A/N: Yay! Friday! And I got to ride my mare again this week, which totally improved my mood greatly! Anyways, I have nothing else aside from that awesomeness, so on with the chapter!

Percy: One Memory Down, the Gods Know How Many More to Go

I was disliking being there more and more every minute. We had no connection to the gods there, and that was never good. I was stuck between wishing Cora hadn't tried the filing cabinet and thanking her. I was sort of wishing she hadn't because the charge of two Dracaena had been really unnecessary. As well as made me dislike my stepfamily even more. But the fact it got us the reports we needed was a good thing.

I pulled the overviews out of the duel folder and looked over them. When I saw their content I gaped. I heard Cora inhale sharply beside me. Well, if I was her I would be yelling or something; so I say she was handling it pretty well.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "Um, Percy? Can you read it?" I nodded and turned to the first report.

"Okay, well it says: Unusual activity has been reported in the upper and central parts of Mexico. The activity has been slowly progressing northward. The most recent reports have been from Phoenix, Arizona. New information about this strange activity will be sent to you as it is gathered," I read from the first report. "No idea what that's about."

Annabeth nodded, looking slightly worried. I noticed a copy in French; I pulled that out and handed it to Hunter. No way I was reading that out loud. I didn't know French at all. The fact I wasn't sure of that report's significance didn't help either.

"What about the second one?" Annabeth asked me. I swallowed and glanced at Cora. She had a dark look in her eyes and was scowling at the wall. I took a deep breath and turned to the second report, handing the French copy to Hunter.

I took another deep breath and read. "This one says: We have received sightings of a strange group of young adults. They have been sighted stealing a boat out of the New York harbour. I guess it was a military harbour or something. They were then spotted in Old Quebec City, and they caused a large amount of chaos. Oh great, remind me next time to take out security cameras and stuff.

"They were next seen running from a burning motel in Sept-Rivieres. Days there after they were spotted escaping from a train that had crashed. Okay, I seriously hate security now! Finally they were seen stealing another boat and heading in the James' Bay. I didn't mention I saw a navy ship there, did I?" Everyone looked at me to stop interrupting the report.

"Moving on. The most noticeable of this group is a young lady with red and blue hair. Keep a look out for any strange activity on the water," I looked up. Annabeth's face was ashen. Cora looked like she couldn't decide between hitting something or breaking into tears and apologizing.

She grabbed strand of blue hair and stared at it, "Should have guessed," she muttered. "You stupider, unnatural hair." I looked at her confused. Hunter walked over to her, probably to calm her down. But she refused to look at any of us.

"What do you mean by you should have guessed?" Annabeth asked her, confused like me.

"I thought I might have been spotted at the motel, but I wasn't sure. Now I find out I've been tracked by the military!" she exclaimed. Now I was starting to understand.

"Look, it'll be fine," I assured her. "I was the focus of a nationwide manhunt when I was twelve. Everything turned out fine for me. There's no reason to let this turn into a problem. We can just make up a lie."

Cora gave me the evil eye for a second. Then her gaze softened and it looked like a thought hit her.

"So as long as I remain inconspicuous we won't get chased by the army?" I gave her a nod. "So do I cover my hair or something? Because I think even an idiot can find me if it's exposed." I almost smiled. She sometimes acted like she hated her hair colour. But I knew she actually found it kind of cool.

"A hijab," Annabeth said. I looked at her lost. What in Hades' name was a 'hijab'? Annabeth knew a lot of stuff, but she needed to remember I wasn't as smart as her when it came to miscellaneous facts.

"Um," I raised my hand. "What's a hijab?" Annabeth rolled her eyes at me.

"Gods Seaweed Brain, I thought you might know," she sighed. "A hijab is a head scarf worn by Muslim women. It covers head and neck entirely. Only the face is visible." I nodded, now understanding what she was talking about.

"That would work," I said.

"No, really?" Cora said sarcastically.

"Yeah, it would," I shot back.

"Please don't do this," Annabeth muttered. I turned to her with a small frown.

"Do what?" I asked. Annabeth rolled her eyes at me.

"Get into one of your guys weirdo fights." Well, she had a point. We did fight about the strangest things a lot. I guess it was just a sibling thing.

"Okay . . ." I said. I checked my watch/shield (Tyson made me a second one. And, yes it did work as a clock) to see what time it was. Turned out it was already really late in the day. About 4:30 in the afternoon. Wow, apparently time really flies when you're looking for things. "So, it's already late. What's our plan?"

"We should head back to the boat and come up with a plan in the morning," Annabeth said.

"We could stay in here," I suggested.

"We don't have anything with us," Cora pointed out.

"Oh . . ." whoops, hadn't realized that. "Well, I could always run back and grab stuff." I probably should not have said that. Of course since I offered, the girls did send me out to do that. So I had to run back out into the freezing cold. I grabbed mine and Annabeth's bags, then threw a bunch of blankets and enough food to get us by into a plastic one.

Once back inside, we all had a quick meal and then turned to looking through the reports more thoroughly.

We didn't allow Cora to read the details on the one where she was mentioned. That might have ended in disaster. So me and Annabeth poured over that one (after taking back the French version) and gave Cora and Hunter the French one of the other report. Yes, my half sister could read French. Even though she claimed it looked like English. Yet she couldn't read on Annabeth's laptop. Odd. But as long as she could read it I didn't think it too big of a deal.

Thankfully the report didn't lead us to believe Cora was going to be part of a nationwide manhunt. More like they thought she was some girl mixed up in a gang that liked explosives. So as long as she wasn't around when monsters blew stuff up, she was safe. When we told her this she was extremely relieved.

Since that report didn't give us any clue as to where we needed to next go, we pulled out the English version of the other report. As we looked over it I couldn't help but notice just about everything but it. It said things like: 'Teh frist sigthnig wsa in Meciox'. So not being able to read clearly and having ADHD made me not pay any attention. After a while of Annabeth trying she sighed and gave up.

"This is giving me a headache," she grumbled. "Percy, what time is it?" I check my watch/shield.

"It's 7:45," I told her.

"It's early, but we should probably go to sleep. Try to read the reports again in the morning," Annabeth said trying her best to stifle a yawn. I chuckled and put an arm around her. She let out a content sigh and leaned against me. Cora nodded and yawned herself. Then I remembered she had been doing all this on half an hour of sleep . . . how did I forget that?

"Okay, I'll take first watch. You guys can sleep," I volunteered.

"Yes, sleep," Cora murmured, making me and Annabeth laugh. In return Cora rolled her eyes at us. She stood up and grabbed a blanket from the bag, bunched it into a ball and lay down. She muttered something I couldn't understand, but Hunter nodded, so I guess she was translating our conversation.

After a while I was the only one awake. It was pretty lonely and boring. There was absolutely nothing to do, aside from read the reports some more. But I decided I wasn't that desperate . . . yet. I would have maybe dozed off, but since it barely got dark in the arctic, only falling partly asleep was very hard.

Part way through, Annabeth woke up.

Before she took on her shift, we ended up agreeing on contacting someone about what was going on. Originally I had suggested Chiron, but Annabeth quickly pointed out it was the middle of the night. Then Annabeth had another stroke of genius. Since we also needed to know if the reports were true, why not find someone who could easily find out?

The simple answer: Thalia. Not only would she probably be up, but she would help us. Now we just had to know how to contact her.

We went over various idea of how to contact her without an Iris message. We ran through a couple things but came up nothing plausible. Then Annabeth remembered she had gifted Thalia another charm for her bracelet that worked as a communication device (built by Leo, of course).

Together we managed to boot up one of the computers and after some fidiling and trial-and-error we managed to establish a link and send a call through.

A moment later Thalia's face appeared on the screen, looking downwards at us. The silver circlet marking Thalia as lieutenant sat crookedly on her spiky black hair. Her electric blue eyes looked dangerously alert. Her expression was confused, but she was trying for a slight smile.

"Percy! Annabeth! Gods, I haven't seen you two since last summer!" she exclaimed. "Wait, why are you guys contacting me." She gave us a quizzical look.

"Hey Thals, sorry it's the middle of the night," Annabeth apologized. "But, we need a little help. We were wondering if you might be able to clear things up."

"Say no more, where are you guys? Not Camp, that's for sure. I'll come find you guys," she said.

"Thalia, we're near the north pole," I told her.

"Oh . . . never mind then. But what do you guys need help with?" She cocked her head sideways in confusion.

Between me and Annabeth, it took us half an hour to explain everything. I mean everything, Thalia kept asking us for details. We told her everything to do with the quest, Cora, Chiron's message about the gods acting weird (Thalia spends time with Artemis, so she could probably explain), and every other detail we could think of. When we finished, Thalia looked a little disturbed. Almost like she was hiding something.

"And that pretty much sums it up," Annabeth finished. Thalia let out a sigh and briefly closed her eyes.

"Gods, that must be insane," she opened her eyes and stared at us. "And worst of all, Percy, your dad broke the oath twice. I can't believe it. It's just . . . crazy. And that explains why Lady Artemis has been acting a little distracted. I would ask her about this, but since she's back at Olympus because of the Summer Solstice I can't. And about those sightings -"

"Hang on, it's the Summer Solstice?" I asked, cutting her off. Now, I do not ever recommended cutting Thalia off, especially when you happen to be a guy. Thalia was still able to give great evil eyes. Thankfully she gave me one that was only about a 5.

"Yes it is, where have you been?" Thalia replied.

"On a boat, Pinecone Face," I reminded her. Thalia hated her nickname, so she gave me the evil eye that was a perfect 10.

"Stop calling me that and that was a rhetorical question," she said.

"Oh."

"So, Thals, can you help us?" Annabeth broke in. "We need to know if this report is true. Has there been strange things happening near Phoenix?" Thalia nodded grimly.

"Yeah, there has been," Thalia informed us. "We were going to check it out, but we were ordered to stay clear. But if you guys are going to check it, the Hunter's will be on stand-by for back-up."

"Okay, thanks Thalia, that's great," Annabeth said gratefully.

"Well, bye, I'll see you guys later," Thalia's hand blocked the screen and a moment later it went blank.

I let out a sigh and rubbed my head, thinking. I was seriously tired. I grabbed my own blanket and lay down to go to sleep, leaving Annabeth to keep watch and mull over everything we had learned.

In the morning I was, of course, the last to wake up. The others were discussing exactly where we should go. We weren't sure whether or not to head to Phoenix, or if we should head to Mexico. It was a tricky dilemma.

Eventually we did decide on going to Phoenix. That left the question of getting there. It was inland, so going over water would only get us part way.

We were all talking about other possible ways when Cora's face completely glazed over. She just seemed to freeze up and think.

We all fell silently and stared at her. I knew exactly what was happening. She was doing what I had wanted to do once – course I couldn't because my life was in danger. We waited for a minute why she fidgeted, a complex expression on her face. Then I figured she got enough luxury of thinking and muddling (I didn't!). I reached over and gently flicked her temple. She blinked several times and looked around at us somewhat happy.

"So?" I asked her.

"So what?" she asked back.

"Um, what just happened?" Annabeth asked both of us. She looked very confused. I felt a faint smile play on my lips.

"Cora just got her first memory back – I could tell by her expression because it was a mirror image of what I once felt," I told her. Annabeth's eyes widen in surprise at me. She looked back and forth between me and my sister.

"Really? You just – really?" Annabeth was speechless. Okay, I never thought I'd see Annabeth speechless. About anything, but least of all this. I nearly laughed at her, but I didn't.

"Yeah, right Cora?" Cora just nodded in reply, her face flushed slightly. I smiled at her. "So what memory did you get?"

"Well . . . it's a little hard to explain," she murmured, her facing turning pink even more. "It's not like a physical memory of a person or a place. More like a memory of a skill. It's a bit complicated." I gave her a nod.

I had memories like that too return. They are impossible to describe. And they did make me want to just drop everything; which I had done at night. A moment later she gave a smile that wasn't the most comforting.

"But, I do know how to get to Phoenix now." Now she had me and Annabeth confused.

"You do?" I asked her. "How?"

"You'll see. Do you want to go or not?" she was really confusing me now. "And powers still work here, right?"

"Well, yeah, but -" I started but she cut me off by standing up.

"Then come on," she said. She walked over to the door and turned back around, tapping her foot impatiently. I rolled my eyes at her and stood up. Me and Annabeth gathered up all of our stuff while Cora translated everything to Hunter.

When we finally had everything, we followed Cora out into freezing cold. Either she had lost her mind, or she knew what she's doing, because I sure didn't have a clue. Instead of heading back to the boat, she led us straight out to the water's edge. She stopped and stared for a moment, like she was a bit hesitant.

"You guys need to hold on to me," she instructed. "Hold on to me, and whatever you do, don't let go." She repeated it in French and we all grabbed Cora. She took a deep breath. Then, she took a step forward. Together we all plunged in to the icy water.

A/N: Oh my, what did Cora remember? This won't cause a problem at all . . . so Thalia made a guest appearance, which isn't too surprising knowing me . . . and other things. Next time I update, it will be after dragging myself out of a lake . . . I MISS SWIMMING. Er, anyways, I forgot what I wanted to say, (oh, now I remember, I had to do a lot of editing and reworking, so if it's messed up, sorry - it was written before SON) so . . . review, fav, or alert, just let me know your thoughts!