And we're back, as promised. Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, we managed to pass the 250 review mark!

Last chapter I asked you guys about the connection between Leo and Sammy Valdez and we have a couple winners. The two of them are separated by three generations, so I accepted either great-grandfather or great-grandson. A couple of you gave me just grandfather and unfortunately that isn't right. Here are your winners: Ble fotia, roselovemedana, elliefs, Silver Ride, numbah435spiritsong, percyjason, wisdom-of-the-sea, Bob, Riptide246, LeahTymara, annabeth the wise girl and one guest. Congratulations to all.

We move on with the story now. After this chapter we are two-thirds of the way done!

Enjoy Chapter Fourteen of The Prince, The Girl and The World.

Disclaimer: It takes me longer to come up with these disclaimers than it does to write a chapter.

Chapter Fourteen: Annabeth POV

It was three days after my breakdown in the graveyard. The day after Percy gave me a tour, he was announced as the host nation's participant to a resounding crowd. He would have a ton of support at these championships.

Right now I was sitting in the stands of the arena waiting for the announcement of the participants. The arena was packed solid, people from every nation out to support their competitor. Rayne, Ares, Lady Allyson, Isabel, my parents, as well as Lord Henderson's wife were all seated together with me in a small section of the stands. We were ready to cheer when the UK was announced.

Each nation would be announced in alphabetical order, the only exceptions being the defending champion being second-to-last and the host country being the last to enter. Denmark would normally be first, but they were now second-to-last because they were the defending champion, so Finland would lead us off.

A single guy walked out from the tunnel of the competitors and the crowd hushed to a low murmur.

"I am pleased to announce the champion of Finland!" He announced and a small crowd on the far side yelled with joy. The rest of the people clapped in respect as the threesome road out on their horses.

I should probably explain why there were three horses. On the first horse rode the sign-bearer, a guy who held a sign saying the name of the country in their native language and then English. I thought it was kind of unnecessary, seeing how it wasn't that difficult to remember the countries, but I figured it was tradition and couldn't be thrown out.

The guy on the second horse was the competitor himself, all clad up in his armor, his helmet by his side. I knew another tradition was that the competitors would don their helmets after the welcoming speech, showing they were ready to compete.

The third horseman carried the country's flag and would position himself behind the swordsman, signifying his respect and support for his country's competitor.

The three horsemen made their way to the far left side of the arena and then turned to face the German King. They would form a semi-circle around the arena, leaving a space in the center for the defending champion and the host participant. Otherwise they would go in alphabetical order. Unfortunately for us, the UK would be on the far right as the last participant.

The participating countries were announced one by one. France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland were announced in order. Then came our turn.

"I am pleased to announce the champion of the United Kingdom!"

Our little group stood and clapped, hooting and hollering as Lord Henderson was led in. Ashton was carrying the flag and he proudly gave us a grin when he came to a stop behind our champion.

We took a seat as the guy walked back out to announce the next participant.

"I am somewhat pleased to announce the champion of Denmark and the defending champion of these World Championships."

I started to clap as Luke came out, even though I hated his guts. I figured the Germans would still show their respect, even though they hated the Danes. That's what we had done when we hosted the competition ten years ago when the Irish came out. We hated them and they hated us, but we still showed each other respect. I thought the Germans would do the same, but boy was I wrong. Luke got destroyed with insults and booing and they easily drowned out the few Danes who had come to cheer on their competitor. I cracked a huge smile and was about to join in when I thought better of it. Germans could do it, but I wasn't German and I was a royal. I kept up my feeling of respect, although I did stop clapping. I figured I'd talk about it with Percy later that night after the group draw.

Speaking of Percy, he was up next. The crowd quieted on a dime as the announcer walked back out into the arena.

"I am extremely pleased to announce the champion of Germany, our lord, your highness, the Royal Prince of Berlin!"

The crowd went nuts. I think I lost my hearing for a second or two it was that loud. Percy rode in calmly, keeping his gaze straight ahead as he accepted the support. He took his place by Luke, ignoring him and turned his gaze to the German King, who had now risen. The crowd quieted suddenly.

"Willkommen zu Berlin!" He yelled and the Germans responded with another cheer that practically took out my eardrums. "Welcome to Berlin! We are proud to be hosting this year's World Championships. Before I go into my welcoming speech, I would like you all to stand for the playing of the French national anthem to be followed by the German national anthem." The crowd responded, and stood as one.

I knew what was happening as did almost everyone else. This was the ceremonial changing of the guard. First, the national anthem of last year's host (France) would play before being followed by the national anthem of this year's host (obviously Germany). This would repeat itself in the closing ceremony, except the German anthem would precede next year's host (I think Russia).

The French national anthem sounded throughout the arena, the pockets of French supporters singing along as the rest of the stadium stood quiet. When the anthem finally finished, there was a small bout of applause, but it was quickly cut off by the German national anthem.

I have never heard such support in my entire life. Every word, every note was accentuated by each German standing in the stands. I turned my gaze towards Percy, but he was too busy keeping his gaze on the flag and singing along. I would have to ask him to teach me the words, so I could sing along as well. I'd ask him tonight.

The song ended to obnoxious cheering and all eyes turned towards the King as people took their seats. The crowd quieted as the King stepped forward once more.

"Danke schön. Thank you," he said. "I would now like to welcome each and every one of you to our great city of Berlin. We are glad you could sacrifice your time to spend it here with us." He turned towards the competitors. "I welcome each of the competitors to our arena. In here over the next two weeks you will duel to determine the best swordsman in all of Europe. You will have people rooting for you, rooting against you and people here just to watch. Put on a show for each one of them. Stand proud during your national anthems and show your country's pride throughout the entire tournament. The draw is tonight. Within ten hours you will know who you face, who you'll have to defeat to move on. Some will have an easy road. Others will have a more difficult one. But once we reach the knockout stage, all bets are off. You have no choice. Every duel must be your best in order to survive. Will you have the strength to keep moving on? We will find out in these next two weeks."

The German King paused for dramatic effect, staring into each competitor's eyes before finally continuing.

"I am now pleased to open these championships! May you stand behind your country!"

"And may your country stand behind you," I replied along with the rest of the crowd. It was another tradition with Worlds. The speaker, normally the King, would say the first part of the sentence: 'May you stand behind your country,' and the crowd would finish the sentence: 'And may your country stand behind you.' I thought it was one of the more epic traditions of Worlds. The participants then threw on their helmets, much to the crowd's approval, and then they recessed out backwards, Percy going first, then Luke and the rest of the countries in reverse alphabetical order.

The crowd started to disperse once the competitors had completely disappeared. I turned towards Rayne, who had been sitting on my left.

"Wow," was all I was able to say. "What a ceremony."

"Tell me about it," she replied. "They're ready for a tournament."

My parents must have been eavesdropping.

"The Germans need a pick-me-up," my mother said. "They are pouring everything into this tournament, especially their hatred towards the Danes."

I let out a snort. "That's for sure. Gods, I've never seen such hatred for a single country."

"They have a huge rivalry." My mother shrugged. "The war threats didn't help."

I let it go and turned towards Lord Henderson's wife.

"I hope your husband does well in the tournament," I told her. "But don't hate me if he faces Percy again and I root against him."

She just laughed. "Don't worry," she said. "I can't control who you can and cannot root for. But like you said, I do hope he does well."

"He should," I said. "He's one of the best swordsmen to come through the UK in a while."

Lady Henderson gave me a grateful smile, but otherwise let it go. We headed out of the arena and started to head back to our rooms when I saw Carina standing over to the side. She caught my eye and waved at me to come over. I told Rayne and Isabel I'd meet up with them later and headed over beside the German princess.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked her. Percy had taken me over to her room two nights ago and we chatted for a long time. We had a lot in common and I immediately knew that she was going to become one of my best friends.

"Nothing much," she replied. "I'm waiting for Percy to come out. We were going to head up to the castle and relax for a little before the draw. I figured you wanted in on it so I waved you over."

"Oh, thanks Carina."

"No problem. Anything for my best English friend."

"Carina, I'm probably your only English friend."

"So?" She asked. "Oh look, here's Percy." She waved to catch his attention. Eventually he noticed us and made his way over. He wrapped me in a quick hug.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked me.

"Carina invited me to join you guys. That alright with you?"

"Yeah. Perfect, in fact." I blushed a little, still happy that Percy could do that so easily.

The three of us headed up to the rooms and chatted for a couple hours before heading down to lunch. After lunch I stole Percy away from Carina and his other cousins and took him upstairs to Rayne's room where we reminisced with those guys for the next couple hours before Percy said he had to leave to get ready for the draw. I gave him a kiss and told him I'd see him down at dinner. I turned towards Rayne, Ashton and Isabel as Lord Ares and Lady Allyson followed Percy out of the room.

"You're never going to get over him, are you?" Rayne asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Come on, Annabeth. You know as well as I do that Percy has a strong connection here. You and I both saw him at the ceremony this morning, singing along with the rest of the Germans. What if he stays here? You can't just leave England. You're the only heir to the throne. What if Percy leaves you?"

My first reaction was to snap at her, to say that that would never happen, but I hesitated. What if Percy did stay here? What if he did leave me? Luckily Ashton stepped in before I started to bawl my eyes out.

"Rayne, why would you say something like that?" He chided. "Annabeth's in a good mood from the ceremony, seeing the support behind her boyfriend and you come and shatter it with something that would never happen. Just what were you thinking?"

Isabel came over next to me and wrapped her arm around my waist, giving me one of those 'side-hugs.' I thought about what Ashton had said and I calmed down for the moment. Rayne turned towards me.

"Sorry, Annabeth. I shouldn't have said that. You going to be ok?"

I nodded and took another deep breath. "I'm going to go get ready," I announced before leaving the room. I needed time to think. I hopped in the shower, being sure to take my time.

By the time I got out of the shower a half-hour later I had completely forgotten about what happened with Rayne. I slipped on a white dress and let Isabel hop in after me.

Once Isabel was out of the shower and dressed, we hooked up with the others and headed down to dinner, where the draw was going to be taking place.

They announced everyone, just like they did at the Championships in London. I caught Percy's eye when he sat down to the left of the King and he gave me a wink. I returned a smile.

Dinner was served first and I would be lying to you if I said the food wasn't absolutely amazing. They truly saved a good meal for the first one. Once everyone had finished their entrees and the plates were cleared, the German King stood as dessert was being passed out.

"Welcome again, competitors and royals alike," he said. "Tonight we conduct the draw for this year's World Championships." A small cheer arose from the crowd. "As we go through tonight's draw, be sure to enjoy your German chocolate cake, specially made for this occasion." I looked down at the piece of cake that was placed in front of me and I could feel my stomach rumble, even though we just ate. This piece of cake looked that good. I thanked the server as he handed me a fork and I turned my attention back to the King. "Without further ado, let's get started. Percy, could you join me on stage?"

I saw Percy shove one last bite of cake into his mouth before standing quickly and taking his place by his cousin. I let out a short giggle as I locked eyes with him. He gave me another wink and turned to face his cousin. I followed his lead. Percy was probably going to be the one to pick the flags out of the jar.

That was another thing I liked about Worlds. Instead of just writing the countries on little strips of paper like we did with our tournament, they got ahold of little flags of each of the countries and they would pin them to a board so that everyone could see. The German and Danish flags were already pinned in spots A1 and B1 respectively. Percy would select each of the remaining flags and they would get pinned as they were announced.

"Cousin, if you could," the King said and I now saw he was holding a jar which I presumed had the flags in them.

Percy reached in and pulled out the Portugal flag.

"Portugal," he said, showing everyone so they clearly knew who it was. He handed it to a servant to his right who posted it up onto the board.

Percy pulled out the next flag, one I recognized immediately.

"The United Kingdom." He seemed to show it in our direction for a little longer than normal and I gave him a smile. I could hear several of the people at our table sigh with relief that we were taken so early. I had to agree. The farther along you went, the more nervous you got.

I kind of zoned out, looking at the board as it slowly filled up. Eventually the rest of the flags were picked and the groups were set. This is how it went down: Group A consisted of Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands; Group B involved Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Russia; Group C was Portugal, Ireland, Finland and Greece; and finally Group D included the UK, Iceland, Switzerland and Norway. I nodded, pretty sure we had gotten a good draw, but you could never be sure until the duels were over. This was the World Championships after all.

"Thank you, Percy," Sven said. "The groups are set. The first round match-ups will be announced tomorrow with the duels starting on the next day. Good luck to all of the competitors."

The servants pushed the board to the side of the dining hall where it would be visible to all of the people who came through this hall. It would be updated after each duel. People started to disperse and I stood up to follow when someone wrapped me up from behind.

I yelped and turned to find Percy.

"Percy," I said. "Gods, you scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry," he said with a sheepish grin. "Come on, it's just you and me tonight."

I looked quickly over at my mom, asking permission, but she just waved her hand dismissively, as if to say, 'Have fun. Don't worry about us.' I gave her a smile and turned to my boyfriend.

"Ok, let's go."

A/N:

Wow, two straight chapters without a break? That's got to be like winning the lottery or something.

Anyway, what did you think? I did the draw a little different than I did in TPATP, so tell me if you like it better or worse. Also tell me what you thought about the announcement of the participants. That's something new from the original story.

Onto news: Chapter 15 is out Saturday with Chapter 16 out the following Monday. I think from here on out it is a chapter every other day, with maybe one exception, so be sure to check back quickly for a new chapter, or else you might miss one.

In other news, I will be pushing back the newest chapter of Scars and Recognition back to TUESDAY. With The Ten coming off it's little hiatus on Monday as well, I would be uploading three chapters on one day, and I think it's a little too much right now with me working so hard on this story. So that's a little FYI if you've been reading S&R as well.

Also, my one-shot comes out tomorrow! Woo hoo! I hope all of you check it out, especially if you've read The Big Three. It isn't necessary to have to have read TB3, but it might help you a little bit. Remember, it's also the one year anniversary of TPATP, so make sure to bring out your Welsh flags and celebrate!

Ok, I've talked too much this chapter. Onto the Question of the Chapter: In the Sea of Monsters, Chapter Fourteen: We Meet The Sheep Of Doom, in order to get into Polyphemus's cave Percy must ride under the belly of a sheep. Here's the question: What was the name of that sheep?

Correct answers get shout-outs, like usual.

Make sure to review!

Thanks!

-PSON