AN: sorry for the long wait. i had a terrible writers block and i could have sworn i had already posted this chapter but i guess i didnt. again, so sorry. also, there was a slight problem earlier on with Thalia being over sixteen but ive come up with a solution. all will be explained later but Thalia is about thirteen

We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.

We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax. It felt like we were travelling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.

I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I limped away from the Greyhound bus. Even though I was injured I had a wild look in my eye. My sword, which lay on the ground at the corner of the image, was just a metallic blur. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick. The picture's caption read:

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, who vanished along with his mother 6 months ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly before Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be travelling with two teenage accomplices. His mother is still nowhere to be seen. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture. The police now suspect that Percy Jackson may be responsible for the disappearance of his mother and is wanted for questioning.

"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.

The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.

Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. I looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.

I immediately thought of the centaur from my dreams and then my mind jumped to the kid who aged 100 years right in front of my eyes. I imagined the little boy centaur galloping away from the giant man, desperately trying to survive but all in vain as he wrinkled and turned grey before collapsing on the ground in a pile of dust and bones.

Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leapt through the trees and was gone.

Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. My neck got stiff. I tried not to drool in my sleep, since Annabeth was sitting right next to me.

Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.

"So," Annabeth asked me, once we'd got Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"

I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit. But it bothered me so much I finally told her.

Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."

"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"

"I guess ... if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"

I shook my head, wishing I knew the answer. I thought about what Grover had told me, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.

Where is it? Where?

Maybe Grover sensed my emotions. He snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.

Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time- "

"This time?" I asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"

She hesitated, a pained look on her face. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."

"What would you do if it was your dad?"

"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."

"You're not serious?"

Annabeth's grey eyes fixed on me. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."

Even after all this time, we'd never actually talked about her family. She'd always been very secretive about that subject. I didn't want to push but I had to ask while we were on the subject, "But how ... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital..."

"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."

I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn't know how.

"My mom married a really awful guy," I told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."

She was twisting the gold college ring that she always wore. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father's. I wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.

"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife-my stepmom-treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened-you know, something with monsters-they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."

"And then you met Thalia and Luke?" I asked. "They took you in, as you did with me, and protected you?"

"Mhm."

I thought back to the centaur. "And Mr Brunner?" I asked. "What do you think that was about?"

Annabeth seemed to think hard for a moment. "I'm… not… sure. He said he was here to guide you and seems to be trying to lead you away from helping Hades but why would he show you that vision? From what you described it's nothing like Hades."

"You never heard of a Mr Brunner from the myths?"

She shook her head. "No, never. Although… never mind."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, we've met other half-bloods before and one time, when I was talking to a daughter of Aphrodite, she mentioned a centaur who'd visited them in their dream. I can't remember what they said it was called but it could be the same centaur."

I nodded. "What if we're wrong about this? What if it's not Hades?"

"If it's not Hades then we'll have to hope the Lord of the Dead is lenient and doesn't mind being accused of a crime that could get him banished from Olympus permanently."

We fell into a contemplative silence. I listened to the sound of Grover snoring and gazed out the train windows as the dark fields of Ohio raced by.

Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.

"I want to do that," she sighed.

"What?" I asked.

"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"

"Only in pictures."

"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."

"You will one day Annabeth. I have no doubt you have the talent and I know that not even the gods could stand in your way if you wanted to do something."

She smiled at me and my heart warmed slightly. "Thank you, Percy."

We pulled into the Amtrack downtown station and the intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.

I shook Grover and he stretched before he was even fully awake and groaned, "Food."

I looked up at Annabeth and we both giggled slightly.

"C'mon goat boy, sightseeing."

"Sightseeing?"

"Yeah, this could be my only chance to see the Gateway Arch. I'm not going to miss it."

I wanted to protest but I knew I couldn't convince her otherwise and I wasn't about to let her go alone.

Grover stumbled up from his seat and grumbled something about recklessness.

"You first," I said to Annabeth.

"No my Lady," she countered with a smirk. "I insist, after you."

Grover barged through and shot a smirk behind him. "I am not waiting for you two to stop flirting to find some food. See you outside."

We both started blushing profusely as he trotted off laughing at our flustered protests.

We caught up with him outside and walked to the Arch. It was only about a mile away and that late in the day the lines weren't that long.

We wandered through the underground museum looking at loaded wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling to me but Annabeth was ecstatic. She was flapping her hands as we entered and kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built which made me smile. And Grover kept handing me jelly beans so it was all good.

I wasn't at ease though. I kept looking around at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover.

He took his nose out of the jelly beans for long enough to sniff the air. "Underground," he muttered. "Underground always smells of monsters. I'm sure it's nothing."

I wasn't so sure though. I felt like we weren't supposed to be here.

"Hey guys, you know gods' symbols of power?"

"Yeah?" Annabeth asked. She had just been studying equipment used to construct the Arch but looked up to face me.

"Doesn't Had-"

"We're in a public place," Grover interrupted. "You mean our friend down under?"

"Yeah, our friend way down under. Doesn't he have a cap like Annabeth's?"

"His Helm of Darkness," Annabeth tells me. "It's like my cap except much more powerful, apparently he can-"

"He can become darkness. He can melt into shadow or walk through walls. He can't be seen, heard or touched and he can radiate fear so powerful it can turn you crazy or stop your heart," Grover put in.

"Right. How do we know he isn't watching us right now?"

"We don't," Annabeth told me.

"That inspires me with confidence."

By the time we got to lift, I'd pretty much mastered my nerves but I was always nervous with confined spaces. We were squashed into the lift with a big fat woman and a chihuahua. I assumed it was a seeing-eye chihuahua because none of the guards paid it any attention.

The doors of the elevator closed and we began to ascend. I'd never been in an elevator that travelled in a curve and my stomach did not approve.

"No parents?" the fat lady asked us.

She had beady black eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat and a denim jacket that bulged so much she looked like a blue-jean blimp.

"They're waiting at the bottom," Annabeth said. "Afraid of heights."

"Oh, the poor dears."

The chihuahua began yapping furiously at us and the lady tugged at its lead. "Now, now Sonny."

"Sonny? Is that their name?"

"No." She smiled as if that cleared everything up.

The doors pinged open and we all walked out onto the observation deck.

If there's one thing I like less than a confined space it's a confined space 200 feet in the air. I was ready to go pretty quickly but Annabeth was talking excitedly about the structural supports and how she'd have made bigger windows and a see-through floor.

I'm sure she could have stayed up there for hours but luckily one of the park rangers announced that the observation deck would be closing soon. I hurried Grover and Annabeth into the lift and was about to step in when I realised there were already two people in.

"Next cart sir," the park ranger told me.

"We'll get out and wait with you," Annabeth said but I knew that would just complicate things and just slow everything down even more.

"Nah, it's fine. I'll see you guys at the bottom," I insisted. They looked unsure but let the door shut.

The only people left was the fat lady and a family of three. I smiled at the lady and she smiled back. Her forked tongue flicked between her teeth.

Wait.

Forked tongue?

I pulled my pen out of my pocket cautiously.

Before I could figure out if I'd seen it or not, her chihuahua started yapping at me.

"Doggy!" The little child screeched with delight. "Doggy, doggy, doggy!" His parents pulled him back.

"Now, Sonny, does this look like a good time? Look at all these nice people around?"

It carried on barking and it started foaming at the lips which had turned black.

"Oh, very well son."

As she bent down to unclip the lead, I asked, "Did you just call that chihuahua son?"

"Not chihuahua, chimaera. It's an easy mistake to make."

She rolled up her sleeves revealing green, scaly, snake-like skin. When she smiled her teeth were all fangs.

As the chihuahua continued barking it began to grow. First the size of a Doberman, then the size of a lion. The bark became a roar.

The family screamed and ran towards the exit where the park ranger was standing, paralysed with fear.

The chimaera was now so tall that its back scraped the ceiling. Its head morphed into that of a lion with a blood-caked mane, it had the body and hooves of a goat with a snake for a tail. A three-metre long diamondback growing right out of its fuzzy behind. The rhinestone collar that was still hanging around its neck was now clearly visible.

Chimaera: dangerous; fire-breathing; venomous

If found please call Tartarus. Ext. 954

I uncapped my sword and slid into a fighting stance.

The snake-lady hissed in what could have been a laugh. "You should be honoured, Zeus doesn't usually allow me to test heroes with my monsters. For I am the Mother of Monsters, Echidna!"

"Echidna? Isn't that a kind of anteater?"

She screamed with rage. "No! I hate it when people ask that. Those stupid Australians naming that creature after me. For that, you shall die!"

The chimaera roared and leapt at me. I barely had time to leap out of the way before the jaws clamped down where my head was seconds before. I rolled and came up next to the family. I couldn't let them get injured.

I ran to the other side of the observation deck and shouted, "Hey! Chihuahua!"

The chimaera rounded on me faster than I thought possible. I went to strike but it opened its mouth emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit and shot a column of fire straight at me.

I dived through the explosion and the carpet was incinerated behind me. The heat was so great that my eyebrows were seared off.

Where I had previously been stood there was a ragged hole. 'Great,' I thought. 'We just blowtorched a national monument.'

I tried to slash at the monster's mane but that was my mistake. My sword glanced harmlessly of the collar and I lost my balance. The chimaera gnashed at me and I stumbled backwards.

But I'd been so focused on defending against the lion head I'd completely forgotten about the tail. The snake snuck behind me and sunk its teeth into my thigh. I screamed in pain and fell to one knee.

I forced myself back up and tried to stab into the creature's jaws but the snake wrapped around my leg and threw me off balance. My sword skittered away and fell out the hole and down towards the Mississippi River.

I managed to get to my feet but I knew I was lost. I was defenceless and I could feel the poison travelling up my chest. The chimaera advanced until I was backed up to the hole. Smoke began curling from its lips.

Echidna tutted. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh son?"

The monster seemed in no hurry to finish me off now I was practically defeated.

"Oh, shut up will you Enchilada," I groaned.

She hissed in anger and the chimaera advanced.

I took a step back and glanced through the hole.

"Go on, jump," Echidna taunted. "If you're truly the son of the sea god your father will save you. Jump, hero. Prove your lineage."

'Yeah right,' I thought. I'd heard somewhere that jumping into water from this high up would be like jumping on dry tarmac. I looked at the family, cowering in fear. The child was hiding behind his fathers' legs. I couldn't let them get hurt. I couldn't just die. I tried to think but my mind was getting hazy. Everything started spinning. Maybe if I died the monster would leave them alone.

"You doubt. I don't blame you. You have no trust in the gods. What have they ever done for you? They can't save you now. The poison's in your heart."

She was right. I felt my breathing slow. My thigh was burning. I was dying. Not even the gods could save me.

I thought of my father. I thought back to the earliest memory I had of anything. A warm glow. Like a smile. It was the only hint of my father I'd ever known. He was the sea god. But we were several hundred miles inland. There was no sea here.

I looked at the family. The child looked terrified but one of the fathers only gave me a look of sympathy and worry.

"Die, faithless one," Echidna screeched the chimaera sent another column of flames engulfing me.

'Help me, father,' I prayed. I jumped. Burning and tumbling with venom coursing through my veins, I fell 200 feet through the air.