"I don't think now is the time to discuss politics on how we feel about teachers with guns," Magnus said drolly.

"That's one hell of a sign on bonus," Thalia gave a nervous chuckle. She knew no amount of joking in the world would save Percy from the explosion of pain his memory hadn't retained, but she still felt the need to try as he read the chapter title and closed his eyes, as if his mind was already trying to block him from what he knew was soon coming before he cleared his throat and started.

I didn't know what kind of monster Thorn was... I needed help. I closed my eyes.

"I doubt the whole 'if you can't see me I can't see you thing' works on monsters," Magnus told him.

"Just keeping all my options open," Percy rolled his eyes, even smiling a bit as for once he knew what was going on before them!

...trying to sound miserable, which wasn't hard. "It burns."

Percy was still rubbing his shoulder though while Nico was left floundering how he'd blotted that out of his memory of the nights events when he'd thought they were etched in stone.

"My poison causes pain. It will not kill. Walk!"

'That moment when the monster's nicer than Luke,' Hearth winced.

'I don't think nice is the word I'd use,' Magnus shook his head.

Thorn herded us, and I tried to concentrate. I pictured Grover's face.

"Annabeth would be so disappointed she wasn't the last face you'd want to see," Thalia laughed, but the others brightened in understanding. That empathy link, though there had never been any confirmation it worked while Percy was awake.

...didn't know if it would work while Grover was awake...* a spike-throwing maniac!

"I don't think that's enough to draw his attention," Alex told him. "Maybe if you mentioned something about a poodle, or Jesse McCartney."

"You're right, I should wait until my life's on the line and I'm forced to stall," Percy mock agreed.

... was so cold that I felt like a Percysicle.

"As long as it's a blue one, then it's okay," Will chuckled.

Percy didn't even disagree.

... "We will summon your ride."

"Is it a dragon?" Alex asked longingly. Just one rideable one, was that to much to ask?

"It doesn't take a human sacrifice does it?" Magnus asked.

"Define human," Jason frowned, none of them were mortal, but would still probably count.

"Don't talk to my sister that way.'" Nico's voice quivered, but I was impressed he had the guts to say anything.

Percy held his hand up in a long-range high five and called, "good on you! More than I did!"

Nico felt such an unfamiliar swooping through his gut he didn't know what that feeling was for a second. He did not raise his hand back, but said, "thanks," and really meant it. He couldn't remember Percy ever complimenting him before, but it didn't hold the kind of all consuming, breath holding, heart stealing praise he always would have thought. And he wasn't even disappointed. Just, happy with it.

Thorn made a growling sound that definitely wasn't human.

"Did you still think he was human by this point?" Jason rolled his eyes.

"The French accent was making me think otherwise," Percy said deadpan.

... pretend I was being a good little captive.

"A level of subterfuge I never would have thought you capable of," Thalia applauded.

... Get your furry goat behind out here and bring some heavily armed friends!

"So those extra weapons your mom packed were good for something," Magnus grinned, though he was still wondering if his mom would have ever driven him to a quest or perhaps grounded him for trying.

"Halt," Thorn said.

"Who goes there?" Jason mock finished the quote.

"We'd all like to know that," Percy groused while watching Thalia expectantly, even though he still got a sharp pain in his head for the reminder of why he wasn't going to be told early.

... I could hear the waves churning, but all I could see was mist and darkness.

The silence lasted a beat in the room as Percy paused and waited for someone to ask him why he hadn't already taken the two and jumped in, an answer on his lips when he saw they knew why. His shoulder was still twitching unpleasantly as he held the book, Nico was picking at his lip with such a troubled expression like this monster had never left his nightmares. Those thorns were sharp, fast, and deadly accurate. They would have been speared even before gravity dragged them down, Percy couldn't have saved them this way.

... "How do we fight him?"

"Glory this girls got guts," Jason once again said what Thalia had longed to express, but still to afraid it would come out in past tense. Percy and Nico already couldn't stop a nervous tick anytime her name was said. "I'm betting child of Ares," he concluded with a curious look at Nico who never had given any flat answer who his parent was.

Nico neither confirmed nor denied it, feeling he'd give himself away whichever he did, and Will gently scolded, "don't spoil it for Percy now," as a cover anyways.

..."I'm scared," Nico mumbled.

Nico braced himself for the laughter and Percy to try taking back his high-five or something. What he instead felt was Will's arm across the back of the couch as he shifted his weight around, not quite leaning in closer, but the casual gesture was felt across the back of his neck as the hairs stood on end even before Magnus looked tragically around. "Am I really the only one who was hysterical at finding out the world wasn't normal? The ten year old didn't even scream, how am I the fruitcake here?"

"I like fruitcake," Alex patted his shoulder, "it's bright and entertaining."

Hearth was sort of laughing at his friends expense, but it was clear to all Magnus was exaggerating his hurt look.

Will leaned close and whispered, "ask nicely later and I'll tell you about how I pissed myself seeing a three headed snake attacking a swan in my back yard."

Percy didn't really want to keep reading as Thalia enthusiastically taught the sign for fruitcake to Alex and Jason couldn't seem to stop laughing without a care in the world. Something bad was coming. Like a pressure set firmly in his mind that had a ticking pulse in it just waiting for him to remember he had no desire to as the curdled, black feeling was easy to ignore now.

Magnus finally turned and begged it of him though, clearly having some regret about having put his foot in his mouth and opening this can of worms. There was something about those grey eyes he couldn't seem to turn down as he cleared his throat and complied.

... it was only a phone.

"The hypocrisy, the scandal!" Alex gasped. "What if he summons another monster who wants to eat you too, will they duel each other and you sneak away?"

"Gods I hope not, like we need even more problems," Percy sighed, but he agreed it seemed even more unfair than his already extremely unfair life deserved.

...This seemed way too modern and creepy, a monster using a mobile phone.

"What do you think their service plan is like?" Jason scowled. "Does DOA have a data rate and come up with all the contracts nobody reads?"

"I just want a list of who all is on the family plan," Thalia scowled in a weirdly similar way with a nasty twitch of her hands, a gesture promising she wouldn't use her arrows to send spam texts to them.

...Grover! I thought desperately. Come to me!

"If Grover's plan A, I don't want to know what your plan B would have been," Thalia tried her hardest not to sound condescending even as she brutally reminded him he'd run off without a plan at all. Grover, in fact, hadn't said a word about an empathy link and had been following their scent as well as the tracks through the snow.

... If my dad was in a good mood, he might help.

"I was right, I didn't want to know," Thalia sighed. If that was a workable solution he'd have done it already!

... "You do not realize who I am, do you?"

"Only the cannibals have had nametags, otherwise we've had to guess," Will reminded with something like a pout they didn't all take the time to properly introduce themselves before the killing began.

... if you think you'll get a ransom, you're wrong. We've got no one but each other."

'Didn't stop her from leaving me all alone first chance she got,' but Nico was to tired to hold onto the bitter thought. It wasn't like these were the last moments he'd ever get to revisit the memory of his sister, but he'd also never done so before in such vivid detail. If he was going to have to hear her ultimate ending like he'd never bared to ask for before, he'd rather cling now to any of the good along the way.

..."You work for Luke." ...a former friend who'd tried to kill me several times.

"Don't you start Jason," Percy said before the blonde could even open his mouth. "I don't want to count how many times is several!"

"But it's important to keep track of these things," but Jason's smirk made them all pretty sure he was just messing with him. Then again, he was mouthing something and ticking his fingers, so he was probably doing it in his head and would more likely inform them when or if this was ever resolved.

..."The General?" I realized I'd said it with a French accent.

He'd been doing a really crappy version sporadically while reading too, but they'd thought he was just mocking Thorn. Nico's grimace still looked permanently stuck in place until Percy actively tried to stop.

..."Where are you taking us?" Nico said.

Some place safe, Thalia and Annabeth had promised each other as they'd arrived and began hashing out a plan. The problem was, she glanced guiltily at Nico now and felt like they'd never lived up to that promise. They couldn't have stayed at that school forever though.

..."They're not dolls!"

The words had burst out of Nico as Percy had kept reading, and Nico flushed that was still so ingrained in him, but Percy didn't even take the opportunity to laugh at him back, considering the Guinea pig incident. Instead, he was almost watching him like he was impressed he had the nerve to snap at Thorn.

"How intricate is this card game of yours?" Alex asked with intrigue.

"Multilayered," Nico answered automatically. He bit his lip to stop himself going into detail and clutched the figurine in his jacket pocket tight enough his hand cramped. He really needed a new hobby.

They're figurines! And you can take your great army and—" "Now, now," Dr. Thorn warned.

"Now, now yourself!" Alex protested. "Finish your threats young man!"

"And march off this cliff," Nico shrugged with an actual grin. "I wasn't as creative with the insults yet, but Westover Hall had been a good starting influence."

... The Great Stirring is underway."

Will's arm twitched behind him again and Nico rolled his eyes, obviously nothing had happened. He'd met Will that night.

"Unless that's chocolate pudding, I don't want to know," Percy groused, though he also knew he rarely got told what he wanted in any good order.

"The Great what?" I asked... "The stirring of monsters." Thorn smiled evilly.

'What else do they bake besides donuts?' Hearth mock asked.

'Hopefully tea to soothe them back to sleep,' Magnus shivered.

... Bianca whispered to me. "He's completely nuts."

"Being nuttier than a squirrel turd doesn't make him wrong," Magnus sighed. He envied that girl her ignorance while it lasted, he was past his own and still catching up how any of that was possible, while no longer being in doubt it was.

... You're completely nuts, too."

"Lookie there Alex, now we both have something in common with this monster," Percy huffed.

"I like her," Alex chuckled, girl had spunk telling both parties this.

I never got the chance to argue with her, an invisible force slammed into me.

"Annabeth's grand entrances and timing for the win again," Jason nodded.

...Thalia wielding her magic shield, Aegis.

Percy didn't bother to ask who's plan that was, he read with pride all of his friends storming in like that even as his battle instincts were trying to kick in, his feet already tapping a crazy rhythm on the floor to join in.

If only he'd used that energy to dance with Annabeth, Thalia smirked to herself. The two could have cut up the floor.

If you've never seen Thalia run into battle, you have never been truly frightened.

"Why thank you Percy!" Thalia beamed at him while he set the book down to indulgently high-five her too for the entrance which she enthusiastically accepted.

...Thalia moved in with her spear. "For Zeus!"

"Not the battle cry I was expecting," Jason admitted. She didn't seem to fond of her dad at any rate.

"I like to think it gives me brownie points," she shrugged, when really she just knew that struck even more fear into some monsters. It was a strategy she'd learned young on the streets, better to have them bolt and flee the fight from her mere presence than tax the energy of fighting them.

...The missiles deflected off Aegis, but the force of their impact knocked Thalia down.

The whirl of words, raw power and years of hardened battle on display left the others feeling spun around how she could so effortlessly leap back into battle after her actual death experience from before, and still left wondering how she'd fallen at all even from an army of monsters.

...a frantic jig that sounded like something pirates would dance to.

Nico chuckled to himself as his brown eyes danced in amusement again and Will couldn't imagine ever wanting to drag his eyes away from the sight even though the son of Hades was looking at Percy. Clearly this was a fond memory to him, his love of pirates so perfectly captured in this moment with his swashbuckling hero apparently having saved the day considering he hadn't seen the invisible girl until it was to late.

Not so much for Percy, who was growing more agitated by the word, his hands fidgeting so much along the pages to reach for the pen and forcing himself not to. He had the book, of course he didn't seem to notice the admiring gaze among holding everyone's attention in the thick of battle, but Will finally got the idea.

...His spiky tail whipped deadly thorns in all directions.

"Damn that's kind of cool, no hero's ever fought a manticore before," Jason grinned, though that didn't explain the French accent as that was an Iranian myth. Then he went cross-eyed as a vivid mental image of studying in a massive library came to mind as quickly as it vanished and he once again huffed why his mind still retained the most useless of information rather than where that library actually was.

"One got into camp once by disguising itself as a dog," Thalia shrugged, "Chiron personally vets anything invited into camp now."

..."He's got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!"

"How many cards are there?" Jason asked eagerly.

"Do you really have them all memorized?" Magnus asked, feeling faint. It sounded more complicated than memorizing all the Pokémon, let alone their moves.

"They keep releasing them," Nico said with a soft smile, "and yeah, the rules are pretty complicated but once you learn the-"

"Ahhem!" Percy pleaded. "Your life is on the line now too mister!"

"Right," Nico shut his mouth, but he finally exchanged an excited look with Will who all to happily grinned back. As bizarre as it was to him nobody had yet ridiculed his youthful dumbass, this might actually be fun if he could get a whole team of people to play against.

I didn't know what he was talking about,

"It just described what the manticore was Percy, how much more explanation do you need?" Alex sarcastically asked.

"Dude," Percy groaned without looking up, his impatience growing.

Alex cleared her throat loudly and sharply though and Percy did look around, but it took him a second to realize what she wanted. "Dudett," he corrected.

"I accept that," she nodded.

... I wasn't sure it would even stop a second volley.

Now Percy was mad. The empty space on his wrist, the thought of his little brother's brown eye sorrowfully asking where it was, this stupid French lion nearly killing all of them! He wanted to turn to Thalia and hear in as few words as possible what the hell had happened but he knew what she'd do, just point at the book with an apologetic frown so he kept reading as pressure built in his skull.

... The helicopter had to be manned by mortals, but what was it doing here?

Percy finally knew how Magnus had felt in the beginning of all this. The answer was staring him in the face, there was no other explanation, but the words made no sense. Mortals working with monsters?!

..."No!" I parried away a spike just before it would've hit her chest.

Thalia grasped his shoulder and whispered a thanks she hadn't the chance to at the time. It was shaking under her grasp. He knew, some part of him that had lived through the terror his mind had forgotten still felt the pain about to come same as she did for what they'd witnessed. She squeezed, and it slowed for a few seconds as he met her eyes and gave her a grateful smile, his mind hoping against hope this meant rescue was on the way.

...Then I heard a piercing sound: the call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods.

Hearth tapped Magnus and asked what that was supposed to sound like, let alone signal, but Magnus shrugged with no more clue. As adventurous as his mother was, she'd never been a hunter herself except to press upon him the balance of life and death in the wilderness.

Thalia waved to get their attention, and answered, 'you can feel it in your core as it vibrates in the air, a warning or herald to who you are. It means friends are coming.' The bright smile of pride on her face gave them a hint of who it would be to them.

... A glowing silver arrow sprouted from Dr. Thorn's shoulder.

The camo attire of the girl with the magic silver bow seemed to glow for a moment as Thalia shook her head ruefully. The first thing Zoe ever did she'd admired about that girl, always having to make an entrance, much like the very time they'd met in that bog.

... not even Apollo's kids at camp, could shoot with that much accuracy.

Thalia chuckled with pride. Those kids might have the godly grace of their father, but not the blessing of their aunt.

... He slammed his tail into my shield, knocking me aside.

Percy grimaced at this revelation of just how powerful this monster was, refusing to do go down after several solid hits. Something dire happened this day because they hadn't felled this beast.

...They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows.

"Your kin," Alex realized. She'd truly admired, almost considered the prospect if she could ever hold a vow of maiden hood in exchange for this offer.

"Eventually," Thalia smoothed out a nonexistent wrinkle on her jacket, her smile waning in memory of how she'd gotten here.

Percy studied her intently like he was seeing her for the first time again. He'd never really questioned the silver camo, it looked so natural on her, even covering her black attire.

...Next to me, Thalia muttered, "Oh, wonderful."

"A warm reception I see," Jason said with an uneasy smile, he could practically feel her roll her eyes in the book.

"We didn't start on the best of terms," Thalia agreed distastefully how damn right Zoe had been, and she hadn't even liked her long enough to tell her that before inheriting her position.

... she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair. She looked like some kind of Persian princess.

Clearly there had been another Lieutenant before Thalia had gotten the job, but the others still batted their eyes a few times to readjust imagining such a thing on a girl they didn't even know.

...I couldn't tell who she was talking to, she kept her eyes on the manticore.

"Why would she need it, kind of obvious we don't want this thing around," Percy demanded, looking from Thalia to the book with a panic he was trying so hard to hold back, bubbling tight in his gut.

"Respect," Thalia whispered. When their patron joined them she often preferred to make the final blow herself while they weakened it without orders to do their part. In this particular instance, Artemis may have even considered taking Thorn alive, having been looking for proof of Krono's rising and information about the ophiotaurus before deciding Thorn knew nothing of importance.

... Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."

Will hummed a sad note for a moment. That law sure caused a lot of distress among the people it impacted the most. They were absent so much not many people got a chance to remind them of it, but Will liked to think that was why. The distance was there out of eons of habit, not because they didn't care.

...silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was beautiful, but stern and dangerous.

Diana, Jason hazarded a not very wild guess. A headache already pinged at the corner of his mind, the idea of these huntresses was still odd in theory, but not nearly as weird as Annabeth and Grover had originally been to him. They were her followers, and he admired Thalia a lot. It should be interesting to see her depicted...he hoped.

..."No.'" Annabeth yelled, and she charged at the monster.

Percy had hardly batted an eye at the threat to him, but his mind felt like it was holding him hostage as he froze at what she was doing. Thalia tried to reach out for him again, saying in as much concern for him as herself, "Percy-"

Nico braced his arm across Will's chest with a dreaded look of acceptance for what was about to happen and was seriously contemplating if it would do any good to knock Percy out as Hearth rapidly paled in fear. Alex swallowed once and got on her toes, prepared to turn into a whale and swallow them all if she had to.

He heard Magnus say his name too, but it was all coming from to far away to be anything other than an obstacle in his way as he concentrated harder than he ever had in his life on a book.

... Annabeth leaped onto the monster's back and drove her knife into his mane. 

Jason was pushing himself tight into his seat silently wondering if Poseidon would resurrect them when Percy killed them for this blow as Annabeth's fatal flaw was being pushed to its limits right now. She'd thought she could save her friends better than a goddess of the hunt, and Percy was not happy about it.

...leaped over the cliff and tumbled into the darkness. "Annabeth!" I yelled.

Percy was on his feet, the pages whipping around his hand like a gale force wind was trying to tear the book away, but he refused to let the print slip through as he held the last paragraph in a desperate bid to understand why he wouldn't have risked everything to dive after her.

... a snapsnapsnap from the helicopter—the sound of gunfire.**

"No!" The water exploded out from him, ripping the ocean apart at the seams as she vanished over the edge and he didn't care if a bullet struck him as he compelled his domain to catch her, send that monster to the depths and give her back-

"Enough!"

Percy was frozen in place, his scream suspended in his throat while the others stumbled around into each other, their skin tingling unpleasantly and shaking for what almost happened. Thalia was shuddering closest to him, vapor wisping off her skin as if he'd actually been about to obliterate them all.

"Your disturbance is causing waves among the Olympians, literally," Oceanus said with a frumpy frown behind his tangled beard. He was in a seahorse house coat and wearing Hello Kitty slippers that did not diminish his vast presence over every inch of their surroundings as he held Percy in place.

After a few beats of silence, he released Percy, who gasped but immediately fisted his hands up and glowered at the titan, raising his sword point. A stranger stood before them as he looked upon the Titan with the uncaring, brash voice of demand. "Send me back. Give me my memories, and send me home!" Riptide glowed with his rising vocals as water began collecting around him again to cause mayhem, receding it from the Titan himself.

"You are supposed to be in hiding down here mortals, not disrupting continental shifts! Poseidon suggested I should ignore your quibbles after all and put in here who was asked of me, so no more complaining!" He raised his fingers to snap.

Every one of them tensed in fear where they'd be zapped to next.

Hearth jumped forward and signed, 'I volunteer!'

"Hearth!" Magnus grabbed his arm and tried to yank him back.

'You are safe down here my friend,' he paused and frowned at Percy, 'mostly.' He explained so rapidly Magnus almost couldn't follow while Oceanus sighed impatiently, but since nobody was shouting he was still waiting poised. 'Blitz will be worried where we've been, and you should get to meet your family. I will be fine, he has a home we can stay in until you return. We will check the park every day for you.'

Shame burned through Magnus as he understood enough. They weren't even homeless. They had a place to get back to. Then he gave a traitorously guilty look to the Titan with longing, and glanced at Alex out of the corner of his eye. 'Okay,' he pulled him into a quick hug, 'but be careful! I don't want to think if those Norse gods pull any crap in the meantime because I'm gone.'

'Blitz has connections. We will be safe,' he nodded before turning to face the Titan.

He looked so distraught to see his friend vanish, only possibly back home if this guy even did his job right, and yet finally getting to meet her again nobody could tell if he was about to punch his cousin upon arrival or hug her. He looked so like her Percy couldn't help but step forward, dropping his weapon and give just the gentlest pat on the shoulder. Even shying away from it, Magnus gave him a smile of thanks.

A snap, a floom of bubbles as Oceanus left, and they all braced themselves for a whirl of her tangled blonde curls to demand what was going on.

There was just one problem.

That wasn't Annabeth.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Believe it or not I was going to add Annabeth after the Magnus Chase books were done and have her replace Hearth for the last five, but someone made a pretty valid and compelling argument about how she should get to hear her cousins story the same way he's hearing her's. Then I decided, since I'm adding her early, might as well get the full enjoyment out of a toss up... hahaha. Hope you enjoy the surprise visit in the next chapter!

* The book said while Grover was awake, not I as in Percy, which is a rather obvious mistake since Grover was awake every time it was used in the last book but Percy wasn't and instead of making it Percy's fault in the book I'm telling you all here.

**Yes, the rest of the chapter is missing on purpose, I cut it off for my needs and it'll be the start to the next chapter. Annabeth mysteriously vanishing and supposedly dying is cliffhanger enough over my favorite Goddess's dramatic reveal, sorry Artemis.