Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, Rick Riordan does.

Chapter 1

Secrets and Training

My name is Percy Jackson and I'm just your average teenager who has to save the world from doom and destruction in the form of my evil Titan grandfather. Yeah, absolutely nothing weird about that.

Now ever since Kronos came back, the gods have been looking for a way to get rid of him permanently. Well, as permanently as possible when dealing with immortal beings. So far, much to my disappointment, they haven't come up with anything.

I'm really desperately praying that they find something to help me out, because without an advantage, the odds are pretty heavily stacked against me. Teenage boy versus Kronos, Lord of Time. Gee, don't hold your breath to see who wins that one. Still, everyone is counting on me and until a better option comes, I have to plain outfight Kronos.

So on this morning, as I'm on my way to go train against some automatons, I decide to stop by the steps of the Athena cabin, where I know Annabeth will be sitting, scouring over Daedalus' laptop.

Annabeth. Things have been really weird between us since her quest with the labyrinth. She was mad at me for a while; it probably had something to do with how close I got to Rachel over the school year. Her face always turns the color of Rachel's hair whenever I bring her up. Now she's pretending that nothing ever happened between us at Mount Saint Helens, and we've more or less fallen back into our normal routine.

As predicted, she's sitting on the steps with the laptop propped up on her knees. Her blonde hair is pulled into a messy ponytail with a few strands rebelliously hanging in her eyes. I think about how much she's grown up since I met her. We could barely get along way back then, and now she's my best friend here.

"Annabeth," I say. She either doesn't hear me or ignores me, hopefully not the latter. "Annabeth," I say, slightly louder this time. Again, no response from her. I sigh loudly. She's probably wrapped up in that laptop again.

I sit next to her and say loudly in her ear. "Wise Girl. Come in, come in!" I tease.

At the sound of my voice right in her ear, she jerks her head up. "Percy, don't scare me like that!" she says angrily.

I lean over, looking at the laptop. There's a lot of writing in what I assume is Ancient Greek. "What are you looking at now?" I ask, pretending to be interested.

She slams the computer shut faster than I thought possible. It's weird, since she's usually all-too-eager to explain whatever genius invention Daedalus came up with to me. "Oh, you know," she says vaguely, a hint of nervousness creeping into her voice. She brushes a strand of hair behind her ear.

"No, not really," I say. "Top secret stuff, I take it?"

She shrugs and taps her fingers on the closed laptop. "Just...something I want to look into more before I share it with anybody, okay?"

I nod, like I get her need for privacy perfectly. "Okay..." I reply with possibly the lamest thing possible. "I have to go practice now..." I stand up.

She nods. "Yeah, I need to look over this some more anyway."

"See you later?" I say and shove a hand in my pocket, wrapping my hand around my pen\sword, Riptide. Holding it helps me feel ready for training, and it also makes me feel better when I'm nervous. Annabeth definitely makes me nervous.

"Yeah." She smiles thinly. "See you later."

As I walk towards the arena, she opens up the laptop and goes back to looking at whatever is so important that she can't tell me. Normally, most of the inventions on that laptop are great in writing, but don't really work all that well so I don't pay much attention to them. Yet I'm curious what she doesn't want to tell me.

I keep thinking about it all through practice. What could it be? Maybe it's something that's going to help me beat Kronos, I think hopefully as I slice an automaton in half. They are getting way too easy to fight. Good sign? I sure hope so.

I cap my sword and slip it back into my pocket. No matter how great I do at training, I always feel...unprepared. It's one thing fighting an automaton, and a completely different thing to fight Kronos. I know that how hard I train, I'm not going to be ready to face him. How am I supposed to fight him when he's got the scythe that can rip your soul right out of your body with a tiny scratch?

I decide to find someone to spar with, even though I know it will be an easy win. There's no one at Camp who's even close to my skill level. In fact, few people can hold their own for more than five minutes against me. That should make me happy, but it really gets me frustrated. There's no one to train with, and yet I'm supposed to be skilled enough to fight Kronos, who I know is way stronger than I am.

As I'm walking by the cabins, I see Annabeth out of the corner of my eye, talking to Beckendorf. She's explaining something and he's nodding his head. He's got that glint in his eye that he gets when thinking of how he's going to build something. Does this have something to do with the laptop?

I sigh. I really need to get over that laptop and get my head back in the game. Training is more important than whatever thing Annabeth has found on the laptop.

Yet as I walk by, I can't help but overhear some of their conversation.

"...think you can make something like that?" Annabeth says, obvious doubt in her voice.

"Yeah it's just the...might be hard to...can do it," Beckendorf says. Of course, I don't hear the important parts of what he says. Annabeth wants him to try to build whatever is on that laptop? I thought she would have learned after trial and error with so many of the other things on it.

And why can she let Beckendorf in on it but not me? I'm good at keeping secrets! I've never told anyone about Grover's stuffed goat that he sleeps with. (Okay, you did not hear that from me. And I'm really sorry Grover! Please don't make poison ivy grow all over my cabin!) Seeing her telling Beckendorf whatever is so special before she tells me just makes me feel...jealous. I'm jealous that she didn't come to me first. I'm jealous that he can help her with something I can't.

I continue walking, no longer in the mood to find someone to train against. I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for, to tell you the truth. I know I should go train some more, but I really don't see the point. It isn't making me any better.

"Hey, wait up!" Annabeth calls from behind me. I slow to a stop as she catches up. She takes one look at my face and says in a concerned tone, "What's wrong?"

I shrug and start walking. "Nothing. I'm fine."

Her arm brushes against mine lightly "Something is wrong. Is it about the laptop?" she says intuitively. I just shake my head no. "Seaweed Brain, it's nothing. I just want to look into it a little more before I toss it in the rubbish bin with most of the other ideas."

"But you won't tell me about it," I mumble pathetically.

She sighs and plays with the ends of her blonde hair. "Well...let's just say it might help you beat Kronos. I want to keep it kind of secret because, well, you never know who you can trust."

"Oh..." I nod in agreement. Suddenly I feel really stupid for getting so worked up over it.

"And I didn't want to...get your hopes up, you know?" She looks at me, hoping I'll understand why she didn't tell me immediately. "I know how hard this has been on you...I didn't want to get your hopes up until I knew there was some shot at it working."

"So that's what you and Beckendorf were talking about?"

"Yeah. He thinks he can help me get it built."

"And I suppose you're still not going to tell me what it is?" I say.

She smiles. "Now what would be the fun in that?" Then in a more serious tone she says, "I want to ask Chiron about it first, and maybe a couple of my siblings. Then, if we think it will work, we'll let you in on it."

I groan. "You know I hate surprises. Why can't you just tell me now?"

"Well..." Annabeth says hesitantly. "You kind of have a big mouth, and we don't want you to tell Grover because...well..."

"Don't tell me you think he's a spy!" I say, way louder than I probably should have.

"Keep your voice down," Annabeth hisses. Then she pulls me closer and whispers in my ear. "It's not Grover. You know I trust him. It's...well...we're not quite sure about Juniper yet."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Oh. I guess I understand then."

She smiles. "I have to go look at the laptop. I want to make sure I really have this right," she says. "I'll see you soon, though. Okay?"

I return her smile. "Okay. Just, try really hard to get this to work, okay?"

She groans. "See why I didn't tell you? Now I'm going to feel pressured."

"Ah, don't worry too much about it. It'd just be really nice to have an advantage, you know?" I say.

She smiles. "Oh yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I only hope this works."

Author's Note: Thanks to Sheva Das for betaing! Please read and review!