Author's Notes:

After four months, I have updated! To begin, thank you all for reading this story! I was a bit surprised with the amount of followers and favorites I got from last chapter. It really did exceed my expectations. I apologize for my slow updates because I'm busy with my school work (also bc I've been playing Fire Emblem Warriors and Mario Odyssey OuO). When school is finally over, xenoblade came out sooooo... But I do type whenever I get some free time, so rest assure, this story is not abandoned! Though I have to say, this chapter took longer than I expected. Let's see, this chapter is the beginning of the quest, which will cover the encounter against Medusa, and Echidna. Even though the prophecy changed, some events will still unfold regardless, except with different endings and sequences since Percy will be reacting differently. I'm not entirely sure how long this arc will be, but I don't plan on dragging it out since I want to introduce some more legendary artifacts and also further develop some more relationships between Percy and his friends. Obviously, this chapter will be focusing on Percy, Annabeth, and Grover's relationship and also Percy's more mature and methodical ways of tackling any given situation. I'll try to upload the next chapter in a month or two. I already started typing. As always, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a review if you have any suggestions or questions. Enjoy!

*Story Starts*

"Hey wise girl," I began nervously, gulping down hard when I thought about what I was about to say.

Seeing right through my agitation, she dropped her pencil and gave me an assuring smile. "What is it, Seaweed Brain?" I felt a bit guilty for distracting her. At this point, I no longer bothered to inquire her about the things she were studying or working on. By all means, it wasn't due to apathy, rather it was because she would bombard me with information that only Athena herself would understand. Since I wasn't a masochist who enjoyed being tortured mentally, I opted to remain silent most of the time.

"If you're not too busy, can we talk for a second?" I asked and she patted the bed softly, inviting me to sit down next to her. "So as you know, the final battle is tomorrow. I have a few things to say, ya know, just in case something happens…"

"Don't say that," Annabeth chided me, flashing me one of her evil looks. Throughout the years we've been together, she had developed some iconic facial expressions to counter my stupidity. Such as right now. The look she gave me was as if saying "If you don't stop being pessimistic then I'm going to slap you hard enough to make you regret it" with both of her brows furrowing and eyes twitching periodically. Of course, scary faces were not the only thing she excelled at. Sometimes, when we got into a small disagreement like me volunteering to take the watch duty for her at night, she would choose to counter with a pout, and I had to admit, it was really effective.

I gave out a sigh and apologized, "Sorry, I don't mean to make it sound depressing. I'm sure we will all make it out alive." At least, that was what I hoped. "But I still want to tell you some stuff, specifically, I have a request to make." Even though Annabeth and I knew each other for years and had been dating for quite sometime, respect was still held between the two of us. Basic mannerism shouldn't be neglected just because the two people grew comfortable around each other, and I would never make a decision without her input when the outcome could affect the both of us.

"And that is?" Annabeth asked, feeling more tense as time went on. The way I beat around the bush only added unnecessary anxiety, but to be fair, I was extremely nervous myself. This burning sensation around my cheeks was like the first time I confessed my feelings for her. My throat was extremely dry, and my palm began to sweat. Seeing as how I was fidgeting my with fingers, Annabeth placed her hand gently on mine and gave me a reassuring smile. She knew me all too well. She knew how I was feeling and knew ways to give me reassurance.

With a hoarse voice, I finally managed to muster enough courage and spoke up. "If we do, erm, I mean when we do," I quickly changed my choice of words when she looked at me with a raised brow. "I was thinking…"

"Thinking about what?" Annabeth asked, staring deep into my eyes. Just like how she said she loved the color of my eyes, I could say the same back to her. Whenever we were sitting in silence, I would somehow find myself staring at her, drowning in her stormy grey eyes. Initially, she would flush and ask me to stop staring because it was making her feeling self conscious, but nowadays, she got used to it and would just smile and make a cute face back at me.

"I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, you want to -"

Before I could finish my sentence, the alarm on the Argo II went off, jolting both of us off the bed. With few heavy stomps that could only belong to Frank, the chubby Asian that I befriended during my time at Camp Jupiter banged on the door frantically, notifying us that the ship was under attack and that all demigods were required to be in the main hall as soon as possible.

I didn't know if I should feel annoyed or glad that another swarm of monster had interrupted me in mid sentence. It did relieve me from my anxiety, but I was unable to tell her my plan for the future, no, for our future. I wanted to propose to her and asked if she would be willing to stay together with me till the very end. I wanted to ask her if she would be willing to go to college at New Rome with me. I wanted to ask her if she would be willing to create more memories with me as we walk down this road called life together. Annabeth had told me that she wanted to become an architect someday because she wanted something permanent, something that was long lasting and would be able to withstand any hardship. While our relationship was nothing but full of hardships, mainly due to the duty of saving western civilization, I think we had been doing a fantastic job. By no means I was a perfect boyfriend, but so long she was willing to communicate and be patient with me, I would be able to give her what she desired. Either way, I told myself that I would tell her the next chance I get.

Little did I know that I had lost my only chance.

We were occupied until the next day, when the main event took place. The last battle ended as a lost and I was forced to witness Annabeth disappeared before my very eyes.

This was when I woke up, drenched heavily in my own sweat. I kept having nightmares about Annabeth, and at this point, I would rather dream about Kronos than be forced to relive those dreadful events. At least if I dreamed about Kronos, I would have the courage to stand up for myself. On the flip end, dreaming about Annabeth only gave me sorrow, regret, and bitterness. Sorrow because I couldn't protect her, regret because I wasn't able to tell her about my plan for our future, and bitterness because I was too weak. Seeing her in my dreams only reminded me that I had lost my wise girl forever. Even though I could still see Annabeth everyday in this second life of mine, something felt different from the get go. The Annabeth that I was dating seemed to be a lot more … mature, though it was understandable since the current Annabeth was only twelve years old compare to that of almost eighteen.

It was still fairly dark outside, 3:47 a.m. to be exact. Perhaps it was the power from Chronos, I was able to pinpoint the precise date and time at any given moment, similar to my ability of having perfect bearings in the sea. There was still some time left before dawn when the quest members would leave. Since falling back asleep was impossible at this point, I decided to go over the prophecy again.

It was pointless to do any further planning since I no longer had a hold of the future. That being said, it didn't mean I should give up completely and allow things to develop on its own. No. I refused to do that. I would need to be ready and be able to react to any surprises that would be thrown at us. As the most experienced person out of the three, despite what they may think, my job was to ensure their safety and accomplish the mission that was given. I couldn't completely rely on my stopwatch either since I was still relatively unfamiliar with the artifact. Were there limitations? Was there a limit to how often and how far that it could rewind time? What were the repercussions if there were any? With the lack of understanding on my end, I would only use the new found power if it seemed there was nothing left. I was certain that my time powers covered more than temporal rewind. Perhaps I could also freeze time like Kronos? An evil grin appeared on my lips when I thought about how stupefied the Titan Lord would look if I froze him in place. Oh, the irony. Sadly with the quest coming up, I could only wait until it was over to do further experimentations.

First line was quite self explanatory since "You will see all return" could only have so many meanings. "You shall free those you yearn" definitely referred to my mom here...but we can never be entirely sure. The first time, we were forced to leave her in the hands of Hades until the Helm of Darkness was returned. The prophecy suggested that Hades freed her, which could only mean one thing: somewhere along the line, I would be able to retrieve the helm. But this gave me another headache. Just how was I supposed to convince Ares to return it? As for the last two lines, there were so many interpretations. Perhaps the hidden one was referring to Kronos? Or was it Luke? And just what was the forbidden that I would realize? I grabbed my hair in frustration and smiled wryly when I realized where Annabeth's vexation of not knowing was coming from. As people often say, knowledge is power, and the current state I was in made me feel extremely helpless.

Well, I guess all I could do right now was to mentally and physically prepare myself, since blindly guessing wasn't going to accomplish anything. Afterall, it was a general knowledge that prophecies usually came with double meanings.

Getting out of my bed, I decided to use the remaining time to pack some essentials, and if there happened to be some extra time left, I planned on doing some jogging for the sake of my own stamina.

After rummaging through my belongings, it turned out that there wasn't much for me to pack, since all I really needed was the stopwatch and Riptide, which was currently held in Chiron's possession. As a result, my backpack was filled with chips and other snacks, courtesy to the Stoll brothers, who claimed that they bought it for me as moral support. I wasn't entirely sure if they actually bought it with their own money, seeing how they had mastered their father's skill of thievery, but I was somewhat touched by their thoughtfulness. 4:08. Since I still had almost an hour to kill, I elected to proceed on with my morning exercises.

*Scene Break

By the time it was five, I had finished my jog around the camp, took a warm shower, and showed up in at the top of the hill with my backpack. Unsurprisingly, Chiron and Argus were there waiting for us, though there was no sign of my two other companions. Upon my arrival, Chiron turned around and flashed me with a warm smile.

"Good Morning Percy," Chiron greeted me. Next to him, Argus nodded politely at me. "Beautiful day isn't it?" At his comment, I merely glanced up at the sky before he continued on. "Even on the quest day, you still kept up with your trainings. Impressive, indeed." Since my arrival at the camp few days ago, in order to compensate for my lack of endurance, I had set up some training routines, and morning jog was one of them. That being said, his casual remark of knowing my actions did catch me off guard, seeing as how I failed to detect his presence. I hid my disappointment and self - depreciating thoughts regarding the lack of awareness on my part by changing the subject.

"Yeah, extra training wouldn't hurt," I shrugged and gave him my reasoning. "Where is Annabeth and Grover?"

"Ah it seems that they are not as punctual as you," Chiron winked at me as he said before a voice not far away called out.

"Seaweed Brain here only beat us by couple of seconds," a feminine voice that resembled that of Annabeth said in a joking manner.

When I was about to give out a sarcastic retort of my own, another voice that could only belong to Grover spoke up, "Sorry, I was finding my aluminum cans and apples." The first time he told me his weird habit of chewing on aluminum cans when feeling nervous I had looked at him incredulously, but after witnessing the phenomenon and listening to his explanation such that aluminum cans contain essential minerals for satyrs, I had become a believer. As such, when Grover mentioned he was finding his travel necessities, I chuckled softly in response.

"Since we are all here, let's get going," Chiron began with a warm smile. Even so, unease was laced in his words and worry was clearly written on his face. "Argus here will be driving you guys to the bus station and after that, you will be on your own." At the mention of his name, our head security gave us a nod of acknowledgement. "And here's some golden drachma for you, in case you run into an emergency. Don't forget, mortals won't accept them, so in this duffle bag, there's also some cash. There isn't much so spend them wisely." Annabeth thanked Chiron and accepted the parting gift. She, too, had a backpack slung over one of her shoulders. The bright orange camp half blood t-shirt and jeans felt like she was an ordinary middle schooler going on a field trip rather than undergoing a quest to prevent a civil war among the Olympian family. In her hand was her trustworthy blue Yankee baseball cap, a gift from her mother when she turned seven. Next to her, Grover was also wearing a pair of jeans with fake feet attached to them. To cover up his barely visible horn, he opted to wear a cap to avoid potential unwanted commotions. At least they were all dressed in clothing that wouldn't hinder their physical movements much, since my demigod scent would no doubt overshadow theirs.

However, the attires and the amount of monsters that we would attract was the least of my concerns. The most pressing issue at the moment was my missing sword and I really hoped that Chiron would remember or else I would have to settle with the unbalanced blade that Luke handed me not too long ago.

"Percy," Chiron called as Annabeth, Grover, and I trailed behind Argus towards the minivan parked on the street. Turning around, I gazed at the centaur with anticipation. "Can we talk for a moment? It won't take much of your time." I motioned the other two to follow Argus and made my way to the waiting centaur.

"What is it?" The way I delivered myself was direct, but I wasn't trying to be rude. Knowingly, Chiron handed me the item that I had been anticipating the entire time.

"This is a gift from your father," he said as I accepted the Celestial Bronze sword disguised as a ball-point pen. "Make good use of it. Remember that Celestial Bronze doesn't do any harm to mortals, but can be deadly to demigods."

Instinctively, I uncapped the pen and a three - foot long Celestial Bronze sword sprang to life. Though the amazement towards the beautifully crafted blade had diminished throughout the years of using it, having my most trusted partner back with me certainly did feel marvelous. "Anaklusmos…" I muttered under my breath.

"Or Riptide," Chiron offered. "The current that takes one by surprise. This sword has a long and tragic history that I won't be going through. Wield it with honor, make your father proud, Perseus." I faltered a bit when Chiron used my given name, instead of referring to me as Percy, making me realize the seriousness from his statement.

Anaklusmos, the blade crafted by Zoe Nightshade in the ancient times and once wielded by Heracles to defeat the hundred headed dragon, Ladon, when he was performing his twelve labors to atone for his sins. This was also the spark that made the previous Hesperide to become the immortal lieutenant under Artemis' command.

As a result, it was only reasonable that I wield the blade in my hands with pride and glory in order to honor the huntress that I respected the most. The pompous and superficial attitude that the son of Zeus had would never sit well with me. To me, accomplishments were only the byproduct of saving and protecting the ones I cared for and loved.

"I understand," I accepted Chiron's words with a firm nod and glanced at the pen in my hand once again. I chide myself for almost beginning yet another journey down memory lane. Reminiscing about the past was impractical and could always be done later. The only journey that I needed to go on about was the quest of retrieving stolen objects before summer solstice. Other thoughts that had nothing to do with the objective itself were irrelevant and possibly distracting. "Then we will be on our way and will contact you if we run into any trouble," I reassured the worrisome centaur.

"I hope there are no troubles. I hope…" Chiron muttered anxiously. I decided to ignore his remarks and simply waved goodbye before heading for Annabeth and Grover.

"Sorry for making you wait," I apologized to them once I reached the bottom of the hill where the white campus van was parked.

"No worries, Percy," Grover reassured me. "It didn't take long. Plus, there must be a reason why Chiron wanted to talk to you."

On the side, Annabeth studied me a bit and chimed in, "What did Chiron tell you?" Her query was within my expectations, and since there was no reason for me conceal the conversation between Chiron and I, I told her truthfully.

"It was nothing special," I told her. Before she could cut me off by drilling me with more questions, I continued on. "He gave me this," I said and showed them the ball-point pen. "It's a gift from my dad."

"A pen?" Annabeth looked at me in confusion, and I could almost see the questions marks floating on top of her head. "Why would he give you a pen?"

"Well," I began and uncapped the pen. "It's not really a pen, but it can be." For the second time of the day, the bronze blade sprung to life, earning myself some gasps and astonishments.

"It's really gorgeous," Annabeth said in awe while studying the craftsmanship. "Though it looked unordinary at the first glance, it's actually a really functional piece. The fuller right here is able to lighten the blade without sacrificing any of the blade's integrity. That's not the most important part. Look at the quillon -"

"Yes, Annabeth I totally understand everything you said," Grover said sarcastically before addressing me. "I'm more interested in how you can write with it."

"Hey!" Annabeth protested indignantly but blushed slightly afterwards.

"Well," I began with a chuckle, failing to hide my own amusement. The scene unfolding in front of me triggered my nostalgia, reminding me the times where Annabeth would always give us her analysis on architects, craftworks, and basically everything else. It could definitely be mentally exhausting at times with the bulk of information she would sprout out, but I did learn a thing or two, though it was a wiser choice to not voice that out since it would only encourage her. "We can always discuss my pen later, but right now I think we should get going. Argus is waiting for us," I pointed at the head security of the camp who was currently leaning against the driver's side door lazily. Welp, let's hope nothing too troublesome would happen.

*Scene Break

"Pst, Annabeth," I whispered while shaking her shoulder gently. "Wake up. We're here."

As expected, as soon as we got in the van, both Annabeth and Grover fell asleep while I stared outside of the window, drinking in the morning view of Manhattan. It wasn't like your typical busy New York, honking sounds rampaging along with music blasting from the car next to you. No, it was quiet, a sense of tranquility of rural life, and I grimaced a bit when I imagined that the calmness would be disturbed once New York woke up. After going through my entire life with chaos, I came to appreciate the morning stillness and the late night serenity. Despite the fact that I was a Yankee by heart, I found it ironic that I was slowly rejecting the hectic atmosphere from the city.

"Stop it… Let me sleep some more," she protested with a frown and brushed my hand off of her. Sighing mentally at her childish display, I decided to leave her be and tended to Grover instead.

"Hey G-Man," I said. "Time to go." The fact that he remained still told me two things: Either he didn't hear me or was ignoring me. Alright then. I guess I had to use plan B.

With a wicked smile, I inched my face towards Annabeth slowly and whispered in her ears," Hey Annabeth, is that a tarantula crawling on your neck?" As soon as I finished, I gently blew some air, generating some tingling sensation, and unsurprisingly, it worked like wonder. Almost instantly, she jumped up from her seat with a yelp and looked at me fearfully.

"W-Where? Get it off of me!" Instead of panicking and shrieking like most would, the way Annabeth delivered herself was as if she was about to faint. A tinge of guilt was felt, and I realized that I might have went too far with my prank. In response, I patted her neck a few times, pretending to flick away the made up monstrosity in order to calm her down.

"It's gone now," I reassured her. "Are you ok?" Instead of telling her the truth, I chose to go with my prank to prevent Annabeth from going ballistic on me later on. Sometimes, it was worth lying if that meant a life could be saved...

Truly, I had become quite corrupted throughout the years, and I would have to thank Leo for that. What a terrible influence...

"Y-Y-Yea," Annabeth managed to stutter out. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem," I responded with a wry smile. "That's what friends are for right? On the bright side, you and Grover seemed to be awake now."

My attempt of changing subject to avoid any suspicion that Annabeth could arise seemed to be successful as Grover weren't able to sleep through the ruckus from earlier. "Blehh," the satyr bleated, looking around nervously. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I quickly answered him before Annabeth could and continued. "Anyway, we're at the bus stop. Argus won't be able to take us any further." As we were talking, the camp's head security had parked the car, currently waiting for us to gather our belongings. People were starting to appear around the bus station, but thanks to the power of Mist, the onlookers never paid attention to Argus' odd features of having eyeballs all over his body. It may look somewhat sketch when a grown man was escorting three children out of a white minivan, but due to the fact that adults were too occupied by their phones, wild accusations such as human trafficking never came up.

"Well," I began once we got situated. "Thank you for dropping us off." Instead of speaking up, he gave us a wink and a thumbs up before departing in the van. Legends said that Argus had an eyeball on his tongue, thus explained why he wasn't a talkative person, but even after all these years, I never got to confirm the myth myself.

"Soooo, what now?" Grover looked around nervously, while trying to sniff out any danger. This was one advantage of having a satyr accompany us. The ability to smell out potential threats and monsters was extremely valuable for preventive measures, allowing us to plan ahead instead of getting startled by the unknowns. That being said, no matter how fantastic it may sound, unfortunately, it didn't make us completely monster proof. The problem lay within Grover, whose ability to perform and level of nervousness had an inverse relationship. The last time at St. Louis arc was a prime example of his power going awry due to anxiety, leading to Echidna ambushing me in the elevator. Thankfully, the Mist was able to blind the mortals from discovering the monstrosity that could traumatize them for eternity. The icing on that proverbial cake was that no one was injured, but the entire event was an extremely close call.

"We line up and wait for the bus to come," Annabeth stated as a matter of factly. Embarrassed, Grover scratched his head sheepishly and made an "oh" sound.

As they began to make their way to the now populating line, I spoke up, "Do you know where to go?"

At my question, the pair froze and looked at questioningly. "The Underworld, seaweed brain. I thought we went over this?" Annabeth said while cocking her head to the side. Grover nodded nervously, apparently disliking the fact that our destination was a dark abyss filled with death souls.

"But do you know where the entrance is?" I pointed out.

Annabeth opened and closed her mouth. Then she reopened them again just to find that nothing came out of her mouth. After several failed attempts of formulating a response, she opted to give up and spoke in a defensive manner. "Do you know then?"

"Fortunately, I do," I told her and she looked at me skeptically.

"And where is it?"

"Los Angeles," I said, but gave her an alternative option. "Unless Grover knows how to play some charming music with his reed pipe. If he can, then we don't have to travel that far." At my statement, both Annabeth and I gazed at Grover. Apparently, my inquiry about his skills only added unnecessary anxiety to the already distraught satyr.

"Blehh," he bleated again, not fond of the amount of attention he was receiving from us. "Stop staring me like that. I'm not good at music...I'm a failure…" Afterwards, he covered up his face with his hands and started sobbing. The emotional breakdown was an unforeseen outcome, and for a second, I was too stunned to react.

"Hey don't worry," I began when Annabeth punched me in the arms and glared at me disapprovingly. "I don't know where the shortcut is to begin with. All I know is that Orpheus did it once." It was a lie, but a necessary one to cease any self-loathing from him.

Truth was, during the Titan War, Grover's music was the one that opened up the secret passage in Central Park down to the Underworld, where Nico took me to the world's greatest bath house-The River Styx. After failing his second mission as the protector with me, Grover's confidence only further plummeted, resulting in him not believing that he was capable of accomplishing great feats. However, lack of self confidence was not something that could be fixed within a short amount of time, as a result, I decided to continue on. "So like I said, the other entrance is in L.A, so we should take bus 925 and then get off at this stop to change transportation," I pointed at the map that was given next to the bus station as I explained our next course of action.

Next to me Annabeth eyed me suspiciously. "How did you know that the entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles?"

"I asked Chiron," I told her. When in doubt, simply bring out Chiron's name since it had served as a marvelous way of shielding myself from undesirable questions thus far. Once again, the effect was deemed extraordinary, seeing as how Annabeth nodded in understanding and moved along with the conversation. A part of me did wonder how much longer would this trickery last, since in times, her observation skills would definitely allow her to catch on, so I mentally noted to myself that I had to either be more careful with information handling or come up with other answers that did not involve the centaur.

"Hmm," Annabeth hummed and agreed with my statement. "We'll do as you say. In the meantime, I'll come up with some backup plans in case something goes wrong."

That was a very Annabeth-like thing and involuntarily, I gave out a small chuckle. She did look at me questioningly, but decided not to press onwards when I responded with a shrug. At the same time, a newly arrived bus with numbers 925 written on the top also signified the end of our short discussion. Some people who were seated on the bench got up and joined the now forming line while others remained seated, waiting for the right bus to turn up. Naturally, we merged in as the last party in line.

Promptly, a tingling sensation went down my spine, but I fought down the urge to look around. We were being observed from somewhere, and the last thing I wanted to do was to alert the pursuers. If I didn't alter Fate so much, I would assume that the stalkers were the three Furies, sent by Hades to retrieve his Helm of Darkness. However, that was a preconception only if the settings around me remained constant. The change of prophecy and downstream events could lead to an endless amount of possibilities, so to assume that the three Furies were the ones observing us would be a rash call. That being said, there was always a slight possibilities that they were pursuing us, since their objective was to return the stolen symbol of power, which Hades, assumed that I stole it. Ultimately, this whole quest was issued due to misunderstandings and baseless accusations and assumptions.

If it turned out that the Furies were monitoring us, then the whole situation would be less complicated where I could simply confront them and tell them the truth that Luke and Ares were the instigators of this mess. The likelihood of them believing my words were close to zero percent, though if I could get the War God to reveal the scheme himself, that would be a different story. On the contrary, if it was someone else, then things could be quite tricky. The fact that I would be left in the unknown made it extremely difficult for me to prepare any preventive measurements. Annabeth and Grover were still too naive and inexperienced when it came down to being reactive to different scenarios. There was absolutely no way that I would put them in harm. No, I would do anything to protect them no matter what it took.

Well, there was no point in dwelling in this seemingly frustrating situation. It seemed like Annabeth and Grover failed to notice the gaze that was sent in our direction, and I planned on using their ignorance to my advantage. If I notified them, it would only cause unwanted commotion, thereby alerting whoever was secretly tailing us from behind.

But something felt off. I failed to detect any form of animosity despite the fact that the pursuer seemed to be concealing their power. Nonetheless, this didn't mean that I should let my guard down since killing intent could always arise from a dormant state.

"Let's go over the plan again," Annabeth proposed after we sat down at the very back of the bus. Since nothing could be done now, I chose not to allow needless concerns to overwhelm me and decided to join in the conversation.

"Annabeth please," I told her, punching the bridge of my nose. "We went over the plan at least three times already. You need to relax."

At my statement, the daughter of Athena blushed embarrassingly. "But Grover doesn't know about them yet. Right Grover?" She spoke up defensively and glared daggers at Grover. Under the pressure of Annabeth's gaze, Grover could only nod in agreement, making her give me a "I told you so" look. I sighed mentally after realizing that there was no other way to get around her stubbornness. Though the fact that Grover didn't know our discussion wasn't an entirely false statement either. From my own understanding, his knowledge of this quest was only limited to Chirons' deductive reasonings and the short conversation we had at the Big House with Dionysus. Evidently, Chiron was proven to be wrong when he claimed Hades to be the thief, however, that didn't mean I shouldn't believe anything he said. By incorporating Grover into our strategy session could only be beneficial in an objective standpoint since he may provide crucial information or possibilities that I could be overlooking.

"I mean, Grover already knows the gist of it," I pointed out and teased her lightly. "Remember the conversation you were eavesdropping on?"

"Hey," Annabeth protested. "I only did it to see if you will follow through what you said, you know, requesting me as one of your quest member."

"I said I will," I told her with my head tilted to the side. "Did you not trust me?"

"It's not that," she responded while waving her hands in front of her. "I-I'm sorry for doubting you…"

Even though she mumbled the last part, it was still loud enough for me to catch it. Honestly, she didn't need to apologize since her uncertainty was understandable. "No worries, I wasn't trying to make you feel bad."

"But how did you know I was there?" In order to diffuse her uneasiness, she opted to change topic and posed a rather difficult question. "How did you know I was invisible?"

"Well," I began carefully as I thought about how I should answer her query. The current Annabeth was still too inexperienced at concealing her presence, so the moment she snuck up to the Big House, I was able to discern her position. "During that time, I felt someone was gazing at me. Since no one else was around, it could only be you and your invisibility cap." I shrugged after I gave her my hasty explanation, to which she looked at me with widened eyes.

"What do you mean you can feel my gaze?" she asked incredulously, not believing what I just said.

"It means I could literally feel you watching at me," I answered. "You know the saying insert phrase. I'm sure something similar have happened to you before." After contemplating for a brief moment, Annabeth nodded slowly in understanding. "Anyway," I continued, bringing the conversation back on track. "It is just as I said, Grover already knew what was going on and where we'll be heading. I think Grover should tell us if he learned anything from Chiron, considering how little amount of information we have in hand, anything will be deemed useful."

My reasoning ended with Annabeth staring at Grover expectantly. "Well, umm," he stammered as he attempted to give his own input. "Chiron didn't tell me much, but he did give me a warning."

"And that is?" Annabeth asked eagerly.

"He told me to be extra cautious because something doesn't add up," Grover said and frowned. "But he didn't tell me why he is feeling that way though."

"Hmm," Annabeth hummed in response. The whole time, I remained in silence. Since the get go, I already knew something was odd, solely based on the strange change in the prophecy though I didn't have enough information to assuredly predict the outcomes. "I'm not entirely sure what Chiron means. Isn't all evidence pointing directly at Hades? What do you think, Percy?"

I was surprised by the fact that Annabeth had been asking for my opinion whenever an intricate situation arose. It was true that I seemed to be knowledgeable, after knowing what was suppose to go down on the day of summer solstice as well as the entrance to the Underworld, so in a sense, it was understandable that she would seek information from me. However, what really flabbergasted me wasn't that but her hubris. Speaking strictly from past experience, it was odd for Annabeth to seek help from others. To a perfectionist like her, collaboration with others meant probable disagreements, resulting in her inability to achieve a quintessential outcome. Maybe the circumstances were different compared to that of my previous life time, nonetheless, I was still not used to this change. I mean, I had always been the one asking the question.

"I'm not sure either." Technically that wasn't a lie since I was also in the dark regarding to the future that awaited for us. The only thing I knew was that Hades wasn't the thief after confronting Luke about it couple days ago. "But never mind that for now. It seemed that we've arrived."

Leeds Point, New Jersey, a place where it brought back memories. Different from last time, the Furies didn't appear to intercept us, causing a ruckus where the bus got blew up into pieces. It would be a lie if I said I was expecting this kind of peacefulness so far, considering that I was a child of a Big Three who was supposed to attract abundant of monsters. But hey, I wasn't going to complain and that I would chalk this up as a win in my book.

Last time, we were forced off of the bus at this stop due to the unexpected attacks launched by the Furies, but this time I opted to get off at this stop for one purpose. "So who's hungry?" I turned and asked as we watched the bus departed. It was still a bit far away from noon, but considering that we hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, I had been starving.

"I am," Grover raised his hand enthusiastically. Seemed like the topic of food had restore some of his recently lost cheeriness. "But is there anywhere we can eat?"

"About that," I said with a wry smile. "Leave it to me."

*Scene Break*

"Should be here somewhere…" I muttered to myself while Annabeth and Grover trailed behind me. "Ah, there it is. Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."

"Um Percy," Annabeth looked at the entrance skeptically. "I don't think a garden full of statues will sell food."

"Yeah," Grover voiced out his agreement. "Also, this place doesn't feel right."

"Nonsense," waving my hands at them dismissively, I chided them and continued on marching forward. "I've been here before. The burgers and fries are pretty good." I paused at my track when I realized that they stopped at the entrance. "I mean, if you rather starve, then by all means, but I'm craving for some food right now."

The two of them looked at each other and reluctantly followed my track. It was no surprise that they were suspicious of the place, especially since Grover was able to detect any monsters within a certain proximity with his nose. Even though the place was called Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, it was actually the lair of the infamous Gorgon, Medusa.

Out of the three sisters, Medusa was claimed to be the most beautiful one, thereby catching Poseidon's attention. Unfortunately for them, either due to unlucky timing or Poseidon's lack of awareness from being clouded by love, Athena caught them committing disrespectful acts in her sacred temple. For punishment, the proud goddess that felt insulted turned Medusa into the now fearful Gorgon who could petrify anyone upon any eye contacts. The same result was bestowed on her sisters, not because of Athena's merciless decision but the fact that the sisters wanted to share the punishments.

By sheer accident, we ended up at Medusa's lair last time, nearly became one of her collections. Who knew, if Grover never realized Aunty Em's true identity by stumbling upon his uncle Ferdinand's statue and suddenly remembering that Medusa was responsible for Ferdinand's death, we might have ended up at the Garden of Persephone as three lovely statues. This place was a trap, that I knew, however the deadliness of traps usually lie in the surprise factor. With foreknowledge of the dangers, this trap is far from dangerous in my opinion.

"Ah welcome," a silky voice spoke up right as we set foot into the front yard. "What brings you three lovely children here? It's rare to see a customer nowadays." The woman in front of us wore a black gown and dressed in a middle eastern style with black veils covering up her entire face. A hint of sadness was laced in the voice, but I ignored it and answered her.

"I heard Aunty Em has good burgers and fries," I said. "And since we haven't eaten anything all day, we decided to drop by." At my side, Grover and Annabeth only looked at me nervously.

There was a short pause before Medusa spoke up again. "Is that so, then follow me."

While we were walking, Annabeth nudged my shoulder and whispered harshly. "Percy, this is definitely not a good idea. You're acting way too rashly. We don't even know who this is!"

"Hmm?" Medusa asked without stopping her movements. "What's not a good idea?"

"Oh it's nothing," I glanced at Annabeth meaningfully, hoping she would get the cue to stop questioning before turning my attention back to the monster. "My friend here is doubting your food quality that's all."

"No, I'm not!" Annabeth protested.

"You can tell your friend not to worry." Due to the fact that she had her face covered, I wasn't able to discern her expression.

"Ah, she's more of a practical person," I explained. "She will become a believer once she tries it."

"If that's the case," she began while scratching the bottom of her chin. "I know just the right thing for you. How does deluxe cheese burger with bacon sounds?"

"That sounds fantastic," I immediately voiced out my opinion. Honestly at this point, my growling stomach would take in anything even if she were to offer me an entree made by Apollo and Hermes. Apollo would try to make the dish glow in gold by adding unnecessary amount of gold dust while Hermes would come up with ridiculous ideas that might not even be edible.

"Wait a second," Grover spoke up suspiciously as the conversation progressed while we walked through the garden. "This looks like uncle Ferdinand!"

"Oh? Really?" Medusa asked innocently. "That's quite a coincidence."

"This really does look like him…" Grover muttered to himself as he scrutinized the statue that he stumbled upon.

"Um Grover," I spoke up, attempting to divert his attention from the statue in front of him. If he somehow drew connections between the lively looking statue and the death of his uncle, then it might spoil my plan of taking down Medusa discreetly. "I think you have it mixed up. You tend to think that everyone looks similar."

"No I don't," Grover spoke up defensively. "I mean…"

"You mean you want me to bring up the time where you thought Nancy and Ellen were the same person?" I pressed onwards, reminding him that embarrassing moment. Seriously, how did he mix up a short and stubby girl that had orange freckles and red curly hair with a tall and slim girl that had light shaded, long brunette hair. When I asked him why he was hiding in the bathroom, he claimed that he saw Nancy when in reality it was Ellen.

"...Fine, you're right."

"So let's not overthink things alright?" I dismissed him and he gave me a nod, but a hint of doubt could be seen in his eyes. This whole time, both Annabeth and Medusa remained in silence, the former had her brows furrowed in contemplation, and the latter remained still despite the fact that she was the one who petrified Ferdinand. Admittedly, my attempt to divert Grover's thought was not completely successful, seeing as how I left plenty of suspicion in the air. Though it might work on Grover, I doubt it would fool Annabeth, simply because my reasoning lacked logic.

"Come on children," Medusa urged as she gestured the table to her side. "Take a seat and your food will be ready shortly." After flashing her a polite smile, I began to formulate a plan to assassinate the gorgon in front of me.

*Scene Break

"Wow," Grover exclaimed with a mouthful of food. "You're absolutely right. This is delicious!"

"Grover!" Annabeth chided before taking another bite into her burger. "Don't talk with your mouth full!"

"Sorry mom," Grover rolled his eyes and snickered before shoving some crispy french fries down his throat. At Grover's remark, Annabeth glared at him briefly, which the latter gazed in my direction for assistance, but for entertainment purposes, I pretended that I never noticed and continued working on my burger happily. Truly, I was a terrible friend.

"But Percy," Annabeth gave Grover one last death glare before drawing her attention to me. "I hate to admit, but…"

"But…?" I smirked and prompted her to go on.

"But you're right," she sighed and I raised my brows. "This is very tasty."

"You sounded very surprised," I pointed out dryly at her reluctance of accepting the truth. "You think I'll suggest something that's not at least above average?"

"Uh yeah, obviously," Annabeth stated as a matter of factly before finishing the burger. After wiping her hands clean with the napkins provided, she took a sip from her cup and continued lightheartedly. "I wouldn't expect too high of standards from a seaweed brain like you," she said as she took a fry out from the tray. "Mmm, it's so crisp. I love it."

"I see how it is, wise girl," I began wryly with the nostalgic nickname that I had given her years ago. Of course, courtesy of Thalia, who preferred to show her affection through insults and physical abusements, more creative names such as kelp-for-brain or kelp head came to life. It was baffling that she expected me to sit idly from her cringe worthy nicknames, so in retaliation, I started calling her pinecone face and sparky. The face of bewilderment and disbelief when she realized what I did was so hilarious that I was immediately greeted by a bolt of lightning the moment I began laughing.

With a soft chuckle, Medusa spoke up, "Annabeth my dear, you should stop teasing Percy." The moment the monstrosity in front of us mentioned our names, my body immediately tensed up. It seemed that neither Grover nor Annabeth realized the fact that Aunty Em knew our names without inquiring us. Sure, Annabeth mentioned both Grover and I earlier while we were eating, but we never brought up the name Annabeth.

Instead of showing my suspicion, I immediately relaxed my body and pretended nothing had happened. Since the very beginning, I never intended to let them get involved and that I would protect them from all harm. My plan was simple: kill Medusa discreetly and no one would be the wiser.

"Yeah," I nodded innocently and agreed with Medusa. Despite the fact that I was only planning to take down the gorgon seconds ago, I never allowed my expression to falter or give off any sign that could foil my plan. "You should really listen to Aunty Em here."

"Hey," Annabeth protested, but before she could continue, Aunty Em interrupted her.

"Now, now," Aunty Em chided us. "There's no reason to mean back to Annabeth, Percy." At her words, Annabeth immediately gave me a look as if saying "See? I'm not the only mean one here" while the only expression Grover showed was that of nervous laughters. "Since you're done with your food, will you mind if I take a picture? You guys are so adorable!"

Alright, time to initiate my plan.

This was her usual trick: serve delicious food then charm people into getting their picture taken when in reality she would reveal the curse from Athena and petrify the mortals. Afterwards, a big portion of the statues would be shipped to Persephone herself in exchange for golden drachmas.

The three of us nearly became the victim if not for the fact that Grover managed to figure out that Aunty Em was actually a pseudonym for Medusa in the very last moment. Even though Medusa didn't have the ability to charmspeak like the Love Goddess herself, the seductive voice she had almost made me forget about the ongoing quest. It was a wonder that we actually made it out alive.

"Sure," Grover voiced out his opinion first by raising his hand in excitement. Annabeth hesitated but nodded her head slowly in response. "What about you Percy?" Both of my friends looked at me when they realized I hadn't give them an answer yet.

"I think that will be a fantastic idea," I voice out my agreement, though the fantastic idea I was referring to was sending this monster back to Tartarus, not the part about picture taking. "But can you show me where the bathroom is first?"

"Go to the courtyard and take a right," Medusa stated simply and I headed out the door promptly. There was no telling what Medusa would do to Annabeth and Grover while I was gone, but being anxious over such thing would only hinder my actions. So after I left the room, I swiftly put my plan into action.

"Uh Aunty Em, the bathroom door seems to be locked." Even though it was cheesy, this was also the best way to isolate Medusa and I. Thus after reaching the bathroom door, I manipulated the water molecules in the air, froze the door knob, then proceeded to return back to the room.

At my declaration, Medusa remained silent, but spoke up shortly afterwards. "Oh? Is that so. Come, I'll unlock the door for you then." Fishing out the a key from one of the drawers, she got up and motioned me to follow.

Once we reached the bathroom, Medusa walked up and tugged gently on the doorknob before letting out a soft chuckle. "My, my, Perseus. Did your father tell you to play around with your power like this?"

"No," I said flatly. "But I don't like what you're planning."

"And that is?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Medusa." At the mention of the monster's true identity, the temperature of the room seemed to drop and faint hissing sound could be heard from her head.

"So you knew, huh?" Medusa asked and I nodded briefly in confirmation. "What a shame," she sighed. "I was thinking of letting you and that satyr live after I killed that disgusting daughter of Athena if you remained ignorant, but I guess I will have to kill you as well."

"I think you are mistaken," I said while cocking my head to the side, casually slipping my hand into my pocket. "The one dying today is not me, but you."

It started off as soft chuckling, then the chuckling slowly became that of hysterical laughter full of disbelief. "Tsk, tsk," Medusa chided me as if she was scolding a little child. "Aren't you getting too ahead of yourself? You think a demigod like you can kill me? Don't be ridiculous."

"I mean, didn't the original Perseus kill you?" I pointed out the event that happened millennia ago.

"You dare speak of such thing?" Medusa snarled at me, agitated by my remark. Good, that was what I was aiming for. Someone who was overcome by emotions would not be able to react rationally, and in this case, triggering an unpleasant memory from the past seemed to achieve the same result. "If not for the fact that he attacked me while I was asleep, I would have ripped him apart."

"Perhaps," I nodded. "But in the end, you still lost, so none of that matters. What matters is that you're going to die before you can cause any more harm to my friends and other innocent mortals."

Without any other word, I uncapped Riptide and lunged myself forward with incredible speed. I became fast, I became a blur, and within a second, I had closed the gap between the two of us. The moment she realized her mistake for underestimating me, my bronze sword also found its target. With a pierced heart, the monstrosity before me burst into golden dust and its essence returned back to Tartarus. As a spoil of war, her gorgon head with its petrifying power still remaining was left at my feet. Carefully, I picked it up and placed it in a cardboard box that I found lying somewhere near a statue of a couple holding hands in the courtyard. Those poor souls never knew what killed them, but hopefully they were at least enjoying their afterlives.

Swiftly, I made my way back to Annabeth and Grover while mentally noting to come back for the box later. The entire process of disposing Medusa took a bit longer than I had expected though it was mostly my fault for continuing the conversation. It was never meant to be a prolonged fight, but the fact that she went down without any resistance did surprise me a bit. Either way, I was satisfied with the result, so there was no point of me complaining about an effortless fight.

"Oh hey, Percy! You're back," Grover greeted me as I entered the room. "What took you so long?"

"Uh... my stomach wasn't feeling too well," I lied effortlessly while pointing at my stomach and Grover gave an "Ah" and nodded in sympathy.

"Alright," I addressed the two of them. "Let's get going, shall we? We don't have much time to spare."

"Yeah you're right," Grover agreed and got up from his seat, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "But where's Aunty Em? We should say our goodbyes and thank her for the amazing food!"

"Don't worry," I reassured the satyr. "Aunty Em told me that we are free to leave anytime earlier since she has some business to attend to." It required a decent amount of self control to stop myself from giving a wry smile at my own statement. I mean, it wasn't a complete lie. Afterall, Medusa did have some business to attend to, except the said business had something to do with reuniting with her friends down in Tartarus.

Likewise, Annabeth got up and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "We need to figure out how to secure a transportation first," she told me while resting her hand under her chin in contemplation. "A train, perhaps? But I don't think we have enough money to make it across the country."

I smiled a bit and told her, "Don't worry about that. I got it covered." While she looked at me confusingly, an evil smile morphed into existence as I thought about my next action.

*Scene Break*

"Where did you get all the extra cash from?" Annabeth asked me suspiciously. A little after finishing the meal, I once again used my "upset stomach" excuse and headed back towards Medusa's office with two objectives in mind.

First, I took a page from Herme's book and "borrowed" some golden drachmas and dollar bills. Like I said, I was simply borrowing, putting the resources into good uses, so naturally, I'll return everything I took today back to Medusa the next time I see her. Though after that one sided fight, I wasn't sure if she had the willpower to reform, and even if she did, there was no guarantee that I wouldn't pierce her again with a three foot long bronze sword as a welcome back gift.

It was a bit surprising that she kept most of the mortal cash from the victims that had fallen to her petrifying gaze, considering that Greek mythological creatures only used golden drachmas as their currency. Turns out, the amount of cash that Medusa had was only enough to get us to St. Louis. At the same time, it was quite ironic how after all the changes I had made so far, Fate still wished for me to go to St. Louis. I wouldn't say my first visit there five years ago was pleasant, unless fighting Echidna and getting bit by her rabid, fire breathing chihuahua was evaluated as an enjoyable event.

The other thing I had in mind was the cardboard box with Medusa's head in it. Instead of mailing said package to Mt. Olympus to piss the gods off, I opted for a different route. This time around, I wasn't exactly annoyed at the gods for making my fate such a chaotic one. I wasn't frustrated and mad at the gods for sending us on this silly quest, nearly getting us killed in several occasions. Nay, now I was doing it for my friends and myself and retrieving the Master Bolt was merely a byproduct of my true objective. Thus, grabbing a delivery slip from Medusa' office, I filled in my home address in Manhattan and my mom's name before pouring some golden drachma into the cash register machine. Before I knew it, a small 'poof' went off and the package was delivered. I couldn't deny the satisfied smile growing on my face as I watched the package send.

"My wallet, of course," I stated as a matter of factly while handing out the tickets. "Here, this is yours Grover. And here you go, Annabeth."

"Thanks," Annabeth replied but wasn't satisfied by my response. "But what do you mean your wallet?"

"It's exactly what I said, my wallet. Those were my savings," I lied to her shamelessly, hoping that would end the conversation. Sometimes, the daughter of Athena asked way too many questions. "Come on, the train is leaving soon." Thankfully, the thought of missing our ride was able to distract Annabeth from my cursory response.

Since Medusa only had a decent amount of cash and that I didn't want to use up all of our expenses on train tickets in case of an emergency later on, we didn't have those comfy and luxurious looking seats that others had. That being said, I was totally fine with it. Compared to camping in the harsh winter of Alaska while I was undergoing a quest at Camp Jupiter or sleeping on the deck of the Argo II during our journey to ancient Greece, the spot I was sitting on right now felt like marshmallows to me. After going through all the hardships, I learned the important lesson of cherishing what you have in the present before you realize that it was gone.

Giving me the biggest goat yawn, Grover muttered to us, "I'm going to nap a bit. Wake me up when we arrive." Without waiting for any confirmations, Grover pulled his baseball cap down, covering his entire face with it. There was a moment of silence afterwards where I stared outside of the window, allowing my mind to wonder on its own while Annabeth seemed to be doing the same until Grover's thunderous snoring sound startled the two of us.

"Jeez Grover," I muttered under my breath as I glanced over at the sleeping satyr. "You just had to ruin the peacefulness."

"Give him a break," Annabeth gave a small smile and chided me. "He seemed extremely tensed ever since we left the camp."

"I could tell," I nodded in agreement, and I could understand the reasons behind it. Five years ago in this current timeline, Grover was responsible for escorting Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth to camp half blood. Being daughter of Zeus, Thalia naturally possessed a stronger scent to attract the monsters, therefore the way back to the camp wasn't a merry one. To make matters worse, the Lord of the Dead himself wasn't pleased by the fact that Zeus broke the oath, so poor Thalia was the recipient of Hades' wrath. However, the title of daughter of Zeus wasn't for show. Her natural prowess and expertise with her spear was able to fend off the assaults until Grover made a wrong turn.

It wasn't his fault that he cracked under the pressure and got deceived by a cyclops on the way. But because of this delay, the monsters caught up, and in order to save her friends, Thalia made a last stand on top of the hill outside of the camp's border. Right before she breathed her dying last breath, Zeus turned her into a pine tree that now protected and watched over the camp on half blood hill.

Obviously, the one to shoulder the responsibility was Grover, resulting in the Council of Cloven Elders to revoke his chance of getting a searcher's license. Annabeth and Luke, along with other campers never blamed him, but in the end, he still failed his objective of protecting Thalia. Ever since then, he had been beating himself over his past mistake. Besides using this opportunity of accompany me on the quest to obtain his searcher's license, he also wanted to redeem himself. Perhaps it was because of the fear of failing again, he had been acting extra nervous, and unfortunately, there wasn't much for me to do about it.

"Maybe it's because that satyrs don't like to be underground?" I wasn't supposed to know about Thalia yet, so I brought up the only fact that we all knew. Besides, bringing up the dead daughter of Zeus might bring up some unpleasant memories. "He told me that few days ago when we were discussing about the quest."

Glancing out of the window, Annabeth agreed half heartedly, "Maybe…" There was no doubt that she was reminiscing about the past event, so I decided to end the conversation.

"Hey Percy," after a brief moment, Annabeth spoke up, still staring at the grass plain that we were crossing. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Fire away."

"Don't you think something is weird?"

"Hmm?" I raised an eyebrow at her question, encouraging her to continue.

"Since the start of the quest, we haven't come across a single monster," Annabeth pointed out suspiciously.

"Isn't that good?"

"Normally yes," she answered, now turning to face me. "But you're a child of Big Three. Your scent alone should be attracting a lot of monsters."

"Oh really? I didn't know that," I feigned ignorance and decided to wait and see what she had to say. "But still doesn't change the fact that things are going on quite nicely for us. Instead of complaining, shouldn't we be grateful?"

"No, this doesn't feel right," she muttered to herself again while tugging on her necklace, something she did whenever she felt anxious. "When something goes this smoothly, it means something fishy is going on."

"Why are you being so pessimistic?"

"You mean realistic?" Annabeth countered. "I mean, where are the Kindly Ones? I'm surprised that we haven't run into them yet."

"Who knows, they might be busy with something else," I said.

"But what is more important than retrieving the missing symbol of power?" This time, I had nothing else to say. We did run into monsters, but I couldn't just tell her that Aunty Em was actually Medusa and that I killed her in less than a second when I went to the bathroom. I couldn't tell her that some anonymous individual had been following us since we were at the bus station either. The presence, though faint, was still here, but judging by the fact that it hadn't strike yet, I was willing to let it slide. For now.

As for her second concern about the Furies, it was something that I had been mulling over as well. It really was quite abnormal for them to not show up this far into the quest. "Then what do you propose?" I asked instead while laying back into my seat. "You're our brain here."

"I'm not sure," she paused a bit and answered hesitantly. "I don't have enough information in hand to make the most logical decision. This whole thing feels like a mess so far. Besides, you've been the one taking the lead and coming up with plans so far, why are you asking me?" Towards the end, I could sense some bitterness in her voice, and I understood perfectly where that came from. Being the daughter of Athena, in fact the smartest in the camp, Annabeth had always been the brain. Well, until now I guess. However, that didn't change the fact that I would still trust Annabeth's judgement without giving a second thought and that she was still the smartest person I knew. The only reason I seemed to be more competent and logical than Annabeth was merely because of my accumulated experiences from the past.

Her hubris could also be playing a role in the bitterness that she was feeling. The desire to be the very best, and the ego of thinking that everyone else was below her was a flaw that all children of Athena carried. Fortunately, Annabeth was able to control her pride and ego fairly well with the help of Thalia and I.

Decide to cheer her up a bit, I said, "Listen Annabeth, I'm not as smart as you think. I had a dream last night where my dad gave me some guidance, that's why I had a rough idea of what to do. We're a team. We're here to help each other out." Even though what I said wasn't entirely true, my goal was to cheer her up not by feeding her ego, but point out the essence of teamwork.

"It's just that, I'm not used to it," Annabeth sighed and admitted. "People always came to me for answers. I've always been the one coming up with strategies for capture the flag and other camp activities. But now… but now it feels really frustrating to be unable to take charge." Before I could come up with some encouraging words, she continued. It was as if a flood gate was opened - there was no longer a way to stop her anymore.

"Chiron was right all along. It's so different out here. All the trainings I did at the camp, all the books I read in my free time to help replenish my knowledge… none of that matters. There's so much unpredictability and variables that I can't control." I remained in silence the entire time while I listened to her.

What she said was the truth.

Sure, running around the camp and swinging your sword repeatedly everyday was good and all, but that could only do so much out here. Your routines would not save you if you froze in fear at the sight of a hellhound or panic because you were stuck in a dire situation. These were lessons that could only be learned through years of experiences, not hacking and slashing at straw dummies.

My journey through Tartarus should be a good enough example. It was not a daily occurrence that a demi-god fell into the dark abyss of torment and suffering, so naturally, Chiron and Dionysus wouldn't have a lesson on "How to survive if you fall into Tartarus 101". If Annabeth and I were to panic and rely solely on what we learned in the camp, then I wouldn't be here right now.

The two most important things that the camp didn't teach us were adaptability and flexibility. Why? Because the gods believed that we were in time of peace and that no one would have enough courage to rise up against the all mighty Olympians. To be able to adapt to any given situation and be flexible enough to formulate new plans with newly given information were the major things I learned. When Annabeth had to battle against Arcane, despite being in a disadvantage, she was still able to outsmart and trick the spider queen into falling into Tartarus.

Don't get me wrong, however. All the trainings we did at the camp still provided values to us. For example, without those endurance and strength trainings, then even if you were able to adapt to your opponent's, what good would it be if you simply collapsed due to exhaustion or not having enough power to strike your enemies down. The camp alone could shape you into a fighter, but that alone was not enough to make you a hero. A fighter was someone with only muscles, but no brains, like Ares or Hercules. If you were to rate strictly on raw power then those two were definitely at the top, but a hero was different.

Certain heroes may not have strength comparable to that of the legendary son of Zeus himself, but at times, one would find those heroes overcome their disadvantages by utilizing the surroundings to their advantage. The only problem was that this particular skill set required a lot of experiences and was not easily accomplished. Even I still had plenty to learn and sadly, I was probably still a novice, considering I only had less than a decade worth of experience.

I understood where Annabeth's frustration was coming from, but as of right now, I didn't have a way to help her. One thing I knew for sure was that Annabeth could be a bit stubborn at times and would always want to stick to her plans.

"What you said is true," I looked at her sympathetically, agreeing with what she said. "A lot of times, plans just don't work out the way we want them to be."

"So what are you trying to say?" she asked.

"Most of the time, things don't go the way we want. Only thing we can do is to adapt and come up with a new plan," I shrugged as I told her before pausing for a few seconds. "It's pointless to complain. The most practical thing to do is to work with what you got."

Digesting my words for a brief moment, she looked at me questionly, "Why does it sound like you are an expert at this?"

"Ah well," I tried my best to contain my own expression while searching for a response. "That's a story for another time, but for now, shouldn't you get some rest before we arrive?"

Now when I said searching for a response, I didn't say it would be a good one. Apparently, my answer to her query perked her interest, so instead of dismissing me and went to sleep like I hoped, she scooted herself forward to the edge of the seat while gleaming at me with anticipation. "Not unless you tell me."

Thankfully, Grover, being a fantastic friend, came to my aid. Stretching himself while rubbing his eyes, he turned and looked at us, "Guys, I'm hungry. Is there anything to eat?" Did we not just eat was my initial thought, nonetheless, I was thankful for this little distraction that he created.

*Scene Break*

"Fun fact, did you guys know that the arch is just as wide as its tall?" Annabeth told us as she was walking backwards facing us, giving the most in-depth and thorough guide on the Gateway Arch that any tourist could ask for.

Well... maybe too in-depth.

"Thank you Annabeth," I said with a smile. If I did my counting correctly, that was fun fact number ninety five, and I shuddered at the thought of allowing her to continue. "We agreed to be here for at most two hours. At this rate, I'm sure we will be stuck here for an entire day."

"Sorry," she flushed and scratched her head sheepishly. "It's just that - "

"Architect," I finished for her.

"How do you know?" she asked with surprise all over her face.

"Well, I thought all children of Athena are into these kind of stuff," I shrugged and replied.

"You made it sound like it's a bad thing."

"Don't get the wrong idea. I think it's pretty cool," I told her and she gave me an amusing look. Trying hard to fish out some random facts that Annabeth told me in the past about architecture, but unfortunately, I couldn't recall anything since I didn't really pay much attention. "Erm, I mean I don't know much but if the calculations is wrong, the arch will collapse due to gravity."

"Yes that's correct," Annabeth exclaimed in excitement after clapping her hands together. "The concept behind it is really not that difficult. It's similar to constructing a dome. There are really two major forces behind it, the gravita -" Then she saw Grover give me an eye roll and I simply shrug while suppressing a grin in response, Annabeth paused in mid sentence, looking at us with a flushed face. "Sorry. You're right, let's get going."

"So what are we doing now?" Grover asked as we walked. "I propose that we find a snack bar or a food court!"

I had to used all my self control to stop myself from palming my face. Another thing about Grover was that whenever anxiety kicked in, he would began to stress eat. Usually he would carry around some tin cans in his bag to binge on for crisis such as journey to the land of the dead, but in such a populated area, chewing on non edible food by mortals' standards would draw some questioning looks. I did wonder, how and what would the Mist show the mortals if Grover were to do so. "No G-man, we are not here for food. You already ate in the train, again," I chided him and he gave an "aww" sound. "Since we're here, you guys are going to the top of the arch."

Looking at me confusingly at my proposition, Annabeth asked, "What about you? You're not coming?"

"Naw, I'm scared of heights," I lied to them with a straight face. "That being said, you guys stay safe, alright? We will meet here in thirty minutes."

"Alright, sounds good," Annabeth nodded, though she failed to conceal the excitement that was currently radiating brightly from her eyes. It was only a natural response from her, and it reminded me a lot about the Annabeth that I knew from the other timeline, so I simply smiled warmly back at her.

"Ah, one last thing," I spoke up, turning my attention to Grover. "Do you smell anything funny, Grover? Like any monsters nearby?"

At my question, Grover frowned and wrinkled his nose, attempting to sniff out any danger with that unique ability of all satyrs. After a brief moment, he shook his head and said, "No. I don't sense anything nearby." I nodded my head and waved them on to the ticket booth.

It was like I thought, Grover failed to detect the presence of Echidna and Chimera like last time. I didn't know what magic the mother of all monsters used to conceal herself, blending her scent in with that of mortals. That being said, as of now, there were two possibilities. First, which was the favorable of the two, was that due to my previous actions, the timeline had been shifted, meaning that Echidna would not be appearing before us today.

The second possibility was that the monstrosity was still lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Since the presence of the mysterious stalker could still be felt, I was leaning more towards the latter scenario, though that was only an assumption considering the fact that Echidna might not even be the one observing us this entire time. It was a logical assumption, but nonetheless, a speculation based on past experiences and to make sure everyone on this quest came back in one piece, it was better to be safe than sorry.

This was also the only reason why I decided to lie to Annabeth about being acrophobic. My main objective here was simple: Find Echidna and her pet chihuahua then hopefully send them back to Tartarus in a clean and decisive manner like how I handled Medusa. I definitely did not want to endanger any of the bystanders if possible, unless Echidna allowed her fire breathing pet to go on a rampage, then that would be quite problematic.

Either way, I had thirty minutes to figure out if the monsters were here, defeat them, and make it back to the rendezvous point. If they really were here, then it wouldn't take long for me to locate them. Or should I say, it wouldn't take long for them to locate me.

Our previous encounter was her actively seeking me out and then isolating me on the observation deck. The end result was flew exploding cars flying out and me, with a poisoned calf, jumping into the lake. Yeah, it wasn't pretty.

If I remembered correctly, she claimed that she was sent by Zeus, so it was likely that she could be on the same mission. This did make things a bit easier for me. All I had to do was wander around aimlessly and hope that I would bump into a fat old lady with an ugly looking chihuahua. Seriously, it was mind boggling that a dog could look so hideous, I mean, weren't they supposed to be friendly and adorable?

So the question was, where should I head to now? Should I stay here and wait since my scent alone would act as a beacon to attract Echidna or should I also do some sightseeing myself? Knowing my ADHD, there was no way that I could wait patiently for who knows how long at the same place doing nothing, before getting taken over by my personal worst enemy: boredom. So I opted for the second option and began to walk around.

A part of me did wonder what Annabeth was doing right now. My guess was that she would be giving historical and architectural lectures to Grover while the latter would simply nod dismissively and occasionally let out a yawn.

A bitter smile involuntarily escaped as I thought about the daughter of Athena. We had been through so much together, yet in the end everything was for naught because I wasn't strong enough to protect her. Now, I was left with old memories with her and us in the previous timeline, but she possessed nothing of me or with me. I could only reminisce about the past alone, no longer able to share it with the person I once truly appreciated and loved. It did make me wonder, was it better for me to forget everything about her or preserve every little moment in my heart? The feeling of her not knowing anything about what we had gone through and me trying my hardest to hold onto them did tear me up a bit, but those memories were too beautiful and precious to let go. They served as a reminder for me that in order to recreate those moments, I would have to protect her and eliminate any threats before they had a chance to destroy our future.

"What is so funny dear?" A voice spoke up, drawing me out of my thoughts. Immediately, I slowly turned and saw the two figures that I wanted to see most. Standing before me was a familiar looking lady with a hungry looking chihuahua that looked as if he wanted to bite my head off. With the power of the Mist, Echidna appeared to be an extremely fat lady wearing a denim dress while Chimera looked like, well, a mean looking chihuahua to all mortals. Once you unravel the "myth", or in other words learn the true identity of the monster, then the Mist would lose its concealing effect. To me, all I saw was a face of a women with scaly skins like that of reptiles and a torso of a serpent.

Unfortunately even in this timeline, Echidna and her Chimera still chose to appear in St. Louis and were obviously not here to have an afternoon tea. Regaining my composure, "Ah it's nothing. By the way, nice chihuahua you got there."

At my comment, the Chimera glared murderously at me and let out a low growling sound. "Now, now sunny boy," Echidna cooed at her son, scratching his head gently. Surprisingly, that worked like magic, though it didn't stop him from giving me death glares. "You just have to wait for a little longer. I just have to talk to him for a bit."

"And what business do you have with me?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. "Do I even know you?"

"Oh no, where are my manners," the monster before me spoke up sweetly, studying me with those slitted reptilian eyes of her amusingly. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Echidna, the mother of all monsters, and this is my son, Chimera, not chihuahua." She frowned slightly at the last part before continuing, "He really doesn't appreciate it when people compare him to a weak and puny animal that you mortals keep as pets."

"Are you sure? He really looks like a chihuahua though," feigning my ignorance, I brought up the misconception again. At my statement, the Chimera growled dangerously at me in response.

Giving me a sigh and ignoring her son's displeased, she continued, "You should be careful with your words, young demi -"

"Yeah, I get that a lot, but carry on."

"Ahem, as I was saying, I was sent here by Lord of the Sky himself," she told me. "He didn't give me specific instructions, so I'm guessing I'm free to do whatever I want."

The growling sound began to increase, loud enough to rumble the hanging decorations on the walls. Glaring at me with wild eyes and panting with uneven breath, a noticeable pile of saliva could be found right where he was standing. Giving out a sigh of evaporation, she told her son, "Well, I'm done talking to him. You are free to do whatever you want now. Try not to make a mess, I don't want to be responsible for the clean up duty."

Try not to make a mess? Yeah… good luck telling your rabid and fire breathing son that. That was as if asking a baby not to cry - not going to happen. And since when did you care about cleaning up the aftermath?

Well, things were pretty much going as I expected with one exception. I didn't think she would straight up launch an assault in the midst of hundreds of mortals. But then again, the sheer amount of chaos and the possibility of having countless bystanders killed or traumatized were something that she never bothered. To them monsters, mortals were merely insects that didn't deserve to be breathing the same air and living in the same place as them. The superiority complex that they possessed were a driving factor for their ruthlessness when it came down to human lives.

As faint glows were emitting from the Chimera during his transformation, some onlookers were glancing in our direction curiously, and once he revealed his true form, a lion head, goat body, a blood-caked mane, and a ten - foot long diamondback snake-headed tail, those curious tourists began screaming their heads off, running away in fear. Even though the Mist was able to distort the reality, it wasn't able to obscure the entire truth. Humans, by nature, were a creative species, so with fragments of information that escaped the magic veil, they were able to piece together an image, an image that could reflect their very own worst nightmare. What I could guarantee was that they no longer see a fearsome chihuahua but something much worse and much more dangerous.

Biting back a curse when I saw some mortals freeze in fear at the site of the Chimera, I used the shortest amount of time and conjured blobs of water, using it as a temporary shield to bubble them in. The water itself was hardened and strengthened to the maximum, though it wouldn't be able to withstand any full on attacks, it would at least be strong enough to block off splash damage. That was completely fine, since their objective was me all along.

"RUN!" I yelled. Even without my reminder, everyone was already scattering around like chickens with their heads chopped off. The ones who were previously frozen in shock returned back to reality, but was now wondering why there was a layer of water around them. Seeing their confusion, I easily dismissed the bubble, allowing them to flee. Top priority now was to clear out the mortals, so I wouldn't have to split my attention later on to ensure their safety. Guess my plan of eliminating Echidna and Chimera discreetly was foiled.

Reaching into my pocket and fishing out Riptide, I uncapped the Celestial Bronze sword, positioning it in a defensive manner. Upon seeing my sword, Chimera flinched slightly when he realized that the substance was his weakness, but shook off the fear by roaring back at me.

Chimera was an extremely problematic monster to take on alone. As a mythical creature, he possessed great strength that could easily send me flying through walls with one swipe. Not only that, I had to look out for his flaming breath and that poisonous tail of his. Like I said, a formidable foe all around. To make matters worse, Echidna could always choose to join in the fight at any moment, striking me at the most unexpected time. This would be the first true test of my ability at accessing the flow of a battle, and a testament to all the trainings I had done thus far.

And so it began.

The monster opened its mouth and spewed out columns of fire in my direction, attempting to barbeque me before I could even launch a counter attack. "Did you just roast him?" Echidna muttered to herself when she realized that the spot I was standing was nothing more than a pile of molten rocks. "Tsk, I didn't think it would be so easy. Why did Zeus even bother -"

If she wasted even half a second more to finish that sentence, my sword would've pierced through her like it did to Medusa. The moment when I saw the Chimera opened his mouth, I already anticipated what was to come. If I were to play his game of only using long range attacks, then I would lose miserably since my water power was not as potent as his attacks. However, his large size, though intimidating, was also his weakness. My advantage here was my agility and my own other abilities.

Echidna was only sent here to test me under Zeus' order, but she had no idea what I was capable of. Now that I thought about it, if not for the lake near the arch, I would be dead by the poison. Wasn't this supposed to be a test? Or was that just an excuse for killing me, similar to what they did to Thalia? In hindsight, this was a calculated move, and I doubt he came up with it on his own. My guess was that Athena was probably the mastermind behind all this. If Echidna managed to kill me, then the Great Prophecy would be postponed, or in fact, never happen if no more children of the Big Three were found. Sure, Poseidon might get angry, but he would never know that Zeus was the one who sent Echidna as long as the latter swore on the Styx to never mention it. However, if I did manage to survive or against all odds defeat the monster, then not only would I be doing a favor for the Olympians by eliminating one of the most fearsome monster walking on this planet, but they would also be able to assess my true strength. The only downside was that they would have to appease me for attempted murder, but knowing how pompous the gods were, they either thought that I wouldn't dare question them or simply thought that the Echidna would kill me. Essentially speaking, this was killing two birds with one stone.

But if Zeus really wanted to kill me, then I would have to apologize in advance for desiring the impossibility.

I was already gone by the time the flame was in the proximity of burning me. Using the brightness of the flame as the perfect cover, I disappeared from their sights. The thought of flanking behind the Chimera and cutting off that troublesome snake-headed tail did cross my mind, but I decided against that plan and went after Echidna. Countless battles were won due to one side taking advantage of the element of surprise. By doing so, it forced your opponents to play reactively, and that was exactly what I was aiming for.

Unfortunately, Echidna was also an experienced fighter and was able to escape her death. That being said, it didn't mean that she dodged my strike completely as I noticed a long slash from her right shoulder to elbow.

"Oh? I see you're a cunning one." There was no longer any lingering sweetness or amusement in her voice. It was calm, serious, and next thing you know, she was ready to kill.

But so am I.

Ignoring her comment, I stepped into her guard and flicked my sword upwards directly at her chest. Narrowing her slitted eyes into almost a thin line, she slithered backwards while taking out a pair of hunting knives. Not going to lie, for someone with snake like features beneath the waist, she sure could move quite swiftly.

The benefit of taking the fight up close to Echidna was that this would ensure my safety against any long range area of effect attacks from the Chimera. The downside was that, she was a really skilled fighter. Even with the wound that my sword inflicted, she was still able to put up a decent defense, dodging and parrying my attacks. Nonetheless, I could feel the weakening in power behind her right arm, so as long as I drag out the fight, I would end up being victorious.

Again and again, I would twirl my blade in my hand and point the tip at her eyes, heart, throat, or stomach. And again and again, she would parry my strike and slither backwards. By my tenth attempt of killing her, I realized that we had walked in a full circle and we were back at where we had started. The Chimera only growled in frustration as he understood the risk of joining in the fight, so all he could do was watch anxiously, hoping that her mother would turn the tide around.

"For a demigod," Echidna said in between my attacks, and I noticed the unevenness in her breathing. "I'll give you props for fighting this well. You have exceeded my expectations."

I remained in silence, not wanting my attention to split up for a single second. Victory was in my grasp, so long as I kept up my pressure. But this was also when all things crumbled, where she saw an opportunity to strike.

"Percy!" A voice that resembled Annabeth screamed across the room. Taking a glance off to the side, I could see two figures running towards me. Dammit, what were they doing here instead of getting evacuated like others?

Knowing how desperate her current situation was, Echidna smirked at me and changed up her strategy, an effective strategy that I despised the most.

Instead of parrying my sword like she had been doing, she lunged backwards and threw her knives at me, forcing me to dodge to the side. It was at this moment where the Chimera launched forward, not at me, but at the duo that just arrived at the scene. At the same time, Echidna conjured a pair of throwing knives and hurled them at me with incredible speed and accuracy.

"ANNABETH WATCH OUT!" I screamed and charged at them, simultaneously deflecting the knives that were threw at me. The moment she saw that she missed her target, another pair of knives shimmered into existence and were on their way to pierce me. Again, I deflected them, but more came like those pesky little flies that wouldn't leave you alone.

When Annabeth realized what was coming, both Grover and her scattered and went the opposite directions. Since Grover was a bit slower at reacting, the impact behind the Chimera's landing consisted enough force to unbalance him, knocking him to his feet. As for Annabeth, it wasn't any better. Luckily, that dangerous tail of his didn't bite her, only swept her off of her feet. There was no way I could be at two places at once and to make things worse, Echidna was still firing her knives at me.

In this nick of time, I gathered enough power to summon a jet of water to push Grover out of harm's way, while sprinting towards Annabeth. It was also at this moment when I felt one of the throwing knives hit its mark, digging deep into my shoulder. I took a deep breath, trying to shake off the pain and continued making my way to Annabeth, who was attempting to get back up.

When the Chimera whirled around and spotted me, he growled loudly and opened his mouth. That moment, I knew there was only one thing I could do. I wasn't going to lose her anymore, and definitely not this early on. Reactively, I lunged at Annabeth, covered her with my body, and called upon a thick layer of water to shield us.

A sudden burst of pain and agony surged through my body as if I was tossed into the forge of Hephaestus. If not for my natural heat resistance that all sons of Poseidon carried along with the shield of water that I created, I was certain that I would designigrate on the spot.

"I think that's enough, son," Echidna spoke up with her sweet voice again and Chimera whimpered in response. "Percy Jackson, you're an interesting person. Good luck on your quest. I'm sure we will see each other soon." With a simple goodbye, both of them dissolved into the shadows and left the place.

"Yeah, no," I muttered under my breath. "I don't think I will want to see you ever again." Without me knowing, a sigh of relief escaped when I realized aside from a traumatized look, Annabeth was unharmed among the chaos when I unwrapped myself from her.

For the longest time, she only stared at me and when she finally opened up her mouth, the only thing she asked was, "Why?"

I gave her a playful smile and responded in the smoothest way. "Because you're my friend, stupid."

Apparently, my remark was able to fully restore her back to her previous self. "I see," she nodded appreciatively. "But you know Seaweed Brain, you're pretty dumb and reckless for sacrificing yourself like this." Even though she was teasing me, I could see a small smile forming at the edge of her lips.

"Yeah, my bad," I raised both of my hands and winced when I felt my movement ripped the already blistered skin open. "I guess I should've let the Chimera barbeque you."

Noticing my change in facial expression, she frowned and looked at my back. "We gotta get you treated. Maybe Grover knows some woodland magic that can help? Let me go get him."

"No need," I told her. "I'll go for a swim in that lake later then I'll be as good as new." Confused by my statement, I gave her a reassuring smile before continuing. "Speaking of which, where is Grover?"

The blast of my water shouldn't be strong enough to send him flying out of the place, so he should be somewhere closeby.

"Hey guys, there's a small problem over here," as if on cue, Grover called out to us from the hallway. Just when in Hades did he make it over there?

With Annabeth's help, I limped over to the waiting satyr who initially gave me a thumbs up, but after seeing the condition I was in, his expression became that of worried and self loathing. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I told him. "Listen, don't blame yourself alright? Tell us what the problem is?"

Behind him, a girl around our age appeared, and I nearly fainted when I realized who that was. It was the same familiar looking frizzy red hair, freckled face, and green eyes. Even though she appeared to be younger than the first time we met in the other timeline, there was no mistake that it was her. I mean, name someone you know that liked to wear oversized t-shirts with holes in her jeans and different colors of paint marks all over her attire and face.

This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to meet her in two more years, but then again, I shouldn't be surprised by this. Things were already changing around me, so naturally, the timeline being shifted forward was within the realm of possibilities.

"Hi," the girl in front of us waved shyly and I braced myself for what was coming next. "My name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Can you explain to me what that scary looking giant lion with goat body and snake as a tail was doing here?"