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Chapter 8: We Battle Some Killer Droids

In the morning, I gave Annabeth a long kiss before she left for the palace. I held out her emergency demigod pack. "Could you please bring this with you today?" I asked.

Her gray eyes narrowed, "Percy, what's wrong?"

"I don't know, maybe nothing. I just have a bad feeling about today and would feel a lot better knowing that you had nectar and ambrosia with you, plus your sword." I tried to explain.

"Fine, but only if you take your pack too, and when I get back, you are telling me everything," she demanded.

"I promise, Wise Girl," I reassured her.

Since I didn't have class or patrol with the Security Guard, I spent the morning playing with Bessie Jr. She had cleared out the more dangerous monsters around Gungun City, so we moved toward a different network of caves. The Naboo knew almost nothing about sando aqua monsters because they were unable to safely observe the 200-meter animal. However, I had a few advantages that the Naboo did not, including the ability to actually talk to the intelligent mammal. I was hoping I could eventually write a report on what I discovered to help the Naboo understand these amazing creatures better. Bessie Jr. appreciated the company. She always seemed a little lonely, and she definitely liked the extra food I helped her find. She constantly bugged me for her favorite snack, opee sea killers, which reminded me of Blackjack with his donuts.

I returned to Theed in the afternoon and was shocked to see a Gungan bongo near my normal parking spot. Four skinny droids with really long faces were holding blasters and inspecting the Gungan sub. I had never seen droids like that, and I figured Panaka would have mentioned if he had started using armed droids for security. Before I opened the hatch to my sub, I grabbed my demigod pack, checked the hidden blaster at my side, and pulled out Riptide in pen form. All the droids turned to me as soon as I stepped onto the bank. "In the name of the Trade Federation, you are under arrest," one of the droids said in a monotone voice.

I remember Annabeth saying that the Trade Federation was responsible for the spaceships around the planet. What were they doing down here? Without more time to come up with a better taunt, I fell back on an old classic, "Braccas meas vescimini!" (Latin for "Eat my pants!")

The droid tilted his head, and said, "Uh, that doesn't compute."

While it was puzzling over what I had said, I quickly uncapped Riptide in my left hand and pulled out my blaster in my right. At the same time, I crouched low and used my leg to sweep two of the droids off balance before they could fire at me. Honestly, didn't they know it's a better strategy to spread out more? Then, I fired my blaster at the droid farthest away before slashing Riptide through the other standing one. I swiftly stabbed my sword into a downed droid and dodged a blaster from the remaining one before spinning and slicing it in half.

It's a really good thing that celestial bronze cuts through almost any non-magical metal. I even drove the magical blade hilt deep through the solid asphalt of a bridge once. I looked up and saw several large, tan colored tank things in the street with tons of droids spreading out and rounding up citizens. A few of the droids must have heard the blaster shot and were hurrying this way. This doesn't just look like a protest. This looks like a huge invasion which means the droids and tanks would be heading to the palace. "Annabeth!" I knew I should try to help the citizens, but I couldn't even think straight until I knew Annabeth was safe. I dove into the nearby tributary and willed the current to take me as fast as possible towards the palace.

I exploded out of the water and ran through the wooded section as fast as I could until I reached the side of the palace. I snuck through a side street but ducked around an arch when I heard footsteps coming my way. As the group passed, I peered around the corner and saw eight of those weird stick droids surrounding what looked like some important government people in really fancy dresses and robes and a few of the Palace Guards. Desperately hoping that one of them knew where Annabeth was, I quickly fired my blaster twice and hit the last two droids in the back. The remaining six droids turned in my direction.

I was unable to come up with a better idea, so I uncapped Riptide and charged at the droids yelling random Latin and Greek phrases, hoping it would fry their circuits or something. I ran in a crouched zig-zag to try and avoid the blaster shots from the droids. I even managed to block a blast coming straight for my head with the flat of my blade. Times like these were when I really appreciated my ADHD, also known as my natural battle reflexes. Once I got within striking distance, I easily cut through the first droid I could reach. Then, I dove into a roll to avoid the blaster fire.

As I popped up and sliced through the middle of a second droid, I heard a weird noise, that sounded like a cross between a blaster going off and a Leo bomb, followed by a strange buzzing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw blue and green lights on the far side of the group of government people where the other three droids were. I couldn't get a good look because I knew I had one more droid on my side, so I prepared to spin and slice when the droid just toppled down with a blaster burn on its back. As the droid fell, I saw Annabeth behind it holding her blaster and looking furious.

A quick glance to my right confirmed that the droids had been cut down by those weird sounding lights, so I turned back to Annabeth and looked to see if she was injured. Risking another judo-flip, I dropped Riptide and rushed towards her. I wrapped my arms around her, lifted her up, and gave her a passionate kiss. I didn't care who was watching at the moment. I was just glad Annabeth was safe and by my side again. An awkward cough brought me back to my senses.

As I lowered her back to the ground and pulled away, Annabeth hit me on the back of my head with her hand. "What were you even thinking, Percy? Charging six long range combatants like that and hollering like a harpy, are you trying to get killed and attract every droid in the area at the same time? You are such a Seaweed Brain."

I looked at her sheepishly giving her my dopey smile. "Yeah, but I'm your Seaweed Brain."

There was another awkward cough, and this time I followed the sound to a young man in his mid-twenties with the most bizarre hair cut I've ever seen. His auburn hair was cut short at the top but had a small ponytail in the back and a long thin braid on his right side by his ear. He was wearing what looked like the top half of a tan bathrobe with a weird brown cloak over it. His face was bright red, and his blue eyes were avoiding my green ones. Clearly, public displays of affection made him uncomfortable.

An older man, dressed in a similar cloak and bathrobe, with a beard and really long hair glanced at Annabeth and I before addressing a woman in a fancy black dress, "We should leave the street, Your Highness. I'm sure someone heard the noise and reinforcement droids will be on the way."

Oops, I just kissed my girlfriend in front of the Queen of Naboo. Now, my face was starting to turn red. I quickly scanned the group and saw Panaka. He glanced my way and just gave me a nod before commanding the members of the Palace Guard to take the droids' blasters.

The group which included a Gungan for some reason rushed into a more sheltered hallway. The long-haired man talked to Governor Bibble and Panaka before we all headed to the Royal Theed Hanger. When we got there, Panaka peered around the door and said, "There are too many of them."

The man in the long hair looked at the hanger before replying, "My Padawan and I will take care of this." He gave me a strange look like daring me to argue before he started talking to the queen. Hey, if he and his buddy wanted to fight the stick droids then that's good for them. I would just sit back and enjoy the show for a change. Plus, I really wanted to see what those noisy light things were that they had used earlier. I was too busy wondering what a Padawan was, who were those people wearing bathrobes, and how had Annabeth met up with them, so I didn't really pay attention to what was being said around me, something about going to croissant and the Trade Federation wanted the queen to sign some treaty.

Maybe I hit my head while I fought without noticing because why else would they be going to a pastry? Panaka looked at me and Annabeth and said, "You both should come with us, but let the Jedi handle the droids in the hanger." We nodded and followed the group minus the governor who had decided to stay. Now, I mentally added another question to my growing list: what was a Jedi? I just assumed they were the bathrobe wearing people.

The older Jedi approached the droids guarding a sleek silver spaceship. He tried to talk his way out, but only succeeded in confusing the droids. Huh, guess you didn't even need to speak Latin or Ancient Greek to confuse these guys. When the droid tried to arrest us, he quickly pulled out a small metal cylinder from inside his cloak, and then, there was this weird noise and a three-foot-long green laser sword extended from the cylinder. He sliced through the droid as easily as I did with Riptide and began weaving and spinning and dodging blaster bolts as he calmly cut down droids like he was part of some strange dance.

The other bathrobe guy with the weird hair was also slicing through the droids with a blue laser sword to free some pilots. The bathrobe guys could even use the laser swords to deflect the blaster bolts back at the droids! The swords seemed to buzz in the air, but every time they made contact with a droid, it sounded like Leo banging around in the Argo II's engine room. At one point, the long-haired man extended his arm without the sword and a droid went flying back. Could he control the wind like Jason? Though, I never saw Jason do such a controlled push before.

I just stood there and stared as they took out the remaining droids. When they were done, the laser swords vanished back into the metal cylinder hilts, and they clipped them on their belts. "Come on Percy," Annabeth said as she grabbed my arm and dragged me up the ramp of the spaceship.

"I think I have some serious sword envy," I muttered still in shock. I swore I heard the older man chuckle and saw the younger one smile as they followed us up the ramp. Feeling slightly like I was cheating on my favorite weapon, I patted my pocket and whispered, "It's okay Riptide. I don't think their swords automatically return to their pockets, and I bet they can't even write with them either. But, man how cool is a blue laser sword!"

Annabeth and I followed Panaka to the cockpit and strapped ourselves into some extra seats at the back. As soon as we took off, my stomach dropped and my knuckles gripping the seat turned white. Annabeth's hand grabbed mine, and her thumb rubbed soothing circles against my palm. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply trying to relax while reminding myself that the gods were clearly not here, so there was no way Zeus could blast me out of the sky.

A voice that I think belonged to the long-haired man said, "I guess we have finally met someone who hates flying more than you do Obi-Wan."

I opened my eyes to see the guy with the weird hair say, "Very funny, Master, though I hardly think now is the time for such jokes."

Before I could come up with a retort, I realized we had left the atmosphere and entered space, like real space. I gaped at the blackness and all the stars, but there were also over twenty flat disk-shaped things in front of us that the pilot called the blockade. They started firing red laser bolts at our ship making it shutter. Now, it makes no sense, but I felt better in space then I did in the atmosphere. The slightest bump while flying in the air will make me jump, but in space, I wasn't nearly as nervous despite the constant shaking from the enemy fire. In space there was no air which should have worried me, but also meant that it was beyond my loving uncle's domain.

Suddenly, alarms and sirens started going off all over the ship, and the screens on the ship's dashboard were flashing orange. "Shield generator is hit," a pilot yelled.

"That doesn't sound very good," I muttered to Annabeth. She just nodded, her eyes jumping from one screen to another as her mind quickly analyzed the situation. She focused on a particular screen that seemed to be showing three things that looked like round metal trashcans with domed tops rolling out to a hole in the outside plating of the ship. The laser fire from the enemy ships blasted one off.

"What are those weird trashcans doing on the outside of the ship?" I whispered to Annabeth.

"They are astromech droids trying to reboot the shields," she whispered back.

While we were talking, another droid blew up, leaving only one which had blue stripes on it. "Come on Blue," I muttered, "you can do it!"

Suddenly, the ship's alarms stopped, and all the screens were green again. "He did it!" Annabeth exclaimed, "We have shields again."

I grinned, "Of course he did it. He's blue. This is just further proof that blue truly is the best color."

Annabeth smiled and rolled her eyes, "Seaweed Brain, how many times do I have to tell you? There is no such thing as a best color. The color blue had nothing to do with the droid's success. It was just a coincidence."

"One of these days, Wise Girl, you're going to have to admit that it can't all just be a coincidence and anything blue is just better," I stated.

While Annabeth and I were enjoying our traditional we-are-still-alive-bickering, Panaka and the older Jedi guy got in an argument about landing on a planet run by gangsters to fix our ship. Great, killer droids, space battles, and now gangsters, what else would this place throw at us?

Once the Jedi guys left with their cloaks billowing out behind them, Panaka turned to us, "Percy, Annabeth, are you both okay? I know this was your first space travel after your crash. I wish it could have been smoother."

"We're okay," Annabeth replied. "Although Percy freaked out a little at the beginning, I think we should be fine now."

"And neither of you got hurt in any of the fighting?" He asked.

"Nope, we are both fine on that front too," I answered.

He let out a deep breath, like he'd been holding it since I first attacked the droids. "Sorry I could not check with you sooner. It's just that-" he started to apologize, but I cut him off.

"It's okay. We know you had to protect the queen, that it's your job and duty to put the monarch and Naboo first," I reassured him. "Besides, in case you haven't noticed, Annabeth and I are quite capable of taking care of ourselves in dangerous situations."

Panaka allowed himself a small smile, "Yes, about that. I'm starting to think you might have downplayed the 'trouble' you mentioned you got into back on your home planet for you to be able to fight like that and remain calm. Even my veterans were having trouble today."

I just shrugged, "Well, there always seemed to be a few months a year where fighting for our lives was a daily occurrence."

Panaka just shook his head, "You must have made some powerful enemies then."

I smiled at that and responded, "What can I say, the people who got mad at me always seemed to have a godly amount of power." Annabeth struggled to keep a straight face after that comment.

"Come on you two," Panaka said with a sigh, "I'm sure Her Highness would like to thank you for rescuing her from the droids though maybe next time try not to put on such an affectionate display afterwards." Both Annabeth's and my faces turned bright red at the comment.

We stopped by a hanger, and the little blue droid joined us. "Thanks Blue for saving us and everything. I hope it's okay if I call you Blue. It's my favorite color, and I have a feeling it's yours too," I told the droid. It responded in a series of beeps and whistles as it rolled along next to me. "Sorry, I don't understand beeps," I said, but I swore it was agreeing with me.

When we got to the queen's throne room on the ship, the two Jedi guys were already there. Panaka, Annabeth, and I all did a respectful bow, and the droid even managed a small dip somehow. The queen said, "I would like to thank all of you for the role you each played in my rescue. Without your help, I would undoubtedly be at the mercy of the Trade Federation now, and Naboo's future would have little hope."

I felt slightly ashamed. My intentions during the invasion had been less noble even if I did accidentally rescue the queen. I made a promise to myself then to do everything I could to free the people of Naboo from the evil, killer droids. But right now, I was still extremely confused and really wanted some answers. "Excuse me Your Highness, I really don't mean to be rude or anything, but now that we are no longer immediately about to die maybe we could all explain how and why we ended up here. No offense to you guys," I waved my hand toward the men in bathrobes, "but I have no idea who or what you are, though I am a huge fan of those awesome laser swords. Also, why are we going to a pastry?"

Annabeth face palmed at the last question while everyone else just looked confused. "Seaweed Brain, we are trying to go to the city planet Cor-u-scant, not croissant," she dragged out the syllables of the weird name. "It's the seat of the Galactic Republic."

"Oh, that makes a lot more sense," I muttered as she rolled her eyes at me.

The long-haired man gave us a kind smile and said, "No offense taken young man, I am curious about you and your friend as well. Both of you have a strange yet strong presence in the Force though I can only sense it when I'm a few meters away from you. Normally, I would assume you are using a form of shielding that I am unfamiliar with, but neither of you appear to have any Jedi or Force training."

Before I could ask what any of that even meant, the queen said, "I would also like to know who you are and what happened earlier today, particularly details about these failed negotiations with the Trade Federation. I am familiar with Annabeth Chase since she is a head assistant for my Chief Architect, but I do not know the names of my other rescuers. Since it appears we will be spending time together and working toward a common goal, I hope to rectify that." She turned to look at the bathrobe guys expectantly.

The older one stepped forward, "Your Highness, I am Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and this is my Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Chancellor Valorum sent us to peacefully resolve the conflict and end the blockade. However, when we arrived on the Trade Federation's control ship, they destroyed our diplomatic transport along with our crew while we were waiting to meet with the viceroy. Then they tried to kill us with Dioxis gas and later sent in droids." Wow, it sounded like these Jedi guys had a worse day than I did. Not many people have managed such an accomplishment.

Qui-Gon continued his story, "We escaped to the main hanger and saw the Trade Federation preparing an invasion army. Knowing that we must warn you, Your Highness, we stowed aboard their landing ships. Unfortunately, we landed near one of Naboo's swamps far from Theed, so we befriended an exiled Gungun, Jar-Jar Binks, that took us to a hidden Gungun city. The Gunguns provided us with transport through the planet core to reach Theed." So that explained the bongo I saw, and the random Gungun hanging around. It's a good thing Bessie Jr. and I cleared out those dangerous sea creatures around Gungun City, otherwise the Jedi might not have made it to Theed because that annoying colo claw fish could have eaten them.

"We were trying to find you, when we . . ." he hesitated here and looked at Annabeth as if not sure what to say before continuing, "met this young woman, Annabeth Chase. Together we tracked your party's movements as we waited for a good opportunity to ambush the droids. I think you all know the rest from there." He finished his story with his piercing blue eyes on me. Well, at least no one can say I didn't make a memorable first impression. Though, even I will admit, charging those droids like that was not one of my better ideas.

Next, Annabeth introduced us as the adopted wards of Captain Panaka. She included a summary of the story we had told Panaka and the governor all those months ago for the benefit of the Jedi and the queen. "As for what happened today, Percy went to explore the underwater caves, and I went to work at the palace. I was in the Ministry of Architecture office with the other aids when four droids entered and tried to arrest us.

"I immediately dove under my desk and pulled out my . . ." she paused and looked at Qui-Gon of all people. He stared at her expectantly but with his eyebrows raised as if in a challenge. Annabeth gave a soft, annoyed huff before continuing, "special hat." I guess she would have preferred to keep the Yankee's cap a secret, but the Jedi must have known about it somehow and would have called her out if she didn't mention it in her story.

"My hat was a gift from my mother and turns the wearer invisible using some weird science I don't fully understand," Annabeth explained. Well, weird science was a good explanation for magic around mortals. "I wasn't entirely sure it would work on droids since I have never tested it past the visible light spectrum, and I didn't know if the droids were equipped with infrared vision. I know for a fact that it does not fool certain olfactory sensors." Aka monsters, I mentally inserted. "Once the droids were grouped together around my coworkers, I pulled out the blaster Panaka gave me and hit two of them before quickly moving across the room. The remaining two droids were still aiming their blasters at my original position, so I quickly shot them as well. Then I took off the hat and told my coworkers to pick up the blasters from the droids and try to find their families before fleeing to the swamps.

"I figured Percy would come looking for me as soon as he returned to the city and saw the droids, so it would be best if I tried to find you, Your Highness, and help you if you needed it. I put my hat back on and snuck around the palace. That's when I saw the Jedi, and I was extremely shocked that they somehow knew I was there. After the Jedi and I realized we had the same goal, we worked together," she finished. "But I do have a few questions," she turned to the Jedi and asked, "How did you know I was there when I had my hat on? Could you see me? And what exactly is a Jedi?"

Obi-Wan looked shocked and a little offended, "You do not know of the Jedi? How is that possible?"

Annabeth hated to admit that she didn't know something that she should, so I answered for her, "Well, we did cover at least twelve years' worth of Naboo's education curriculum in two months, so we were bound to skip over a few things. And before that, our home planet was still exploring its solar system, so we had never heard of the Jedi or the Galactic Republic."

Qui-Gon looked slightly surprised at my statement and frowned before explaining, "The Jedi are a group of Force-sensitive beings devoted to guarding peace and justice throughout the galaxy. We formed the Jedi Order several thousand years ago and have served alongside the Galactic Republic to bring peace and prosperity to the galaxy." It sounded like these Jedi were just glorified police officers.

"As for your other questions," he continued, "we could not see you, but we felt your presence in the Force when you were near." Annabeth opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Qui-Gon said, "I will explain what the Force is later, and I have some questions for you and Percy as well. However, now is not the time. We must discuss our next step."

With that, Panaka and Qui-Gon explained the space fight to the queen. She expressed her gratitude to Blue, whose real name turned out to be R2-D2, but I like Blue better. The queen even asked one of her handmaidens to clean the droid. Annabeth stiffened when she heard the handmaiden's name, (I think it was Pad. . . something) and she looked at the handmaiden, the queen, and then Panaka with her I'm-putting-things-together look. In the end, the queen decided to trust the Jedi and land on Tatooine, the gangster planet, for repairs even though Panaka did not agree.

After the meeting with the queen, Annabeth and I explored the ship. We found the handmaiden, trying to clean Blue in one of the equipment rooms. Annabeth smiled at the girl when we entered and said, "Hi Padmé, you know Percy and I could take over cleaning R2-D2 if you want to stop."

Padmé looked up from her work and smiled back, but her eyes had this determined glint when she said, "Hi Annabeth and Percy, thanks for the offer, but I don't mind. Afterall, this droid saved our lives, trying to clean it is the least I can do."

Annabeth looked at the girl with a new kind of respect in her grey eyes. She grabbed two spare rags, handed one to me and said, "Well then, the least Percy and I can do is to help you. And Seaweed Brain try not to break anything."

At that, the droid's domed head rotated to me and beeped as if warning me that I better not mess anything up. I laughed, "It's okay Blue, I promise I won't damage you." The droid beeped a little softer in response, and all three of us laughed.

Padmé was fun to hang out with. As we cleaned Blue, she asked us questions about our home planet, and how we liked Naboo. She just seemed curious and didn't have the 'you're in trouble feeling' I got whenever Panaka questioned me about my old life. In return Padmé told us some pretty funny stories about growing up on Naboo. Before she returned to the queen after Blue was all clean and shiny again, she said, "I am sorry you lost so much when you came to Naboo, but I am grateful you are here, now."

We spent the rest of the ship's artificial day avoiding the Jedi while Annabeth armed with Daedalus 2.0 and the HoloNet tried to quickly fill in the glaring gap in our education about ancient orders of mystic space police. It bothered Annabeth that they could sense her even with her Yankee's cap on, and we were both worried that they seemed to know there was something different about us. But, they were also the closest thing we had found in this galaxy so far that even remotely resembled magic or godly power, which meant they could be our best bet to find a way home.

After two hours of searching, Annabeth pushed away the laptop in frustration and said, "I can't find anything more than what Qui-Gon told us besides some vague old wives' tales about Jedi battling the forces of darkness. There's no mention of this Force or really any details about the Jedi Order on the HoloNet except that it's run by some Jedi High Council that occasionally makes political statements. I could try to hack into their records, but they seem a bit more secure than the Naboo's education system. Even if Daedalus 2.0 could do it, we would definitely attract the Jedi's attention, and I don't think they would be too happy. As it is, both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan seem a little suspicious of us and will probably ask some difficult questions soon."

"Well, we really don't have much of a choice then," I reasoned. "We're going to have to talk to Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan and hope one of them will give us some answers. We just better be ready when they ask questions about us. It might not be so bad to tell them the whole truth even. I mean they might be kind of like us. How else could Qui-Gon use wind or something to push down that droid in the hanger?"

"I don't know Percy," Annabeth said, "I was hoping we could figure it out before we talked to them. I feel like we are going into this conversation blind. I mean, they seem to have this extra sense and who knows what they can do with it."

"I just really don't like how Obi-Wan calls the Qui-Gon guy, 'Master.' It makes me think of all those monsters that followed Kronos," I stated.

Annabeth winced slightly at that comment, no doubt thinking about Luke, but then she brightened up and said, "Actually, I did find information on that. Master denotes a rank in the Jedi."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Even though they aren't exactly a military order, there setup is similar to the Roman Legion," she explained. "Obi-Wan is a Padawan which is kind of like a probatio meaning he is new and still learning. Then, they have Jedi Knights which are like legionnaires and are full members of the Order. Finally, they have Jedi Masters which are the more senior and skilled members like centurions."

"Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense, but any order that has a rank called master seems a little arrogant to me."

When the ship switched to low lighting for night, Annabeth and I laid out our bedrolls from our packs in a spare equipment room. I couldn't help but think of my nice cozy bed back on Naboo. A bed that I had almost eight months' worth of comfortable and peaceful nights in. It was probably a new record for me. Ever since I found out about my heritage, it was hard to get a good night's sleep, and many nights I was lucky if I got to sleep in a bed at all. I turned to Annabeth and told her, "I'm sorry. After dragging you along to this strange world, I hoped that at least we could finally have a normal, peaceful life if we had to be away from home."

"It's okay," Annabeth responded, "I mean we only came close to dying about four times today which is pretty good by our standards. Besides, we had eight peaceful months here. There is no way we ever would have had that back home."

"I know, but even with the stupid dream I had last night, I didn't think it would be this bad," I said.

Annabeth peered at me more closely in the dim light, "So you did have a dream last night. That's why you wanted me to have my pack. Did it warn you about the droid invasion?"

"No, it was actually pretty vague as far as my normal demigod dreams go."

After I described my dream to her, Annabeth frowned and said, "You know what this means, Percy?" I just shook my head. "It means," she continued, "that the invasion on Naboo is just the beginning. Whatever this darkness is that is spreading through the galaxy, I think Nemesis wants us to stop it."

I had trouble falling asleep after that. Annabeth's words were repeating over and over in my head, "just the beginning, just the beginning, this was just the beginning."

Reviewer Questions:

Guest -asked a question about Annabeth since she doesn't have any powers. Like in the books, Annabeth is going to be a dangerous adversary not because of any powers, but because she is intelligent, a good strategist, works hard, and picks things up quickly. Although I did hint here that Annabeth and Percy have a strange Force presence. The idea will be developed more in future chapters and could give Annabeth more of an advantage.