Beginning Notes

I'm hoping I can finish this fic without disappearing for a while like I did, but I'm pretty bad with long chaptered fics, and I'm working on two... so we'll see how it goes.

OC's belong to sketchywolf, the rest to Rick Riordan.

Maximus

When they get back down, Annabeth and Grover are still there, worried looks on their faces.

'Annabeth! Grover! Over here!' Maximus yells, from where he and Cassie are leaving the emergency exit.

'Oh, thank the gods you guys are okay- where's Percy?' Annabeth asks, before she can even finish her first sentence.

'He fell into the Mississippi, I don't know if he's okay, or...' Maximus tries, but he feels the words die in his mouth. He doesn't want to accept Percy's fate, especially since he could have saved him. It was all his fault.

He sighs, and let's go of his sister, so she can sit down and rest. Then he looks around to see what's going on. The Arch is completely destroyed, and there are police officers and news reporters everywhere.

'The surveillance cameras show three children, setting off what seems to be a freak explosion, I know, it's hard to believe, but that's all the footage there is before the camera's were broken,' a woman is saying. 'Luckily, there were no fatalities, and-' Maximus stops listening, because he can't stand hearing the woman talk about how there were no fatalities, while Percy's body might be floating somewhere in the Mississippi River.

He kicks some of the fallen rubble at his feet, trying to distract his mind from everything that happened in the last half an hour or so.

'Hey, when does the train leave again?' he asks, hoping that will get everyone's mind back on track.

'In about thirty minutes,' Annabeth answers.

They all sit around glumly, trying to process everything, when Grover suddenly bleats.

'Percy!'

Maximus looks up, and indeed, there he is.

Percy runs over to them with an 'Oh, I thought I'd never find you guys again!'

He explains what happened, and how a messenger had sent him a message on behalf of his father.

'But that's not important right now, what happened to Echidna? And the Chimera?'

'Chimera?' Annabeth exclaims.

Oh, yeah, that's right, Maximus thinks. They'd forgotten to tell Grover and Annabeth exactly how they destroyed the Arch, after mentioning what had happened to Percy.

'That's what was going on up there,' he says. 'The lady with the chihuahua turned out to be the Mother of Monsters, and the chihuahua was a Chimera that was trying to kill us.'

'You didn't tell them?' Percy asks confused.

'We were too busy wondering if you were dead!' Annabeth yells, hitting him lightly on the arm.

'Okay, I'm sorry,' Percy says, putting his hands up in defense. 'But seriously, what else did I miss?'

'Um, let's see... Cassie fought off Echidna, and somehow turned both her and the Chimera into dust, then we had to make our way through the half malted emergency exit, and now we're here and there are news reporters everywhere,' Maximus sums up.

'And they're talking about you,' Grover adds.

'What?'

They all listen to what the woman who was talking earlier is saying: 'Channel Twelve has learned that that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by the authorities for a bus accident three days ago. His name is Percy Jackson, and for those of you who haven't heard about the bus incident, here is a picture of him. As for the two other children with him, it is unclear who they might be, but...'

'We've got to get out of here,' Cassandra mutters.

Maximus nods and helps her up again. 'C'mon, we need to get back to the train station.'

They swerve past a few people and hide behind a bush.

'There's people everywhere, how are we supposed to get out of here before someone spots us?' Grover asks.

'Annabeth, your hat,' Cassie says.

'What?'

'Your hat, give it to Percy. They haven't identified me and Max yet, so as long as no one sees Percy we should be fine.'

'Oh, right! Good thinking Cass.'

Maximus can see her giving Annabeth a small smile for probably the first time ever. Then Annabeth hands over her hat to Percy, who suddenly disappears.

'Wait, what happened? Where did he go?' Maximus asks. He'd swear Percy had been there a second ago.

'Magic hat,' Annabeth explains. 'It can turn you invisible.'

'And it works, so let's go! we can't miss the train,' Percy's hushed voice says, somewhere to Maximus' left.

...

They make it back to the station just in time before the train leaves, and as soon as they sit down, Cassie passes out.

'Is she okay?' Grover asks concerned.

'Yeah, she'll be fine. She's just tired. I mean, it was the first time we ever fought a monster so I don't blame her,' Maximus says, remembering how his sister single-handedly defeated Echidna.

Annabeth nods in agreement before turning to Percy. 'Now what did your father's message say?'

'Oh, right. Well, it said to go to Saint Monica, and...'

'And, what?' Maximus asks curiously.

'Oh, nothing.'

'Percy, you can't just ignore a message from your father, it might be important!' Grover tells him.

'Well, it said to not trust the gifts.'

'Gifts? What gifts?' Annabeth asks.

'I don't know, it didn't clarify. It just said to not trust them.'

They didn't talk much for the rest of the ride, and Maximus used the time to take a nap, and recharge his energy.

The train arrives in Denver the next afternoon, and they get off.

'So, what do we do now?' Cassie asks.

'I'm hungry,' Maximus says, feeling the growling in his stomach. Besides some jelly beans yesterday, he hadn't eaten anything since their encounter with Aunty Em.

'Me too,' Cassie agrees. 'Let's go see if we can find somewhere to eat.'

'I just need to speak with Chiron for a bit, but you guys go ahead, we'll meet up with you there,' Annabeth says.

'Wait, how will you know where we decided to go?'

'I don't think there's a lot of places to eat around here, and otherwise we'll meet up back here if we can't find each other within an hour okay?'

They agree to split up, just so that none of them would be able to get lost wandering on their own.

Maximus follows Cassie to the nearest restaurant and they sit down at a table for six.

'What do you think she needs to tell Chiron?' Maximus asks.

'Don't know. Don't really care to be honest,' Cassie remarks, while checking out the menu.

'What's it with you not liking Annabeth? You still haven't told me.'

Maximus looks straight at Cassie, who lets out a deep sigh.

'I don't know. She just seemed like that type I wouldn't want to be around. Definitely when she boasted about running away at seven years old. I just don't like her,' she explains.

Maybe she's just jealous, he thinks to himself. But why though?

'I'm not jealous, if that's what you're thinking.'

'No, I wasn't-' Maximus tries, wondering how she knew, but then Percy, Annabeth and Grover sit down with them.

'How'd it go?' he asks them.

'Chiron wasn't there, so we spoke to Luke instead,' Annabeth explains.

'What did he say?'

'Nothing important,' Percy says, as he takes a menu. 'Guys, how are we going to afford this? We don't have any money, remember?'

'Don't worry about that,' a man says. He's big and buff, and he's wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket. Maximus can tell by the look on his face that you should not mess with this man.

The man sits down at the last seat at their table and asks: 'Well, are you going to accept my offer or what?'

End Notes

Two chapters in one day! I'm really spoiling you guys huh? Just kidding, I'm still trying to make up for all that time I was gone. But I think this will be it for today. You might get another chapter tomorrow if you're lucky. Or if I'm feeling extremely generous, who knows. Anyways, I'll see you there, byeee :)