Hello human beings of the interweb.

This is technically not my first Fanfic, but my first one was crap and ultimately a bust so I'm going to consider this one my first if that's alright with you guys. So enjoy and whatnot.

Disclaimer (because it needs to be done): I don't own Percy Jackson. Just the story and the OCs.

Chapter One: Percy

"Hey, Percy?"

Percy turned around, diverting his attention from the open suitcase in front of him, to see Annabeth in the open doorway of Cabin 3, population: Percy Jackson. He smiled at her presence. "Yes?"

"Before you unpack, you want to come with me on a patrol. I want to help some of the other campers go out to look for new demigods."

"Yeah, sure." He stood up and stretched. "I was hoping for a little excitement anyway."

She scoffed. "Like you don't get enough excitement as the son of Poseidon."

"Yep." Percy walked over to her and leaned against the wall. "But there's nothing like the screams of thirteen year old children being chased by Stymphalian birds at ten o'clock in the morning."

"That's morbid."

Percy rolled his eyes playfully. "Come on. You can't say that the new demigods aren't hilariously terrified over everything."

Annabeth giggled. "Okay, maybe they are. But can you blame them? At least most of them don't faint like you did."

"I did not faint!" He protested.

"You did. You also drooled in your sleep. You still do."

"I do not drool!"

Annabeth, all of a sudden, stood on her toes and kissed him. Percy leaned down and cupped her cheek tenderly to reciprocate the kiss. And just as suddenly as it started, it ended when Annabeth took a step back outside. "Yes you do. Now come on." And being the obedient lovesick puppy that he was, Percy followed her.

Camp Half-Blood had completely recovered since the battle with Gaea and Camp Jupiter. The damage that had been done had been repaired and the campers were once again back to their normal lives, or as normal as a life can get when one is a demigod.

The Athena Parthenos stood facing the Long Island Sound like a sentinel, protecting the camp from external harms. Percy smiled at the forty-foot tall memento of their quest to stop Gaea. Obviously, not all of the memories of that journey were good ones (actually most of them were bad ones) but he had forged some of the greatest friendships that he had ever had.

Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand as they walked to the edge of the water where Blackjack was somehow already hooked up to a chariot, along with another pegasus. Both chariots were empty.

"Yo, boss. You got any donuts?" Blackjack asked.

"Do I look like I have any donuts?"

"No, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

"Peter!" someone shouted behind him.

Percy turned around and sighed. "It's Percy, Mr. D."

"That's great. I want you to take another camper with you."

"Okay, sure. Why?"

"Because you might need it." Mr. D winked.

Percy looked at him suspiciously. "You're being strangely cryptic."

Ignoring him, Mr. D turned around to look back at the camp and pointed to another camper who happened to be walking by. "You. Mather Shoe."

The camper raised his eyebrows. "It's Xander Shaw."

He waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever. I want you to go with Perry and Anabel to do… whatever they're doing." He walked away, sipping from his can of Coca-Cola all the way.

Percy looked at Xander Shaw. He had seen him around camp before, but it was one of the campers that he just never talked to. His camp necklace had three beads on it, one of them being a picture of the Empire State Building from the Battle for New York and another being of the Athena Parthenos from the year before. Percy's own necklace had a slightly more personalized bead for last year, his being the Argo II. Annabeth had a matching one on hers.

The kid looked to be a couple years younger than him, maybe sixteen. His dark hair was carefully styled to give it that carefree, tousled look. There was one odd streak of silver mixed in with the chocolate brown of his hair, and it wasn't very different from the streak of gray that had only recently disappeared from his own hair as an after effect of holding up the sky. He had the mischievous, calculating glint in his eyes of a typical Hermes kid and the elf-like features that complimented the look. He looked similar to the other Hermes children, like the Stoll brothers.

"Nice to meet you, Xander. Hermes Cabin, right?"

He put on an expression of mock surprise. "How ever did you figure that out, Percy?"

Okay, then. This kid is… a little strange. "Okay, Xander. We're going to look for new demigods. You really don't have to come if you don't want to. I'm sure Mr. D won't care."

"No, I'll come. Watching kids scream as they run for their lives from an empousa sounds fun."

"See, Annabeth." Percy said, gesturing to Xander. "It's not just me. It's not morbid."

"No, it's definitely morbid." Xander said, climbing into the last chariot. "But where's the fun in it if it isn't morbid." With that last remark, he took off into the sky.

Percy looked to Annabeth with a smile. "I like this kid."

"You would."

They soared through the sky over New York City, not caring enough if they were spotted by the people down on the ground. With the mist, they would probably think they saw a sea plane or something. And it was starting to get dark anyway. They had started by going south and circling around the tri-state area. After searching the city, they were planning on going back for a well deserved pizza-and-blue-Coke dinner.

"See any monsters?"

Annabeth looked around again. "Nope."

Percy leaned against the side of the chariot. "Annabeth. It just occurred to me that soon we're going to go off to college and start a new life away from the monsters and the fighting and the prophecies."

"Yeah." Annabeth sighed. "I really don't know the first thing about living a completely normal life. My entire existence has been dominated by me being a demigod."

"It doesn't matter." He drew closer to her until their foreheads were touching. "It doesn't matter because I am never going to leave your side. I promised you that when you found me at Camp Jupiter. And I've kept my promise since then, haven't I?"

"But you have to continue to keep that promise, okay?"

Percy engulfed her in his arms. Her hair smelled like lemon soap and strawberries. Their bodies seemed to fit perfectly with one another's as if they were two adjacent puzzle piece in their own little corner of the universe. "Of course."

After all the life-threatening situations that they had been in, it was these moments that Percy seemed to live for. The quiet ones in which everything was perfect and whole and pure. He could honestly have stayed like that forever.

"Hey, love birds. Sorry to burst your little bubble of domestic euphoria but there's something going on down there." Xander yelled over the wind.

They broke apart, Percy still euphoric from the innocent moment with Annabeth. They looked in the direction where Xander was pointing and saw a couple of hellhounds chasing after a small figure through the backstreets of the city.

The two chariots began to descend to intercept the group. As they neared, Percy could see that the target demigod in question was definitely not thirteen. She looked to be closer to fifteen or even sixteen, which was strange considering that a couple of years ago, he had made the gods promise to claim all of their demigod children by the time they turned thirteen. Obviously someone didn't get the memo.

"What are a couple of hellhounds doing out in the middle of the day? Any ideas?" Annabeth asked.

Percy shrugged. "They seemed to be heading away from the all-you-can-eat burrito place on 25th street, so I've got nothing else."

Annabeth, as expected, pointedly ignored the comment and steered Blackjack in the direction of the not-thirteen-year-old girl.

Overall, the girl was doing pretty well to keep ahead of the hellhounds by darting into small alleys, until two more hellhounds appeared on the opposite side of the alley, boxing the girl in. Percy, Annabeth and Xander jumped down from the chariots to face the hellhounds, much to the surprise of the overly terrified demigod girl.

"Don't look now, but it's the apple lady." Blackjack said before edging away from the danger.

"Apple lady?"

Percy was so focused on the hellhounds that he didn't notice the black figure that had appeared from behind the hellhounds. She wore a ridiculously black dress with black makeup to complement the look that make her look like every single goth person that Percy had ever seen had been mushed into one body. She had the crazed look of a serial killer at a slaughterhouse, which didn't reassure Percy at all about her intentions.

"Wasn't she one of the children of Nyx that we saw in Tartarus?" Percy asked.

Annabeth cringed outwardly at the mention of Tartarus. That was not a time that either of them liked to remember. "Yes, that's Eris."

"I'm so flattered that you remember me, Percy Jackson. Now please kindly step aside as I rip out this girl's esophagus."

"Excuse me?!" The demigod girl shouted.

"Not today, Eris. Everyone knows that ripping out people's' esophaguses out is more of a Thursday thing." Percy said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Yes, Percy. I'm sure that's very reassuring for the girl."

"I have a name you know."

"Yes, that's great. But if you haven't noticed, now is not really the time for introductions." Xander told her.

"What do you want, Eris?"

Eris scoffed and took a step forward. "Since when do I need to answer the stupid questions of a demigod." She pointed a crooked finger at the group of demigods and the hellhounds shot forward.

Percy uncapped his pen and it grew into the sword, Riptide. As the first hellhound dove in his direction, he sidestepped it and slashed the beast's exposed belly. It cried out, but immediately came back into the fight. The second hellhound was more cautious and sneaky. It jumped straight over Percy to try and attack Xander's exposed back. Just as it was about to land on him, Annabeth ran in front of it and the hellhound fell straight into her dagger face first and evaporated into dust.

One of the hellhounds from the other side had tackled the girl to the ground and seemed to want to eat her face, while she desperately held out her hands to keep the hellhound's frothing mouth away from her. Percy thrust his sword into its side and stabbed it until it, too exploded into dust.

"Watch out!" Xander shouted from behind him.

Percy turned to see Xander decapitate a hellhound that was just about to pounce on him from behind. He had to admit, Xander wielded his twin swords pretty skillfully.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

After the last hellhound saw all of his comrades get killed, he was about to turn and flee when Annabeth jumped onto its back and thrust her dagger into its head.

Xander whistled, impressed. "Damn."

"Yeah." Percy agreed.

They all turned to face Eris, who was looking just a little bit angry that they had defeated her hellhounds so quickly. But she also could have been a lot angrier. "You will pay for this defeat later, demigods. The eternal night is coming and you won't be able to stop it. Your precious camp will fall and we will harvest the souls of all the people you hold dear. But you, Percy Jackson. You will be the last to fall. You will watch your world burn and beg for mercy. Mercy that will not come." Suddenly, the world was engulfed in shadow, and it was so dark that Percy couldn't see anything. But just as quickly as the darkness came, it left and Eris was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, on that pleasant note." Percy turned to look at the girl, who was cowering against the wall. "What's your name?"

"What the heck just happened?!"

"We'll explain later. Just come with us. We can take you somewhere that's safe."

"Didn't that woman just threaten your life? And you're not scared at all? And those dog things were the size of bears!"

Annabeth took a step forward and bent down. "Calm down. Everything is going to be okay. What is your name?"

"Quinn."

"Hi, Quinn. I'm Annabeth. You have any family, Quinn?"

She shook her head.

"Do you want to come with us?" Annabeth asked.

Quinn shied away, suspicious. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere where people like us can live in relative safety."

"People like us?"

"Demigods. Children of mortal and immortal descent."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. You think that I am a demigod? Oh my god I am going crazy."

"You're not going crazy."

"But that's impossible, monsters like that and-and-and Greek gods and stuff like that, none of that exists. That's all just legends and tales made up by people a long time ago."

"How did you know that it was Greek?"

"You called that woman Eris, right? Like the Greek goddess of discord and strife?"

Annabeth turned to Percy. "I like this one."

"You would." He replied, smiling.

Annabeth turned back to Quinn and began to talk to her again. Instead of listening in again, Percy pulled Xander aside. "Thanks for saving my butt earlier."

"It was nothing." Xander glanced over at the girls. "Why was Eris so interested in that girl? I can understand why monsters would attack a demigod, but a god attacking a demigod? And what was all that stuff that Eris said about eternal night and all that jazz?"

Percy shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. But Mr. D seemed to know something when he told you to come with us. Something really weird is happening and I really don't want to be involved in the next big world-ending crisis."

Thanks guys for reading this. It would greatly appreciated it you guys could give me some feedback on my writing give me some ideas for what I could do in the later chapters.

I am hoping to submit a chapter every week now that its summer and I don't have to worry about school and shit.

So now that that is over with:

I am sorry that my OCs are shit but they will get better later (probably) and I'm sorry that I don't have a sense of humor but fuck it I can't tell jokes for my life.