Story Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titans Hunt.
Chapter Title: Just Dance (Gonna be okay)
Author: Cloud/Silver (CloudyLights SilverNights).
Rating: T
Series: Percy and the Olympians.
Word Count: 5, 336
Contains: Some Cursing
Beta: MrsLukeCastellan.
Disclaimers: I don't own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, or any excerpts from Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.
Author Note: And here we are with the second chapter! Thank you so much to everybody that reviewed and put this story on their favorites list, you have no idea how much it means to me! This chapter isn't too long, but there's a reason for that. Also, before you guys read, I feel like I should say that this isn't going to be a flat-out rewrite of The Titan's Curse. While an AU, it will take some time for me to build up to my changing point, so just bare with me.

Have you ever had one of those weird days where you're just confused? Where everything seems wrong to you and the people around you don't aren't making any sense?

That's how I was feeling the next day, where everything was tense to say the least. After a really short breakfast, we spent most of the morning packing and getting our things together. That sounds okay, right? Nothing too wrong about that.

No, the weird part was how Thalia and Annabeth avoided me the entire time, or at least that's what I think they were doing. Whenever any of us walked through the apartment and bumped into each other, they'd make up some excuse to not speak to me and just leave. The whole thing really confused me, especially when Annabeth did it. I could understand with Thalia, we weren't exactly the best of friends to begin with, but with Annabeth I couldn't help but feel a sense of betrayal. Annabeth was supposed to be my best-friend, and the fact that she was making up excuses to avoid me was almost enough to make me want to cry.

While I was angry with them at first, I eventually just shrugged it off. Girls were weird, that was a fact.

That's why I was so glad to be sitting up front while they were in the back, whispering and stealing glances at me when they thought I wasn't looking.

In case you were wondering, that was sarcasm. And if you didn't catch that, just wait until you hear about what happened during the car ride: nothing at all. Like I said, all they would do was whisper to each other about something. I saw Annabeth take some paper out of her backpack, a silver thing, and show it to Thalia, but Thalia got red in the face. Thalia looked like she was about to snap at Annabeth, but when she was me watching them, she just went silent and turned, and stared out of the winder at the snow and sleet that pounded us the entire way. After a few attempts of trying to get her attention again, Annabeth ended up doing the same, with me following along with her. Within the three hours, the car ride was almost completely filled with silence.

I say almost, because of my mom. You see while Thalia, Annabeth, and I were too nervous to talk much, my mom talks even more when she get's nervous. By the time we finally got to Westover Hall, it was night, and my Mom had Thalia and Annabeth in the backseat laughing their asses off because she'd managed to tell them every embarrassing baby story there was to tell about me.

Thalia wiped the fog of the backseat window and peered outside, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Oh yeah. This ought to be fun."

From the moment we pulled up, it was easy to tell that Westover Hall was a military-type school. The imposing building had been built from gray stone, hidden by shadows that the cold night created, making the building looked like something from a horror film. Four tall towers at every corner of the building, with plenty of small windows that looked an awful lot like arrow slits with a set of big, heavy wooden double doors. It stood on a cliff overlooking a creepy dark forest on one side, and a gray churning ocean on the ocean.

"This looks like some place that Hades would vacation at." I said, looking out the window with her.

"Yeah," she agreed.

After a few more seconds of looking at the massive building, we got out and pulled our bags out of the trunk of the car. As we getting ready to leave, my Mom pulled me back to talk to me. My mom, being her usual worrying self, had wanted to stay behind and wait for us in case anything happened, but I hadn't wanted her to. It was already bad enough that I had to have my mom drive me to my missions.

After a few minutes of snickering at me, Annabeth had reassured my mom that nothing bad would happen to me, which made my mom sigh in relief. During the couple weeks that they'd stayed with us, my mom had really gotten to know Annabeth and Thalia. She knew how smart and levelheaded Annabeth was, and knew how powerful and good a fighter Thalia was. The three of had been on missions together before, and I like to think we make a pretty good team.

"You shouldn't be so harsh to your mom, Percy." Thalia said, once my Mom drove away. "She's really great, and you're really lucky to have her."

"I know, she just smothers me sometimes, and I hate it." I said, sighing. "But what about you? Did you ever get in touch with your mom?"

I regretted asking before the words even left my mouth. In the short amount of time that I've known her, if there was one thing that I learned about Thalia, it's that she's great when it comes to giving evil looks. When she stayed with my mom and I, she wore normal clothes, so she didn't look too intimidating. But when she dressed in her normal punk outfit—a black leather jacket, black leather pants, and chain jewelery—and with those intense electric-blue eyes of hers, she was easily one of the scariest people at Camp.

Right now, the glare that she was giving me was almost enough to make me want to take it back.

"Um, let's get going." I said, looking away from her.

Annabeth nodded in agreement. "Grover and his team are probably waiting for us right now."

Thalia gave me one last glare, before she looked at the castle and shivered. "Yeah. I wonder what they found here that made him send out a distress call…especially one that knocked Percy flat on his ass."

I stared up at the dark towers of Westover Hall and sighed.

"Nothing good," I guessed. "Nothing good at all."

… … … … … … … … …

The huge wooden doors groaned open, and the three of us stepped into the entry hall in a swirl of snow and ice wind.

All I could say was, "Is this a school or a shrine to Ares and Athena?"

The inside was huge, a whole lot bigger than it looked outside and that was saying something. The walls, painted in red and gray, were lined with battle flags and weapon displays: antique pistols, antique rifles, old daggers, and a bunch of other war relics. I mean, I knew that Westover was supposed to be some sort of military school, but this was just over doing it.

'There's something wrong about this place.' I thought. 'Something dangerous.'

With that in mind, my hand went to my pocket, where I kept my sword Anaklusmos in its hidden form as a ballpoint pen. I looked at Thalia and saw her rubbing her bracelet with her mace canister out; the hidden forms of her shield and spear, respectively.

Annabeth started to say, "I wonder where—"

The doors slammed shut behind us.

"Oo-kay." I mumbled. "That wasn't creepy at all."

I could hear music echoing from the other end of the hall. It sounded like dance music.

We stashed our overnight bags behind a pillar and started down the hall. We hadn't gone very far when footsteps echoed from our right. Out of the shadows, a man and woman stepped out to intercept us. They had short gray hair and black military-style uniforms with red trim. What seemed backwards to me was that the man was clean-shaven and the woman had a thin mustache. They both walked with the normal army-march-style as if they had their spines stretched out by Procrustes except that they were already six feet tall.

"Well?" the woman demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"Um..." I looked at my companions. I realized we hadn't really planned on how we would get in to the party. We were only focusing on what Grover had told us. There were apparently two demigods that we needed to rescue. I locked eyes with Annabeth. I urged her to make up an excuse.

"Well, ma'am. Uh, you see—" she started.

"Ha!" the man snapped, which made me jump. "Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be eee-jected!"

He had an accent—French, maybe. He pronounced his J like in Jacques, He was tall, with a hawkish face. His nostrils flared when he spoke, which made it really hard not to stare up his nose, and his eyes were two different colors—one brown, one blue—like an alley cat's.

I figured that in any moment, he was going to toss the three of us into the snow, but then I met Annabeth's eyes. Use the Mist(1), she mouthed to me. I glanced over at Thalia, and saw that she were nodding, as if she had seen Annabeth's message as well. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and concentrated on the Mist. You see, the Mist was this really powerful force. At its base, the Mist was just used to separate the Greek world from the Mortal world. But if you had training in it, the kind of training that Chiron was currently teaching to Thalia and I, then you could a whole lot more with.

For example, you could use it to mess with the minds of Mortals. I focused on the energy and clapped my hands together. At the same time, Thalia took a couple quick steps to stand next to me and snapped her fingers. The space around us rippled and a soft gust of air rushed around the hallway and through the entire building, ruffling our clothes and messing up our hair

Thalia and I shared a look, smiling triumphantly.

"But we're not visitors, sir." I said, smirking. "We got to school here. You remember us, the Jackson's?"

"I'm Thalia and this is my twin brother Percy, and our cousin Annabeth." Thalia added. "We're in the eighth grade, in your class actually."

The female teacher eyes glazed over, but the male teacher narrowed his two-colored eyes at us. He frowned at us and turned to his colleague. "Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?"

Despite the danger we were in, I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. A teacher named Got Chalk? He had to be kidding.

"Yes…I do. Perseus, Thalia, and Annabeth Jackson." The woman smiled at us, although it looked painful on her stiff face. "What are you three doing out of the gymnasium?"

Before any of us could come up with some kind of ridiculous excuse, we heard the sound of footsteps coming in our direction. Grover, my half-goat best-friend, came running around the corner, nearly crashing into a suit of armor. Trailing right behind him were two people, a boy and a girl. They both looked to be about my age; The boy had light skin like me, with platinum blond hair and sky blue eyes. The girl had darker skin, a smooth brown like Annabeth's, with curly black hair and dark brown eyes. It was Will Solace and Katie Gardner.

'They must be Grover's team.' I thought.

"Guys!" Grover cried happily. "You made it! You—"

He stopped when they saw the teachers. "Oh, Mr. Gottschalk, Dr. Thorn! I—We, uh—"

"What is it, Mr. Underwood?" Dr. Thorn asked. He looked Grover up and down, and frowned disapprovingly. It was obvious that he detested Grover. "What do you mean 'They made it'? These students live here, along with the rest of you little ingrates."

Ms. Gottschalk sniffed. "And just what are you doing here? And with Mr. Solace and Ms. Gardner no less?"

"I—I, um…" Grover trailed off and swallowed. "Yes, sir. Of course, Dr. Thorn. I just meant, I'm so glad they made… the punch for the dance! The punch is great. And they made it!"

I bit my tongue again. That was a terrible lie, and I figured that we would've gotten in more trouble had it not been for Ms. Got-Chalk.

"Yes, the punch is excellent. Now run along, all of you. You are not to leave the gymnasium again!"

We didn't wait to be told twice. We left with a lot of "Yes, ma'ams" and "Yes, sirs" and a couple of salutes, just because it seemed like the thing to do.

Grover hustled us down the hall in the direction of the music.

Grover hurried us to a door that had GYM written on the glass. Even with my dyslexia, I could read that much.

"That was close!" Grover said. "Thank the gods you got here!"

Annabeth and Thalia both gave Grover and Will hugs, before they squealed and enveloped Katie in a massive hug, which Katie gladly returned. Rolling my eyes, I gave Will and Katie hugs of my own, and gave Grover a big high five.

I told them I it was good to see them, and I meant it. Will and Katie were among the first friends that I'd made at Camp, and Grover was my best-friend. After being away from them for so many months in the Mortal World, it was refreshing to see some familiar faces. Grover had gotten a little taller and had sprouted a few more whiskers, but otherwise he looked like he always did when he passed for human—a red cap on his curly brown hair to hide his goat horns, baggy jeans and sneakers with fake feet to hide his furry legs and hooves. He was wearing a black T-shirt that took me a few seconds to read. It said WESTOVER HALL: GRUNT. I wasn't sure whether that was, like, Grover's rank or maybe just the school motto.

"So, you guys found a half-blood here?" Thalia asked. "That's what Percy told us."

Although there were a lot of us, finding a single half-blood was still pretty rare. This year, Chiron had put the satyrs on emergency overtime and sent them all over the country, scouring schools from fourth grade through high school for possible recruits. These were desperate times. We were losing campers fast, and we needed to find and protect all the new Campers that we could.

"Not just one." Katie said. "There's two of the, twins(2)."

Thalia's eyebrows raised. "Twins?"

Will nodded. "Yeah, and for a couple undetermined kids, they're already pretty powerful. The first time we met them face-to-face, their aura was almost enough to make Grover stumble."

Katie nodded. "We don't know their exact parentage, but who ever their Godly Parent is, it's gotta be a First Generation Olympian(3); their too strong not to be."

"And that's the problem." Grover said. "They're too powerful. We're running out of time, and we need help. Your guy's help."

I exchanged a look with Thalia and Annabeth, and asked, "Monsters?"

"One." Will said. "There used to be more, but Katie and I took care of them."

"Then why don't you just take care of the last one?" Thalia asked, frowning.

"Because he hasn't revealed himself yet." Grover said nervously. "He suspects. I don't think he's positive yet, but this is the last day of term. I'm sure he won't let them leave campus without finding out. It may be our last chance! Every time we try to get close to them, he's always there, blocking us. I don't know what to do!"

"Right." Thalia said. "Are they at the dance?"

They nodded.

"Any idea who the monster is?" I asked. "We need to know that before we make any sort of plan."

"You just met him." Grover said coming to a stop, looking at us with serious eyes. "The vice-principle, Dr. Thorn."

"Any idea what he is?" I asked, slipping my wristwatch on as we continued walking.

They shook their heads.

"None." Will said. "I just know that it won't be easy to kill him."

… … … … … … … … …

Reaching the gym, Grover hid his horns under his hat before we stepped into the loud room.

Weird thing about military schools: the kids go absolutely nuts when there's a special event and they get to be out of uniform. I guess it's because everything's so strict the rest of the time, they feel like they've got to overcompensate or something.

There were black and red balloons all over the gym floor, and guys were kicking them in each others faces, or trying to strangle each other with the crepe-paper streamers taped to the walls. Girls moved around in football huddles, the way they always do, wearing lots of makeup and spaghetti-strap tops and brightly colored pants and shoes that looked like torture devices. Every once in a while they'd surround some poor guy like a pack of piranhas, shrieking and giggling, and when they finally moved on, the guy would have ribbons in his hair and a bunch of lipstick graffiti all over his face. Some of the older guys looked more like me—uncomfortable, hanging out at the edges of the gym and trying to hide, like any minute they might have to fight for their lives.

I mentally snorted. 'Mortals. They don't know how easy they have it.'

"There they are." Grover nodded toward a couple of younger kids arguing in the bleachers. "Bianca and Nico di Angelo."

I followed his gaze. At first, I assumed that they were twins, they resembled each other to look it, but as I continued watching them, I could see that they weren't. The girl, who was obviously the older of the two, looked to be just a few inches shorter than me and wore a green baseball cap, like she was trying to hide her face. She was really pretty, I saw, with olive skin and silky dark hair. The boy, obviously her younger brother, had the same olive skin and silky hair as his sister. The boy was shuffling some deck of trading card, while his sister was scolding him about something. Every now and then, she'd look around the gym like she sensed that something was wrong.

Annabeth sighed. "Do you know the Demigods at least?"

"Not well enough." Katie answered. She ran a hand through her curly hair and sighed. "They stay together and don't talk to anybody unless they have to, especially the girl. Getting them out of here is going to be hard.

Annabeth nodded and turned to Grover. "You haven't told them, right?"

Grover shook his head. "You know how it is. That could put them in more danger. Once they realize who they are, their scent becomes stronger."

He looked at me, and I nodded. I'd never really understood what half-bloods "smell" like to monsters and satyrs, but I knew that your scent could get you killed. And the more powerful a demigod you became, the more you smelled like a monster's lunch.

"Don't look at the kids," Thalia ordered. "We have to wait for a chance to get them. We need to pretend we're not interested in them. Throw him off the scent."

"How?"

"We're a group of powerful half-bloods. Our presence should confuse him. Mingle. Act natural. Do some dancing. But keep an eye on those kids."

"Dancing?" Annabeth asked.

Thalia nodded, rolling her eyes slightly, the electric blue irises seemingly glowing. She cocked her ear to the music and made a face, her lips twisting down in a grotesque grimace. "Ugh. Who chose the Jesse McCartney?"

Grover looked hurt. "I did."

"Grover,." Thalia said, "Couldn't you have played Paramore or something?"

"Or Green Day?" I asked, looking at him. "Anything but this."

"Green who?" Grover asked, bemused. "And what's parent-more?"

"Never mind." Thalia sighs, rolling her eyes again. "You are impossible, Grover."

"No I'm not!" Grover says indignantly. "I'm not impossible! I'm...possible...?"

"That doesn't even make sense," Annabeth snorted. Then her gaze flitted over to Dr. Thorn, who was leaning against the wall, staring at us suspiciously, both of his eyes murderous. The blue one was leaning towards a fear-inducing iciness, while the brown one was more hostile.

Katie shuddered. "Okay, he definitely suspects something is up."

"Yeah." Annabeth agreed, biting her lip. "Percy, Thalia, are you guys sure that your trick with the Mist worked?"

Thalia and I shared a look, before nodding.

"Yeah, Annabeth, we did it right." Thalia said. "Both teachers are positively convinced that we are students here...though, who would want to be?"

"Apparently everyone here," I pointed out.

"It was a rhetorical question, Barnacle Boy," Thalia snapped, giving me an exasperated look. "Though somehow, I doubt you even know what that means."

I balled my fists and frowned at her. "Oh, so now you're questioning my intelligence?"

Thalia met my angry look with one of her own. "Well...do you know what it means?"

"...no..."

"I rest my case." Thalia said. "But back to the point; we need to split up and dance. Me and Percy's spell might have fooled him, but he knows that something's up."

All of us turned and glanced at Dr. Thorn, who was glaring at us. The girls shared a quick look, before Katie hurriedly left with Will, leaving Grover and I with Thalia and Annabeth. Thalia then glanced at Annabeth, before they both grabbed onto Grover's arms and said, "Let's dance."

I frowned at them and crossed my arms. "What am I, kelp?"

Thalia laughed. "Exactly."

Annabeth dragged Grover and called back to us, "Get some medical aid for me when Grover starts kicking my shins."

Thalia suddenly laughed again and shook her head, smiling.

"What?" I asked her.

She shook her head again. "Nothing, it's just funny to see two of my closest friends dancing."

Both Thalia and Annabeth had grown taller than me since last summer, which really got to me. Like I'd said before, she wasn't decked out in her usual punk gear, and was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a black sweater. She pulled her own ski cap and her hair mane of hair fell to her shoulders in a mess of waves.

"So..." I tried to break the silence, but I'm pretty sure that I made it even worse. Talking to girls wasn't really one of my strong points. "How have things been going lately?"

Thalia smirked, as if she could sense my discomfort. She opened her mouth to speak, but Annabeth suddenly appeared saying, "Dance, you guys. You look suspicious just standing there!"

Thalia and I stood awkwardly for a few seconds as we watched Annabeth try and show Grover how to slow dance. I could see that she was already regretting her choice, however, when he steps on her foot, crushing it beneath his hoof. Thalia snorted, rolling her eyes for the umpteenth time today.

Shaking my head, I looked at Thalia and then at the girls in the gym.

"So what now?" I asked, running a hand through my hair.

Thalia looked at me, her arms crossed and an expectant look on her face. "Well?"

I scratched me head. "Who should I ask?"

"You don't go to a lot of dances, do you?" Thalia laughed, making me blush.

"Not really." I shrugged, biting my lip. "Who should I ask?"

Thalia gave me a blank look, before she pointed a finger at me and sent a small jolt of electricity into my shoulder. "Me, Kelp Head."

I felt my eyes grow wide. "I don't dance."

"You do now." she said. "Come on."

Taking a deep breath, I took Thalia's hand and walked her onto the dance floor, where I saw the rest of our friends. I put one hand on Thalia hip, and she clasped my other hand like she was about to shock me again. Taking a deep breath, I led Thalia around the dance floor and soon began swaying to the music with her.

After a few minutes, I took her hand and spun her in a circle. Looking around, I saw yet another fell victim to the girls with lipstick and ribbons. I watched on as few couples danced around the gym trying their best to avoid the reckless boys and graffiti girls. I stepped back from Thalia a little, to take more of the scene in. I imagined I was a detective. I kept my eye on the di Angelo's, making sure to not to stare directly at them. I tried to think of who their godly parent was; however, I couldn't narrow it down. Both of them looked so familiar, almost alarmingly so. With their dark hair, they resembled the Demeter kids in Cabin Four, but their eyes were too dark.

Looking away from them, I turned back to look at Thalia. Although I wasn't too sure, she seemed like she was having a pretty good time; she had a small smile on her face, and no matter what way she moved her head, the light of the dance floor seemed to reflect right off her blue eyes, making them look even brighter than they usually did.

"What are you staring at?" Thalia demanded.

"Are you dizzy from rolling your eyes all the time?" I blurt out, without thinking.

Thalia narrowed her eyes at me. "If you don't want to find a spear up your as-" Thalia began, but I quickly tightened my hands on her hips and spun her again. "PERCY! What the Hades are you do-"

"Shut up, we're supposed to be dancing," I hissed at her. "In case you haven't noticed, we're being watched by Dr. Thorn."

Frowning, Thalia followed my gaze to the disguised monster and saw that he was looking at us with thinly veiled contempt. Biting her lip, Thalia nodded her head.

"Well," She said, pressing her lips together. "I suppose if we're dancing...we should do it right." Then, before I could blink, she looped her arms around my neck. When she did this, we both froze up as our faces were only inches apart, but then we both relaxed and laughed.

Smiling, I asked her, "Since when are you able to dance?"

"I'm the daughter of Zeus, this stuff is practically in my blood." Thalia said, smirking at me. Then she leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear. "Plus, I had some lessons from Chiron a month ago, before I went to stay with you and Ms. Sally."

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. "Wow, what I would have payed to have seen that."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up."

Smirking at her, I spun her in another circle, before the little "chit-chat" we had before we danced.

"You were about to say something a little bit ago." I remembered. "before Annabeth interrupted us. What was it?"

Thalia nodded. "Do you remember the care ride here, when Annabeth and I were talking in the backseat."

"Kind of." I said, shrugging my shoulder. "I know you two were talking about something, but then Annabeth pulled out some kind of pamphlet and you got mad, and stopped talking to her. What were you talking about anyway?"

Thalia frowned. "Percy, do you know who Artemis is?"

The question caught me by surprise. "Yeah. She's the Goddess of the Moon and Wilderness, right?"

"Yeah," Thalia said, sighing, "but that's not her only domain. She's also the Goddess of the Hunt…and of maidens."

I nodded my head. "Yeah, okay. What about her?"

"Do you know who the Hunters of Artemis are?"

I nodded my head again. "Kind of. I know they're supposed to be this group of girls that go traveling with Artemis, like her personal Girl Scouts, but that's all I know."

"I don't really think I'm the best person to be telling you this but—" she suddenly froze mid-sentence, her eyes going wide. "They're gone!"

"What?"

"The di Angelo's they're gone."

I looked back towards the bleachers where I expected the di Angelo siblings to be, but when I looked over they were nowhere to be seen. Looking around, I noticed a figure closing a door behind him. Dr. Thorn, I thought bitterly.

"We need to find the others," I told Thalia. "Let them know what's happened."

Cloud: Hey everybody! As I promised, here's the next chapter, albeit a couple days later. Like I said in my AN at the beginning of the Chapter, this story is going to be AU, but I'm taking steps to getting it there. I actually liked this chapter, mainly because I'm a big fan of Thalia and Percy's dynamic, and this chapter gave me a chance to write a nice scene between them! Although this isn't a romantic Perlia story, my days of shipping those two are over, you can definitely look out for more scenes with the two of them spending time together.

Anyway, time for Notes and things!

1) Yeah, I decided to make it so that Percy learned how to control the Mist along side Thalia. There's actually a reason for this, which you will find out later on.

2) Yeah, my first official change to Canon as a whole. I've seen this idea in a few PJO/HoO Fanfictions, and I'm a really big fan of it, because a lot of them tend to include them having these cool shared abilities, which is something that I may or may not put into this story.

3) A First Generation Olympian is exactly what the name says: Olympians of the First Generation, the Gods who whose parents were Titans. They're the oldest of the Gods, and the most powerful of them as a result.

That's it for right now. I'm already working on the third chapter though, which I promise will be up before the week is over, and if I really get on a roll, I'll have the fourth chapter up too! Anyways, make sure to hit the review chapter and tell me what you thought about this chapter! What did you like and dislike about it? What was your favorite part, and what part did you think I could change/build on?