Chapter Fourteen

Revenge of the Insects

Branches whipped by, pushed aside by his hands. Razor-edged leaves left scratches on his forearms and palms, and making him wince in pain. The wetness of the rainforest he was in left his clothes damp, sticking to his form like glue and thoroughly uncomfortable. He didn't even know how many times he had tripped on roots. He was sure that if he fell on his knees again, they were going to run away for fear of their lives.

Theon guessed that they would be in the same boat if they did run away, because he was running from a pack of angry animals. And even with his inhuman speed, he had to worry about Ivan and Aiden. They weren't blessed with his incredible speed, and Ivan had a broken ankle from when he fell out of a tree. It was long story, including bats, spiders, and scary stories. Time for that later.

Over the past months – or at least Theon thought it felt like months – they had changed a lot. Ivan and Aiden had sprouted, and their hair was nearly rat-tail status. Theon's wasn't much better, hanging in tangles around his face. They had discovered quickly that combs were not made in the era they were stuck in. Showers weren't readily available, either. He wasn't even going to go into the state of their cleanliness. If there had been even the slightest access fat on them, it was gone now.

Theon would welcome Skeletor jokes, if he could just find a way back to the 21st century.

They had been making their way through the forest by night, because they figured that most of the animals would be asleep. Well, the forest had been asleep until hurricane Future crashed through it. For all the weeks Theon, Ivan and Aiden had been traveling through time, they still had to work on their level of noise. So far, their total and complete lack of stealth had almost killed them nearly . . . Theon had lost count, to be honest. It was a lot, though.

It wasn't like the twins could blame Theon, though. He was hyper, and he had been holding his wand at the time. One misused word and a spike of energy later, and the explosion that resulted from it probably alerted monsters in the Arctic of their presence. They had been surprised the gods themselves hadn't come to check out what caused the enormous explosion, but so far they were clear. After that, they had tried to continue, only much quieter.

Well, it turned out giganosaurus had much better ears than the gods.

They had nearly died when a pack of thirty of the flesh-eating dinosaurs – that's right, dinosaurs, they were stuck roughly 85 million years in the past – ambushed them with stealth that should have been illegal. They had just managed to survive that unscathed, but the giganosaurus wasn't a predator to be put off. It was game on from that point forward, with Theon, Ivan and Aiden feeling a lot like doomed mice.

Theon peered over his shoulder to check on the twins. They were struggling to keep up, even with Theon slowing to a more manageable speed. Ivan was partially supported by Aiden, his forehead beading with sweat. The son of Hermes had a feeling the ankle was bothering him a lot more than he let on. especially Ivan had only sprained it the day before and they had no ambrosia or nectar to help it heal faster.

Theon jerked to a stop when he nearly plowed into a clearing. Usually, he would had rejoiced to see such a rare occurrence, but it seemed like the perfect place for some random predators to jump out at them. Like, oh, he didn't know, hungry giganosaurus, perhaps? A few seconds later, the twins ran into his back, which almost sent him flying into the clearing again. He pushed them back and stumbled a few feet away from the clearing.

"Why are we stopping?" Ivan hissed quietly.

"Clearing," Theon whispered back. "It would be a death trap."

"Can we skirt around?" Aiden asked, his dark green eyes scanning the edges of the clearing. "I don't see anything that looks dangerous."

"Looks can be deceiving," Theon muttered. "There could be a whole paparazzi waiting for us."

"Great," Ivan snapped sarcastically, hopping on one leg to lean on a tree trunk. "I always wanted to get killed by rabid paparazzi!"

"Oh, you're in no pain at all," Aiden said with a smirk.

"Shut up," his twin grumbled back.

Theon's mind raced as fast as he could run. There was no way they would all make it across the clearing – Ivan's ankle was testimony to that. There were probably an entire pack of giganosaurus circling the opening, waiting for their delicious prey to crash out of the forest into their trap. The dinosaurs were a lot smarter than a lot of people in the 21st century gave them credit for. In fact, just about all the dinosaurs bar some herbivores and the carnotaurus – a carnivorous dino that liked to bull-charge its prey – were as smart as the velociraptors from Jurassic Park.

"A diversion," he blurted. "I'll run out and distract them. You guys run to the anomaly – the little detection device thingy said it wasn't much farther ahead."

"That's if our demigodish bad luck wasn't making it point in the opposite direction," Aiden mumbled under his breath. He added, "And there's no way we're letting you take on a pack of giganosaurus by yourself. No way."

"Why not?" Theon protested. "I could easily out-run them, and then double back –"

"No offense, but you have a terrible sense of direction," Ivan interrupted. "And if you out-run them, they just start tracking us again."

"What are you going to do?" Theon asked, motioning to the elder twin's ankle. "You can't run on that."

Ivan snorted and rolled his ankle experimentally. "I've had worse than this. If it comes to it, I'll just –"

It was at that moment that a gigantosaurus head crashed through the trees, its jaws open for food. Ivan and Theon dodged the jaws, but they snapped down on something else instead. Aiden rolled away, his arm already bleeding. The gigantosaurus looked young, thank the gods, so the wound wasn't too so, the blood from Aiden's arm would attract predators from miles away.

"My wand!" Aiden held up the severed stick.

They didn't have time to think about that. Ivan shoved Theon in the direction of the anomaly, ignoring his arm. "Go! We'll catch up. If anything happens we'll shadow travel."

Ivan and Aiden ducked into the clearing and shouted, "Hey! Come here, you sticking rotten good-for-nothing absolute pieces of horror on this Earth! You should all be hog-tied with neon pink and thrown down Tartarus and burned forever for the amount of trouble –"

The pack charged at once, and the twins disappeared into the woods. Theon darted in the direction of the anomaly, he heart pounding. Those utter idiots! They were going to get themselves killed, and then Theon was going to have to talk to Hades, the god of the dead and explain how his sons were killed. Not to mention Nico . . . oh gods, Nico. Theon was almost tempted to turn around and yank the twins back through the anomaly, G-Rexes following or not.

Nico would probably do much worse to him if Theon didn't bring the twins back safely.

Theon crashed through more trees and branches, ignoring the stinging pain from his paper-cut like wounds. He never thought paper cuts hurt that much, but after he had about a thousand of them all over his arms and face, he decided to amend that. They hurt like hades. He was sure that all of the scars on his arms were never going to face, the way he was going. It didn't help their favorite past time was reopening. If the gods asked Theon for something after he got back, he was going to ask for paper-cuts to be gone forever.

He suddenly saw the edge of the tree-line, and after that was miles upon miles of rolling hills and desert. That wasn't the thing his eyes fixed on, though. It was the glittering glass-like portal that told him a doorway to another time had opened. He burst recklessly out of the by now much-hated forest, running at the portal. It pulsed it and out heavily, as if it was breathing. The pulses became slower and bigger, and Theon knew it was closing.

He put of a burst of speed, and –

He tripped. His knee smashed into the ground full force before he could brace his forearms against the fall. An explosion of pain erupted in the ligaments around his knee cap, but he forced himself to keep going. There was no way he was going to miss this opportunity to leave the Cretaceous Period. He didn't know where, or what time it would sent him to, but he didn't care. He half-ran, half-limped as fast as could up the hill. Life was literally an uphill battle, it seemed.

The anomaly gave one large pulse, as if it was its last breath, and Theon dove through.

That had been his dream. It was also a memory. He had ended up in London, 1938, just the right time to run into Annabeth, Percy and company on the train to Hogwarts. Theon didn't know what god liked him, but he hoped they continued to grant him little miracles like that. It had been such a relief to run into some old friends after loosing Ivan and Aiden in the Cretaceous. He had promised Nico . . . even though there wasn't much he could do, he had still promised Nico and Hades that he would keep the twins safe.

He wasn't doing a great job so far.

The problems they had been fixing seemed small at first. The random dinosaur in the modern age, or a tourist who wanted to see the Pyramids getting up close and personal the with the Pharaoh – who was living and breath. Theon had a feeling that guy was still in mental therapy over that one. He probably be muttering about Hotep-Ra and a bunch of other mumbo-jumbo for a while.

It had only taken a few days to notice a pattern. The disturbances seemed . . . purposeful. It was as if someone was methodically going from era to era and messing things up. Things had started to change in the furture. Big things. When they had returned to their own year, they found that several things were missing . . . several rather important things.

Like the fact Ivan and Aiden were never born.

Annabeth sighed as she listened to Theon chat nonstop. It was a wonder they didn't have every monster in the city on them with how loud he was being. He was practically bouncing a foot in the air with every step, hoping ahead of her, spinning around, motioning to different buildings and pointing out landmarks. The kid was wired with so much energy, she was tempted to ask him where he found the espresso beans.

She wanted some, too.

". . . and then I caught the vine – I was so lucky! I could died!" Theon said with a grin. "It was so fun! We were swinging from vine to vine like Tarzan. Only Ivan kept almost falling off because the height was killing him."

"Sounds dangerous," Annabeth said dryly.

"Yeah," Theon admitted. "And we almost died. But it seemed like a good idea at the time! I mean, how many people can say that they jumped from tree to tree in the Jurassic Period? Oh! Or got chased by an angry . . ."

And so on.

Annabeth wondered if Theon, Ivan and Aiden's time in the Precambrian era had completely fried their brains. She decided she didn't want to know. If they were certifiably insane, that was fine with her, as long as they didn't bug her too much. However, Theon seemed overly fond of telling stories about his 'adventures' so she figured them leaving her alone was a nigh impossible hope. She would just have to endure.

She inspected the city with sad gray eyes. The tall buildings were covered in a layer of crusting sand that was nearly an inch deep, and most of the windows were cracked or smashed. A few of the apartment buildings had bars over the windows, which were hanging by bent and twisted metal. Whatever had attacked the city, the people had been completely unprepared for.

Annabeth hadn't even realized Theon had stopped moving and talking until she ran into him. He shot her an annoyed look, and raised a finger to his lips. He pointed in front of him, before darting to side to hide behind a flipped over car. Annabeth followed, training her eyes toward whatever Theon had pointed at. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, though.

Two people flashed into view. One was a woman with dark hair pulled back into a bun, wearing a business suit that didn't seem to fit in the surrounding at all. There was a large white bag that hung at her side, a single thick strap going over one shoulder, adorned with an insigna that Annabeth couldn't make out from where she was hiding. The woman carried herself with a commanding presence, her clear British accent reaching to Annabeth's and Theon hiding place easily. She glared daggers at her companion, barking orders rudely.

Her companion was military. There wasn't much else unique about him. He wore desert camo, which blended in with the ruined city quite well, and had a rather large machine gun strapped on his chest. His fingers were pressed to an ear piece, his features in a frown as he listened to something the woman said. Or perhaps it was something someone said over the ear piece.

"Who are those people?" Annabeth whispered. She didn't really think Theon knew, but there was no harm in asking.

"People that we try to steer clear of," Theon muttered back. "And I mean avoid like the Black plague. They're not people to get caught up with."

"But who are they?" Annabeth asked again.

"Some kind of agency that watching the anomalies," Theon replied. "There's more than one of them out there, and other are nicer, but she's bad news."

"Who is she?" Annabeth asked.

"Christine Willison," Theon said. "She's cruel, ambitious, and smart to boot. She's from the modern age. She works with some kind of science organization to use the anomalies as an energy source. Or at least, that's what they say."

"What?" Annabeth was having a hard time understanding anything. "Science organization?"

"Yeah, I don't really know much about it." Theon admitted. "Katelle might know more. She's had more than one run-in with scientists. Let's just say, there's some mortals out there that know way more than they should be able to."

"Are you saying that there are mortals . . . who know about the gods?" Annabeth asked.

Theon snorted. "Several. They've got whole agencies devoted to tracking demigods. A lot of the half-bloods who disappear aren't just eaten by monsters. The monsters are just a good cover-story."

"That could be disastrous," Annabeth said.

"No kidding," Theon grumbled under his breath. "They're some of the people we're up against. They're part of the reason the world looks like this. That, and some guy called Draven Thorne."

"You're just now saying this?" Annabeth hissed.

Theon held up his hands in surrender. "Hey! I had a few dreams last night that cleared up several things. But that Thorne guy – he's following some other master. I have no idea who the bloke is, but he can't be nice."

Annabeth peered back over the car. Willison and the military guy had moved along. Theon suddenly let out a sharp intake of breath. "Willison . . . she's probably got one of those anomaly making things. This could be our ticket outta here."

"That easy?" Annabeth asked doubtfully.

"Nah," Theon said with crooked grin. "We'll probably break a few bones and scare the bejeebes out of Shrimpy, but we'll be out of this place."

"But we have no way of informing the others," Annabeth reminded him.

"We can use a Iris message!" Theon suggested.

"In the desert?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"We just need some water." Theon continued.

"In the desert." Annabeth said again.

"We're in a city, not a desert!" He rolled his eyes. "If I can find some mist or something . . ."

"In a ruined city. In the desert," Annabeth said, yet again.

"Ugh, fine!" Theon snapped. "It was a bad plan. I'll just go over there and knock Mr T upside the head and take Free Willy's device so we can make an anomaly and leave this place."

Annabeth ignored the interesting names given to the two travelers. She had learned to after going on so many quests with Percy. "It's a sound plan. We can meet up with Katelle, Percy and Tom at the designated building and be off."

"Yup." Theon agreed. "Katelle'll probably throw a world-class fit in her head about her plan being rendered useless. She'll go off a kill a few innocent furry things and then feel better, though."

Annabeth wasn't sure whether to laugh with Theon, or feel worried for the innocent furry things. "Okay, so how about we –"

"I got Mr T, you take the killer whale," Theon darted out into open toward the two mortals.

"Theon – wait!" Annabeth scrambled around the car, but by the time she reached the two mortals, Theon had knocked out the military man, and Willison. "I see you handled it nicely."

"Just a walk in the park," Theon replied with a grin. He held up a small, clear device. "Here's our golden ticket. Kids, we're goin' to Willy Wonka's." He aimed a glare at the woman. "Just we're leaving Willy behind and taking all the chocolate."

"You're a little messed up in the head," Annabeth informed him.

"I reject your reality and substitute it with my own," Theon quipped.

"Whatever you say," Annabeth shook her head. "Let's go to the rendezvous point."

"Wait a sec . . ." Theon knelt down and grabbed Willison's bag. "I bet there will be something of interest in here."

Annabeth reached for the bag as Theon pulled out a bar chocolate. His eyes lit up. "Sugar!"

"Don't even think about it," she snatched the chocolate from his hand and dumped it back in the bag. "You don't need sugar."

Theon sighed. "You're so cruel. Don't worry, chocolate, I will save you from her evil clutches!"

She shook her head - he wondered why she wouldn't let him have sugar - and resumed their brisk walk, only going in the direction of the building they were all supposed to meet in. She hoped Percy didn't blow something up while she wasn't there with him. Or accidentally knock Tom of a building. Or tick off one of the last remaining gods and get blown to smithereens. Or . . . she could go on all day.

She noticed Theon fingering the necklace again. "You worried about Ivan and Aiden?"

"Huh? Nah, they'll be fine." Theon looked like he was trying to convince himself. "I mean, they're both good at magic, and Aiden caught on to fighting really quickly. Ivan's smart, so he'll keep Aiden from doing anything too stupid . . . I hope."

"Oh."

"Did you know that about . . . uh, five thousand years ago they proposed a cap on kids in families? No more than one kid per family. Ivan and Aiden, who were clearly twins, nearly got arrested." Theon frowned. "We had to make a quick exit from that time. They were out for the twin's heads. Luckily the law only lasted about fifty years. They abolished it after the human population started to decrease."

And that was kind of odd things that Theon randomly spouted out for the entire trip. Apparently the Mayans had tried to use Theon in one of their rituals. It was supposed to be a huge honor, blessed of the gods and so on. What Theon didn't know, was they their 'rituals' involved a dull obsidian knife and his heart on a golden altar.

"I tried to lodge a complaint," Theon said, "because that kind of hospitality wasn't the best. No one seemed to care about the law suit, though."

Annabeth shook her head with a smile.

"Please! No more!"

"Ne begging, wimp."

"I beg of you! I can't take it anymore!"

"Oh, we're almost there!"

"I'm dying!"

"Suck it up!"

"My legs are going to fall off, Percy."

Percy paused, looking down at the dark haired boy. He grinned. "We're only two stories away from the top, Tom."

"You know," Tom panted, "you being . . . the son . . . of Poseidon makes you sea food. I might . . . just add you onto my hit-list."

Percy probably should have been worried. Any normal person would have been. "Whatever. We're almost there."

"You said that ten stories ago!" Ton whined. Yes, whined. The Dark Lord Supreme whined.

"Actually, I think it was six, but that's besides the point." Percy paused, waiting for Tom to catch up. "I think you going to attract every monster in existence with all the noise you're making."

"You're one to talk," Tom mumbled.

Percy shook his head. He had quickly found out that magical prodigy did not mean physically fit. Tom had been panting after the second stories. He started groaning after the fifth story, and then five more stories later, and he was complaining non-stop. Even though Tom didn't have much experience with exercise, Percy really didn't think climbing twenty story building was that strenuous. Tom begged the differ. All the time. Constantly. Without end.

Seriously, that kid never ran out of complains. He dad had to be whatever god was the god of complaining.

Percy tried to wipe the smirk off his face as Tom finally caught up with him, but failed miserably. He got a deadly glare as a reward for his efforts, but it was totally worth it. When they got back to camp Half-Blood, Tommy boy was going on an exercise program. Well, that was if he went to Camp Half-Blood. Even so, Percy was going to teach him a thing or two about swordplay. He at least needed to know how to defend himself.

Tom collapsed, leaning against the wall and aiming another baleful glare at Percy. "Slave driver."

"Shrimp."

"Kelp brain."

"Air head."

" . . . That was lame." Tom said with a laugh.

"As soon as we find out who your dad is, I'll have better insults," Percy promised.

"Whatever, seaweed brain," Tom sneered.

Percy bristled, and fought the urge to stuff the kid in a bag and toss him over the railing. He struggled with the urge to continue arguing, since he knew it would get them no where fast. It probably hadn't been the best idea to make Percy and Tom go anywhere together without Annabeth to keep them on track.

"Come on, we're really almost there." Percy encouraged.

Tom picked himself up, scowling. "Fine."

They reached the top of building in a short amount of time. Tom looked a little queasy after looking over the side of the building. The drop was startling to say the least. It was probably good that Thalia wasn't there. She would have been paralyzed. A gust of wind picked up, tossing a few debris across the cement ground. The debris made ominous scraping sounds that set the boys' nerves on edge.

Percy set the Mp3 player up, facing the city. "You better work," he told the device. "I climbed all the way here."

Then the scrapping continued, even after the wind had stopped.

Tom frowned, glaring at Percy. "Are you messing with me?"

"No, why would I do that?" Percy asked.

Tom blinked a few seconds, and then rolled his eyes. "Never mind. It must be noth –"

A loud bang! echoed from under them, effectively silencing Tom. A split-second later, several of the huge mosquito hawk monsters burst through the door to the stairs, their translucent wings thrumming in the air. Long, spindly legs tapped the ground as they moved in closer. Percy could see the long needle-like tongue coming from their mouths, probably used to . . . eat their prey.

Tom had gone ashen. He stood, frozen and transfixed by the monster as they crept closer and closer. Percy slipped Riptide from his pocket, uncapping the pen so it elongated into a Celestial bronze sword. Briefly, the monsters seemed to pause when they saw the bronze. Maybe the glow awakened a long-buried memory of other demigods killing them with similar weapons. The memories didn't seem to bother them, if that was the case.

They sprang, and Percy jumped back, slicing Riptide up so it passed through the monster's abdomen cleanly. It dissolved into sand, scattering on the ground. Two other monster attacked at the same time, while another skirted around behind Percy. Theon had said they were unusually intelligent. He muttered a curse in ancient Greek as he stabbed one mosquito hawk and dodged another.

He vaulted over the monster and slammed the pommel of his sword onto its head, stunning it. He landed in a roll, and soon as he was upright he finished it off. Then twelve more of them flooded onto the building roof through the door, their wings buzzing as some took the air and others stayed on the ground. He paused, wondering how in the world he was going to fight them off, while defending Tom and not get killed all at the same time.

Then he nearly slapped himself. Duh. The Mp3 player.

He ran over the pilon where he had rested the tiny device on and winced, trying to remember Katelle's instructions. Was it the blue button or the red button? Red pill or the blue pill? Argh! He could never remember which was which! If only he had Annabeth's memory. Although, if he had Annabeth's memory should wouldn't have forgotten to turn the thing on in the first place.

Red button.

He looked over at the monster, which dropped to the ground writhing and making strange gurgling sounds. They suddenly took off into the air, thrashing as they flew as far away from the city as their wings could carry them. He let out a sigh of relief as the last monster vacated the roof, leaving nothing but golden sand from the few Percy killed.

Then he looked over the edge of the roof and saw a truly frightening sight. There were hundreds of monsters, bursting out of windows, doors, walls and running down the streets wildly. They all galloped out of the city, screeching in pain and shaking their head as they tried to rid themselves of the sound that Percy and Tom couldn't hear.

Fairly soon, their part of the neighborhood was clear. What a relief.

Percy swiped the cap of Riptide up and touched it to the tip of the blade. It shrank back down into a pen, which he pocketed. Then he turned to Tom, who was still trembling in fear. Percy had never heard of a phobia of mosquito hawks before, but Tom clearly had one. If Percy didn't snap him out of it, he would probably stay catatonic for several minutes.

"Hey!" Percy clicked his fingers in front of Tom's eyes. "They're all gone!"

"Huh?" Tom blinked a few times, and then shook his head. "S-sorry. They were so – so big."

Percy felt a twinge of sympathy. Tom was only eleven, after all – a whole year younger than Percy had been when he discovered he was Half-blood. The only thing was, Percy had had environment to toughen him up, and while living in an orphanage in the 1930's wasn't easy, Tom had a pretty sheltered life.

Besides, Percy knew how scary was to go on the first quest. He would never admit it, but he had been terrified for a while before he left. It wasn't so bad once Annabeth and Grover volunteered to come along. And Tom's adventure was a little different than Percy's. At least Percy had gotten to stay in the same time period, in his home country. It was a bit of a "culture" shock.

"What do you say we go been up with Katelle?" Percy suggested. "We're done here."

"Yeah." Tom nodded.

Percy neared the door, looking down the long flights of stairs dubiously. "Don't worry, I'll go first. Shut the door behind you, and that should stop any monsters from getting in."

Tom nodded and shut the door behind him – which creaked a loud, painful screeching noise that grilled Percy's nerves even more than the debris in the wind. The rest of the way down wasn't so bad. No monsters attacked, no loud noises made Percy flinch and Tom stick to the ceiling. Well, once Tom got over his fear from before he started complaining loudly again, but besides for that it was relatively peaceful.

Outside the building, the wind had picked up. "Uh oh," Percy muttered. "Another wind storm?"

"I hope not," Tom replied. "We're no where near the bunker, and I don't know where another one is."

"Let's hope we can get to the rendezvous before the storm picks up too badly," Percy muttered.

Percy broke into a light job, and Tom let out a moan of protest before running to catch up. The building they were all supposed to meet up in was near the center of the city, but that didn't seem too far. Most of the city was out skirting neighborhoods. The central city seemed to be what was once a tourist attraction, with small shops and hotels.

"Hey!"

Percy turned around, to see Annabeth and Theon running after them. A lopsided grin covered his face. "Annabeth!"

They stopped in front of them, and Theon held up a shiny, clear . . . thing. "Our ticket home!"

"Oh, cool!" Percy frowned. "What is it?"

"I dunno what they're called," Theon shrugged. "But they open up anomalies to certain times. This beauty will take us back to 1938, where the other are."

"Great!" Tom exclaimed. "How does it work?"

Theon opened and closed his mouth several times. "Um – well – I used it before . . .Shouldn't be too hard."

Annabeth frowned. "I thought you knew how to use it!"

"I do!" Theon shot back. Then he added, "sorta."

Tom scowled. "What do you mean "sorta"? Do you, or do you not, know how to use the bloody thing?"

"I know how to use it," Theon snapped, "I just don't know how to narrow it down to the time we want to show up in."

"Well that's just brilliant," Tom spat.

"What got him?" Annabeth muttered to Percy.

"Twenty flights of stairs, mosquito hawks and a mile run," Percy answered out of the corner of his mouth.

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Now you know how the nymphs felt when you first started training at camp."

"I wasn't that bad!" Percy protested, giving her his infamous baby seal eyes.

She was immune. "Yes, you were, seaweed brain."

They turned their attention back to Tom and Theon, who were bickering back and forth. "Honestly," all four of them jumped and spun around. Katelle rolled her eyes, her pack held in one hand, and her silver knife in the other. She sighed and shook her head. "What would you guys do without me?"

"Gee, humility, much?" Theon muttered.

"Not my strong suit," Katelle replied. "Where did you guys get the anomaly device?"

"I nicked it off some military guy." Theon answered. He held up a white bag. "Took this from Willison."

Katelle tensed. "Willison? What is she doing here?"

"Don't ask me," Theon said. He tossed her the back and the device. "I can't make heads or tails of that device. I know how to do the anomaly thing, just not the time."

She nodded, catching the bag and slinging it over her shoulder with her pack. "They can take some getting used to, but it's fairly simple."

She held up the device and pressed the screen. A bright white light shot out of the end of the device, which morphed into a thousand crystalline shards. They circled around, turning into an anomaly that would, hopefully, take them to 1938. The light filled up the street they were on, probably shining like a beacon to any monsters that were in the area.

Percy didn't know if the Mp3 player's sound range covered them, but he didn't want to risk it. He grinned. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Katelle wasn't smiling. She tossed the device back to Theon and shouldered her pack again. "You guys go ahead. I'll find my way back."

"Are you insane?" Tom asked, beating Percy to the punch.

She glowered. "I have something I need to check out. Willison shouldn't be here, I want to know what she's up to. I'll catch up."

"Are you sure?" Theon asked doubtfully. "This place isn't exactly the epitome of hospitable."

For a second, doubt flashed over her features. Then her emotionless mask slid back into place and she nodded. "I'll be fine. I've survived here before, I can do it again. You guys go, before the anomaly closes."

Percy didn't like it, but they didn't have much of a choice. He really didn't want to stay in this era, and even if he did, Annabeth would stay with him. That would put her in danger, and push Theon towards wanting to stay as well. Then Tom, if he didn't also tag along, would have to go back by himself.

He sighed in defeat. "Alight. Let's go. Be careful, okay?"

She snorted. "I'm always careful."

Theon rose his eyebrows and said sarcastically, "Right. Whatever. Because clearly jumping off buildings without a parachute counts as careful."

Katelle scowled. "I'm not dead yet. Now get!"

Theon shrugged. "Okay. I'm not spending anymore time here than necessary." He darted through the anomaly, Tom following close behind.

Percy looked at Annabeth, and she nodded. She offered Katelle a smile. "We'll see you later."

"Sure," Katelle sounded bored.

Percy and Annabeth walked through the anomaly, shuddering as the cold feeling of shards passed over them. The light faded, and they found themselves in a familiar clearing in a very familiar forest. Theon was dancing around, whooping happily, and Tom just looked happy to be alive. The anomaly jerked behind them, and then closed.

It was early morning, dim light just barely shining through the trees. Percy looked back, feeling a stab of guilt for leaving Katelle behind.

"Well, what do you say we get back to the castle and see what's up?" Theon asked, appearing in front of Percy.

"Okay, sure," Percy agreed.

"See ya!" Theon bolted off in a blur of sandy hair.

A/N: I know! I took so long to update! I just had to take a break and let my creative reserves refill. Serious, I was so burnt out. It is hard to write out 5000+ chapters! At least for me it is. But don't worry! I make it a personal commandment of mine to NEVER leave a story unfinished. Ever. There will never be those annoying stories that start out so good, and then just stop because the author didn't continue. Those are so annoying!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return.

Ughh, I know my life is a new low if I'm quoting stuff like that above. Comment if you got the reference! There's got to be some gamers reading, ya?

I love reviews! So yeah. Review! And sorry again for the wait. (look on the bright side, this chapter was extra long!)