Annabeth

We left before Leo, Piper, and Grover did, when the sun was barely up.

"It's weird staying here." Percy said next to me, leaning against the big house railing. "I'm usually going with you."

I turned to him and smiled reassuringly. "We'll be okay Percy. "

He frowned. "Yeah, I know. Still… I don't like it."

I put my hand on his shoulder. "They need you here."

"Yeah," he snipped back, bitterness seeping into his tone, "a lot of good I've done here."

I hugged him from behind, resting my head on his back. His fatal flaw must have been driving him crazy.

"I need to do something." He whispered to me."

I rubbed his shoulders and whispered back, "I know."

We stood there together until I felt Percy lookup, signaling Frank and Natasha's arrival. I reluctantly pulled myself off Percy's back and watched the unlikely pair hike to the Big House. Percy wrapped his arm around my waist and narrowed his eyes at the red head.

She was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, which clashed horribly with her hair. Frank strolled beside her, in that casually powerful way of his. He had donned his Camp Jupiter Praetor cloak.

"Ready to go?" I asked them.

They nodded, Natasha's eyes darting between the three of us.

Percy jumped over the railing to clap Frank on the back. He nodded to Natasha. I rolled my eyes and took the stairs.

Percy watched me come down before sticking his fingers out of his mouth and giving a shrill whistle. Almost instantly, three pegasi swooped down to line up beside him. I glanced at Natasha. Annoyingly, she didn't seem impressed.

"We aren't just taking a plane?" Was her only comment.

"I'm a descendant of Poseidon." Frank explained patiently. "If I took a plane, there's a chance I could be shot from the sky. Plus, the pegasi are much faster."

Frank marched forward at swung aboard his pegasus, Natasha gingerly following suit.

"Relax," Percy advised her as I swung up on Porkpie. "You'll make her nervous."

He walked over the me, stroking Porkpie's coat. I leaned down for a quick kiss, aware of Natasha's eyes on us.

Percy broke the kiss and back away a safe distance for take off. "Take care of each other."

Frank nodded. "We'll Iris message you as soon as we get there."

With that, I took a deep breath and took to the air. Looking back, I watched Percy watching us. I wonder how long Percy watched us.

XXXXXXXX

Our trip was made in uncomfortable silence. Natasha was stoic. After a few minutes of flying, she seemed completely unfazed by the speed and smoothness of the pegasi. She stared straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge my glances. Frank seemed completely oblivious to my frustrations, polishing his arrows.

The pegasi were slowing down, which wasn't surprising considering they'd been flying for hours. I caught Frank's attention and motioned downwards, knowing Natasha was paying attention even if she didn't want me to think so.

We landed behind a gas station in what looked like a small town. After we dismounted, I fed the horses some apples I had packed for them before they flew off the graze.

We walked into the gas station to grab a snack. I glanced at the clock they had hanging over the doors while Frank went to check the newspaper. Around ten in the morning. We'd been flying for about five hours. I purchased some stuff for me and Frank- Natasha had already bought stuff and gotten out- and walked out of the station with him.

We found her at an old picnic table on the side of the station. Her eyes locked onto us as we approached.

"We're in Minnesota somewhere." Frank opened his lunchables packet.

I nodded. "I thought so. We passed over lake Michigan awhile ago."

"So how much longer then?" Natasha asked, crunching defiantly on a pringle.

Before I could respond with a spiteful comment of sort, Frank jumped in. "We'll have to head south at some point. So, another ten hours give or take. We should get there late tonight."

Natasha nodded emotionlessly, sipping on her juice box. I couldn't help but snort. It was humorous seeing the stoic assassin sipping on a kid's juice box.

Her eyes flicked to me before looking away.

"We shouldn't stay here long." Frank told me.

"Did you see something?"

Frank shook his head, looking up at the sky, as if he expected something to swoop down and snatch us up at any moment. "No. Just a bad feeling."

That was more than enough for me. I nodded and shoved my sandwich into my mouth.

Natasha frowned. "Is somebody following us."

"Not somebody." Frank said between a mouthful of crackers. "Somethings. Monsters can smell us."

Natasha nodded. "Right. I think you mentioned that. How does that work exactly?"

Frank shrugged. "Don't know. Monsters spell differently than us. All we know is that we smell of divinity, whatever that means. The more powerful the demigod, the stronger the smell."

"And how strong are the two of you."

Frank shrugged again. "Moderate."

I rolled my eyes. "Satyrs can smell us too." I informed her. "Grover has told me before that we are both very potent."

Natasha sighed. "Great."

"Don't worry." I told her, gathering my trash. "We won't stay long enough for anything to catch us. And Camp Jupiter is a safe spot, like Camp Half-Blood. Monsters can't enter unless their invited."

Frank nodded, standing up with me. "Yep. The only monsters we're vulnerable against are the ones with wings. With any luck we won't run into any of them..." Frank trailed off, immediately regretting his words. We both stared at him. And then Frank and I stared at Natasha.

Slowly, she stood up with us, gathering her own trash. We threw away our stuff, and I gave her an extra water bottle I bought for the sky. Then, we walked together to the back of the station to call the pegasi.

It was just a little bit of together, but it was a start. Which was good, because apparently we were going to be attacked by a monster with wings.