Ugh. I am so sorry for the late update. Anyways, hope you like it!
(Disclaimer: No. I'm stressed enough without being a famous author.)
Chapter Eight: Where In The World
Annabeth POV:
They'd been looking everywhere. Camp Jupiter was searching the entire West Coast from top to bottom. They'd even spread out as far as New Mexico and Colorado. The Hunters and the Amazons searched the entire midwest already, which sounds crazy, but it's true. Nico and Hazel are searching the Underworld, but they haven't found anything and they don't think they're going to.
Camp-Half Blood had to top the list. They'd looked in at least twenty-five states, numerous times. They searched New York City about a dozen times. Dionysus (reluctantly) asked the Olympians if they knew anything. Nothing.
At this point, Annabeth was about at the end of her rope. Michael Arnett had been bugging her nonstop now that Percy wasn't here, and she'd already judo flipped him once.
Now she was in the middle of the fifth counselor's meeting they'd had since Percy disappeared all of two days ago.
"Well, just because none of the Olympians know where he is doesn't mean that an immortal didn't take him," Katie suggested.
"Well, which minor god would've done that?" asked Travis.
Katie shrugged, but her theory may have some weight to it.
"Well," Annabeth started. "The gods only kidnap Percy when something big is going on. We know that nothing huge is happening right now since we've practically searched the whole country, plus the gods would've said something, right?"
"What's your point?" Clarisse asked gruffly. Annabeth knew she didn't like Percy, but she was a really great help to the search parties. She thought it was because there was no one to spar with her now that he was gone.
Annabeth took a deep breath. "What if Percy is in a different country?"
She really didn't want to believe it, if it were the case. The U.S. was their home turf. They knew the lay of the land, mostly. But overseas? That was a whole different ball game. Well, it didn't have to be overseas, but whatever.
There was some nodding around the ping-pong table as the other counselors considered her idea.
"If he really is somewhere besides the U.S., won't it be impossible to look for him?"
Michael. He'd been promoted to head counselor of the Nike cabin a month ago, when the last one had stepped down to go live with her mom in New Jersey. He'd been even more insufferable since then, if possible.
Fortunately, pretty much everyone in the room shot him a glare.
"We'll find him no matter what country he's in." said Chiron firmly, to her surprise. He'd been pretty quiet this whole meeting.
Michael looked a little perturbed, and leaned back in his chair stiffly.
Ignoring him, Annabeth gave Chiron a grateful look, then continued the meeting. Ideas were tossed back and forth, mostly just suggestions of where to look first. None of them really struck her as plausible, so she kind of zoned out for a while.
She wondered if Percy had lost his memory again. That would be awful, to have amnesia twice. And what could be happening that would cause yet another god (or goddess) to take him? If there really was going to be another war, maybe in another country, why not involve all of them? Or at least ask Percy if he wanted to go, instead of kidnapping him.
As soon as that train of thought ended, she sat bolt upright in my chair. The talking ceased and all the counselors looked at her expectantly.
"Oh my gods." She said in shock, realizing that she'd overlooked a very important detail.
"We never even tried Iris Messaging him!"
Everyone in the room stood stock-still for a moment before bursting into complete chaos. A few people immediately took golden drachmas from their pockets and began running around to search for a rainbow, several just ran out the door, and Chiron pounded his hooves on the floor for quiet, which just made everything louder.
In all the fuss, she didn't think anyone noticed her slipping away, or walking to the Poseidon cabin. No one noticed her open the door, slid a drachma out of her pocket, or kneel beside Percy's never-ending fountain. And no one heard her say, "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Percy Jackson."
For a moment, nothing happened. Then it started to work, revealing a stone floor-
But it changed. The image in the mist now showed a forest clearing, with a stream winding through it and birds chirping. She didn't really know what to think until a woman appeared out of thin air.
"Hecate." She snarled, realizing that she was probably the one who took Percy. "Where is he?"
It wasn't really a question. Hecate was going to tell her, whether she liked it or not.
She sighed in exasperation, and the ADHD part of Annabeth thought that Percy had probably been just as disrespectful. That made her oddly happy.
"Annabeth Chase. I'm really not in the mood for this-"
"I don't care. Tell me where he is."
"I can't do that, it could jeopardize-"
"No." She clenched her fists, tired of it all. "I don't care about whatever quest you gave him. He's probably going to do it, because he's an amazing person like that. I just- I just need to know where he is."
Her voice broke a little at the end of the sentence, and she swallowed hard as all her crazy emotions caught up with her.
Hecate didn't display any outward signs of… well… anything. Her face looked like a marble statue. "I cannot give you that information. At the moment, he is safe."
Before she could say another word, Annabeth swiped her hand through the mist angrily. She could tell she wasn't going to give up anything.
She bit her lip and sat on her heels as she tried to come up with a plan, any plan. But nothing came. Running her fingers through my hair aggressively, she tried to think of something that Percy would do in this situation. That was a new one.
First, he would never have even let her be kidnapped. Second, if for some reason he couldn't stop whoever the bad guy was, he'd probably search the whole world until he found her, which made her blush.
So Annabeth decided to do the same thing. She wouldn't stop searching until she found him, but she'd have to be careful and smart about it. It couldn't be random, or she'd be searching forever. Standing up, she looked at Percy's bed, which was a little rumpled from where she'd accidentally fallen asleep on it the other day. As she walked out the door, her hand reached up to touch the pink conch shell above the door frame for good luck. It probably wouldn't work, but it was worth a shot.
As she walked back towards the Big House to give the remaining counselors the bad news, Annabeth's mind started wandering towards the idea of sailing around the world to find Percy. It was a silly idea that needed lots of improvement, but if they could build something like the Argo II, it might do the job. Obviously, without Leo, it would never be the same, but something smaller that could fly and sail would be awesome. Mentally making modifications to some of the boats in the navy, she started to see the definite possibility of a quest, especially if she enlisted some of the Hephaestus campers for help.
When she got to the rec room, many of the counselors had returned from their mini-quests for a rainbow. None of them looked like they'd been successful. A few looked up when she entered the room, but most were listening to Chiron as he talked about what to do next.
He was just saying fancy words, without a lot of meaning. He didn't really know what to do, no one did.
"Hey, guys." She said, interrupting. "I tried to Iris-Message Percy, and Katie was right. Hecate took him."
Gasps flurried around the table here and there, but she didn't think anyone was surprised at this point. A few people tried to talk, but she held up her hand for silence.
"She wouldn't tell me where he is. So, I propose a quest. I think we need to take a couple people around the world to look for him, maybe multiple search parties. Camp Jupiter might want to help, who knows. Or even the Hunters."
People started nodding, warming up to the idea.
"We can cover a lot of ground with groups of three or four," said Conner, and she gave him a nod as more people started to chime in.
"I'm sure we can make some modifications to some of our ships." Jake Mason said thoughtfully. He was re-promoted to head counselor of the Hephaestus cabin after Leo disappeared, and he was handling it well.
More people expressed their opinions on the idea, many of them good. But the negative voice she expected did not come. Glancing over at where Michael had been sitting earlier, she wasn't too shocked to see an empty chair. She shrugged it off; they didn't need him. But something was nagging at her, and she didn't like it. So she looked at Chiron, and he nodded at her. He always knew when something was up.
After all the counselors dispersed, Annabeth went into the Big House living room to talk to him. "What is it?" he asked, peering at her from where he stood by the fireplace. She sat on the couch with a huff.
"This is going to sound weird, but do you think Michael might somehow be involved with Percy's disappearance?"
Even as she said it, it sounded crazy. She shook her head at herself, wishing she could take back the obvious paranoia that went with the accusation.
Chiron frowned, but he didn't immediately dismiss the idea like she'd expected. "The boy is strange, no doubt about that. I do not know why he dislikes Percy so much, but I would hesitate to accuse him of being involved."
She nodded, still trying to sort through all of her thoughts. "I know, but something just feels… off. And it's not just because Percy's missing. Either something big is going on, and the gods won't tell us, or…"
Chiron beat her to the punch.
"Or they don't know about it."
Yikes. This is so late, plus it's like midnight and I have tests and stuff tomorrow.
Anywho, I'm off to bed, so here ends another day in the life of quarantine. Yipee. On the bright side, I have another volleyball game tomorrow! (Wish me luck)
Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review!
Peace out,
LadyHW
Shoutouts:
PineconeFace1222: No problem! Thank you, I hope you liked this one too.
Jinglebells852: I love seeing your reviews! I feel like you've left one almost every chapter, and every time I read them I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you.
Guest: Thank you! I think he will try to use a wand... but you know Percy, always screwing stuff up. He may just have to pull out Riptide once and awhile. (To answer your other question, yes, he will be in the tournament. Did he actually enter? Maybe...) Thanks for the review!
KimiKiwi: Thank you for the observation! I guess I felt pretty good writing it, but I went back later and looked and I think you're right. It was a bit different than the others. Whoops. But I liked your review anyway!
Guest: Sorry! Like I said, school is a beast. I had to write a whole essay in an hour. (Guess who didn't get a good grade? At least I finished, though.)
Guest: I'm sorry! (See above) I hoped you enjoyed this, at least.
