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"The only way to have a friend is to be one."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Annabeth's POV

It became all to clear very soon that I was going to have trouble fighting this monster and person-thing-being with only my sword.

The thing dismounted, and met me with his own sword.

The minutes passed by in me following my instincts and calling upon all the martial arts training I had.

Duck, roll, stab, slash, and repeat.

He must have been surprised by my skills, because now he was really trying to get me.

For every stab and slash I got on him, I got bruises and cuts that burned.

Soon, I was tiring. I didn't have the stamina for fighting.

Panicked, I tried to find another way to defeat him, or at the very least, get around him and find Percy.

I hated the idea of hiding behind Percy; I needed to show I could take care of myself.

Then I got disarmed.

I had lost my sword in the fight earlier, and now he had taken my dagger. I backed away, panting, trying vainly to find a way out of this situation.

"Well, well, well. Looks like I'm going to kill two birds with one stone. I'll kill Prince Perseus and his lovely little bond mate."

Damnit, I forgot about our bond…

I bared my teeth and hissed again.

He waved his hands in the air mockingly, saying, "Oh, scary."

"Annabeth!"

Percy's voice sounded frantic and frustrated in my ear.

I didn't dare answer him back.

"Any last words?"

I closed my eyes as he raised his arm, before thrusting out my hand, instinct propelling it.

There was a muffled scream and the sound of a huge monster rising up in the water.

I opened my eyes.

The water had responded to my will again.

The monster he had been riding on rose up from where it had been watching us, eyes flashing with malice.

I shot out my other hand, keeping it in place.

The water felt like a part of me, and extension of my own arms. It was also taking up a lot of energy, so what I needed to do, I had to do fast.

Before, the thought of killing anything made me cringe. I helped people, I saved them, I never killed them.

But looking into the face of the creatures who would kill me in a moment, I knew I had to.

I clenched my hands into fists, and they visibly contracted too. I made the water contract, before they suffocated to death from their crushed lungs. When they hit the floor, they burst into sand, which was pulled away by the current.

I let my arms drop, my energy lagging.

I wanted nothing more than to fall to the ground and sleep…but I needed to get to Percy and Triton.

I hauled myself up, muscles stinging, made sure I had my bag with me, along with my dagger and sword, and then hurried away.

I ran smack into Percy not three minutes later. He was panting, his cheeks flushed. He had obviously been swimming or fighting hard. Triton was on his back, his head lolling around like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

I laid Triton carefully on the ground, checking his pulse and making sure he didn't have any broken bones. I ran my fingers through his hair carefully, looking for any splits, lumps, or wounds.

"What happened?" I asked, opening up my bag, riffling through it. I found the mini heart monitor, and I promptly clipped it to Triton's finger. Small beeps rang in the air, consistent and strong.

"We were fighting and he got hit. He was thrown into a coral reef, his back was all scraped up. It healed, but he's not waking up."

I furrowed my brow and looked at his back. I noticed some shards still sticking into his skin.

Grabbing tweezers, I pulled out the little shards and examined them.

Shit. It was fire coral.

"This is fire coral…"

Percy's face showed he had thought the same thing.

"The venom affects us differently. To us, it's like a sleeping drug."

"That's why he's not waking up. Bring him back to the castle. I'm going to go see if anyone else needs help who can't get it."

Percy looked like he was going to argue with me (and when did it get him anywhere?) but he decided to chose his battles.

Kissing his cheek hurriedly, I went to go find others who I could help.

"So, how's Triton?" I asked.

The fight was over. Slowly, the other side retreated. It was a bloody battle, but one that we won.

Percy had changed out of his armor, helping me as well get out of it (it wasn't as dirty as it sounded).

Now, I was in a woven shirt, light pink, and softer than silk. My hair had been washed (I will never grasp the concept of washing while in the ocean), and I was sitting on Percy's lap as we waited for his mother and father to finish visiting Triton.

He was better now, but only blood relations or officially bonded mates could go into the royal quarters. I hadn't had a chance to see him.

"He's doing fine, just upset he missed part of the fight."

I rolled my eyes.

"Typical Triton."

It was funny. I had only known them all of what, a day and half? I felt like I knew them my whole life, like they were a family I was already a part of.

Percy nuzzled the back of my neck.

That was another thing. He had gotten a lot more touchy feel-y, not that I minded.

"Why did you have to charge into battle like that? Do you know how you almost gave me a heart attack?"

I rolled my eyes. I had told him about the only person I had fought, and he made it sound like I had taken on three thousand armed soldiers.

I stood up and stretched.

"I need to go and talk to Thalia. I need her to know I'm safe, god knows she will be freaking out and maybe calling the police."

Percy sighed and stood up too, stretching, and wincing when his bones cracked.

"Come on. I'll take you. I know you're capable of taking care of yourself, but there might be ambush groups, and I don't want to take a chance."

I wanted to argue with him, but I bit my tongue. I was too weary to do anything but following him out of the castle and through the water to the coast.

When I landed on the beach, no one was there.

Percy changed my tail into legs, and I was thankful I had pants. If I didn't have pants, things would have gotten very awkward very quickly.

After Percy transformed, we walked quickly to my apartment.

The whole way there, Percy was looking around like a tourist. It amazed me that everything I was so used to, like cars and parking meters, were so weird and strange to him.

To be fair, that must be how I was when I first went to Atlantis.

When we reached my apartment, I tried the doorknob first. When we were home and not sleeping, we always left it unlocked. I didn't see Thalia's car, so I was worried it was going to be locked.

Thankfully it was unlocked.

When we walked into the room, I immediately slapped a hand over my eyes.

"Sweet merciful god, what the hell happened to our apartment?"

The chairs were tipped over. It looked like someone had had a huge fight in it. Knowing Thalia, someone must have set her off.

Percy tensed up a little.

"This room reeks of monsters."

My heart plummeted from my chest and I opened my eyes.

Now that I took a closer look, I spotted things I didn't notice before, the fact that there looked like claw marks in the cushions, the goo that spotted the floor, and most telling, the bloody handprint on the wall leading to the bedrooms.

Shit shit shit shit shit…

"THALIA!" I screamed, sprinting through the apartment.

My room was as trashed as the living room. There was no blood.

The sink was smashed in the bathroom, all of my soaps and Thalia's hair stuff splattered on the wall.

Her room was absolutely decimated. The bed was ripped, everything was thrown around, and there was more blood on the walls.

Thalia was in the corner with a gun in her hands.

I remember her getting it when she and I were going to move into an apartment together. She wanted to be sure we would be able to protect ourselves, and had applied for a gun license, and she went shooting every other weekend when she could.

Her face was deathly pale, her face streaked with blood that covered her hands, legs, and torso.

Thalia's eyes scared me. They were wild and empty and frantic.

"Whoa, hey, hey, Thalia…it's me. It's me."

Thalia slowly lowered the shaking gun, letting out a sob.

"I-I didn't know what to do…they came in here screaming for you and, and they hit me and they threatened to kill me and I didn't do anything, I couldn't they had weapons, and I just grabbed the gun and shot and they ran away…one dissolved into sand…Annabeth what the hell is going on!"

I sighed wearily, my heart in my throat, as I reached out to comfort my friend. I didn't care about the blood that was surely soaking into my clothes.

Thalia's shoulders shook with the sobs of someone who had put up with too much.

"I'll explain everything to you later. Right now, pack up a bag. You and I are staying at the cabin until everything calms down, alright?"

The cabin was Thalia's. When her brother, Jason, died, he left the cabin to her. We went there once in a blue moon, but I knew Thalia needed to get away from here.

I didn't know what happened to her, but I was going to find out.

And when I did, asses were going to be kicked.

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