Author's note: Heyy! This is just an idea I had. I really wanted to write about Annabeth and Percy in a different scenario, and I really wanted to write a tough badass (Emma inspired) Annabeth (which is pretty much the actual Annabeth anyway...) So, in this story some characters may be a little OOC but I do hope you like it! I'm not sure if it's actually worth continuing yet, so please let me know if you want more (because I do have ze ideas.) But, idk, maybe I'm the only one who would find this sort of story interesting...? I did get a lot of satisfaction from writing this chapter out...
On a side note, yes I do have another (older) story. I just had my school start up again and it's been CRAZY. I do have future ideas for that story, but this is just another idea i had that I was dying to write up. So it's not that I've given up on that story.
Anyway, hope YOU had a reason to smile today xx.
I
"Look, it's just not working out." Annabeth paced back and forth, her boots clicking and slapping with every step. She tightened her ponytail, which kept her long, curly hair swept away from her face. Luke's eyes were headlights, focused completely on her. "It's not you - well, except that it is. It's your incessant calling, and you're always so cautious. I'm surprised you've even noticed you and I have been in a relationship lately, what with your head so far up the Clave's -"
"Annabeth," Luke looked shocked. "That's hardly something to bring up now."
"Well," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "If not now, when? Look, the point is, it's over. Good bye, see ya later."
"So that's it?"
Annabeth squared her shoulders, stopped pacing, met Luke's eyes. "Sure is, buddy. That's all I plan to say."
A minute passed. Luke's mouth twitched the entire time. Finally, he cracked a smile, and Annabeth met it with one of her own. "I shouldn't smile - and I'm not smiling because you're funny! This is going to break his heart, Annabeth." Luke suddenly scowled. "You can't seriously break up with Michael like this."
Annabeth sighed. "Luke, the fact of the matter is, I've already broken up with him."
Luke paled. "Good god, tell me it didn't go like this practice conversation."
"Relax, I was just pulling your leg here. The actual conversation went much better! Well, up until the part where he started crying…"
"Annabeth!"
"To be fair, he said he wasn't crying, that he was just 'in the vicinity of some onions', but I don't know… I could hear some phlegm. And we all know how phlegmy he gets when he cries. Gods, he looks hot when he doesn't cry though," Annabeth amended.
Luke stilled. His face had gone carefully blank.
Annabeth paused, feeling like someone had snatched the rug out from under her feet. She didn't usually feel any trepidation or unease around Luke, but the exceptions were in moments like this, when his mood would change so suddenly it felt like someone had flipped a switch in him.
Slowly, Annabeth sidled up to Luke and sat next to him. They were on the rooftop of their Institute, the sun set painting the city below them orange, pink, yellow and grey. "What's up Luke? You never really liked Mike that much anyway." Luke didn't say anything. Annabeth thought back over what she'd said. "Unless…" She groaned, moving away from Luke. "Is this about the word 'gods'?"
"Well," Luke's ears tinged red. He was caught. "It's not a normal term!"
"Technically that would depend on your religion," Annabeth pointed out coolly. But she knew it wasn't about religion. Unfortunately, she didn't know what it was about either. All she knew was that at various points in her life, Luke would overreact over the weirdest things - her being able to learn Greek and even Latin quite easily, her extreme talent with crafts, her hat that could inexplicably turn her invisible… well, the list kind of went on and on. Often, she'd slip up and say 'gods'. For some stupid reason he would never explain, it really bugged Luke. "Look, I don't have time for this. I don't want to be late for patrol." Annabeth marched off. Behind her, Luke called out, dismayed, but Annabeth ignored him.
She'd known him for 12 years - ever since she was seven. He was 25 now, and ran the Institute along with his girlfriend, Thalia. The fact that he was technically her superior still didn't make her hesitate as he continued to call after her.
x
Patrol. It was Annabeth's favourite time of the day - when exciting things happened. When they didn't, her foot kept tapping, her fingers kept fidgeting, and the word bored could hardly do her mental state justice.
It was her ADHD. Shadowhunter's usually didn't have 'diseases' or 'illnesses', nor were anything short of perfection. But Annabeth did. ADHD and Dyslexia. She'd even had to go to a human doctor to get diagnosed. It was a part of herself that she kept on the down low - like molten earth center down low.
Today's patrol team consisted of her, Piper and Leo. They weren't on the hunt of any creature in particular, but were doing the usual sweep to ensure that Downworld was behaving.
Piper gently grabbed Annabeth's arm, yanking Annabeth's attention back to the present. "Calm, ok?" She winked.
Annabeth smiled grudgingly, and forced her body to straighten out and relax. Piper was the only other person (aside from Luke and Thalia) who knew about Annabeth's problems, as the Clave would view it. She was now a pro at gently getting Annabeth to act 'normal', because the Clave wasn't about to appreciate a Shadowhunter with issues. And, currently, Annabeth knew they appreciated her a lot. She was a model student.
"So, fam," Leo rubbed his hands together. "Things are looking dull. You guys ready to try out a new invention of mine?"
Annabeth and Piper exchanged a glance. Annabeth wanted excitement, sure, but it often came at too high a price when it came to Leo's gadgets. "Depends," Piper replied.
"On…?" Leo prompted.
"On what exactly this particular deathtrap - sorry, I mean invention - does." Annabeth peeked a glance at Leo, smiling playfully.
"Har, har," Leo snorted. "Maybe the day my inventions are 100% perfect will be the day your break ups are actually kind and compassionate."
"Hey! Today I broke up with Michael Kahale perfectly," Annabeth pointed out. In her books, the crying really wasn't a big deal. "Tell him Piper."
"Hmm, is that a window over there?"
"Piper!"
"Sorry, Ann," Piper squeezed her shoulder. "But he did seem to be bawling pretty loudly over the phone. And I was reading all the way on the other side of our giant library. With headphones on."
Annabeth scowled, whilst Leo erupted in laughter. "Well, Valdez, that means your invention isn't going to be top notch either." Annabeth made sure she had her eyes focused on the scene below - a busy evening in LA. They were on the balcony of a tall hotel. There was a night time market place, with numerous lights and people, alive and sprawling below them. Humans were there, sure, but there were downworlders too… Annabeth loved bantering with her friends as much as the next guy or girl, but she wasn't about to let herself get distracted from the job at hand (boring and safe as it might be.)
"Want a bet?" Leo held out his hand. In it was a silver object. "Meet the Valdez-atron 2000. It locates the nearest magic that's wild and out of control. Usually, when warlocks use magic it's quite controlled and directed. When they, or anyone else really, employ crazy evil spells, the magic itself becomes wilder and crazier. This baby is like a GPS, and will point us in the right direction. It can detect any bout of 'uncontrolled' magic. You can even set it's sensitivity, to determine whether it'll pick up like, batcrap crazy magic overload, or like just slightly crazed magic use… " Leo turned to Annabeth. "Like your hat."
"My hat?" Annabeth froze, then mentally shook herself. Stupid Luke and his jumpiness. It unfortunately had rubbed off on her.
"Yeah, your basebal cap, babe. It turns you invisible right?" Leo raised an eyebrow. "That's definitely got warlock enchantment written all over it."
"One," Annabeth held out a finger, "Don't call me 'babe'. Two, it's… it can't be because of a warlock enchantment. I've had it since forever."
"Must be," Piper mused. "I mean, unless it's… a demon enchantment? Which we all know it's not."
"Yeah, maybe," Annabeth allowed, but she didn't buy it. It just didn't seem right to her that she would've known a warlock when she was younger. Her parents hadn't been Shadowhunters, after all. Her parents hadn't been there, period. "But Leo, who's to say 'crazy' magic will be going on when you fire that device?"
"It can detect magic up to approximately 2 hours after it's been used. But it will always point to the most recent bout of magic."
"Hmm, I don't know," Piper reasoned. "It seems like it's still in the prototype stage."
"Well, I've fired it up now, on medium, so let's see what-"
"WHAT?"
"LEO ARE YOU CRAZY? QUICK - duck!" Piper grabbed Annabeth with one hand, Leo with the other, and pulled them both behind a thick column on the opposite end of the balcony.
Five seconds passed in silence, broken only by their heavy breathing.
"Geez, overreact much?" Leo said. Just before an explosion rocked the entire balcony, causing the cement to shift beneath Annabeth's feet.
Future note to self, Annabeth thought, next time it would be safer to jump off the balcony to get away from Leo's inventions, right as a giant piece of cement whacked her in the face, causing her head to knock against Piper's. As a dust cloud surrounded the three of them, Annabeth was certain that she too would be coughing and hacking, just like Leo and Piper were, if the breath hadn't already been knocked out of her.
x
"Leo, it's almost not worth having you as a Parabatai," Piper grumbled, without any malice, as the three of them stared at the alley they suddenly found themselves in.
Leo whistled. "You're all talk, beauty queen." And Annabeth agreed - those two were as thick as thieves.
"Where are we? This isn't the balcony - I can't even hear the night market." Annabeth frowned. "Did you make some sort of portal, Leo, by mistake?" She tried to keep her nerves and excitement in check, knowing it was always better to stay calm, but it was hard. Just a minute ago, they'd been coughing in a dust cloud. Now, they were in an alleyway, concrete pieces littering the floor around them. The same concrete as that from the balcony of the hotel, which was now nowhere in the vicinity.
Leo looked just as confused as she and Piper did, which Annabeth didn't take as a good sign. "Um… maybe? How cool would that be, right?"
The glare the other two gave him made him falter.
"Well," Piper began to lead them towards the alleyway entrance. "Let's check it out, find our way back." The bricks around them were a rust red, the floor a lifeless grey, and the dumpsters green and reeking.
Annabeth's senses were working overtime. "Wait," she froze, pulling Piper and Leo back behind a dumpster. "Trust me, here. And shut up guys." She softened her words with a distracted smile.
She didn't need to; Pipes and Leo trusted her. The three of them peered over the edge of the dumpster, quickly reinforcing each other's glamours, the tension building slowly.
Sounds of pursuit, the scuffling of feet and claws, could be heard, getting closer and louder.
"We should attack," Piper whispered.
"I know - believe me I live for moments where we get to yell 'attack.' But…" Annabeth didn't know how best to convey that she had a feeling they should just watch. "But we were brought here by Leo's experiment." The noises got louder. "What if it…"
"Worked?" Leo snorted. A boy's shouting could be heard now, with a girl's voice answering back. "Is it really so hard for you to say that word?"
"Okay, so you're saying we're about to see some illegal magical activity," Piper said. Annabeth nodded, shivering with anticipation.
Right at that moment, the source of the noise came barging in. It was an unbelievable sight to Annabeth's eyes; a boy, tall and dark haired, and a girl with him, dark skinned, with hair the colour of gold coins and pennies. Three… things chased them, half metal, with fiery hair and vampire claws.
"What sort of demon is that?" Annabeth gasped, her brain trying furiously to identify the horrible creatures, but for once coming up blank.
The boy and the girl skidded to a halt, noticing the alley was a dead end.
"Shit." The boy's sea green eyes shone brightly in the gloom.
"Language," the girl reprimanded, fanning herself slightly.
"Sorry, Hazel," he apologised, turning his back to Annabeth. "I'll distract the empousa, you -"
"Distract?" hissed one of the … empousa? Her voice was very feminine. "Like, by distract I hope you mean, 'I'll make a good meal for'. Because that's what you're about to be… How dare you reject my offer of a date?!"
"Gods, what are they? What's going on?" Annabeth whispered, her eyes still fixed on the scene in the alley.
"One," Leo tugged on her arm. "You mean, 'By the Angel.' Two, what is going on? I can't see anything except two teens."
Annabeth looked at Leo, about to tell him to cut the jokes, but he looked completely confused. So did Piper.
Worst of all, Annabeth could see her horrified face reflected in their large, and utterly bewildered, eyes.
