Annabeth woke up in the passenger seat of her car. The first thing she noticed was that her hands and feet were tied to the seat. The second thing she noticed was that the car was moving, which shouldn't have been possible because she wasn't driving.

Glancing over to her left, Annabeth saw a familiar black-haired boy sitting in the driver's seat. Percy Jackson – of course. Her old friend, the demigod she'd been sent to capture. Well, hadn't that turned out so well. Annabeth had never failed on a mission before, and now she felt something like...embarrassment. Embarrassment and shame.

Annabeth shoved the feelings aside, focusing on a more useful one: anger. "What are you doing in my car?" she demanded. She probably wasn't in the best position to be giving an interrogation, but she wanted answers. "Where are we going?"

But Percy only turned and gave her a cheeky grin. "Found your keys in your belt," he said, his tone far too at ease. "Thought we ought to get going."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "Going where?" she repeated.

"Someplace safe," he said, his voice still frustratingly perky. "Trust me, you'll enjoy it." Trust me. Annabeth wanted to point out the absurdity of the statement, given that she had previously been trying to capture him, and now he had captured her.

Then she remembered another thing that had happened. "Wait. So, my aura…"

"Yep," Percy responded. "You're a demigod."

An awful feeling bubbled in Annabeth's stomach, like nausea. "But I can't be a demigod. I'm a Hunter. I've been a Hunter all my life."

Percy glanced over at her, and for just a moment he dropped the peppy voice. "I know," he said. "Are you alright?" Was that something like pity in his voice? That was so much worse than the pep.

"I'm fine," she said forcefully. "Where are we going?"

"Camp Demigod," Percy answered, finally. "Where you can live safely without being discovered. Trust me, you will be eventually."

"You mean there are more of you?" she asked suspiciously.

"More of us," Percy corrected.

"I'm not a demigod," Annabeth insisted, though she could tell her brain was starting to believe it. "And if you want me as an ally so badly, why did you tie me up?"

"Would you have attacked me if I hadn't?" Annabeth didn't answer. "And besides, if you weren't a demigod, you wouldn't have survived the nectar I gave you."

Annabeth looked at the cup holder in the console between them. There was an open thermos with some sort of deep golden liquid inside. It was definitely nectar – they'd been taught about it during training. If anyone but a demigod drank it, they'd be burnt up.

Lowering her head, Annabeth felt a tear slip down her cheek. She couldn't help it. She tilted her head so that her curly blond hair, which had come loose at some point, formed a screen to hide her face. She let out a small sob, but Percy was polite enough to pretend not to notice.

She looked down at her hands and saw, with a combination of panic and anger, that they were once again glowing, ever so faintly. It probably wasn't strong enough to be seen in full daylight, but now, with the sun almost gone, it was perfectly visible. Was it possible…had this ever happened before?

Annabeth gnashed her teeth and clamped her eyes shut, shoving the emotion down. She knew it was the emotions that were causing her aura to flair up. But she'd learned a long time ago to keep her emotions in check. It was part of being a Hunter. Sure enough, when she opened her eyes again, the glow was gone.

"You're pretty good at that," Percy commented, and Annabeth immediately felt self-conscious again. She shot him an angry look, but his eyes were still on the road. "It takes most demigods a while to learn how to shut off their aura at will."

"I'm not most demigods," she mumbled, half to herself, looking away from him.

And she wasn't; Annabeth wouldn't ever be ordinary. She had decided that long ago, when she decided to become a Hunter. She'd gone right up to the lobby of the Hunters' headquarters requested an application form.

The man at the front desk had laughed at her. "You're too young," he told her. "Come back in ten years."

"I'm not," Annabeth had said, refusing to be turned away. "There's nothing in the Hunter's rules that says you need to a certain age." The Hunters as an organization had been hastily thrown together in a time of national panic. Perhaps the lack of an explicit age restriction was nothing but an oversight, but that wouldn't stop Annabeth from exploiting it. "All it says is that you have to be physically able. And I am."

The man had stared at her for a few more seconds, then shrugged his shoulders. "All right," he said, sounding amused. "If you want to be a Hunter, I don't have a problem with it." He reached under the desk and drew out a clipboard full of pages for her to fill out. "I'm actually kind of curious to see how it turns out. Good luck."

And so the next week, Annabeth had begun training with a group of men and women all more than twice her age. Some of them had been amused as the man who'd allowed her admission, watching her curiously like she was some sort of spectacle. Others had been indignant that she'd been allowed in, as if her very presence was an insult to the institution. Even their supervisor seemed to think that she was nothing but a joke. None of them had taken her seriously. But that had changed quickly enough when their training had started.

Annabeth, they learned, was no one to be dismissed. She was an excellent fighter, not as strong as the other trainees, but quick and flexible, with flawless reflexes. She mastered every move their trainer taught them in hand-to-hand combat. Weapons were easy enough to use; when they started learning how to fire handguns, Annabeth was hitting bullseyes while the others were still mastering their grips. And when they began with investigations, learning the telltale signs of a demigod, how to track them down, the trainer had been so impressed with Annabeth's deductive skills he'd gone to tell his superiors about her.

That was how she'd caught the Director's attention. On her class's last day of training, when they were all finally to be accepted as Hunters, Christopher Landin himself had come to watch. When the demonstration finished, he told her personally that he was impressed with her performance, and looked forward to following her work. Annabeth had, of course, been beyond elated. It didn't matter that it was entirely probable that he wanted her around for the sheer novelty of it. It was everything she had wanted. More.

She had spent the next five years working twice as hard as everyone else in the building. Landin hired her a tutor so she could leave school. She spent barely any time at home. And still, everyone she met treated her like a joke. But she refused to let it get to her. She had earned her place here, just like everyone else. Landin had chosen her, whatever the reason, and she wouldn't let him down. So slowly, surely, she proved them wrong. She proved her worth again and again, until everyone in the organization knew her not as Annabeth Chase, that kid they kept around for fun, but as Annabeth Chase, the child prodigy, the best the Hunters had to offer.

Annabeth thought on this now, as the sun slowly set over the midwestern landscape passing outside her window. She knew that demigods, in addition to whatever supernatural power they had been given by their godly parents, seemed to have natural fighting skills as a built-in part of the package. Was this, rather than her own abilities, what had driven her rise in the Hunters? The thought made her sick.

They drove in silence for a few more minutes before Percy turned the car onto a small side path, nestled between thick trees on either side. Just a couple of minutes down the road they came to what looked like a small toll booth, though the bar that would usually block the street looked like it had been snapped off. Percy drove through it without slowing down, then rounded one last bend before their destination came into view.

Percy had said they were headed to a "camp," so Annabeth was expecting tents, maybe cabins, a campfire, things like that. But this was anything but that. A large modern building loomed up in front of them, three stories tall, made of white stucco with wide windows, two wings wrapping around the sides to enclose the front in a spacious courtyard. It looked like it must be a hotel. Paved paths spiraled out in all directions, leading to a couple dozen smaller buildings in the same style dotting the grassy clearing. At the far end, the clearing dropped away steeply, revealing a view of the tree-covered mountains beyond.

"Well," Percy said as he pulled the car into a lot off to the side. "Welcome to Camp Demigod."

"You call this a camp?" she asked in astonishment at the understatement.

Percy cut the car's engine. "Back before…all of this," he explained, "there were two camps where demigods would go to find safety and be trained. But they were both discovered and destroyed by the Hunters. This place was a resort, built but never opened. It was owned by a demigod, but after he died, he left it to us. Calling it camp is…"

"An homage," Annabeth supplied.

Percy looked over at her. She thought he was going to say something, but instead he just drew a knife out from the back seat – her own, Annabeth noticed – and cut the ties binding her wrists and ankles to her seat.

"Come on," Percy said as he opened his car door. "I'll give you a tour."

Annabeth followed him out. As she slammed her own car door, she felt a tinge of regret as the locks clicked, Percy slipping the key into his pocket. She wondered vaguely if she might be able to take it. But no – a bad idea, here on Percy's home turf.

Instead she turned her attention to Percy, who was starting off across the camp's grounds. "This is where we train," he narrated, gesturing over to their right, where a large field was cleared out, dotted with torso-shaped dummies, bits of what looked like armor, and shimmery bits of metal that Annabeth was sure must be weapons.

"There's our campfire," Percy continued pointing across the field to a pit that had been dug into the ground, surrounded by several rows of wooden benches. He pointed out in the other direction. "And we've got our storage over there. It's not much, but you know…"

They wove through a series of the smaller buildings, miniature houses that must have been meant to be vacation villas, winding their way back toward the central building. "This is where everyone lives. Well, the people who stay long-term. Sometimes people prefer…"

He trailed off, and Annabeth glanced over at him. He was looking off toward the nearest house, where the front door cracked open and someone began to make their way out. Before she could react, Percy had grabbed her wrist and was pulling her away.

He half-dragged her behind the next house over, stopping as two people came out from the other house and started off toward the main building. Annabeth glared at him, and he dropped her wrist. "Sorry."

"You're hiding me," Annabeth noted.

Percy looked slightly sheepish. "I thought you might prefer it that way. Not everyone at camp is so…"

"Welcoming?" she suggested.

"Forgiving," he corrected, and Annabeth winced slightly. Unlike Percy, most demigods would not be so eager to overlook what she was.

She stopped walking, and after a moment Percy followed suit. "Why did you bring me here?" she asked him.

"I told you, you're a demigod –"

"I know," Annabeth cut him off tensely. And she did – there wasn't any point in denying it any longer. Accept and move forward, that's what she would have to do. But how, when the thought still sent a shiver through her.

"This is a safe place for people like us, Annabeth," Percy said, oblivious to her discomfort. "I thought you might want to stay here."

Annabeth shook her head. "I can't stay here forever. I have a life, I have –" She cut herself off before she said a job. "I can't live here."

"You don't have to," Percy said. "But you should see what it's like. At least stay for the night."

Percy seemed to have this idea in his head that she was ready to abandon her old life, the Hunters, everything, just because of what she'd discovered. But this didn't have to change anything. So she was a demigod. That didn't mean she had to like them, or approve of their existence. That didn't mean that they weren't a danger to the world, a potential threat to everyone that didn't have their power. That didn't mean everything she'd known and believed for the past ten years was wrong.

Did it?

Percy was still watching her expectantly, his eyes wide and trusting. Far too trusting. No matter what else Annabeth was, she was a Hunter, and as for whether she was willing to give that up for being a demigod…well, she didn't need to decide that right now. And Percy didn't need to know about the debate that she was, even now, having with herself.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "I'll stay for the night."

Percy's grin stretched across his face. "Great. There are some people who will want to meet you."