Chapter Two: Overkill
Annabeth POV:
Only a few weeks had passed since Gaea and the giants were defeated. The Romans left for Camp Jupiter, and Camp Half-Blood is still looking for Leo, who disappeared and is thought to be dead.
Percy believed that he was alive, regardless of all logic. "I know he's alive!" he would insist to her. "Leo Valdez is too stubborn to die. But when he comes back, I'm going to kill him for scaring us." That always managed to make her smile.
They didn't really know where to start searching, since no one had seen what happened to Festus in the explosion. Stupid Octavian. But no one was quite ready to give up. At least, the Seven weren't. But a lot of campers who hadn't really known Leo tried to convince them to "stop wasting your time," after about a week. But the Hephaestus cabin helped, even though a lot of them hadn't known Leo for long either.
The best part about defeating Gaea was that now they get to rest. Finally. A few weeks ago, she'd told Percy about her idea to spend what was supposed to be their senior year at camp, and then go to college in New Rome. He was so excited, he started jumping up and down. Annabeth didn't remember ever being able to spend a summer together without something huge happening and sending them off on some quest. It was kind of sad, now that she thought about it.
She walked past the volleyball courts and the lake on her way to Percy's cabin to wake him up for breakfast. Now that they didn't have to be on guard all the time, he sometimes slept in too late. It was adorable. She stood on the doorstep for a second, admiring the rough gray slabs inlaid with seashells. The doorway had a large pinkish conch shell above it that Percy always touched for good luck when he went by it. Judging by his track record with luck, it didn't work.
Annabeth knocked on the door loudly, so that even if he was still sleeping he would wake up. Ever since Tartarus, they'd been very light sleepers. But she didn't like to think about that.
She waited patiently for three whole seconds before she knocked again, louder this time. She heard a sleepy groan from inside, followed by the creaking of bedsprings as he rolled over. But no one came to the door, so she just opened it without knocking.
"Percy, I swear to the gods…" She peeked at him through her fingers in case he wasn't decent, but he just smiled sleepily at her with the covers wrapped around his face like a shawl. She rolled her eyes and made her way over to him.
As she was walking, she got a weird feeling. It happened sometimes, especially after their time in the pit. Percy must've felt it too. He sat up straight, and the blanket slid off his head and gave him even worse bedhead. Annabeth stopped in the middle of the room and took out her dagger, and watched out of the corner of her eye as Percy reached under his pillow for Riptide. Then she blinked, and he was gone. She blinked again, and he was still gone. She turned to face his empty bed, the presence she'd felt watching us now retreating. Someone had just kidnapped her boyfriend. Again.
Annabeth stormed through camp towards the dining pavilion, where most of the campers were still eating, fuming at how unfair the world was. A couple of campers playing volleyball stopped and waved when they saw her, but quickly realized how angry she was and retreated. Percy was gone, again, but this time she'd been there. She could have stopped it, but she didn't. She'd failed. And there was almost nothing Annabeth hated more than failing. The only thing that topped it was probably goddesses kidnapping her boyfriend, so both of them applied in this situation. She wouldn't have been surprised if steam was coming out of her ears.
She flew up the marble steps of the dining pavilion and made her way through the stone tables until she reached Chiron and Mr. D's table, which was on a raised dais. She stepped angrily onto the platform and crossed her arms as she waited for Chiron to notice her standing there. The campers noticed first and started whispering, and some gasped. No one ever went to Mr. D's table without an invitation, and that never happened either, so no one went up there. Annabeth didn't really care. She just needed to talk to Chiron.
When Chiron noticed her a few moments later, he looked at her with concern. He could probably see the imaginary steam.
"Annabeth," he said slowly. "What happened?"
She managed to explain what happened without completely losing it, but just barely.
"What a tragedy. We will all mourn Peter Johnson at the sing-along. Can I please go back to eating?"
If Mr. D wasn't a god, she swore the look she gave him would've incinerated every bone in his pudgy body.
Chiron shot him a look, but it had no effect. He turned back to her and said, "We'll send out search parties immediately. You should Iris-message Reyna and Frank, they might know who could've taken him. In the meantime, I'm sure that Mr. D will talk to the gods and ask why Percy was taken."
He didn't say 'again,' but she heard it anyway. If it was Hera, there's no telling what she'd do. She nodded at Chiron and headed back to her cabin. She was halfway there, reviewing what to tell Reyna and Frank, when Michael Arnett made the mistake of stepping in front of her.
He was a child of Nike that'd been at camp for two summers. Super competitive, etcetera, etcetera. He was the only person there that didn't like Percy, excluding Mr. D. Annabeth had no time for his shenanigans, so she moved swiftly to the side, but he blocked her again.
"Hey Annie," he said, smiling at her. That was it.
"Don't call me Annie." she growled, shoving past him. "Wait! I'm sorry," he said, running to catch up with her. Fortunately, the Athena cabin was only fifteen feet away. Unfortunately, (for Michael) he stepped in front of her again. She didn't even wait for him to talk this time. She grabbed his wrist, slammed into him with her shoulder, and judo flipped him.
Michael lay on the grass, groaning. She brushed off her hands and continued walking. Once she reached her bunk, she grabbed a leather pouch full of drachmas that she kept in her trunk just in case. Then she headed to the Poseidon cabin. Percy's fountain would do the trick.
When Annabeth reached Percy's cabin, she inhaled the smell of sea salt like it was a life-saving medication. Percy's bed was still unmade, and she hoped that wherever he was now, he got to sleep, or he'll be like a zombie all day.
She walked across the room to the fountain and its supply of never-ending water. She opened her leather pouch and tossed a gold coin through the spray.
"Reyna Ramirez Arellano, Camp Jupiter, Oakland Hills, California."
The mist shimmered for a moment before the image of Reyna in her office came into view. She was wearing a purple Camp Jupiter t-shirt with jeans, her praetor's cape draped over her shoulders. On anyone else, it would probably look dumb, but Reyna managed to pull it off.
Reyna looked up at the misty image in alarm for a second, but relaxed when she saw that it was Annabeth. She even smiled a little bit.
"Hey, Annabeth," she said warmly, but the smile melted off her face when she took in her expression. "What happened?"
Annabeth told her about what happened to Percy, hoping she had an answer for her, but Reyna just shook her head, mystified. "I've never heard of that happening before, someone disappearing right in front of a person like that. Could it be Juno again?" Annabeth shook her head. "I don't think so. This isn't her style, and no one from Camp Jupiter disappeared, right?"
Reyna thought for a moment before shaking her head again. "I'll ask Frank to get some search parties out. If Percy's anywhere on the West Coast, we'll find him."
"Thanks, Reyna," she said gratefully. She had changed so much since the war, in all good ways.
Annabeth swiped her hand through the Iris-message and turned away from the fountain. She ended up sitting on Percy's bed and smelling his pillow. He'd only been gone for a half-hour and she missed him so much already. She made his bed carefully, so that when he returned, which she knew he would, he would have a nice nap to look forward to.
She was going to find her boyfriend this time. That was a certainty. The question was, where did she even start to look?
How did you like it? Let me know! Until next time,
LadyHW
