If you're wondering what took me so long to update, read my profile page. Man, I need to get a better computer. And the kidnapped goddess was predictable, since some of you guys guessed it. But whatever. The next chapter is now out!

"Annabeth…" I started saying, but stopped.

"Lib bi 'lone." Annabeth sniffed, her nose red, her face wet. What she really wanted to say was, "Leave me alone." However, with that stuffy nose and crying voice, it was hard to make things out. But I managed.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. My knuckles stood out more than ever, big an white. Since I had accidentally…ah…trashed our car, we borrowed Bobby's. Since Bobby was shocked by the whole kidnapped goddess news and frightened of the Rage of Annabeth, he consented us to borrow his car. Well, I had to swear to him three times that I wouldn't damage his car in any way. I just hoped that there wasn't a monster attack while I was driving.

She started sobbing again. I rarely saw Annabeth cry. The pregnancy must be affecting her moods overtime. This could not be good for the baby. Her face was red and puffy, and her hair was in tangles. Which was so unlike her that I started getting angry.

"Get a hold of yourself, Wise Girl!" I barked suddenly, and she flinched. Annabeth was surprised. To tell you the truth, so was I. I'm usually a calm, well-tempered person, very much like my mom.

My wife glared at me with The Look that all females can produce, but her red face turned sharper, more into the Annabeth I knew. We were both silent for a few minutes. I could see Min in the side view mirror. She had fallen asleep over an hour ago, and I had gently put her in the back seat.

"Annabeth, I know that this news is making you upset, but what can you do?" I asked. "Would Athena would want you to bawl your eye out while the rest of us did all the work? I thought you had more control."

Those harsh words were delivered with a gentle voice. Annabeth drew herself up defensively. Good. Very rarely was I the voice of reason. It was almost always her, and she knew it.

"For your information, Perseus Jackson, Mom isn't the only thing I'm worried about." Annabeth snapped sounding as Wise Girl-ish as she could ever be, dragging out my name and adding a mix of sarcasm and superiority in her voice. "Although I should be pretty damn worried."

I sighed (which I've been doing a lot of lately) and made a U turn, going exactly against the "No U turn" sign. "Athena can take care of herself. Don't stress out too much."

Both of knew that was true. Although that petty goddess was a downright malicious mother-in-law and son-of-Poseidon hater, she wasn't the goddess of wisdom for nothing. Knowing her, she would concoct some brilliant escape plan and we'd wonder why we even worried in the first place.

"I know Mom can take care of herself." Annabeth said. "She's not stupid, like Ares. She'll try to contact us soon. I know it. And then she'll escape or we'll rescue her, and then everything will be fine and dandy."

Still, I knew it was upsetting for Annabeth. Despite her pure evilness, Athena was her own mother, and the immortal she had looked up to. Athena was the one who had guided her to Luke and Thalia; Athena was the one who gave Annabeth the invisibility hat. Athena had done a lot for Annabeth than most of Olympians did for their half-blood children.

I mean, what if Poseidon got kidnapped? What then? How would I react? And who could've been powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? I decided to ask Annabeth that last question.

"Annabeth, who do you think took Athena?"

Annabeth brooded over it. Her tear-stricken face contemplated who and why. Finally she answered with, "Another immortal, Percy. Who else could be that powerful? Probably another immortal from Uranus's side."

I didn't tell her about my dream about the young god. It didn't seem very important at the time. Besides, I had forgotten something about his face. Something very important…

"But other than that, we're not sure." Annabeth sighed. "I don't understand! Uranus doesn't have half as many allies as Kronos did. But why is he becoming so powerful? I think there's something else…"

"Something that the Olympians have been hiding from us?" I asked sharply, and my hands tightened around the steering wheel yet again.

"Yes! No! I don't know?" Annabeth wailed, and wrung her hands. "That's the thing that's frustrating me, Percy! I don't understand some of these things! Didn't you hear about the dragon that's been attacking young half-bloods going on their way to Camp Half-Blood? How does it know when and where the demigods are? It's almost like someone has been giving it orders, but that's almost impossible since dragons aren't that smart. We've already had a fatality thanks to that dragon, some little daughter of Apollo. Not only that, there are sabotages all over the place! Some of our equipment turns out to be missing every now and then. And besides Athena, there have been other kidnaps! Five demigods, in fact. Three of them were young trainees we recently recruited to Camp Half-Blood. And the Olympians have been acting strangely. It's almost as though they know they're going to lose, and they're not trying their best? Do you understand?"

"I understand what you're saying, but I don't understand any of that stuff." I answered honestly and shortly. We were getting closer to home now, and I was starting to grow more and more worried.

Annabeth still looked profoundly upset. I didn't blame her. Although our numbers were vastly superior to Uranus's, it was almost as though he had some secret weapon hidden down his sleeve. Maybe he did have one. Or maybe a prophecy recited the downfall of the gods. Something like that.

It was true. Everything Annabeth said was true. There had been kidnaps and sabotages. Uranus was more powerful than he should be. The Olympians acted strangely, and seemed to be withholding a vital piece of information from us. I had originally thought that Uranus would be easier than Kronos. An uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach told me that I was wrong.

I kept thinking, but my mind kept wandering to Annabeth's face. What was up with that? Especially her huge gray eyes. Her pretty eyes. Her incredible eyes.

Seriously. Was it the time to think about that kind of stuff? I mentally kicked myself in the head.

"Ah, we're here!"

Both my wife and I jumped at the sound of Min's cheerful, optimistic voice. How long had she been awake? Had she listened to anything important? Well, it didn't seem so. Still, you could never be too sure, especially with a demigod.

I parked carefully in our garage. Min jumped out of her booster seat, opened the car door, and skipped out. She bounced around, saying stuff like, "I don't want to go to sleep! I'm a big kid now! I'm not sleepy!"

"Oh yes you are, Minnie." Annabeth said, and picked up our squealing daughter.

Annabeth seemed much more cheerful and hearty now, but that was an act because Min was here. Both of us didn't want our daughter to see storm clouds of any sort.

"Go to bed, Min." I called out as Annabeth and Min went to the living room.

I sighed and grimaced once they were gone. It was like there was some sort of burden on my shoulders that couldn't be removed. I should tell Annabeth about that young god. But what of it? He only appeared in my dreams once. Just once. That couldn't mean much. Heck, I dreamt of Kronos dozens of times. While, I was brooding over all of this, I heard a squeal of delight from the living room. It was Min.

Scooter popped out of nowhere and started barking at me. Again. I pushed him away gently with my foot and said, "Not right now, Scoot." The hellhound was so surprised that he bounded away. (I usually ignored him completely or threw him out of the room. I mean literally threw him out.)

I slowly dragged my feet to the living room to see what was going on. There, a surprising sight met my eyes.

It was Thalia. (AN: Yay! A Thalia appearance. Go me!)

She was sitting on the couch and wearing ordinary human clothes. Her hair had been cut shorter, and she was considerably tanner, as if she had spent more time outside. Thalia still looked like a fifteen-year-old going on sixteen, but she had an aura of maturity that she had gained since first becoming a Hunter.

Okay, what was the lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis doing here? Sure, she visited occasionally, but she always let us know beforehand. And especially now, in the middle of the night? And not to mention lately she was busy training young half-bloods and recruiting furiously for the Hunters.

"Hiya, Percy. You look well." Thalia greeted me.

"You, too." I replied easily.

Min had gone over to Thalia and was clutching her hand, telling a full account of her day to Aunt Thalia. Annabeth and I exchanged glances? Both of us were thinking the same questions. What was she doing here? Why was she here? Did something happen again?

"Min," Thalia said diplomatically. "Isn't it your bedtime?"

Min instantly grew sour. "I don't wanna! Aunt Thalia, you're gonna go 'way if I go to sleep!"

Thalia nodded her head. "That may be, but it is still time for you to go to sleep."

"C'mon, little rascal." I said, and picked my daughter up. She emitted a noise of fury, and pounded on my back. I ignored it and went upstairs. Along the way, she dropped Aquastar, so I had to pick up the dolphin.

"Don't wanna! Let go of me! Daddy!" Min yelled loudly enough to wake up our neighbors.

I finally reached her room. The whole time, Min had struggled to get out of my tight grip. Even as I set her on the ground, she tried to run away before I caught her by the collar.

"Min." I said sternly. "Aunt Thalia is here on important business. Now be a good girl, brush your teeth, and go to bed."

"Is it about…that guy?" Min whispered. Now her voice was almost reverent, and her face was a little fearful.

"Who's…that guy?" I echoed.

"You know. That guy. Nar and Ian were telling us that he's the guy you guys keep on training and planning for. You're gonna fight him." Min answered/whispered matter-of-factly.

So even my five-year-old daughter knew about Uranus. I had always hoped that the demigod side of our Annabeth and me wouldn't affect our family. At that moment, I realized that I was wrong. (Much later, I would realize that I was dead wrong, and was foolish for even hoping so.)

"Yeah. It's that guy." I finally answered, almost reluctantly.

Min nodded almost wisely. "I'll go to bed now. Bye, Daddy. G'night."

I left my solemn-faced daughter in her room alone. Even Min knew about this stupid war, even though I had tried my best to do the exact opposite. That Nar and that Ian…

I knew it! I knew those boys were no good!

I was planning on how to extract revenge upon those two boys when I finally arrived in the living room. Both Thalia and Annabeth were silent when I entered. When I sat down, Thalia said in a low, flat voice, "They're dead."

"Who?" Annabeth was instantly alert. So was I. Deaths were bad news.

"The five kidnapped demigods who disappeared a few weeks ago." Thalia stated grimly. "Their bodies were discovered just an hour ago, and I came here in person to tell you guys."

The color drained out of Annabeth's face. "But that's impossible! Three of them were just children. What were there ages again? Weren't two of them twelve, and one of the fifteen? Why, even Uranus can't be that cruel!"

"Their bodies were found." Thalia said again, slowly and clearly. "The corpses were found in front of Mount Olympus! The gods are furious, especially the parents of those demigods. They aren't waiting for another Winter Council to properly decide things. All the Olympians have officially declared war."

Both of let that sink in. Five dead half-bloods. Furious Olympians. An official war with Uranus.

"Starting from now, be on the lookout. You must be very careful." Thalia continued on in the same serious voice. "Uranus is even more heartless than Kronos, if that's ever possible. He'll never hesitate to just let his forces storm in this house. If things start to get too bad, we'll have to abandon this place. Not only that, monsters will attack you at every moment. Not just you, but Minerva. From now on, you guys will have to fight and give it your all. Are you ready?"

Both Annabeth and I exchanged glances again. And both of us knew the answer to Thalia's question.

"Yes."

Okay, this fic has finally been updated! Like I said, if you want a full explanation for why I didn't update, click on my profile page. Watch out for an OC list for this fic, too. Augh, I think I created too many OCs.

Oh, and this chapter is rather…serious. That's because this chapter will help the plot move on. Plus, I wanted Thalia to appear again.

Reviews are greatly appreciated, anonymous reviews included. You don't need an account to submit an anonymous review, people!

Also, suggestions are also welcome. If you have any, I'll try to use them. (Don't be offended if I don't use yours, though. It might not fit in the plot or something like that.) And they have to make sense. For example, Percy can't be the reincarnation of Uranus so he could beat Kronos because: a) Gods don't die, b) Uranus is the bad guy in this fanfiction, c) Kronos had already been defeated, and d) I don't like the idea. I like adding twists and turns, not clichés. (Although I like some of them…)

Anyways, thanks for the reviews. I got over a hundred! Will update soon.