it looked like he'd be creating more here soon if they didn't get out.

...Olympus and Othrys were the rival capitals of the world—" She winced and held her side.

It wasn't just a scratch. Will didn't have to be there to know that. Adrenaline and skill could only last one so long, even a warrior like her. His hands twitched, he came up with a bag he'd have to have a Hephaestus kid help him make that had a pocket for everything he'd need. A moment that he should have been there, and yet he'd probably been sitting around camp having a snowball fight.

Nico watched that frustration, the self-inflicted uselessness rush over and linger all on Will's face. Will wasn't alone in feeling that of course, they'd all probably felt it at least once by now. It just hit him differently to realize when Percy felt like that he could do something about it, he reacted and kept moving. Will was still going to be thinking about this for a while.

... the fact that it is here on this mountain, is not good."

"At least it didn't show up in New Jersey?" Percy offered. "Then we'd know we were screwed."

"Why can't anything show up in West Virginia? Nothing interesting ever happens there," Alex nodded sagely.

...Her voice was ragged with despair. "Where he used to hold up the sky."

"The sky? As in," Magnus pointed uselessly up.

"That's the one," Thalia nodded.

"Uh, huh," Magnus finally seemed to decide that was to much. He was done. His brain had shut off and somebody would have to come back around later and make sure he hadn't turned into a vegetable.

...It hadn't been a cavern roof Artemis was forced to hold. It was the roof of the world.

"Annabeth." Her dusty, strained, terrified face had been on his mind so long he felt like it was ingrained in the back of his eyelids. She'd done what a goddess was straining to do for who knew how long? How had she even survived?

And it was all Luke's fault.

...Zoe was crying. She ran forward despite Artemis's protests and tugged at the chains.

Thalia's mouth was as tight as it could go, she looked like she was holding in a world-shattering scream. Holding the sky up felt like too good a punishment for Atlas after all he'd done, he deserved the nothingness of Tartarus while Luke was forced to hold this for the rest of eternity.

... a gag in her mouth, and Luke was holding the point of his sword to her throat.

The water blasted around them in a scalding burn, so hot it took a moment as Percy gasped in a breath to figure out why everybody looked like they got a bad sunburn for a moment. He tried to unclench his hands, but they shook uselessly as if fighting him.

...There was just one message she was sending me: RUN.

Percy tried to, in here, but the effect was ruined by having nowhere to go. He just found himself in the middle of the room once more with no clue how to run to her side.

"Percy," Thalia tried to put an arm around him, but he shrugged her off with a wild look.

"I can't just sit here anymore! I have to get back to her, I have to do something!"

Thalia understood. Of course she did. The only thing that had been in her mind's eye since she found him down here was giving him just that, if the two of them could have drawn up some battle strategy to get out of here that had no chance of succeeding they'd still rather be doing that.

All she could do now was squeeze his arm and plead with Alex to finish while Percy fought against nothing. Not trying to pull away from her again, but her's wasn't the touch he needed right now.

... it's good to see you again." Thalia spat at him.

The surprise that had been on his face had somehow stung her more than she'd done to him. That he'd deluded himself, even for a second, she'd run to his side without intending to gut him for all he'd done. That Luke had actually looked hurt, confused even why she'd do such a thing. They didn't know each other anymore. Nothing could have ever been the same since she died.

... Zoe said bleakly. "Atlas is my father."

Not the something Percy had been hoping he was missing. He winced like a punch to the gut. Had Zoe known all along they were headed towards another parent's hand who would happily perish her? "These books have got to stop dramatically ending on somebody's parentage," Percy scowled. "All Greeks are sort of related and none of us like talking about it!"

"That's the spirit Percy," Thalia gave him a fond clap on the shoulder just like always. Trying to hide her trembling hand just a few moments more.