ANNABETH

Annabeth is nervous. Not because of the monster raid but because of who she will be doing it with Percy freaking Jackson.

Contrary to popular belief Annabeth is not a heartless leader, she feels nervous, giddy and sad like any other person she just doesn't show it.

Percy and Annabeth leave at dusk, they start with a light jog and it slowly starts turning into a one – sided conversation, with Percy talking about random things and Annabeth jogging silently contemplating her existence.

Percy talks so much that Annabeth basically knows everything about him about an hour later when they get close to the monster camp location. See, monster camps are basically bands of 10 – 15 monsters who hunt around for demigods. Whenever they get too close to Bunker 9 two or three experienced demigods are usually given the task of tracking them down and killing them.

There are hundreds of these bands so if one goes missing nobody notices, Annabeth's thinking about what monsters they'll face when Percy blurts out an amusing fact which halts Annabeth in her tracks. "Um What?" asks Percy as Annabeth coughs and tries to stabilize herself. "Did you just say that before the Siege of Othrys you were hungover because you had wine with another centurion named Dakota?"

Percy rubs the back of his neck and sheepishly says "Well yeah, it cleared out pretty quick though what with me being a Son of Neptune or Poseidon and all, and also that I cashed in a favor from Fortuna for saving her daughter in a gryphon attack".

"HAHAHAH oh no you did not just drink before the battle" laughed Annabeth as she had her cleanest laugh in years it wasn't even that funny but Annabeth just felt an inclination to laugh it out. Her eyes were dancing with mirth and her cheeks were red, and then she realized Percy was staring at her.

"Ha pretty stupid of me right" said Percy awkwardly. Annabeth understood why, for weeks she had been ignoring him and now all of a sudden she was laughing and teasing him like she was an old friend.

She then remembers they are on a mission and starts running at a fast pace blushing like crazy and trying to get back into her serious 'leader' mode.

Percy of course continued talking about random stuff again and she subconsciously started filing information away, like all his random details.

His favorite color is blue.

His mom's name is Sally. Was Sally. He doesn't mention how she died, but his eyes get a little tighter around the corners and Annabeth infers that whatever the cause for the death was, Percy still feels guilty about it.

He worked on a farm once because he can talk to horses.

He likes jelly beans (the blue ones, of course).

He had a hellhound named Mrs O Leary who was killed by a rogue drakon while he was on the run

He likes strawberries, even though he hasn't had one in years.

By the time Annabeth finally finds her voice long enough to interrupt, he's talking about medicinal herbs, of all things. Annabeth's head has been trying to keep up with this onslaught of information and she's ended up not having a single clue of how they got to this particular topic of conversation and it's pissing her off, because she's figured that Percy's hiding some big shit that he covers up with superficial tales like these. Annabeth's usually able to get a good read on people within the space of a few conversations with them, but Percy remains ridiculously elusive to her.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Annabeth asks finally, wondrous, cutting him off mid-spiel.

Percy takes a moment to pause. "Been around. A lot of trial and error." Then he colors. "Oh my gods, I've been rambling for the past thirty minutes, haven't I? Were we supposed to be quiet? I'm so sorry, I tend to do that when I'm nervous."

How the hell did you survive this long by yourself, Annabeth wants to say, thinking that his incessant droning had, at least, succeeded in dispelling the awkwardness between them. What comes out instead is, "You're nervous?"

"Uh, yeah." Percy gives her a very duh look.

It takes a lot of effort not to scoff. This is the hero who beat Iapetus?

"Monster raids should be easy for you," she offers. "Grab whatever you can and run, mostly. If we have to engage, I mean, you seem powerful enough to take them."

He laughs. "I'm not nervous about the raid." He looks at her, bright and honest. "I'm more nervous about you, to be honest."

Oh no thinks Annabeth, she knew this was coming. Piper warned her that Percy was going to confront her about her coldness before the War Council but he just got an early chance because of the monster raid.

"Why do you hate me?" he asks bluntly.

Annabeth colors despite herself, and she curls her fingers around the compass unconsciously. "I don't hate you."

"That's a little hard to believe," Percy says dryly, and even with all the grime on his face and the darkness she can tell his eyebrows are raised. "I mean, I've been trying to be nice. You know I have. Annabeth winces, because yeah, he keeps on extending olive branches her way and she keeps – burning them.

She gives up the pretense. "Look, I don't hate you. I just don't trust you. Can you blame me?" She searches his eyes. "Why are you still here?" The words are torn from her throat before she even realizes they had been there.

And as if he'd known she would ask, as if her doubts had been plastered across her face in indelible ink, Percy smiles – a small, sad smile, laced with something like pity.

"Here? You asked me to come," he says, innocently enough, but there's a sharp gleam in his eyes that indicates he knows exactly what she means. Percy's always been exceptionally quick to avoid Annabeth's line of inquiry, and she's sick of it.

She ignores him, stalks up to where he stands, motionless, so that they're face to face. "What's your game?"

"My game? I was pretty good at Monopoly as a kid, but maybe that was my mom letting me win." He's relaxed, easy in a way he shouldn't be when she's seconds away from straight up threatening him.

"I mean," she hisses, "What is your plan?"

"Well, that's not a very clever question, is it?" Percy smiles guilelessly at her. "If I have a devious plan, I wouldn't just tell you. And you haven't believed me from before, when I said I haven't one, so you probably won't believe me now."

"You have to be planning something," she says, shaking her head. "Why would you be here otherwise?"

"Maybe I like the whole mi casa es su casa thing you got going on."

Annabeth scoffs, stepping away – she'll never admit it, but Percy's aura had flared up, defensive, the moment she stepped into his personal space, and something in her had warned her to get back to avoid getting burned.

It doesn't mean she's backing down, though. "You said yourself you've been alone all these years. Why do you suddenly want to change all that?"

And that's when Percy bursts "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!, I'M JUST TIRED OF RUNNING AND FIGHTING EVERYDAY, I SURVIVED A YEAR AND A HALF ALONE! SOMETIMES PEOPLE HAVE SIMPLE REASONS ANNABETH" Percy's heaving furiously and his aura has dangerously flared up Annabeth has backed up a few steps.

Percy slowly calms down, his breathing becoming normal and his eyes going back to their ocean green instead of the dark green tsunami they had been turned into.

"Is it so hard to believe that I'm tired of all that running?" His gaze bores into her. "I'm tired, Annabeth. I understand you've been through some shit –"

"Yeah, exactly," she interrupts because she just needs to make her point clear before Percy goes nuclear. "You said yourself that you've seen demigods working for the other side. So far you haven't proved you're one of them, but that doesn't completely discount you from being a spy."

"You can't just wait for me to do something even remotely shady before deciding I'm a spy and throwing me out," he says, closing his eyes and making an expression that Annabeth interprets as a plea for patience. "Maybe I haven't shown any traitorous tendencies because I'm not one."

"You can't just take the innocent-until-proven-guilty path," she grunts petulantly. "If you're stealing information from right under our noses – I'll never forgive myself. It's happened before."

"I'm not a spy, Annabeth." Percy crosses his arms. "And if you're just going to be rude and distrustful of me, you can keep doing it. I'm not going to betray your Bunker. And you can kick me out if you want to, you have the authority – and I'll go if you really want me to. But as long as you let me, I'm going to stay. Like I said, I'm tired of being chased. And sometimes reasons don't need to be deep and complex. They can be incredibly simple."

Unable to stand the disappointment in his eyes, she looks away. "I'm not going to kick you out."

He snorts. "You sound disappointed."

"It doesn't mean I trust you."

"Fair enough" he offers her his hand "Truce? You don't glare at me like I kicked a puppy and I promise not to be annoying" he asks hopefully.

She shakes his hand and wishes she could hold it even though the guy nearly killed her.

"You don't like to trust people or depend on them do you?" he asks his voice gentle and caring, Annabeth mutely shakes her head as out of nowhere some tears make their way and Annabeth breaks her character for the first time since Thalia's death.

Annabeth doesn't rely on people because – because, well, everyone disappoints her eventually. There had been her mother, who had left. Her father, who had shunned her. Thalia, who had died. Luke, who had betrayed them all.

She'd grown up independent – she'd had to. Her father had acted like she wasn't even in the house, and only addressed her by name when he was drunk or tired. After a couple of glasses of wine, he'd admitted he hadn't wanted a child back then, he wasn't ready to be a father, and he wasn't sure what to do with her – even though he seemed to have no trouble being a father to his two mortal sons.

The ugly truth was hard to take for a seven-year-old.

It's different with the Bunker – with Piper and Jason and her siblings. With them it is an easy give-and-take, a mutual respect that ties their bonds together. But Annabeth knows that she will never depend on anyone the way she had on Thalia and Luke and her father – she will never give so much of herself to anyone ever again. It will only lead to her getting hurt again, and Annabeth isn't bulletproof, not even close.

Her fear of losing everything all over again – that's what's keeping her from an arms' length from Percy from just falling into his muscled arms.

She feels him inching closer he pulls her closer into a hugs and she starts sobbing a little bit leaning into his warm embrace and inhaling his minty scent that he has applied to blend in with the forest.

After a while she pulls out sniffling a little bit and elbows Percy. "OW, what was that for?" Percy groans. "You better not tell that to anyone" says Annabeth half – serious and half – smiling.

"Why would you be scared of me, anyway?" she asks dimly, transfixed by the sight. "I mean, you've killed a Titan."

He casts her a sideways glance. "You can't not know how intimidating you are."

She shrugs, because she does know. Annabeth's got the severe look that all children of Athena share, with gloomy grey eyes and sharp features. All her years of training have made her strong, turned her body into a weapon (hence the elbows). She knows how scary she can look when she's sizing someone up; that's how she prefers it, if she's being honest, because first impressions matter. She remembers all too well how monsters used to look at her those first few years when she'd been on the run with Thalia and Luke – she'd been viewed as too young, too weak, as someone to be protected.

Nobody will think of her that way again if she has something to say about it.

She's not surprised that people consider her intimidating. What's surprising is that Percy is one of them.

Half of her is pleased, the rest of her is disappointed. It's a weird feeling.

"I didn't mean to be unwelcoming," she says finally, running a finger down her sheathed dagger. "You've got to understand. You're an anomaly, even by demigod standards. Someone with your power having survived alone so long? You can't blame me for expecting the worst." She gulps, finding her throat dry. "We've lost too many people."

His brows furrow. "In the War?"

"To the other side," she discloses heavily, unsure of why exactly she's confiding in Percy whilst trying not to think of Luke and thinking of nothing else. "I-I've never wanted to admit it aloud. We had so many people, Percy…and then, as the Titans grew in strength, demigods would just…leave. We tried to hope, for a while. That they were abducted, that they were taken in the night by some monster, but then, during the War…" She sighs. "I haven't told anyone this, but - I struck one. I couldn't see his face. I assumed he was a monster, at first, taking on a different form…but then his body didn't turn to dust, and I knew. I couldn't even remove his helmet. I couldn't. He might have been a friend."

"Being responsible for every single demigod in the Bunker. You've built a great family back there, and each and every one of those demigods are loyal to you and loyal to their friends. You've built a home with a base of – of allegiance, and trust. So I guess I get why you didn't accept me, Annabeth."

She cracks a small smile. "It'll happen." She stops to consider the new developments in their relationship. Friendship. Acquaintance-ship. "It's happening."

"Well, it's about time." He smiles, eyes curving into half-moons. "And for what it's worth, I won't betray you – any of you. I like it at Bunker Nine. Feels – homely." The word comes out like a prayer.

Annabeth gazes at him. "You've been with us for a month and a half."

"Yeah, so?" he says defensively.

She doesn't quite manage to conceal her chuckle. "You're a little nuts, sometimes, Percy."

"What's nuts is throwing half your dinner plate into fire for gods that might not even exist anymore," he says gleefully, dodging the light kick she aims his way. They both grin at each other, and Annabeth feels lighter than she has in weeks.

"Come on," she says finally. "Let's go get some loot."

PERCY

Percy thinks it's insane that he's going hunting for monsters since he's been avoiding them like the plague since the last 1 ½ years.

To ambush monsters on a routine basis? Percy can't even imagine the risk. It sounds like suicide.

Annabeth seems a seasoned veteran, at least. She teaches him to read tracks, pointing out trodden-on twigs on the ground that Percy never would've known to look for. She's cautious and methodical as a teacher, and she smiles, pleased, when Percy spots claw marks on a tree trunk that she hadn't noticed yet.

She does seem to be making more of an effort with him. Percy might've had to goad her into a real conversation, but he's pleased with the results, anyway. He can tell that she really is trying to be sincere about giving him a chance, and he suspects that even though she knows she'd behaved inappropriately, she doesn't often admit it. Percy doesn't want to belittle the effort.

Besides, he really had been telling her the honest truth about why he wanted to stay with Bunker Nine. He can't put his finger on it exactly, but there's something about the place that makes him feel at home. Even when Annabeth had been treating him like the dirt under her shoe, Percy had felt as though there was nowhere else he'd rather be – although that might've just been the loneliness talking.

He hadn't been lying when he'd told her he didn't want to get on her bad side, either. Annabeth's aura radiates a sharp strength and there's no mistaking the born-to-lead vibe that wraps her like a second skin. He's never seen her in a real fight, but he's watched her train, and she moves completely differently compared to the Romans. Her moves are calculated, yet fluid, closer to Percy's own fighting style, which excites him. Most of the Greeks, he's noticed, have their own distinct style of fighting, a sharp contrast to the textbook manoeuvres every Roman soldier is taught. Though Percy is different as he always was kind of a oddball in the legion.

He's eager, he notes, eager to fight by Annabeth's side. He hasn't had someone to watch his back in – in years.

Suddenly they hear voices ahead Cyclopes Annabeth mouths to Percy. They retreat a few metres back and start whispering in fast hushed tones.

"Eight cyclopes" Percy says "What's the plan here?".

He's eager to show Annabeth what he can do, he's anxious to prove himself in a way he hasn't felt since Lupa's many, many tests.

"I'll sneak up on the lead one," she says, patting her pocket where he now knows the invisibility cap is stored. "You take out the ones in the rear, and we can double-team the last ones left. Shouldn't be too hard."

Percy nods. He knows he can do it, even without a magic item to make him invisible. This is the part where he shows Annabeth that he isn't going to be dead weight, because over the years Percy has become extraordinary at breaking and entering – but really what he does is not break anything and still enter anyway. He is fast and lithe, and he's certain nobody in Nine can match his efficiency at scaling walls, drifting across rooftops, shimmying up trees, and picking locks with barely a sound. He's hidden in forests for days, in trees with nowhere to go but up, and so this feels like familiar territory. He traces the monsters' path with his gaze, checking and double-checking, because in his impatient excitement he'd already figured out a way to get behind them the moment Annabeth had pointed out their target. He's itching to go, but this is her mission, and he'll wait for her call.

"If they're moving, won't that mean they don't have any loot?" Percy asks doubtfully, but Annabeth is always shaking her head.

"Monsters have been stealing demigod weapons for centuries now," she grits out. "Most have weapons on them, and some even have armour – cyclopes and telekhines, especially, have the knowhow on how to forge new tools for themselves. Haven't you noticed how monsters these days always have some form of weapon? They don't even need to rely on their claws or – or their teeth – or whatever, anymore. They kill our kind and -"

Percy nods – he had noticed, he'd just never questioned why. He feels a little sick. "And then take whatever they've got on them?"

"Yeah," Annabeth confirms, her mouth set in a grim, straight line. "And now we're going to steal them back".

NICO

Nico first noticed something was wrong when Sammy flew from his hand and began flying in circles. Sammy was an obsidian eagle, a species of eagle only found in the underworld, Nico had found Sammy suddenly 3 months after the incident as he decided to call it.

Nico wasn't stupid he knew his dad who was in hiding and was recovering from losing his palace and kingdom after Kronos defeated him, his dad was the one who sent Sammy to him. He also knew that obsidian eagles flew in circles when there was danger.

Nico watched Sammy's midnight black feathers which seemed to blend in with the night suddenly Sammy cawed and the hair's on Nico's hands stood up. On instinct he uncapped his sword Blood Reaper and raised just in time to block a strike from an empousa, he shoved the empousa and slashed his sword the empousa nimbly skipped out of his way.

The empousa laughed, it was wearing a cheerleader's outfit and had flaming hair, Nico knew just from looking that it held itself like a practiced killer and knew he couldn't win the fight.

He thought of all possible ways to escape as the empousa called out "Boy, I am Kelli the leader of Kronos's spy network, you're weak underworld powers or swordplay is no match for me".

Nico reeled in shock, nobody was supposed to know that he was a child of Hades he needed to get out of here now because even if he decided to fight Kelli and win, it was highly unlikely that she would have come without backup.

Kelli chose that moment to strike Nico barely dodged her, though her claws tore through his jeans and left a cut which hurt like hell.

Nico then decided on a drastic course of action, he didn't shadow travel often because it left him feeling drowsy and tired and also free lunch even for a baby hellhound.

Nico summoned the shadows around and Kelli snarled and charged again and Nico knew he was going to die as her claws came closer and the shadows started to warp around him.

Just the Sammy dive bombed Kelli and scratched her in the face, Kelli screamed and fell Sammy returned to Nico's wrist just as Nico slipped into the shadows and appeared in woods 2000 miles away passing out instantly.

Nico woke up at dawn he rubbed his eyes confusedly as he tried to get his bearings he remembered last night and though he must have passed out.

He was about find the main road again when he saw a troop of cyclops around 200m far, he decided to follow them because why not?

Nico followed them for about 20 minutes before deciding to rest for a while as the cyclops were doing nothing interesting, he was about to retrace his steps when he heard sounds of combat.

Nico uncapped Blood Reaper and started jogging towards the noise, when Nico reached the small clearing where he saw a tall blonde girl being picked up by a cyclops and a black haired fighting flawlessly against the leader he reckoned as the cyclops the boy was fighting was at least 10 foot.

When Nico saw the girl's throat being crushed he froze in fear, having horrible flashbacks of Bianca, he saw the boy let out a war cry and stab the cyclops, he regained his senses and with all his might ran forward and plunged his word into the cyclop's chest.

PERCY

Everything was going great until they noticed the two extra cyclopes lumbering back. Percy and Annabeth had rushed in together catching two cyclopes with surprise. Percy stabbed the cyclopes into the gut and spun around slicing the head of another 2 down 6 to go he thought. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Annabeth fighting. Annabeth wasn't doing so great, the cyclopes had noticed her when she had sprung out of the bushes.

The cyclopes was fighting with his club as Annabeth avoided getting crushed, his buddy the other cyclopes was trying to get into Annabeth's guard from behind. Percy was so distracted he didn't notice the other four cyclopes bearing upon him. He ducked under the jab of one and give him a good stab into the knee, sadly the cyclopes didn't dissolve instead roaring in pain and stumbling a little bit, till the time the other cyclopes was stumbling around he ran towards the other three.

Percy vaulted over the first's back and stabbed from the head to the waist he ducked and slammed the hilt of riptide into another's gut. Meanwhile stumbly cyclopes had recovered and had now surrounded Percy the three cyclopes were slowly closing in on him.

"Annabeth, a little help would be appreciated" Percy called as Annabeth fought against her last cyclopes having stabbed the other in the gut. "Just a sec" Annabeth replied leaving a long scratch on the cyclopes hand which made him drop the club.

The two cyclopes surrounding Percy lost their patience and charged at Percy screaming for fresh demigod blood. He instead charged at lone cyclopes who hadn't charged and was wearing a silver eyepatch he ducked under his blow and stabbed into the monster's heart twisting the blade for good measure. Annabeth had killed her cyclops and now joined Percy in killing the last two.

"You good?" Annabeth asked sweating profusely and sliver of hair hanging down her face. "Never been better" replied Percy who was just panting a little bit. Legion training baby Percy thought as Annabeth looked at him with surprise. "Talk later" he said and as if connected they both charged Annabeth gutting one cyclopes and Percy punching one and slicing of his toe.

Percy stood with his foot on the cyclopes throat as Annabeth checked the cyclopes's bags for weapons. Percy gave the cyclope a wolf stare a stare perfected by his training with Lupa. He slammed his sword in the monster's face.

Annabeth gave a little squeal as she ran stood up and tried to show something to Percy but was backhanded by a massive fist emerging out of the shadow. "Annabeth" Percy screamed and he charged who charged Percy with a massive broadsword their blades meeting with a shower of sparks they danced around each other when Percy noticed the other cyclops holding the now unconscious Annabeth by the throat and squeezing it.

"YAAAH!" he yelled as he swung Riptide with an insane speed breaking the cyclops sword and sinking the broken shard into the cyclops collarbone.

Percy knew he would be too late but he ran anyway and before he could reach Annabeth the tip of a black sword emerged from the cyclops chest.

As the cyclop's dissolved Percy got a view of the Annabeth's savior at 13 maybe 14 year old kid with a midnight black sword and black hair.

Percy unfroze and ran towards Annabeth as the guy was clearly a demigod. He knelt down besides her and checked her pulse and gave a sigh of relief it was weak but steady he force fed her ambrosia while the guy just stared at him curiously.

It was then he noticed what was in Annabeth's hand, what she had tried to show him. Thalia's Lance marveled Percy it was a gold coin with the face of Zeus on one side a lightning bolt on the other just like Piper described it in their weapon's class.

Percy shook himself and looked at the guy who was holding his sword shakily at him at Percy's sudden moment. Percy offered him his hand as he could clearly see this guy was novice. "Hi, I'm Percy and you are…..?". The guy took his hand cautiously and said "Nico di Angelo son of Hades".

Oh shit that complicates things thought Percy as the fate of the world was also thrust upon another child of Big Three's. Forcing a smile he said "Well then, Hi cousin".

Whew long chapter, guys please we need more reviews it keeps me motivated we need to get at least 5 – 10 reviews before next chapter pls :D.

To Greninga19 : Noted and thanks for reviewing.

I'll need y'all to review whether you short chapter s about 1k or 2k words per week or big chapters like this one per 1 and a half week or 2.

Pls review for that too. Fallen King new chapter gonna come soon and it's gonna be a banger, maybe in 4 – 5 days.

Updated on 7th April

Chapter Length – 4725 words

Peace, NiHarOP