AN: Immense apologies below...

Annabeth was taking longer to talk to her mom than I had taken talking to my dad so I decided to walk around Olympus. The last time I had been here was right after the war; it looked good now considering all it had been through. I suspect that has something to do with Annabeth. Bright braziers were light along the streets, lighting the path in the darkness. I glanced up at the sky. It was more amazing than I had ever seen it and trust me when I say I've seen it look amazing before. Away from all brightness of any city lights for thousands of miles the stars above shone brighter than any mere mortal could begin to imagine. My eyes immediately found familiar constellations: Cassiopeia, Orion, the Big Dipper. Those were easy enough. I'm sure were Annabeth here she'd tell me how certain ones were only visible during certain times of the year. I'm sure I'd tell her that on Olympus I was sure it didn't matter. My eyes then focused on one that wasn't as familiar as the others: that of Zoe Nightshade. She had fallen in battle several years ago. She was a Hunter of Artemis and, after her death, Artemis had turned her into a constellation. I thought it was a fitting way to spend eternity.

"Percy!" I heard someone call my name. Turning I saw Nico jogging towards me.

"Glad to see your dad didn't pulverize you," I said when he reached me. Nico rolled his eyes and scowled slightly.

"He's not that bad of a guy, you know," he said.

"Sure," I said sarcastically, thinking about all the times Hades had tried to kill me. "Did you find anything else out about Persephone?" Nico nodded.

"Do you know anything about Theseus entering the Underworld?" he asked me. I shrugged.

"Other than the fact that he entered and Heracles saved him, not really," I answered.

"Well, my dad explained a little more about the story. He said that Theseus had this friend named Pirithous, who was a son of Zeus. They decided that they wanted to marry and that they would help each other get wives. Theseus chose this girl named Helen so they kidnapped her and took her to Theseus' mother to wait until she was old enough to marry. Pirithous decided he wanted to marry Persephone. The two men entered the Underworld and intended to kidnap Persephone but Hades found out. He invited the two demi-gods to dinner and had a huge meal prepared for them. But as soon as they sat huge vines began wrapping themselves around the two mens' legs and feet, sealing them to the chairs. Hades had cursed the chairs to make them both forget who they were and why they had come. Later on, Heracles came to Hades and freed Theseus but was unable to free Pirithous. Dad thinks that's who Persephone left with," Nico explained.

"Hades thinks she freed this Pirithous? Why? He wanted to kidnap her and force her to marry him. Isn't she tired of that?" I pointed out.

"That's probably why she took him. Dad thinks that she's getting tired of always being the one who gets kidnapped and forced to marry. Apparently it's happened quite a lot over the years, even though no one's actually succeeded other than my dad," Nico added.

"It just doesn't make any sense. Why would she kidnap someone who once tried to kidnap her and make it appear as if she had been kidnapped by someone who was entirely made up?" I asked.

"I don't know! Persephone isn't exactly the most rational person out there. I mean, she's a goddess for crying out loud. They're not exactly known for their even tempers or calm reactions. She turned me into a dandelion once because of a little argument. I think that should tell you something about her rationality," Nico said irritably. I frowned. Nico had a point. In my experience with the gods they had always been ones to act first, think later. I wondered if that was what Persephone had done. I wondered if she was sitting somewhere with this Pirithous guy and kicking herself for running away with him. Did goddesses kick themselves? I couldn't imagine any that I had met doing that. They probably would find someone to blame. Probably me.

"This is going to be a harder quest than I thought," I said.

Nico and I walked into a large hall at the end of the street. In the middle of the room was a long table filled with food. My mouth started watering the second the smells reached my nose. I'm pretty sure my stomach growling echoed off the walls too. Sitting at the far end of the table was a blonde head, her face hidden by a tower of food.

"Annabeth?" I called out. The head leaned back, Annabeth's face appearing. Her face was slightly pale and her eyes were red-rimmed but she wore a slight smile.

"It's about time you two got here. Dinner was getting cold," she said.

"We didn't know there was food," Nico said. I sat across from Annabeth as Nico began piling food on a plate.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly. She nodded slightly and took a sip from her golden cup. "I take it your conversation with your mom didn't go so well," I said. Her eyes narrowed but she remained quiet. "Annabeth," I said, reaching across and taking her hand. She pulled it away and placed it in her lap under the table.

"Eat, Percy," she said quietly. I could tell I was starting to irritate her so I gave up. For now. Nico and I scraped part of the food on our plates into a burning brazier. The scent of pizza and burgers filled the room. We returned to our seats and began eating. Annabeth continued to remain silent so we did the same. I wanted to talk to her about what Nico had told me but knew now wasn't the time. I needed to find out what she and her mother had discussed. In my opinion that was more important than a goddess who was out somewhere pouting.

When we finished Nico announced he was going to go on to bed. I decided now was as good as time as any to pry information from Annabeth.

"Come on," I said, holding my hand out to her. She frowned at me.

"I think I'm going to go on to bed too," she said as she stood.

"Oh, no you don't," I said, pulling her from her seat.

"Percy, really, I'm tired," she said. She jerked her hand from mine and started walking towards the door.

"Annabeth," I called after her. She stopped before she reached the door but didn't turn around. I trotted towards her and placed my hand on her shoulder, turning her to look at me. "What's wrong with you?" I asked. This was getting weird. I couldn't understand what could possibly be wrong with her. Things had been great between us. We hadn't had a fight in weeks. Why was she mad at me now?

"Percy, can we please not discuss this now? We have a quest we need to worry about," she said. I could tell she was trying to stay calm. Her eyes were starting to blaze with a look that told me I shouldn't push her any further.

"Fine," I said, dropping my hand. If she wanted to be mad then I could be mad.

"Fine," she repeated. We stared at each other frowning. "I'll see you in the morning. Try not to oversleep," she said, turning quickly and leaving. I stood staring at the door, my hands clenching and unclenching. They were itching for something to do. I reached in my pocket and fingered my pen. Sparring usually helped when I was feeling like this. Unfortunately there weren't any demigods around to spar with. I clenched the pen and brought it out, uncapping the top. My sword came to life in my hand. Riptide. It felt good to hold it. The longer I held it the more rage I started to feel. I no longer wanted to spar but fight. I started breathing harder, my heart pounding excitedly in my chest.

Uh, oh. I knew that feeling. Ares must be around somewhere. I capped my sword quickly, turning it back into a pen. The feeling started to subside. I hoped he had left. I closed my eyes and began taking deep breaths, hoping it would help to get rid of any feeling of rage, when the sweet smell of perfume caught my nose. I opened my eyes and saw the goddess Aphrodite standing before me with a small smile on her face.

"Trouble in paradise?" she asked, her voice slightly teasing.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied. She snorted, a very uncharacteristic action for her.

"You don't fool me. Your little girlfriend seems to be mad at you. I'll wager it has to do with that niece of mine," she said.

"Niece?" I asked. As much as I cared about Annabeth I still felt completely gaga around Aphrodite. She giggled and rolled her eyes.

"Athena," she answered. I frowned. I suspected the same. Aphrodite stepped towards me and ran her fingers through my hair. I felt my spine stiffen from her touch. She smiled at me and leaned forward, kissing my forehead.

"Don't worry, little demigod. Athena is wrong," she said.

"Wrong?" I asked. I apparently had lost all talent for asking intelligent questions. I'm sure Annabeth would argue that I never had the talent.

"Goodnight," she said, wiggling her fingers at me as she swayed out the door. Once again I stood staring at the doorway, confused as ever. With a sharp sigh I closed my eyes and shook my head. Tonight had been more than I really wanted to deal with.

I decided I would worry about it in the morning.

AN2: Okay... If you're still following this story, which I suspect you are if you're reading this (although I don't blame you if you forgot what this story is about... don't worry, I did too). I'm SO SO SO sorry it's taken me 2 months to update. I've been working on another story for a while now and I finally finished it (hooray!) so I thought I'd celebrate by updating this story. I know it's not a very long chapter and really nothing happens in it, but I had to get back into Percy Jackson mode since I've been out of it for so long.

If you're interested in my story that I've been working on, it's coming along great. I'm pretty pleased with it and am now in the process of proofreading it and making sure it sounds okay. I've discovered I'm not so good with consistency and continuity! Just to tell you a little about my story it's a YA fantasy type story... Clearly you can tell I enjoy those sort of things, despite my age! For those of you who followed my Narnia stories, I hope you'll like (and not hate!) that I stole some characters from them... Georgie and Edmund are the stars of my story! Don't worry, I've made them my own! I'll keep you updated on my progress... and hopefully I won't take 2 months to update this story!

As always... reviews make me type faster! (although I'm sure you think that's a total lie now...)