Chapter 3 - I send out the Amber Alert

I headed back to my cabin to start some Iris messages. My first was to Thalia. When her image appeared she was dodging arrows. She could be in grave danger, or playing a new game with the hunters. One could never really tell.

"Thalia!" I called to her.

"Oh hey Annabeth! One second." She shot her arrow off to the side of the mist. I heard a howl and then nothing. "Good, that's dead. What's up?"

"Uh, its about Percy… he's missing. We were hoping, maybe you had seen him? Or could keep an eye out?"

Thalia's eyes widened when I said the word "missing". "Not good. I haven't seen him, Annabeth, but we will definitely keep an eye out. We're on a hunt right now, but I'll add him to the list of creatures to be hunting for."

"Please make sure the Hunters understand that he is to be found and captured, not killed. Also, he is not a creature."

Thalia smirked at me, "Have you met the guy? He's definitely a creature. But, yes, for you Annabeth, I will make sure they understand only to capture the guy."

I smiled at her. She was my oldest friend, and a good one. "Thanks. I miss you."

"Miss you too, Wise Girl. Now I gotta go. Kinda in a war zone."

I laughed. "What else is new? Try to stay alive Thalia."

"You too. Love-"

The mist cut off. "Love you too, Thalia." I whispered into the air. I was going to call Tyson next when I thought of someone else. Someone that I kinda hoped had not seen Percy, but that I still needed to try. I threw a Drachma into the mist and called out his name,

"Nico di Angelo."

Nico looked up in surprise at the mist.

"Oh, hey Annabeth."

"Hey Nico! Where are you?"

The Son of Hades smiled mysteriously at me. "Just out and about."

Nico seemed to love being extra mysterious, and as the son of Hades, he kinda had an edge there.

"Nico, uh, so Percy is missing. And uh, I wanted to know… if you…"

Nico caught on quick. "You wanted to know if he was dead." He asked, softly. I nodded, tears in my eyes. Nico thought for a moment. "Annabeth, I haven't seen him but I can tell you for sure that he isn't dead."

A fist around my heart disappeared. I know I shouldn't be so relieved, we still had no ideas where he could be. But at least I had confirmation that he wasn't dead. That wasn't much, but it was something.

Nico looked at me. "What happened?" I told him everything, from finding him missing to how the search had progressed. There was no reason not to. Nico frowned when I mentioned the bed had been made. Yeah, Seaweed Brain, that is how we all know you are in trouble. If there had been signs of a struggle we would have felt better. Nico nodded, slowly.

"My dad hasn't been talking to me either, but I'll try to get something out of him. If not, I'll search by shadow travel. Sometimes it can take me to a specific person." I nodded, gratefully.

"Thanks Nico. I really appreciate it."

Nico grinned at me. "Hey, don't mention it." He waved his hand through the mist and was gone.

I called Tyson and got him updated on the situation as well. He cried a lot when he found out his brother was missing, but was happy to help. He informed me that Percy wasn't present at the rebuilding efforts of Poseidon's castle and that he hadn't heard of any new quests either. He assured me that he and Rainbow would be on the hunt.

After all the calls were made, I felt better. Exhausted, but better. I looked outside and realized it was almost dark. I went to the dining pavilion to meet everyone for dinner. When I got there my siblings and Grover were all at my table. They had a map out. Maya, my half-sister, showed me that they were marking all the places that they were sure Percy wasn't. I nodded. I knew she was trying to help, but I was already sure that Percy was no where in camp. When I scraped some of my food into the brazier I murmured "Mom. Help me find him. Please."

I went back to the table. I asked my cup to give me blue Coke, which it did. It made me sad, but also felt like something I should do. Grover and my siblings kept trying to get me involved in the search. While I tried to participate, my heart just wasn't in it. Percy wasn't just hidden in some back room or waiting in the forest. He was well and truly gone and we needed to figure out who was the culprit. I was fairly sure if we could figure out who had taken him, we would be able to find out where he was.

After a tasteless dinner (which I'm sure was fine and not the plate's fault, I just felt too empty inside), I tried searching again. I knew it wasn't likely I had missed him, but I tried everywhere I could think of. Finally, Chiron reminded me that it was past lights-out. I went back to my cabin. I picked up the photo of Percy from my nightstand and crashed with it on my bed. I lay awake for hours, looking at it and thinking. I don't know when I finally drifted off to sleep.

The dreams were much the same - only fragments of very un-useful stuff. And some memories. Kissing Percy under the water after the Titan's War. Going to his birthday party in New York the day after and his mom's happy scream when we told her we were officially dating. Our date in Paris. Going to the movies and sitting in the back so that we could kiss as much as we wanted to. His laugh and smile at me. Then I woke up.

I spent the day helping Chiron coordinate the search, both inside and outside of camp. There really wasn't much to do, we had already searched everywhere. At lunch, Chiron announced that the search would be disbanded until we either had more information or a sign from Percy. While I knew that was the best move, it hurt like a dagger to the chest. It felt like he was saying that we were giving up. But I wasn't giving up. Percy had shown me before that I should never give up on him. He would be back. He would be.

Chiron ordered me to help with the younger campers' Greek language classes, but I was too distracted. I kept telling them the wrong words and finally Clarisse, of all people, took pity on me and took my place. Finally, I went back to my cabin to pack for a prolonged trip. Chiron found me there. I was so focussed on packing supplies I hadn't noticed him until he cleared his throat in the doorway. I jumped at least a foot high.

"Annabeth, would you be so kind as to join me out here." It wasn't a question, no matter how he phrased it. It was a command. I walked out of the cabin.

We were both silent and looked at each other for a moment. Finally, Chiron sighed.

"Would you like to tell me what you were doing?"

"Chiron, by this point, can we just get passed all the formalities. You know what I was doing, I know what I was doing. I'm going to go get Percy, no matter where I have to go or how long I have to go for."

Chiron looked at me skeptically. "Annabeth, do you even have a plan? Where you will look?"

He got me there. To be honest, I didn't. I didn't have a single clue where Percy could be. I just knew that I had to be out there, looking.

I blushed and shook my head. Chiron nodded and pulled me into a hug. "My dear, I know you want to find him. But running off into the woods by yourself with no plan in mind is not going to help either of you. Sit. Think of where he could be. Plan. I know you are good at that."

I smiled and gave a small nod, still pressed against him. Gently, he stroked my hair.

"Percy has beaten more monsters than I can count. He will be ok." I nodded again and pulled away.

"Um, I'm going to go… think."

One of Chiron's eyebrows went up. "Promise you won't leave camp without permission?"

I gave a slight nod. He was kind enough not to make me promise on the Styx. We both knew this was a promise that I might break. But for now, I left my backpack half-packed on my bed, took my laptop, and headed to the beach.

I took off my shoes and stuck my feet in the water. "Percy…. If you can hear me, send me a sign, ok? Just…. Anything. Something that means you are ok. Something that shows me where you are."

Nothing happened. I sat down, my feet still in the surf. It may have been silly, but I wanted to keep in contact with the ocean. It made me feel like maybe he would be able to feel me. I began my research on the laptop for anything useful. Perhaps there was something that had happened like this in the myths I could use. I stayed there until well after dinner. Grover found me there. The tide had come in, I was up to my waist in the ocean, still staring at the screen. His hand found my shoulder and I looked at him with a start.

"We missed you at dinner." I didn't have to ask if there was news. He would have started with that. Instead, Grover handed me a sandwich. I ate it quickly, not realizing how hungry I had gotten. I shivered and Grover grinned at me.

"You do realize you are up to your waist in the ocean, right? In December?"

I blushed and Grover helped me up. We went back to the cabin. Gently, I stored the laptop under my bunk and took a quick shower. The warm water helped to heat me as well as making me feel tired. I put on my pajamas and crashed into my bed.

In the dream I knew exactly where I was. The same room in the Labyrinth where I had met her. And there she was in front of me, my least favorite goddess. Hera.

"Annabeth, darling, please. Won't you join me?" I stared at her.

We stood in uncomfortable silence for far too long.

Hera sighed. "Really dear. I won't bite."

"What do you want?" I snapped. Hera always wanted something. To have the first message from the gods in a month be from her, well, I knew this wasn't good. Especially since she was contacting me.

Hera smiled. "I thought you might like to talk about Percy."

I felt like I had been slapped across the face. I could feel the anger rising inside of me. "What. Did you do." I said it as steadily as I could.

Hera smiled, knowingly, "Go to the Grand Canyon. You'll find a hero with one shoe. That will be your answer."

I snarled and tried to lunge at her, but Hera dissolved and my dreams went to black. I forced myself awake, and, despite that it was the middle of the night, I ran to the Big House. I raced up the steps and pounded on the door to Chiron's bedroom. He opened the door, looking a little upset. I explained about the dream and told him I was leaving. I was heading straight to the Grand Canyon.

"Annabeth, dear," he sighed. "It's about 3:00 in the morning. We can discuss this when the other campers are awake."

"No. We know where he is now, I need to go to him."

"How?"

"I'll… I'll take Mrs. O'Leary and we can shadow travel there."

Chiron looked at me with pity. "Annabeth, please take a breath."

I hadn't realized it, but I was crying. I tried to slow my breathing, to calm myself. It only helped a little.

Chiron looked thoughtful. "We will discuss in the morning Annabeth. From what you told me, this isn't a quest. Not exactly. You don't need to follow quest rules and take three companions. But you do need a level head. Go. Try to sleep. In the morning, directly after breakfast, I'll call the war council to the rec room. We can discuss what to do."

"But-"

"Annabeth, we need to discuss. Hera didn't say for just you to go, did she? No. We have no idea the enemies we could be heading straight towards. We need to handle this calmly. Act as if this is still the war."

I nodded. Most of my brain agreed. We needed a plan. I needed to plan. I stormed back to the cabin and whipped back out the laptop. If Percy needed me, I was going to come with every plan I could think of.