She'd thought about time travel before. She was a historian, of course she had. But she'd only thought about if it were possible and how it could be done. She'd never considered how it would feel to be tossed around and thrown into the 1930s.

Her stomach was churning and it physically hurt to keep her eyes open. It felt like her brain might turn to slush and start froth out of her ears.

Eventually, the machine thudded and stopped rattling, leaving just a small whirring sound as it came to a stop.

The hatch slid open and Grover sighed in relief, looking exhausted. Very quickly, Percy was unbuckled and sliding out of the machine. Without the steps on the other side, it was a rather steep drop but he jumped gracefully before running to the nearest tree and throwing up. Lovely.

Annabeth felt dizzy as she fumbled with the straps of her belt. She carefully slid her legs out of the hatch, preparing to jump nicely but her knees buckled when she hit the floor and she fell.

"You good?" Grover called, still in the Argo II.

"Think so." She answered. "Can't feel my legs though."

They took a minute to pull themselves back together before Percy stumbled over again. "You gonna get out of that death trap?" He asked Grover who was still perched in the entrance of the machine.

"Oh, no thank you. I am much more comfortable staying here in this thing. I'm no use to anyone except for travel. I'm going to stay here. No harm done." Grover smiled tightly, glancing around the vast expanse of trees around them as though he worried they might be spotted.

Annabeth frowned. "Is it safe to stay here?" She looked around. She hadn't noticed till now but the air smelt different, muskier. There was a humming in the air.

The Hindenburg.

Eight hundred feet long and one hundred and thirty five feet in diameter. The breath was sucked out her lungs. It was hauntingly beautiful.

The knowledge of what was going to happen burned in the back of her mind.

Her focus must have intrigued Grover because now he was out of the ship and stood beside her looking up at the sky. "Is that what we're here for?" He questioned.

"I believe so..."

~~~

The road was mucky and painful underfoot. Or maybe that was just the way her shoes cinched her toes, making her long for her comfortable sneakers.

Annabeth wasn't really paying attention to the boys conversation. Percy seemed frustrated at why they couldn't travel in time to before the machine was stolen and kill Castellan then, but Grover's answer about entering your own timeline and "not all of the pilot" returning was enough to keep him quiet.

A bus came up behind them and Annabeth grabbed Grover's sleeve and pulled him aside, Percy following. "Here, this will be quicker."

She shot Grover a sympathetic glance when the driver pointed him to the back of the bus but he just shrugged, clearly expecting it. It wasn't right and Annabeth would've caused a fuss but now didn't seem like the time to do it. Especially considering how much it would alter their present day if it were to amount to anything.

Percy sat beside her stoically but Annabeth just ignored him, too engrossed in everything they drove past. There were cars, lots of them, and people in the height of 1930s fashion. It wasn't Annabeth's favorite decade, but it was all so surreal.

About twenty minutes later, Percy tugged on her arm. "Come on, Professor, the balloon's just here. Tell us what we're getting into."

As they got off the bus, she made some kind of retort about the Hindenburg certainly not being any old balloon, but the soldier just rolled his eyes. "Alright, wise girl."

Annabeth scoffed. "Was that supposed to be an insult?"

As they walked, Annabeth explained the situation. "There's a lot of wind and rain coming, that's gonna prevent the Hindenburg landing. From all the turns, there'll be a build up in static electricity because of the friction. At 7:25pm, they'll drop the mooring ropes. But the ground crew are gonna drag the ropes through the muddy grass."

Grover continued. "Which will ground the ship and cause a spark in the metal hull."

"It then ignites a leaking hydrogen balloon, burning 2,000 cubic litres and 36 people alive."

"You said there were 37 casualties?" Percy asked.

She stuttered for a second, surprised that he remembered. "There were. One of them was on the ground. Technically didn't burn alive. Hopefully, anyway. The impact of the ship falling would've been a much more pleasant death."

Grover winced at their casual conversation on fatalities but Percy seemed unfazed.

"So what's Castellan doing here?"

"Not everyone died." Annabeth stated. "Maybe he wanted to make a bad thing worse and kill all 97 on board. We can't let that happen. The consequences for present day could be catastrophic. We need to find him."

"And then soldier boy shoots." Grover summarised, looking at Percy warily. He nodded. Annabeth felt unnerved by how composed he was. He was going to kill a guy. She knew it would have to happen but that didn't make it okay.

~~~

Somehow, they find themselves in a tavern. Annabeth made a mental comment about how this seemed very typical of Jersey when she watched a small gathering down several shots each.

"Maybe you should wait outside, Grover..." Percy said, noticing the glances they were receiving from all the pretentious white-folk.

Grover turned to Annabeth, bleating nervously under his breath. "How safe do you think I'm gonna be out there?"

She thought about the time period and the location before whispering, "Just don't make eye contact with anyone..."

Annabeth winced at her own suggestion and couldn't fault Grover's sarcastic comment of "So glad I came. And to think I wanted to stay on the ship..." before he made his way out.

Percy took Annabeth's arm and led her to the bar before speaking to the man pouring drinks.

"Hey, man, how's it going?"

The man only looked puzzled and continued to sort through his bottles. "How's what going where?"

She shot Percy an angry look, hoping it said something like 'you can't talk to people like that, this isn't present day anymore'.

"How do you do, sir?" She started politely. "We just wondered if you'd seen this man anywhere?" Annabeth handed him a photo of Luke Castellan from the footage.

The man shrugged and handed it back. "Don't think so."

They sighed as he stalked away, Percy running his fingers to his now neatly styled hair.

Then Annabeth spotted her. Kate Drummond. For a split second, Annabeth let herself wonder what on earth the woman was doing here before she remembered. Oh.

Percy followed her gaze and swallowed hard. "Who's that?"

"Kate Drummond. She has a column in the Hearst papers. She travels a lot, covered the wars in Manchuria and Ethiopia. Her husband was a soldier in them but he passed a few months after the wedding. They had a son." She frowned and did the math quickly. "He'd be about seven this year. She's a fantastic writer." Percy glanced at the woman and Annabeth noticed something in his eyes. "What? Have you heard of her?"

Percy shook his head. "Reminds me of someone, that's all."

Before she can stop him, Percy is approaching the woman at the pinball machine. When she reaches them, she catches them mid-conversation.

"You're a soldier," Kate states.

Annabeth watches a smile appear on Percy's face. "How'd you know?"

Kate mentions something about knowing too many soldiers before Annabeth can step in and introduce herself.

"Miss Drummond? You're a hell of a writer, it's lovely to meet you."

"That's very kind of you."

Annabeth asks if she's here for the Hindenburg landing in which Kate informs them she will be riding it back to Europe in order to cover the coronation. She makes a comment about how stuck-up the passengers may be and Percy chuckles.

"Maybe you won't have to take that trip after all."

Annabeth has an elbow against his ribs before he can say anything else.

Percy just flashes Kate the photo of Castellan as an easy change of subject. "Have you seen this man?"

"He was here a few hours ago. Picked up by the officers to work as ground crew."

~~~

"Any luck? Grover asked when the two of them joined him outside.

"Kate told us a bit about Castellan." Percy replied. Grover frowned.

"Kate Drummond." Annabeth informed him. "She only has about 90 minutes to live. She's the one on the ground as the Hindenburg crashes."

"Wait," Percy pulled on her arm so she was facing him. "You stood there chatting to her like that and you know she's about to die? You told me she has a family!"

Annabeth shrugged her arm loose from his grip. "You heard Chiron, we can't change anything."

She hoped the sorry look on her face explained how she felt. Annabeth wasn't heartless, she just couldn't change history. Percy followed after her and Grover reluctantly.

There was a large crowd on the field by now. The trio looked around for Castellan helplessly. They'd never find him amongst all these people. But Annabeth did spot someone else.

"Commander Rosendahl?" She said, approaching a man in uniform. He had the same steely gaze and stern features that Annabeth recognised from her textbook. Everything was so real, the history she had studied was playing in front of her eyes. She still wasn't quite over that yet. "Sorry to bother you, but this is urgent. This man..." She pats Percy's arm and he hands the photo over. "He's working as one of your ground crew. We need to find him quickly."

Percy evidently had no clue who they were talking to but he got the idea and joined in. "He's a threat to your base, sir."

Rosendahl raised an eyebrow sceptically. Annabeth's brain whirred.

"This is Doctor Dre. I'm Nurse Jackie." She said, trying to create a story. Grover shot her a look, presumably about her choice of names. It didn't matter, no one in 1937 would think anything of it. We're from General Hospital. This is a patient of ours. He has a bad case of Spanish Flu. It's urgent we find him."

The Commander nodded. "Of course. I'll help however I can."

He took the photo to a group of men and showed them the photo. Presumably they said something, but Annabeth couldn't hear for the buzzing of the Hindenburg.

Grover put his watch in her line of sight. 7:20. 5 more minutes.

Percy rolled his shoulders and tensed. Soldier mode engaged, Annabeth presumed.

"Split up. Don't engage with Castellan, if you see him, find me first."

With a curt nod, the three of them parted.