(A/N Hi, Hello, How are you?! Me? I'm pumped! I got another chapter in a timely manner! WOOT WOOT! lol

To answer one of the reviews:

E N: Yeah, I fiddled for a little while trying to find a better way to come up with that, but I needed to expose her and the pearl necklace cliché fit nicely.

Anywho, I hope you enjoy this next bit!)

Percy seemed...off.

He'd detailed his day with Carter and they seemed to have had a lot of fun, especially with Percy's camp friends crashing their day. His son was a bit put off by their interference, but it worked out.

And Carter was safe.

No disasters occured from them being in the same place.

But something was wrong.

It wasn't the attack. Percy had explained what happened and how he was so conflicted about killing his foes.

It was easy with monsters.

Amos thought of the first Magician he'd killed. And the last. It would never be easy… and he thought that was a good thing.

His skateboard was gone. But Percy wouldn't be this distraught over something so easily replaced.

Amos had only twice used his persuasion on Percy, but he was seriously considering it just then. The events of Percy's life were often life or death and secrets would not do.

"Percy," he let his voice weigh on the room as he recalled the spell he'd used countless times.

A pounding at their door interrupted him.

The two headed over as they heard Khufu answer the door.

Amos wasn't expecting Annabeth to slump through the doorway, clutch onto Percy, and begin crying.

.

"Hey, it'll be okay," Percy said into her hair as he hesitantly put his arms around her and gave Amos a panicked look. His father would be no help, as he looked just as bewildered as Percy.

Not knowing what else to do, Percy picked her up and brought her to the couch where she sat beside him and continued crying on his shoulder. Amos left the room for a few minutes and returned with three cups of tea.

Percy didn't care for tea, but if he drank it, maybe she would too.

She held the mug close to her chest, as if absorbing its warmth, and slowly calmed her sobs.

When she looked at Percy with that broken expression he wanted nothing more than to avenge her broken heart.

"She was my friend."

He rubbed her back, because he really didn't have anything more productive he could do.

"She was my friend and she… How could she?"

"What happened?"

"They want Thalia. They were hoping she'd be older than you. He thinks… He thinks he can persuade her to join them. But they still need to kill you."

"Kill me, kidnap her. Sounds about par for the course," he gave a halfhearted smile and she returned it.

"Her and Chiron were arguing when I left. I didn't tell them where I was going."

"Sneaking out twice in one day? What's becoming of you, Annabeth?"

"My two best friends are pretty bad influences on me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, she's a total punk who wants to fight everything. I wouldn't be surprised if she challenged the Ancient Laws themselves." He chuckled and she brightened a little, relaxing her posture as she rolled her eyes dramatically. "And the guy I hang around? Total kelp head."

"Kelp head?"

"Her words," she giggled. "He's this awful skater boy who thinks the best plan of action is not thinking and just jumping into any scenario."

"He sounds pretty cool." She laughed and ran her shoulder into his.

"Mr. Kane?"

Amos hummed a response and glanced at Percy. A question was in his eyes, showing he did not want to disrupt the calm the two had created.

"I'm sorry I barged in here."

"You are always welcome, Annabeth. Though, we've discussed before the necessity for caution."

"I'm sorry."

"Nonsense. Your wellbeing is important. Might I ask what happened?"

Percy felt her tense and then deflate a moment later.

"We discovered our enemy had a spy in our camp. She was a good friend of mine. She helped me when I first got to camp and was my go to for girl talk. You know…Anyway, we discovered her today. Interrogation was rough. She's pretty delicate and all we had to do was glare at her for her to burst into tears. She cried the whole time and handed over more information than we could have hoped to ask."

"How is Clarisse?" Percy asked.

"Worse than me."

He sighed. Sure, the two never saw eye to eye, but after the quest he could consider her a friend. Not a good friend, but a friend.

"And what is to happen to the girl now?" Amos asked kindly.

"I don't know. I don't… We can't kill her. But if we let her go their strength grows. Or they kill her. Or a monster gets her before she even finds shelter. I don't… I don't know."

Percy broke a little more, because he knew those three words were probably the second hardest words for Annabeth to say, closely following 'I was wrong.'

.

"I will not be kept here and babysat!"

"Thalia, dear, please calm down."

"I will not calm down!" Sparks danced up and down her bracelets but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment. "You will not take me out of school because of Luke. I won't allow it!"

"If the enemy captures you-"

"The enemy? Luke. Say it. Luke. Luke betrayed us. You. Me. Annabeth." She thought back to May Castellan. "I understand why he thinks what he's doing is right, but it's not. If he thinks he can sway me, he's dead wrong. And if he does capture me, given the chance, he'll be dead altogether."

"Thalia," Chiron sighed. She could see how aged he appeared. How he seemed to be adding years as the conversation dragged on. "I suppose it's time to continue your training."

She'd already had the breath to stress another argument on her behalf, but his switch in conversation took her by surprise and she straightened up.

"What training?"

"For the rest of your fall break, and any free time we can find afterwards, you will be focusing on learning to manipulate the Mist. It'll strengthen your mind and defenses in case someone tries to...persuade you."

She gave a curt nod.

"How do we start."

He sighed again and took a minute to retrieve a book written in Ancient Greek.