Chapter 3

ANNABETH

Annabeth woke, head resting against Percy's chest, her hair leaving a wet spot. She got up gently, the steady breathing of her husband ensuring he was still asleep.

Good, Annabeth thought. He needs his sleep.

Pulling her hair into a loose bun, she sighed. She fingered the grocery list in her pocket, and she glanced to the slowly piling dishes in the sink.

Look at me. Once a hero of Olympus, now a housewife needing to go grocery shopping. She couldn't help smiling.

She heard a scream from outside. Percy bolted awake and jumped out of the chair.

"Annabeth?

"I'm fine. It came from outside."

Percy whipped around, grabbing a pen from the desk.

"Wrong pen!" Annabeth shouted.

Percy slammed the pen back down on the desk and grabbed a different one. He uncapped it, and it transformed into a beautiful blade. Riptide never ceased to mesmerize Annabeth.

Percy ran towards the door. Annabeth grabbed her own dagger and ran after him.

When she got to the front porch, she stopped in her tracks. There before her, on the street, were two thirteen-year-old girls, one a strawberry blonde, the other dirty blonde, being chased by two Gorgons. The monsters were running after them, batting their wings to try and catch the girls. The girls, in their turn, were throwing everything they could get their hands on at the Gorgons. A trashcan lid hit one of the monsters in the face, and sent her sprawling. As the Gorgon shakily stood, she glared at the girls.

"What was that for? I was just offering you some of Bargain Mart's finest samples! And what do you do? You whack me with a stupid trashcan lid! I'll show you!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Percy had told her about Stheno and Euryale, the two sisters of Medusa. Percy had fought them when he first went to Camp Jupiter, a little over three years ago. The one offering the samples had to be Stheno. But Annabeth didn't have much time to just stand and watch. Right then, one of the girls, the strawberry blonde, tripped and fell, screaming. The other Gorgon, Euryale, turned towards her, and charged. But suddenly, out of nowhere, another trashcan lid came flying towards Euryale. There was no time for her to react. It hit her right in the ribs, and threw her off her flight pattern, so that she crashed into a minivan.

"That'll teach you to mess with my sister, you overgrown fleabag!"

Annabeth looked in the direction that the trashcan lid had come from, and saw the other girl standing beside the lamppost she had been hiding behind. She made a Frisbee-throwing motion with her arm, and looked around, as if trying to sight her next target. Suddenly, she remembered her sister.

"Oh my gosh! Lizzie! Are you okay? Speak to me, sister!"

The dirty blonde hurried to her sister's side, and crouched down next to her. She checked her pulse, and her heartbeat.

"Hang in there, Lizzie! Don't die on me! I'm too young to be twinless! Oh," she perked up, drying her eyes. "If you do die, can I have all of your Josh Groban CDs? And your Taylor Swift T-shirt? Oh, and your…"

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Lindsey, darling sister, but I am very much alive, and even if I was dead, I would never let you have my Keith Urban CDs, or my Taylor Swift T-shirt, or anything else that I own!"

Lizzie got up and brushed herself off, glaring at her sister. Her knee was bleeding pretty badly. When Annabeth moved towards her, she waved her off.

"It's just a scrape," she said.

"Well," said Percy. "We'll have to fix you up later. But right now, we have two Gorgons to kill."

With that, he charged towards Stheno, who was helping her sister peel herself off of the minivan.

Euryale saw him at the last second, but that gave the Gorgons just enough time to fly out of the way. Percy tried to check himself, but his momentum carried him forward, right into the minivan.

"Percy!" Annabeth ran to his side, but he waved her away.

"I'm fine," he said. "But there are about to be two Gorgons who aren't!"

Stheno and Euryale landed on the ground about ten yards away, making sure that they were far enough away to be out of Lindsey's throwing range.

"So, Perseus Jackson," hissed Euryale. "We meet again."

"Yeah," said Percy. "It's been a long time, hasn't it, Euryale? As I recall, the first time we met was outside of Camp Jupiter, where I easily killed you again and again. It would have been a lot more convenient if you'd stayed dead for more than ten minutes. But now, your patron, Gaea, is defeated, and you can be killed again. I remember; I killed you on the Field Of Mars during the battle at Camp Jupiter. Hopefully, this time will be easier than the others."

Annabeth rolled her eyes again. Percy had started to monologue, again.

Percy started walking towards the Gorgons, and they backed away with every step he took.

"Um, Euryale, maybe we should leave now. I don't like the look of his sword." Stheno started to flap her wings nervously.

"Are you kidding me, sister? I would rather die at the hand of this son of the sea god than go back to you-know-who empty-handed."

"Who?" Stheno seemed at a loss.

"Yes, that's what I said. You-know-who."

"But I don't know, sister! Who?"

"Argh!" She turned to the humans. "See what I have to put up with all day? She's unbearable!" She turned back to Stheno, and said "Mr. Pierce! That's who! Our employer!"

"Hold up!" Percy said. "You mean that you guys were sent to kill us, by somebody else? I thought you guys were just in the neighborhood, and dropped by to get revenge. Well, this is something that…Annabeth, you definitely need to figure out! But who are you working for?"

This last comment referred back to the Gorgons.

"Oh," said Stheno, "That'd be Mr. Donovan Pierce. He says that he wants to kill…"

She was cut off by another trashcan lid, which hit her in the face.

Annabeth looked around.

"Lindsey?"

"It, it wasn't me, honest!"

"Sister, SHUT UP!"

They were all surprised to hear Euryale's harsh voice, directed towards her sister. She had grabbed a nearby trashcan lid and hurled it at Stheno. Annabeth, Percy and the twins turned and stared at her.

"You'll ruin everything, Stheno! Don't say another word, or I'll tear you to shreds! This job would be easier if I could do it by myself, anyway. I would have killed the half-bloods ages ago if it wasn't for you and your stupid Bargain Mart samples!"

Annabeth decided that this had gone far enough. She quietly snuck up behind Euryale, and with one quick thrust, put an end to both her annoying complaints, and her life. For a little while, at least.

"I'm sorry, Percy. I knew you wanted to do that yourself, but you weren't doing it quick enough for my liking. Now, you can have Stheno, if you want, though I doubt she'll be very much sport, for a great demigod like you."

Annabeth let the sarcasm drip off her words, making Percy wince.

"Well, my darling wife, I was just distracting her, so that you could get behind her. And I could easily have taken her on face to face, where you had to sneak up on her from the back."

"Oh, really Percy? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that it was you who ran into the minivan back there, trying, and failing, to get at Stheno. And she isn't even half as hard to kill as…"

"Uh, guys," Lizzie's voice interrupted them. "I'm sure you can argue later to your hearts' contents, but we have a very angry whatever-this-is about to come and try to avenge her sister."

"I'll get more trashcan lids!"

"Lindsey," said her twin in a doubtful tone. "I think we've all had enough of trashcan lids for now. Why don't you use this, uh, stick?"

"Nah, I like my Frisbees!"

Lizzie sighed, making Annabeth smile. She had never been very close with her stepbrothers, and she could see the special bond between the twins.

Suddenly, while Annabeth was lost in thought, a blood-curdling scream filled the air. Annabeth looked over towards where the sound had come from, and saw something that she was surprised to see: Percy standing over a pile of dust. She knew that she would probably get a verbal beating from her husband later. She sighed.

"Well, well, well. Look who finally killed himself a Gorgon."

Percy's smug smile made Annabeth feel like an idiot.

"What… what were they?"

Suddenly, Annabeth remembered that there were two thirteen-year-old girls with them who had no idea what had just happened. She turned around, and looked at them.

"Girls," she said, hesitating, "Why don't you come inside, and we'll explain everything."

She gently took the girls by the arm, and pulled them towards her and Percy's house.

About an hour and a half later, Lindsey, Lizzie, Annabeth and Percy were all sitting on the couch in the Jackson's living room. The twins were staring at their hosts.

"I wouldn't believe you, Annabeth," said Lizzie, "If it didn't all make so much sense. I mean, it fits in with everything that's been going on. All the weird stuff we've been seeing… So, you said that we can see through the Mist, right? And that means…what, exactly, for our future?"

"Well," Annabeth answered, "you can never tell. The three people other people that I know, who can see through the Mist, are Rachel Dare, who's our Oracle at Camp Half-Blood—"

"What's an oracle?" Asked Lindsey, who hadn't seemed the least bit frazzled by the news that the old Greek and Roman myths were true. Actually, she, unlike her sister, who was at her wit's end trying to understand it all, seemed very curious about everything, and had taken it all very well.

"Oh," said Percy off-handedly. "It's just a person with a spirit inside them that spews out green smoke and prophecies every once in a while. Nothing to write home about."

Lizzie shivered. "And you know this person? She, it, doesn't sound like someone I'd want to meet on the street."

"Oh, c'mon, sis! I think that this person sounds awesome! When do we get to meet her?"

Annabeth was getting a tad bit concerned about Lindsey's enthusiasm levels. What if the next time she saw a monster, she went up to it and said, "Hi. I'm a big fan of yours! Will you please sign this piece of paper before you kill me?"

"I don't know when you'll be able to meet Rachel, but I'll try to work something out…"

"Awesome! Annabeth, you're the best!"

"Well, anyway," Annabeth shook her head to clear her head. "As I was saying, Rachel became the Oracle because she could see through the Mist, and Percy's mom, Sally Jackson, attracted Poseidon, the god of the sea, because she could see through the Mist, and ended up having Percy with him."

"So, you're saying," said Lizzie, "that we're either going to become oracles, or have demigod kids with gods when we get older?"

"I'm not saying that at all." Annabeth said. "Those are only the what other people I know, who can see through the Mist, do now. I'm not saying that you have to do either of those things."

"You said that there were three people you knew who can see through the Mist, but you've only told us about two." Lindsey, as inquisitive as ever, was the one who said this.

Annabeth glanced over at Percy. He nodded.

"Well," she said, hesitating. "This might not give you a very encouraging impression, but okay. The third person I know who can see through the Mist is a woman named May Castellan. She's the mother of Luke Castellan, the guy who started the second Titan War. When Luke was little, she tried to become the Oracle, but she didn't know that Hades, the god of the Underworld, had cursed the current Oracle, the one she tried to replace. The curse was that the spirit of the Oracle had to remain in the same body, until the children of Hades, who were, back then, considered outcasts, were reconciled to their past dignity. Now, since May didn't know about the curse, she didn't know the danger in trying to take the spirit of the Oracle. When she tried to take in the spirit, she…she…" Annabeth stopped, and stared at her hands, which were clenched tightly in her lap. Percy put his hand on top of hers.

"Let's just say things didn't go so well for Mrs. Castellan. She kind of went crazy. Luke ended up leaving home because of it. He got angry with his dad for not being there for him, and so he—"

Someone knocked on the front door. Percy stopped and looked up. Annabeth got up, and opened the door.

"Rachel, Piper! What are you guys doing here? And who's your friend?"

Annabeth came back into the room, followed by Rachel and Piper, and a thirteen-year-old boy, who looked vaguely like the daughter of Aphrodite. Piper's eyes were visibly red from crying, and you could see that Rachel had shed tears as well, though she covered it up.

"Piper!" Annabeth cried. "What's wrong?"

The daughter of Aphrodite started sobbing, and fell into Annabeth's arms.

Rachel looked from Annabeth and Piper to Percy, and a sad look entered her already sad eyes.

"Percy, Annabeth…" She hesitated, and then, after taking a deep breath, continued.

"Jason's dead."

PERCY

Percy didn't even have time to react to this news before Piper collapsed. He rushed towards her as Annabeth staggered under her weight. The boy who had come in with Rachel and Piper surged towards them, eyes wide. Percy shot him a questioning glance.

"I'm Piper's half-brother, Louis," he said.

"Percy Jackson." Percy took Piper into his arms, cradling her. "Give her some air!" He took long strides towards the bedroom, and Annabeth ran to open the door. Silent tears trickled down her cheek.

Percy laid Piper on the large bed. She convulsed, moaning in the agony of a broken heart. Percy kissed her head, right above her ear.

"He chose you as his one and only love. I'm so sorry."

He lifted his head and left the room as the tears streamed down his face.

He locked eyes with Rachel.

"It was Savannah Poole, that, um…" She trailed off, her voice cracking. "She was possessed by an Eidolon. We would have called, but we think someone is after all seven of you and Chiron said to come straight here. Hazel and Frank were attacked earlier, but they're okay. They are on their way, and so is Leo."

It was a lot to take in. Breathing deeply, Percy said, "Yeah, earlier two Gorgons popped in for a visit. Apparently they were hired by a Donovan Pierce…"

His words were cut off by Rachel's sharp breath. Her eyes glazed over. Green fog seeped from her lips.

The Spirit of Delphi opened her mouth to speak.