A/N: Hello everyone! I know it's been a while, but I was reading my other story and it was going nowhere, so I just decided to delete it. I'm sorry if anyone wanted me to continue it, but I really just wasn't feeling it. So here's my first chapter of this story, I hope you enjoy it!

Scribbling away furiously on a piece of paper, Annabeth felt beyond frustrated. There she was, supposedly the best strategist in the whole camp, and she couldn't think of anything. Even with Daedalus' laptop whirring away beside her, showing her the most successful battle strategies in all of history to draw inspiration from, Annabeth had made no progress. Every passing day was a day closer to Kronos's army invading either Mount Olympus or Camp Half-Blood, and Annabeth had wasted so much time already. She needed to think of every possible way that Kronos could attack at every possible location, while still planning strikes against his legions too. Annabeth had to be prepared for everything. She couldn't let the camp down, especially not after-

Well, especially not after the disaster that was Annabeth's quest last summer. It was still painful to remember. The whole quest was burned painfully into Annabeth's conscience. She'd made so many mistakes, and so many demigods had lost their life because of those mistakes. If only she'd managed to find Daedalus sooner and convince him not to give Luke Ariadne's string, if only she'd stopped Kronos's army before it reached Camp, if only she hadn't wasted two weeks at camp while Percy was missing, if only Annabeth hadn't screwed up all the times she did, everything could be so different. Annabeth had brought about the death of numerous demigods including the most genius demigod ever. Maybe if Daedalus was still here he'd know what to do, because Annabeth was hopelessly lost.

Then there was the matter of Luke. Even if anyone could argue that the battle and all the following deaths weren't completely Annabeth's fault, the blame for Luke's predicament fell solely on her. If only she'd agreed to run away with him, or convinced him to turn his back on Kronos, or… or… or Annabeth didn't even know what she could have done, but she should have done something, gods dammit. Then maybe Kronos wouldn't be ready to wage war yet, and the whole nightmare that was last summer and the year leading up to now could have been avoided entirely. Seeing Luke's body in that coffin, the way his eyes flashed gold, hearing that horrible voice, it haunted Annabeth every day. Oh, Luke….. Annabeth drew in a shaky breath. She couldn't afford to go down this line of thought. Not now.

Annabeth slammed her laptop closed in exasperation. Several Athena campers looked up, startled, from their various activities around cabin 6. Annabeth apologized to them, and marched right out of the building. They didn't understand just how much pressure was being put on her. Sure, they had to plan some strategies too, but they weren't pressured to come up with the same amount of strategies Annabeth was, and Annabeth was expected to look over and approve all their plans anyways. She couldn't tell them how she felt either. They came to her with problems, it didn't work the other way around. Besides, Annabeth's bravery and unfazed attitude gave the other campers, especially the younger ones, hope and confidence, and who was she to take that away?

As she walked, Annabeth studied the camp. It had been her home for 9 years, and never had she seen it so grim. They volleyball and basketball courts where abandoned, and the arts and crafts building hadn't been used in months. No one had the time or care to look after the strawberry fields, and the poor fruits were suffering because of it. There was a pleasantly warm late July breeze, and the sun was shining, but the campers who would enjoy it weren't there. Instead of joking around by the cabins or relaxing by the beach, the campers spent most of their time in either the arena, archery range or forge, preparing for the battles ahead. Annabeth found it mildly depressing. Mind you though, Annabeth found this whole situation with the war depressing.

Eventually Annabeth found that she had wandered over to Thalia's Pine Tree. The massive tree stood tall and proud, but was isolated from any other trees, kind of how Annabeth felt. She had to act confident for the camp, but none of them knew how much she was struggling right now. It was lonely, but Annabeth was going to keep it that way. Thalia's Pine Tree was a source of comfort for her though. Annabeth used to come here all the time when she was upset, when she was younger. Thalia had always helped Annabeth with her problems, so young Annabeth would talk to the tree about her problems. She'd known it was silly, but it made Annabeth feel closer to Thalia, and it had helped. Thalia's spirit wasn't in the tree anymore, but it was still a place of comfort for Annabeth. It was isolated enough from the rest of camp that no one could see or hear her if she cried, and that's exactly what Annabeth did. She sank down against the trunk of the pine tree and started sobbing.

Everything in Annabeth's life was going wrong. There was possibly going to be a war that would end all of western civilization in less than a month. The camp needed her to help them out, and she was failing them. She'd waited years for the opportunity to lead a quest, and when she finally got one she botched it up so badly people died. Tears were splattering all over Annabeth's t-shirt, but she didn't care. Luke was pretty much gone forever, Annabeth's stupid prophecy had said she would "lose a love to worse than death" and as far as losing people went, Annabeth had lost Luke pretty spectacularly.

And then there was Percy. The stupid moron had no idea just how bad things were going over here. Sure they'd kept him informed of the most important events and sent him on a few missions, but for the most part Percy had spent his summer with his mom, not having to worry about the war. Annabeth wished he was here; the camp could use some of his Seaweed Brain goofiness about now, and if she was being honest, so could she. She knew Chiron was trying to let Percy enjoy the most of his summer considering… considering the prophecy. When Annabeth had first read the prophecy when she was 10 it had scared her a little maybe, but mostly it had intrigued her. The hero of the prophecy was just some unknown demigod. Besides, the prophecy probably wouldn't involve her anyways, so what was there to worry about? When she met Percy it changed her perspective of the prophecy. It wasn't some faceless hero who was going to get their soul reaped anymore, it was her friend. At first Annabeth was confident they could find a way to avoid the prophecy, but the older she got the more she doubted that. Annabeth started having nightmares about Percy dying because of the prophecy. They weren't special demigod dreams, she could tell, but they frightened her none the less. Those dreams were getting worse and more frequent the closer they got to August 18th, to the point where Annabeth was losing hours of sleep over them every night. And the Seaweed Brain was oblivious to it all, enjoying his summer break, while Annabeth was at camp agonizing over the fact that she may lose him. Annabeth had lost so many important people to her over her short lifespan; she couldn't afford to lose Percy too.

Annabeth looked down at her tear stained clothes. Gods, she was a mess. She stopped crying long enough to hear her stomach growling, Annabeth had been by the pine tree longer than she had realized. It was almost dinner. Annabeth dried her tears and headed down to the mess hall. When she joined the Athena cabin at their table her second in command, Malcolm, looked at her curiously.

"You've been gone all afternoon Annabeth. Where'd you go?"

"I needed some time alone to think of a few more strategies," Annabeth lied smoothly, getting back into her confident attitude easily. She'd had years of practice.

Malcolm didn't look convinced. "Are you sure ok? This whole war thing's putting a lot of stress on everyone." His gray eyes showed concern. Annabeth couldn't let that stay there, or the rest of the camp would start to worry too and undo a lot of Annabeth's hard work.

Annabeth raised her chin and locked her steely gray eyes on Malcolm's. "I'm fine," she said. And they bought it.

Annabeth Chase was 15 years old. She was a leader at camp, a role model, someone people looks to for answers. The perfect daughter of Athena, she was strong, brave, intelligent, and fearless (with the exception of spiders). At least that's what the camp thought. Annabeth knew that last sentence was not true, but she had to keep the camp believing that it was. If one of the most respected and looked up to demigods couldn't stay strong for the camp, how would they stay strong and follow her into battle? How could they trust her to lead them and make the best decisions, choose the best strategies? How could she trust herself to lead them and make the best decisions, choose the best strategies if she couldn't even stay calm and get a handle on her emotions?

No, showing weakness and fear was not an option. Annabeth had to always look and act courageous in public, if not for her own sake, then for the sake of the camp and consequently the entire world. It was big burden, and not one she wanted, but Annabeth had no choice. No one could know that Annabeth Chase was not always the strong, brave, intelligent, and fearless demigod she was portrayed to be.

A/N: There we are, first chapter is finished. I hope you liked it. I have two more chapters planned, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to finishing them. However, if you're really wanting to see them, feel free to leave a review! They always help to motivate me to write more.

See you later,

BlankPage-CleanSlate :)