Hey, I was just getting really burnt out, when this plot bunny just absolutely mauled me. And I just decided to go with it. I've really been wanting to try my hands at a crossover between these two series for a while now. Hopefully I haven't blundered too badly. Oh yeah, I used just a bit of Spanish that should be understandable in context, but here are the translations just in case:

mi novia-my girlfriend

senor pez-mr. fish, roughly. Senor should probably have a ~ over the n but life can't be perfect, can it?

Things are supposed to be easy after a war, right?

Wrong.

Whoever came up with that idea probably was a nice guy (or girl) but a complete idiot. Being a son of Poseidon probably helped-water always kept flowing, moving, changing. There was no time to dwell on the lives lost. No time for any "what if's" "I should've's" or "why's". Just enough time to try and keep up with life.

I had a tendency to be the one left behind, staring into space, saying "what?". And then life trampled all over me before throwing me a few miles forward.

The best thing that came out of the war, of course, was Annabeth. We weren't at each other's throats as much as the year before. We'd found other ways to deal with tension. Although spars were still a weekly thing between us. Some things would never change, especially if you were a demigod. Some things I hoped never changed. Like this thing between me and Annabeth.

I was a regular guy again. No more Achille's curse. But I think Annabeth was still my mortal point. Biggest weakness. And I think she might've known that. Even liked it. It was the price to pay for my memories and I'd gladly give it up again and again. Because it didn't matter if I was invincible. Freakishly strong. Unkillable. If I wasn't Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, son of Sally Jackson (Blofis), troublemaker, bearer of the sky, savior of Olympus, owner of obnoxiously long titles and boyfriend of Annabeth Chase, none of that would matter.

I learned to appreciate my experiences and memories after having them snatched away from a vindictive goddess.

So anyway, seven of us had gone to Greece, seven had come back, and two more hooked up (Gwen and Leo), and Gaia was asleep. Hopefully for good. Not only had the world been saved (again!) but tensions between the Greek and Roman camps had eased. It would be a while before they dissolved completely, but if Jason and Piper and Gwen and Leo were anything to go by, friendship-or more-wasn't impossible.

(Just give the Venus and Aphrodite cabins a few weeks and we'd have zero problems. Or maybe more. Moving on.)

Bobby, the overly serious son of Trivia, had proposed we head down to Texas and spend a week at the beach. His dad apparently owned a beach house. I was always up for a chance to relax, and well, the beach part should be pretty obvious.

I insisted on making it a road trip.

Jason insisted we should fly. Dumb son of Jupiter.

Annabeth backed me up, but we were outnumbered 2 to 5 (Bobby's mortal father was wise enough to stay out of the way.). Resigned to my fate, I prayed to Zeus, holding Annabeth's hand in what had to be a painful deathgrip. I wasn't a fan of flying-just the thought of getting in a big hunk of metal and zipping through Zeus' realm made me uneasy-and I'd only ridden a plane one other time in my life. Just like Jason was uncomfortable underground and Nico was nervous around the water.

It was something about being a child of the Big Three. They didn't like their nephews/nieces intruding on each other's territory.

"See, you didn't die." Jason teased. Tch. I'd take him sailing and see how smug he was then.

"Your Father is the Lord of the Sky," I deadpanned, "I think you'd be comfortable with flying. The last time I flew in a plane, he threatened to blast me to pieces."

"Harsh." Leo winced.

Annabeth and I exchanged a look-me raising an eyebrow, Annabeth rolling her eyes-and then we let out a burst of laughter. I guess when you've literally been to hell and back, you get desensitized to certain things. Leo and Piper had definitely proven themselves, but in some ways they were still rookies. "Cute" was how my girlfriend described it.

"You guys are so weird," A giggle was dragged from Piper. Her short hair was pulled back with a headband, and she was already leaning on Jason. "We already survived the end of the world-"

"Twice." Bobby chimed in. I had the same sentiments.

"-so can we just focus on our vacation?" she continued.

"Seriously, bicker some other time guys!"

I grinned. It was good to see Gwen like this-happy, spunky. She was a lot lighter than when I first met her. The burden of camp was no longer resting on her shoulders. The sun made her red hair seem to catch fire, highlighting her superficial resemblance to Rachel, one of my few mortal friends. Who also happened to be the Oracle.

Yeah, I had crazy connections like that.

We had just come from the Houston airport and were in a beat up van, being driven to Galveston, courtesy of Bobby's dad. Bobby was riding shot gun, since, in his words, "Was the only single person here and didn't want to see any of us sucking face." Piper and Jason were next. I think it's because they were the least trusted. Piper was a lot more...aggressive...than Annabeth or Gwen in some ways. But her mother was the Goddess of Love. Maybe it came with the territory.

I was in the middle and using Annabeth as a personal pillow. Sadly, my panda pillow pet had to be sacrificed in order to defeat a Giant.

I shifted and soon Annabeth and I had reversed our positions. Her head was resting on my chest and I rested my hands on her stomach, holding her like she was a personal teddy bear or something. Us guys had ditched our shirts an hour back and the girls were a bit more modest, in cut-offs and tank tops. As a result, there was a lot of skin-to-skin contact.

I was a boy. My girlfriend was letting me use her as a pillow/blanket/snuggler. Life was good. My eyes drifted to the other end of the vehicle.

Gwen and Leo were in the very back and the prime make out spot. But they were still pretty shy (weird I know. Gwen always spoke her mind. But romance was completely uncharted territory) and had only been officially dating for two months. Not that I doubted Leo or anything. But they didn't have the audacity to doing anything more than hold hands in public.

Speaking of that...

"PDA! PDA! Kissy kissy alert!"

I scowled good naturedly and flicked a paperclip at Gwen. My aim had improved since I was a scrawny twelve year old and nailed her between the eye.

"Hey hey, lay off mi novia, bro."

All throughout our exchange Annabeth was slowly turning red. Not quite like Apollo's cows. She just looked like she'd gotten slapped by the sun. Much cuter than any bovine.

"Tell her to stop being a killjoy then," I retorted.

Giving a neck rub wasn't anything explicit, right? I ignored the glares (Gwen), snickers (Leo, Jason) and cooing (Piper) as Annabeth shifted as I kneaded my thumbs against her soft sun-kissed skin. Me? I'm a New York kid through and through. The only reason I'm not pasty is because I love to swim. My girlfriend on the other hand used to live in California for a few years, and it shows.

"Alright! Outta the van kids."

We skidded to a stop and if I wasn't leaning against the window I would've been sent flying from the jerky braking. As it was, I banged my head against the glass and let out a Greek curse. I should've insisted on driving. If I could handle NYC, I could handle some Houston-Galveston highway.

Tugging on Annabeth's hand, my eagerness guaranteed we were the first out. The heat hit me and I could already hear Piper complaining about the intense humidity. I swore I could taste the water in the air as I breathed in. The air here was heavier than up north and I couldn't help but notice how strange it was.

The ocean isn't the same down here. It's closer to the beach by the Roman camp, but still totally different and its own place. While not as pretty and pristine as the coast in Florida, there is something...majestic about it all the same. But I was a son of Poseidon. It would be weird if I wasn't crushing on the sea.

"Something on your mind, Seaweed Brain?"

I turned to Annabeth; her hair was down for once, her blonde curls fluttering in the wind. Her grey eyes held a humorous glitter.

I leaned forward, our foreheads touching. "Just the ocean." I smiled, just happy to be here. Be alive. With Annabeth.

She tilted her head back and I lowered mine until our lips met. I was quite used to this routine by now. In fact I would have been happy to stay there, warm sand tickling my toes, a cool breeze against my back, kissing my girlfriend (like any teenager, I imagine) when a clod of wet sand struck me in the back.

"Hahaha, we came to this beach for all of us to party!" Leo shouted. "If you just want to make out with Annabeth you should've told us. We would've left you two lovebirds in New York."

Glancing around and seeing that we had the beach (mostly) to ourselves I flicked my hand and a wave of salty water crashed into the flame-boy.

[Pay attention to the (foreshadowing) word up there, it will come in handy later.]

"You can't win against me." I cackled, sounding rather Stoll-like, "Not when we're in my turf!"

Leo took that as a challenge, despite his normally laidback and chill attitude. "Whoa whoa whoa," he made a cutting motion in the air with his hands, like he was chopping up some dracaena. "I grew up in Houston. Texas is my state, senor pez."

"Dude, your hair is steaming." Jason cut in, before we could get into an actual fight.

Thank god for ADHD.

Although the Roman was being a bit of a killjoy.

The Latino boy's focus instantly broke, and he was a riot, as he tried and failed to examine his almost-on-fire hair. I took the opportunity to laugh and run away. I sprinted straight into the surf with wild abandon.

Of course, things couldn't be so easy, and the story couldn't end there.

For example, I ran straight into someone else in my simple, high-on-life glee.

Dazed, I blinked, and it took my mind a few moments to realize what had happened-how I'd obliviously tackled a stranger, bounced off said stranger-and then fallen on my ass. I stared up at the person I'd inadvertently attacked. It was a girl. A scowling-barely-teenage girl. My stomach sunk with dread.

I was about to get chewed out. I had a sixth sense for these things.

"What was that for! Watch where you're going, yeah?" The girl was in a green two-piece plastered with black skulls.

Don't worry if you instantly think of Nico. (I did, and rather shamelessly). My cousin takes ridiculous pride in playing up his punk and "Goth" side. He took embracing the "son of the god of death" thing pretty seriously. He applied every stereotype to himself except for the eyeliner.

"Are you from Britain?"

Yes, that really was the first thing I blurted out. My mind-to-mouth filter never really worked well and could even be considered broken.

Shattered beyond repair. Mangled. Torn to pieces, slammed into a trashcan, burned, and then tossed out the window so it could be blown away in the wind.

I could see my question had taken her off guard, but she wouldn't be dissuaded from the subject. "Yes, if you must know." Her anger abated and downgraded to annoyance. Her blondish hair was a darker shade than Annabeth's and had red streaks in it. It certainly matched her personality. "But I was expecting the first words out of your bloody mouth to be an apology." Hey eyes narrowed, something I was all too accustumed to seeing on Annabeth's face. Or Thalia's. Or even Rachel.

More splashing. Annabeth had joined me. I hadn't seen her, but I just knew, just like I knew she was going to demand a full-length explanation afterwards.

I had opened my mouth-to apologize, so I could placate the moody British girl, and get back to my monster-free vacation-but the girl kept going.

"Carter!" She sounded partly surprised, partly relieved, and definitely irritated.

Turning my head, I saw a confused guy closer to our age, with dark skin, diluted by Caucasion blood. Must have been her friend or something.

He looked ready to issue an apology, "Sadie," Finally, a name to put to the face, "we've only been here thirty minutes. It's too early to go around harassing people."

She scowled and her face reddened-from embarrassment or anger, I wasn't sure-crossing her arms defensively.

"But I didn't even do anything!" I could hear the silent "this time" loud and clear. They the same words I'd often told my mom, or Annabeth. She thrust out her finger violently, accusation clear in her eyes. "He plowed into me and nearly gave me a heart attack." I noticed her expression change. "Why aren't you wet?"

Internally I cursed. One of the traits of my father's blood was that water simply didn't make me wet unless I willed it to.

"Are you sure you didn't bump your head when my dumb boyfriend," Annabeth sent me a glare that honestly made me want to cry for my mommy, or wish Zeus would just strike me down and save everyone a bunch of trouble, "ran into you. Because his clothes are soaked." She snapped her fingers, with a look of intense concentration on her face.

Oh right, she was manipulating the Mist. It was a trick I hadn't quite gotten down yet. Annabeth was trying to teach me the basics, after getting Thalia to spill a few weeks ago.

I willed the water to soak me and prayed our trick would work. Confused mortals weren't a complication I wanted to deal with.

Instantly both Carter and Sadie's expressions turned from bewilderment to suspicion. I was kind of hoping it would be the opposite.

Can I just say in any other context, seeing Carter in green swim trunks with baboons on them, while wielding some weird curvy sword he pulled from midair, would be incredibly hilarious? As it was, it was slightly intimidating. Moments later, Sadie was armed with what appeared to be a boomerang.

Of the two, I was infinitely more scared of the British girl.

"What the heck are House of Life agents doing here on our vacation!" Her face screwed up like the way I did when someone brought up that English essay I had forgotten under my bed, or my evil grandfather, Kronos was brought up. Or even look. I quickly banished the thought from my mind. Anyway-

Boy did the girl sound upset.

And what was the "House of Life" for that matter? I turned to Annabeth for help, but even the daughter of Athena and literal human encyclopedia seemed stumped. She just shrugged and gave me a "how do you expect me to know?" look.

Great.

To top things off, I'd left Riptide in the van.

"I don't know, but I've never seen one of their magicians try to work magic without a wand or staff," Carter answered his companion. His voice wavered in a way I was familiar with. When you were trying to pretend you weren't scared and hold it together because no one could know you totally weren't in control. Kind of like anytime I'd encountered a monster on my very first quest. "Where's Bast?"

"No clue," she said cheerfully, before tossing her staff into the waves.

Had she lost her mind? Why would you throw away your weapon in the middle of a fight? Not that I was complaining. Annabeth was digging out her Yankee's cap out of her cut-offs and nodded grimly. Ok, so it was my job to play distraction. Shouldn't be too hard given we were in my favorite place.

I shut my eyes and focused on the briny water around me. With it, I could pinpoint Annabeth's location, even if she went invisible. My radar didn't work on things like sight. It picked up heat and electricity from living things. I willed the currents to listen to me and the waist-deep water obeyed, ready to curl around Annabeth at a moment's notice. I knew she could take care of herself, but I wasn't taking any chances.

Just in time too, because a pissed looking tiger was heading right for me.

Where the hell had that come from?

Feeling the familiar tug in my gut, I directed a wave in Carter and Sadie's direction and focused on the charging blur of claws and fangs looking to kill me. Or maim. Our location was frustrating-deeper and I could've swum around freely and on land I could dodge no problem. We were in that awkward in-between place.

[Just letting you know now-life is full of those. I don't advise getting stuck in a rut.]

So I simply let the water do the work for me. It responded to my emotions, raising me up in my own personal water spout. For a moment I towered over everyone, twenty feet up, before I heard a shout (something weird and foreign that I interpreted as "hotty!") and my personal sea thrown collapsed. In that moment where I was still suspended in the air and gravity hadn't yet remembered to suck me back down, my eyes quickly swept over the impromptu battlefield.

Annabeth.

I saw an out-of-place shadow on the waves, a yard away from the Sadie girl and Annabeth would close the gap soon. One less thing to worry about.

Tiger.

The drenched cat was confused and no longer being bullied by the ocean. I would need to take care of that.

Carter.

He didn't seem to know what to do. Then his eyes zoomed in on me and the muscles in his arms twitched. My immediate opponent then.

Then gravity remembered our intimate relationship and I was dunked in the ocean head first. Not a problem for me. For a normal person, it would be like hitting concrete. Not a nice mess to clean up. The problem was that we were in the shallows. The water cushioned my fall, revitalizing me. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough depth to halt my momentum completely and I headbutted the sandy bottom with a painful muted thud.

I gasped and let out a groan. My head was ringing. If I wasn't in my father's realm, that would have killed me. Demi-gods were unusually resilient, but I wasn't invulnerable anymore. It took some getting used to. Like last week when I got a bruise and freaked out for a solid ten minutes.

I saw dark bare feet. Immediately a plan came to mind.

Remember Halloween?

Ever hide under a table so you could grab someone's feet and scare the shit out of them?

Well, my hands shot out and latched onto the kid's ankles and I pulled the rug out from under him as it were.

Underwater, I had all the advantages.

I grit my teeth as his flailing foot slammed into my jaw, but didn't let go. I was a pretty stubborn guy. I willed the current to carry us further out, until I estimated the water to be ten feet deep. By then Carter had landed a few more solid blows-mainly to my stomach and legs-that I'm sure would leave nasty bruises. But he tired more easily in the water and soon I'd completely overpowered him.

I let us up for air. I wasn't into drowning people.

Nice ones at least.

"Tell your friend to call off that tiger." I ordered.

We were bobbing up and down in the water. Somehow I'd ended up with my arms around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides. Somewhere along the way he'd also lost his weapon. Score one for Percy. He was out of breath and I could feel his heart pounding like a thousand miles an hour. Like his heart had just run a marathon up a mountain.

"Do it," I said a bit harsher than I intended. Hesitation wasn't good. Pausing could indicate any number of things-including plotting.

"She's my sister," he mumbled.

Okay, wasn't expecting that. Nor did it really pertain to the situation. Soon enough he was shouting, trying to be heard over the sound of the waves. Not an easy task. Especially if you were exhausted. It was a strange thought to me-I could never be tired in the ocean. But here I am getting off topic again.

"Sadie! Sadie!" he repeated. Then he sighed and shook his head. "She can't hear me, we're too far away."

I considered our situation, and then nodded. "This better not be any sort of trick," I warned him, breathing into his ear. He swallowed rather audibly and bobbed his head up and down in an awkward jerk.

We floated forward, but not too close. I wasn't letting this kid's feet even brush the ocean floor. No sort of leverage was going to be given.

As we slowly drifted closer, I idly wondered where the hell everyone else was and how they hadn't noticed the commotion. Maybe they just didn't care, or were sitting around watching with amusement and pigging out on popcorn. I wouldn't put it past them.

[As I would find out later, they had gotten in a scuffle with some guy named Amos and a pissed off cat goddess.]

He called out again, and this time his sister heard. Just then Annabeth reappeared, an arm around her neck. The girl was held snuggly against her chest and looked like she wanted to be cussing all of us out.

Also, the tiger was gone.

It was rather nice.

"I'm going to take us over to your sister, and my girlfriend," I told him slowly, so that there was no way he could misunderstand me. "And there will be no funny business. We won't attack you, if you won't attack us. And answer some questions." The closest I could figure was that these were a pair of Hecate or Trivia kids. Maybe Bobby had more siblings? Carter didn't agree right away, but eventually nodded as we drew closer to his sister.

"Have any trouble with the tiger?" I prodded. Because that was what I did. Rarely did the situation call for me to be serious. (This might have been one of them). But even if it did, I'd probably spit in its face. Gods know, that had gotten me in trouble with many immortals. But these were kids. Freaky, kind of weird kids, but mostly harmless as far as I was concerned.

Annabeth just rolled her eyes. "I'm not the one that toppled into the sea, am I? Percy Jackson, being overpowered in the ocean? That's just embarrassing." I don't need to tell you how she had just battered her entire sentence in sarcasm before putting it into the oven of mocking.

"Your hot when you're being all passive aggressive," I said bluntly, ignoring our captives for the moment.

Not that Sadie would let that last long.

"Hello!" She shouted, "You can flirt with your girlfriend later, namely, after you give me an apology, stupid yank."

I blinked.

Carter swore. "Sadie, now is not the time to be provoking anyone." Ah, so we had a voice of reason within the group. Annabeth would like that.

"Give me your weapons," Annabeth retorted, abruptly business-like. Without waiting for the girl's (negative) response, she snatched the boomerang from her hands with her free hand and kicked the staff away. "Get with the program Percy."

"Oh, this guy?" I pointed at him. "He's harmless. He won't do anything since you kind of have his sister." I said confidently.

And if not, I was sure it wouldn't be hard to take him down. Again.

Annabeth had that contemplative scowl on her face that meant she was considering my proposal, even if she thought it was awfully stupid. And then she relented, perhaps seeing my point, or just deciding it wasn't worth it. "Why did you attack us?" She questioned the girl she held in a tight, probably uncomfortable headlock.

"I shouldn't have to answer that. Should be bloody obvious."

"Not really," I said blankly.

Now it was the Brit's turn to be surprised. Gradually, confusion was starting the shine through the cracks of her brash, angry mask.

Carter (who I decided could be released from the bear hug) spoke up. "We thought you were from the House of Life," he sounded rather sheepish about the mix up.

"House of Life? What is that?" This was the second, (or maybe third, I wasn't really keeping track) time they'd thrown that term around. "Nico probably wouldn't like it." I muttered, mostly to myself. But apparently I'd been louder than I thought as I saw Annabeth trying to stifle a giggle.

The snarky girl decided to pitch in her two cents. "Magicians? Hate us, hunting me and my brother down, work for the evil French guy? Ring any bells?"

Silence.

Another beat, and then:

"Alright, alright, clearly you have no idea what we're talking about. I give up, will you let me go now?" She sounded exasperated. Talk about whiplash.

Annabeth didn't move.

Sadie pouted.

"I swear I won't attack you. This is just getting really uncomfortable."

A sigh.

"Thanks for letting my sister go."

"No problem," Annabeth said stiffly, not really sure if it was ok to be friendly or not. I subtly nodded and she relaxed. I don't think these kids (it's hard to think of them as anything else) have any ill-intentions, but are paranoid of being caught by something. Jumpy. Confused. But not secretly evil monsters.

I break the awkward silence before it can fester. "So, I'm Percy Jackson. My dad is Poseidon. And you are?"

"Wait, like, the Greek god?" Something is weird about Carter's statement, but I nod anyway.

Sadie is also confused, but for entirely different reasons than I thought. "But I thought it was just the Egyptian gods."

And now its my turn to be perplexed and turn to Annabeth because she is the one with all the answers.

She pursed her lips and stared at the duo, long and hard. I think Carter might've winced, and I can't blame him. "You believe in Egyptian gods, correct? And from the sound of things, they're real. Very real. It's simple, really, then. There is obviously one more pantheon than we thought." She stuck out her hand, which is only polite. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

The siblings braced themselves, and Sadie was the first one to return the favor. "Sadie Kane. Former host of the goddess Isis." She tightly gripped Annabeth's hand before moving on to me. For a maybe-12-or-13 year old, she had a strong grip.

"Carter Kane," The way he said this gave me the impression that if he had glasses, he'd be pushing them up the bridge of his nose, but he's glasses free, and so he doesn't. "Like I said earlier, I'm Sadie's older brother, and former host of the god Horus."

It sunk in and then I groan.

"Great, even more names to memorize."

I was having trouble deciding how to end it, so I thought Percy's exasperation was a good place to cut things off. And I decided to play around with brackets (duh) because I've been reading some really awesome fics that take advantage of them. If they're annoying or don't work for you tell me. For all my TtBR readers, this can be considered compliant. Thanks for any and all reviews/alerts/faves! :)

6/7/11