Hiya folks! I've been super busy. Seriously, this has been my busiest month so far. I hated not updating, but I also had a small case of writer's block. However, the writer's block is gone! Hope you all like this. Please forgive me for not updating sooner! Here's a cookie (::) I love you all!

Randomness: OH MY GOOOOOODSSSSSS! The Serpent's Shadow comes out tomorrow! Ahhhh! I'm so excited :D :D :D :D :D

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Percy POV

This. Is. Elysium.

Seriously. I think I died and went to Elysium. I kid not.

Best food ever!

"Mmmm… Gwen. This is some serious food!" I didn't even know what the heck I was eating. It was delicious!

Gwen grinned as she took a bite of her food. "My uncle makes the best Tortellini Soup, am I right?"

"You are right!" Thalia exclaimed, grabbing another pizza. "And this pizza is to die for!"

Nico frowned, "I think I've had better." He spoke quietly to himself, his voice sad and disappointed. I don't think he intended for anyone to hear, but because I was sitting right next to him, I heard. I heard the pain in his voice. Sometimes I forget that Nico couldn't remember his past. I automatically wanted to reach over and rub his back, but I knew he would only push me away. He hated affection. Well, that's what he wants everyone to think. I know he likes some level of it, but not too much. Nico looked at his plate, his eyebrows furrowing together as if it would help him remember. After a few seconds he spoke, in a loud and clear voice, "The best I ever had!"

Dakota tipped his bowl, in attempt to get the last drop, and promptly fell over. Everyone laughed, while Dakota kept making slurping noises into his near empty bowl.

Jason helped Dakota get back up, but it was obvious he wanted to keep laughing. "Here you go, Dakota."

Dakota hiccupped, "Thanks." He reached for the last Kool-Aid, but I quickly grabbed it instead.

"Oh, no you don't!" I stuck the straw into the pouch and gulped it down. "We need everyone focused to make a plan." I looked pointedly at Dakota, "That means no more Kool-Aid."

"Aw, Percy!" Dakota whined, "That's so not fair!" He reached for the Kool-Aid, but I squeezed the last of the juice out into my mouth. "No! Jason! Jason, make him give it back!" He began to crawl over the table, but I help the empty, thoroughly squeezed pouch of now non-existent Kool-Aid. "Perrrrrcyyyy!" Dakota moaned.

Bobby and Gwen immediately burst out laughing. Jason tried to look dignified, but he ended up rolling on the floor along with them. Nico and Thalia were barely sitting in their chairs. I would've been right along with them, but I was a bit preoccupied. Dakota wouldn't give up!

"Guys, a little help?"

They kept laughing. I sighed. I have to do everything myself don't I? I elbowed him in the shoulder, causing him to gasp in, what I presume, pain. He leaned away, clutching his shoulder, a look of shock etched on his face. I don't really know what I expected him to do. Get angry, tackle me, shove me back, pull out his own weapon and start hacking me… Hey, I just realized that I don't really know their weapons. I should've paid more attention when we were fighting that monster. Wait a minute, we were fighting a monster! I couldn't have paid any attention to them unless I wanted to die! Wait a minute, Dakota's saying something…

"…do that?"

"Uh, could you repeat that?"

Everyone howled with laughter which was even more loud and obnoxious than before.

Dakota pouted his lips. I hope I don't look like that. He looked like someone trying to do something cute (or handsome), and they're not really cute (or handsome). Add a little bit of drunkenness and you have an idea of what Dakota looked like.

"Why'd you do that? That hurt." He rubbed his shoulder.

I bit back my laughter. He sounded like a little kid. The others however, weren't so kind. They began laughed even harder than before. How is that even possible?

I shrugged, "Sorry?" My voice was a bit higher than usual. That's what happens when you're trying to hold in a laugh. Remarkably, I didn't laugh. How I managed that is a very good question. But I don't like questions, plus we have business to discuss, so I won't dwell on stupid, useless things. Like questions. They remind me of school. I absolute hate school. All the teachers want you to do is learn, learn, learn and take quizzes and tests, and tests and quizzes. Blah, blah, blah. Who cares? Besides Annabeth and her super smart siblings I mean. Oh, is that silence I hear? Exactly. No one cares about school.

My thoughts were interrupted by Jason, who was the first person to calm down.

"Okay… Okay guys. We've clamed," a snicker escaped his mouth, but he quickly recovered himself, "We've all calmed down," he glanced pointedly around.

Bobby and Gwen shut up immediately even though it was obvious they were holding their breaths so they wouldn't laugh. Nico and Thalia quieted down, but they were still laughing. Just more silently. And by that I mean that they were laughing so hard no noise was coming out of them other than the occasional whisper-laugh. You know what I mean, right?

After about a minute, Jason continued. He probably realized that they wouldn't do as he orders. First off, I'm sure he's younger than me. A year at tops. Thalia doesn't pay attention to anyone younger than her. Unless it's Artemis in her twelve-year old form, of course. And Nico… He's a son of Hades, what do you expect? Total submission to anyone and everyone? Yeah, right. I don't do that and I'm the nicest of the three!

"So let's start formulating a plan. We already know we're going to ask the natives questions about anything unusual, but we need to have a plan after we find…"

That's where I left the building.

Not literally. My mind just wondered. As I was drifting through space, otherwise known as 'wibbly wobbly timey wimy stuff' (A/N Doctor Who FTW! Oh, I don't own that quote. That is all property of the Tenth Doctor) I noticed that Nico and Thalia had that same look in their eyes. I was half surprised that Jason didn't notice, considering he was sitting right next to Thalia, but I was only half surprised. The other half of me wanted the non-ADHD part of me to shut up so it could enjoy the beautiful moments of ADH- Ooo! More breadsticks!

Xx~oOo~xX

I was munching breadsticks in bliss when all of a sudden, I was rudely interrupted by a poke in the side, which caused me to yelp, give a weird twitch, and fall off the chair onto the floor.

"Percy! Percy, Wake up!"

I rubbed my head (the floor hurt!), "I'm awake! I'm awake!" I gingerly got up, "Was that really necessary?"

"Yes," Jason looked at me with a mixture of amusement and anger. It was as if I was the younger one and I did something wrong. I hate feeling that way. "Help us wake up Thalia and Nico," Jason said as he ignored my glare.

I glanced over at the two. Nico's head was lying on the table and Thalia was leaning against her chair looking at the ceiling.

"You've got to be kidding me."

Bobby snorted. "You guys are so lazy. We came up with the perfect plan and you three totally zoned out! You are going to help us wake your other friends up."

I shook my head. "No. I like my face the way it is, thanks." I walked to the other side of the room, but I was still facing them so I could get a good view of the action that's about to start. "You guys wake them up."

They stared at me for a second before rolling their eyes and separating into two groups. Jason and Gwen tried to wake Thalia while Bobby and Dakota went to Nico. I'm not sure who to feel sorrier for.

Thalia punched Gwen in the nose and had her arrow pointed at Jason's chest before her eyes even focused. Nico put Bobby in a shadow lock (the shadows wrapped around him and bound him) before he even lifted his head off the table. But with Dakota, Nico lifted his head and shoved his sword to his throat.

I was in the corner laughing. This is why no one messes with us.

"Jason? Oh my gods! I'm sorry!" Thalia quickly lowered her bow and it, along with her arrows, disappeared to…wherever it is Hunter stuff disappears to.

Wait. Did Thalia just… Apologize?

Thalia caught me staring at her. "What?"

"The world is ending," I replied.

"Huh?"

"Percy…" Nico lowered his own sword and scooted toward me. "Did… Did Thalia just apologize?"

"I'm right here you know!" Thalia crossed her arms, "And I apologize… Just not often."

Gwen rubbed her nose, "Ow."

"Get used to it!" Thalia snapped. "Serves you right for waking me up!"

I caught Nico's eye. He nodded. We are definitely going to have to find out what's going on with Thalia and Jason.

"Get these blasted shadow things off of me!" Bobby was still struggling in the corner. I tried to contain my laugh. I couldn't.

Nico was laughing to, but he managed to release Bobby without accidently chocking him. "Sorry."

Bobby glared, "No you're not."

"Okay!" I stepped between them. "Before we have yet another fight, let's get on that plan shall we?"

"Right," Jason stepped forward, "Wait, where did the bow and arrows go?"

Nice to know I'm not the only one who has ADHD moments…

Thalia shrugged. "I don't know. Artemis doesn't really specify and we don't really care."

"Artemis? We? What?" Jason looked so confused.

"Why should he care?" Nico whispered to me. I shrugged. I honesty had no idea and I didn't like how he took an interest in my cousin. My 'sworn-off-of-men' cousin.

"Artemis is… I don't know her Roman name. She's the goddess of the moon, Apollo's twin sister-"

"Diana?" Jason looked horrified. "You're a Hunter of her?"

"Dude, Jason," Dakota clapped Jason's shoulder, "Calm down bro. Why should it matter?"

In response, Jason shook his head. "It… it doesn't. Never mind. Um, so back to the plan-"

"Oo! I have a plan," Nico jumped up and down excitedly. "Why don't we ask around the village about anything strange, we go to that place, we find the beast and kill it!"

I rolled my eyes. "Nico, I'm pretty sure that after like, what an hour?" I glanced at the clock, "Yep. After an hour, they probably came up with a fancier plan." I looked at the Romans expectantly. No one said anything. "Or… Not?"

Jason's cheeks started turning red. "Well, we tried to come up with something else, but we couldn't think of anything."

"It took you an hour to come up with a plan like… Like that?" Thalia shook her head disapprovingly. "We wasted so much time. It's a good thing we don't have a deadline."

"But then why didn't you wake us up earlier?" Nico asked.

Jason looked down, "Uh… We kinda forgot you guys were there."

"WHAT?" We all shouted.

"Well, you guys were so quiet…" Gwen started.

"And we were really getting into making the plan…" Bobby added.

"And we just forgot that there were more people here," Dakota finished.

"I'll give you one thing," Jason said, "You guys can sure tune out shouting."

I grinned, "It's a gift."

"Especially with Annabeth," Nico grumbled.

"Hey!" Thalia and I shouted. Wait, why did I shout that?

"Annabeth can be annoying, but she's my friend, Nico! I'm the only one to tell her that!" Thalia glared at Nico.

"Fine. What's you're excuse Percy?" Nico asked wriggling his eyebrows.

"Um…" I blushed. "Same reason." It sounded lame even to me.

Nico bust out in laughter and was shortly joined in by Thalia. "Sure Percy. Suuuuurrrrre…"

"Uh, what?" Bobby asked.

"Nothing!" I snapped at him. "Okay, so we have a plan. Let's go." I stormed out the door. After a moment, I heard footsteps.

"So now what?" Dakota asked.

"We split up?" Gwen questioned.

"We might get more ground that way," Jason nodded.

"Especially if we get lost," I said. "No, I say we go together."

"We're too big a group. People would get suspicious." Jason countered.

"But what if there was a monster attack? We all need to be together!"

"Boys, boys," Gwen stepped in between us. I just now realized we were unconsciously stepping closer to each other.

"Look," Gwen continued, "You both have a point. But I'm sure if there's a group of three and a group of four, no monster would attack. And if they did, well you three have survived right?" Unwillingly, I nodded. "So I'll take a group of four that way," she pointed to the right of the café, "There's a village a little ways down there. We'll ask people there. Then the other three will stay here and do the same. Kapish?"

I sighed, "Okay, fine. I'll stay here. Knowing me, I'll most likely get lost."

"I'll stay here to. Same reason," Nico said.

Jason looked less likely to agree with Gwen, but he finally gave it. "Fine. I'll go with you."

"I'm ganna stay here," Dakota said. "I don't wanna walk."

"I guess that means we go with them," Thalia said to Bobby.

Bobby shrugged. "Guess so."

Before they walked off, Thalia nodded to me and Nico. It was short and quick, but we knew what she meant. She'll find out more about these Romans. When her back was turned, Nico gave me a look. I knew that one to. Thalia sure is acting strange about Jason.

Xx~oOo~xX

(So I was going to stop here, but I figured I'll keep writing a bit more to make up for not updating. Enjoy!)

Jason POV

It took about half an hour to walk to the village. That whole time, I was dying to ask Thalia more questions, but I couldn't in front of Gwen and Bobby. I final got my chance when they went into the bookstore to ask while we stayed out in the street.

"You're a Hunter?"

Thalia sighed. "Why does it matter?"

"You'll never die."

Thalia raised her eyebrow, "How is that a problem?"

"You'll never get old," I continued.

"I don't see- Oh."

"I just found you. I don't want to lose you again by something as stupid as age." It sounded crazy, but that's how I felt. She has this whole other family now. And besides the Hunter's, she has Percy and Nico and someone named Annabeth. How would she have room for me?

"Jason," Thalia started.

"Are you asking about those lost children?"

Someone walked up to us. It was a young boy, about seven or eight with dark red hair.

"Uh, no." I shook my head. "We were talking about the missing animals."

"You see," Thalia added, "Our dog is missing and we want to know if it's by the same creature as that took the other animals."

We have our cover story perfectly. The kid narrowed his eyes. I noticed they were different colors. One was blue and one was…

"But what's this about missing kids?" Thalia asked.

"Oh, two of them disappeared," The kid looked around nervously. It happened in broad daylight, but no one saw anything."

Thalia shook her head. "That's strange. We've been asked around and no one mentioned anything about two kids." Thalia whispered to me. "When were they taken?" she asked the boy.

Suddenly, it hit me.

The boy turned to us, his look of terror disappeared and it was replaced by amusement.

Red.

"Right now."He started to grow as well. No, not grow. Age. He was now about middle aged, but extremely well-fit. He began laughing and that's when I ran.

His other eye is red.

I could hear Thalia breathing beside me. As we weaved in and out of people, I realized no one was paying us the slightest hint of attention. It's got to be the mist.

I don't know how, but I found myself back in front of the bookstore again. I was panting, but the boy- who is now a man- looked as though he didn't even move.

He shook his head, "Tsk, Tsk. For children of the Big Three, you sure are stupid."

The last thing I remember was the man hitting us with something. It wasn't painful, but my legs immediately crumpled underneath me and my vision went black. I hit the pavement. Hard. I heard another thump beside me. I'm guessing it was Thalia. Before I completely blacked out, I head my name being called. Mine and Thalia's.

Gwen and Bobby saw it. They can tell Percy and the others. We'll be saved.

If they aren't taken to, that is.


I did mention I loved you all right? Do you still love me? Even though I was late updating and I left a HUGE cliffhanger? Here, take another cookie (::)

Randomness: This story was 2,898 words long! Amazing right? :D

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