A/N: Thanks for everyone who read the prequel, Hera's Gamble! You guys make me feel so happy! If you have any questions or ideas for me, feel free to pm me or send them in a review!

Like always, I'll try to post a new chapter every day, but when school starts... I might not be able to.

AW :)

As we sailed further and further into the skies I could feel Percy going tenser and tenser.

"Zeus won't strike you down from the sky when we are on a quest to save the Olympian's godly hides. Plus...you're freaking invincible seaweed brain," I told him. Percy, it's pretty hard to kill you. If it were so easy you'd already be dead.

"Hardy har har," Percy told me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Really mature, Annabeth," he told me. Before I could respond, a voice interrupted us.

"Hey guys, can you stop for flirting and get your asses up here already?" Dakota appeared about 20 yards away, grinning. "Dinner is ready down in the kitchen."

Grumbling and glaring at his retreating back we followed him down to the kitchen.

As we sat down for dinner, I resolved to get to know the Romans better. The girl, Hazel, was pretty with shoulder length dark brown hair that curled at the ends. She had a kind face that he hinted at Hispanic descendent with almond shaped eyes the color of milk chocolate, framed with dark lashes. She was a child of Apollo Percy had told me. The other one, Dakota, had here somewhere between a dark dirty blonde and a very light brown that fell into his eyes he looked like a Californian surfer dude with a sarcastic grin. Classic child of Hermes.

I wandered over to Hazel and started a conversation. "Hey," I said. "I'm Annabeth." I stuck out my hand and she looked at me before shaking it.

" I know who you are," she said." I'm Hazel."

" So, how do you like the Argo II?" I asked her.

" It's pretty cool," Hazel said. She switched to the subject." So, Percy talked about you a lot at camp. "

" He did?" I asked her, curious. "I hope it was the awesome-Hero-of -Olympus part and not the her-sneakers-taste-bad part."

Hazel's eyes went wide. "Wait, Architect and Hero of Olympus?" She asked me.

"Um, yeah," I told her sheepishly. "Really long story. But yeah, there was this huge battle during which Olympus was pretty much destroyed, and Percy and I saved Olympus. My gift from the gods was to re-design Olympus."

"Do I ever get to hear the story?" She asked while grabbing a plate.

"Maybe. Sometime," I told her, smiling in spite of myself.

"Pleeeeeaaaaaasse, Annabeth?" Leo asked, doing a really bad Bambi impression. I glared around the room to find everyone was listening. Figures.

"Sometime," I told him.

"How 'bout after dinner?" Piper asked.

I glanced at Percy, since it was pretty much his story. He shrugged at me. I gave up.

"Alright. Fine," I snapped. "After dinner, but we need Thalia, Nico, and Grover there, too."

Everyone cheered, said, "To the gods!" And dug in.

After dinner, I excused Percy and I. "We have some IM-ing to do," I told the suspicious crowd.

"So that's what you guys call it these days," Dakota smirked. I gave him a glare that registered a 'ten' on the scare-o-meter. He gulped and looked away.

"See you later," I told them, and walked out.

"O Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering," Percy said after tossing a drachma into the fountain mist. "Sally Jackson, Manhattan."

An image formed overhead of Sally, sitting watching TV.

Percy smirked. "Hey Mom, haven't you seen that episode before?" He asked her. Sally's head turned around to see us and her mouth fell open slightly in shock.

"Percy!" She exclaimed. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed. "Perseus Jackson, how DARE you? I thought you were dead! 6 months! 6 whole MONTHS I didn't know if you were still alive! And don't even get me started on Annabeth! Distraught, the girl was! Took her almost a half an hour to stop sobbing enough to tell me! If I ever think you're dead again, I will kill you myself!" She ranted. Percy was looking down guiltily.

"I'm sorry, Mom! I didn't want to leave! It was Hera, remember?" He told her. It was obvious to him that Sally wasn't done yet.

"Bye, Mom!" He yelped and swiped his hand through the image.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked him bemusedly.

"My mom's scary when she's angry. She's almost as scary as you," He told me. Travis Stoll said I'm like an empousa when I'm angry. And if you've ever seen an empousa, you'd know that that's definitely not a good thing. From that day on, Travis is scared to even mention the word. "I'm sorry."

A lump rose in my throat. "For- for what?" I asked him cautiously.

"For being taken."

"It wasn't your fault," I said shortly.

"I can still say sorry, right?"

"I guess," I allowed.

"You were crying because of me for a half an hour?" He looked pained.

"It's none of your business."

"If it has to do with you, it is."

"Fine," I snapped. "Yes." Percy walked closer and hugged me.

After a few minutes, I pulled back.

"You should probably get out of the line of sight, Seaweed Brain," I told him calmly. "Thalia will lay Hippalektryons eggs in her fury when she sees you. "

"Fine," He said and went to lean on the door. I tossed a drachma into the fountain mist, and repeated the calling phrase.

"Thalia Grace, Camp Half-Blood," I called into the mist.

Thalia was in the midst of yelling at the Stoll Brothers, who were looking like they were about to wet their pants in fear.

"- AND IF I EVER FIND THAT YOU"VE TAKEN AEGIS AGAIN, I WILL TIE YOU TO A TREE IN THE FOREST AND LEAVE YOU THERE FOR MONSTER KIBBLE!" She snarled. Now I was thinking of Thalia as an empousa, which was making it very hard not to laugh. "Now scram before I do something I won't regret!" The Stolls scampered off to their Cabin quickly before Thalia could change her mind. I laughed and Thalia turned around to see me.

"Hey, Thalia. Channeling Zeus over there?" I asked sardonically. Cue thunder rumble.

"Hey, Annabeth! How's it going over there in 'Frisco?" She asked.

"Not bad, actually," I smiled.

"Did you find Kelp Face?" She asked me.

"I do NOT have Kelp on my face!" Percy protested indignantly.

"I'll take that as a yes, then. Do you want me to grab Nico and get him to Shadow Travel me and Grover over?" She asked me, smirking.

"Sure. See you in a few?"

"Yup." Thalia replied, and swiped through the image. Now we will have a one zombie demigod, an excited satyr, and a pissed off daughter of Zeus. Add that to 2 mischievous sons of Hephaestus and Hermes respectively, a not-so-Aphrodite daughter of Aphrodite, a son of Poseidon that's about to get fried, a son of Zeus, a daughter of Apollo, and you'll get something very messy.

Oh well. Just another average day for your average demigod going on your average quest to save the world.

I'll post more soon! :D

R&R :)