Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Seventeen

We Act Like Tourists

When we finally got back on land, we were all pretty glad. Four and a half hours sitting in a cramped little lifeboat wasn't my favorite way to pass the time, I'll tell you that much. It was better than being chased by monsters though. We all had to take a few minutes just to stretch before we could start on our way.

We went to the bus station and bought the tickets for tomorrow before finding a modest motel to stay in for the night. Annabeth had picked up a map at the station and Grover and Andee were pouring over it, figuring out where the temples we would be seeing were, as they were the only ones of us who could read both English and Greek, and were the most knowledgeable in Greek mythology (even though Annabeth strongly disagreed with me on that one).

We all freshened up a bit and had something to eat and drink before heading out to our first destination – the Temple of Athena. It was a long walk – something we were all definitely accustomed to – until we saw the crowds of tourists flocking to it.

Andee had her camera out the whole time and was taking more pictures, apparently feeling the whole tourist 'vibe'.

"How come your batteries haven't died?" I asked as we slowly walked up the stairs, stuck behind a particularly slow tourist group. She just looked at me, smiled and then poked my arm, sending a small electric jolt through me. That made sense. "That hurt, you know." I rubbed the spot to emphasize.

"Poor baby," she said, standing on her toes and pressing her lips to mine. "Better now?"

"Much," I said, which made her grin. "You know, I'm a little disappointed we didn't get more time on the ferry."

"Mmm, the ferry was good," Andee agreed. "Don't worry – we'll have plenty of time for all of that once we get back to the motel, and Camp after that." She winked at me. We finally got to the top and saw the ruins that had probably once been an elaborate temple for the goddess of wisdom. Annabeth started telling us all sorts of facts about it, a bright smile on her face and her eyes lit up like the New York skyline. As bored as the rest of us were, we tried to pay attention because we knew things like this were her passion.

Andee was running all over the place, snapping pictures at different angles before getting us all to stand in front of it at different turns so she could get pictures.

"Annie, we should go inside," Andee whispered, so the other tourists wouldn't hear.

"That's not allowed, Andee! It's a fragile artifact –"

"That was built in honor of your mom, so I think are fully within our rights to get a closer look," Andee argued and Annabeth sighed, but you could tell she was excited. "Get out your hat." Andee pulled out her Yankees baseball cap before Andee turned to us. "Stay here, we'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Annabeth put on the hat and grabbed Andee, making her invisible as well. Grover and I dutifully waited behind, looking more at the temple as we awaited the return of the girls.

"You and Andee are really good together," Grover said casually.

"Man," I said smiling as I thought about her. "I think I'm in love with her."

"I know you're in love with her," Grover said. "You know, it's weird – I can read everyone's emotions except for hers."

"What?" I asked, this being the first I'd heard of this.

"I don't know why, her mind is blocked off really well. I bet if we knew someone who could read minds, they still wouldn't be able to read hers," Grover sad and I couldn't help but wonder why. I mean, I had literally been in her mind and so had that shadow thing…so why couldn't anyone else?

Annabeth appeared in front of us, but Andee was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Andee?" Grover asked.

"She apparently liked being invisible so she's dancing around or something stupid like that," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. Suddenly I was tackled from behind and I was about to attack whatever it was when I heard Andee's tinkling laugh. I reached out and felt for her until I got the hat off and she was rolling on the ground, laughing hysterically. "And this is why Andee doesn't get to use my invisibility hat."

"That's probably a good idea," I said, looking at my girlfriend laughing like a hyena on the ground.

Once Andee had somewhat calmed down, she explained the Temple of Poseidon would take a while to get to because it was outside of Athens in Sounion. We started walking again and by the time we got there, the sun was starting to set. The few tourists left were leaving the ruins on the top of the cliff.

Annabeth started listing off facts about this temple too as Andee took pictures of everything, including all of us again. "Go up and see it, we'll keep guard," Andee whispered and I nodded before going into the ruins. At the far side, it looked like the ocean was right beside me.

Dad, I thought when I got to a spot where I guessed a statue of him would have been, please help us with this quest. I know you're not supposed to directly intervene or anything, but we need help. If the world gets taken over by the Titans, I don't know what's going to happen and I need everyone to be okay, including you. Please, please help us.

I had no idea if my prayer would work or if my dad would even hear it, but it was worth a try either way. "Andee!" I called and she looked over. "Come here!"

She handed her camera to Annabeth before jogging up to me, stopping and placing her hands on her hips. "What's up, Percy, m'dear?"

"I just really wanted to do this," I said, pulling her into a kiss and wrapping my arms tightly around her. She snaked her arms around my neck and kissed me back, a small smile on her face. "You are so incredibly beautiful," I whispered to her, making her smile even more and blush.

"You're not too bad yourself, Percy. And by that I mean, you are gorgeous," she said, her arms still around my neck. "Lord Poseidon, you made a beautiful son! Good job and thank you for blessing me with him!" She called out, making me laugh. She pulled me in close until our foreheads were touching. "I didn't think I'd ever feel like this about someone."

"Me neither," I told her and she leaned her head against my chest. We stayed like that for a while, before eventually leaving and heading back to the motel, which was an even longer than before but no one seemed to complain. We spent the whole time talking and laughing as Andee laced her fingers with mine, swinging our joined hands the whole time.

"What happened the other years you guys have been at camp? I feel like I'm so out of the loop," Andee said. Annabeth, Grover and I exchanged glances before launching into our heroic tales of everything that had happened, starting with finding out that I was a demigod. She listened intently as we all took turns telling her what happened. "That must've been so fun!"

"Oh yes, getting attacked every day, having to go to the Underworld and other creepy places and deal with some demanding gods was so much fun," Grover said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at her.

"You're just a pessimist," Andee said. "You just have to see things in a good light. Like the quest we're on right now, most people would see it as horrific and terrifying, but we've been having a pretty good time, have we not?"

"Multiple monsters have tried to kill us – you were almost eaten by a sea monster. That's not really fun in my books," Grover said.

"First off – the monster technically did eat me, it got a lot of skin and muscle from my ankle. That was definitely unpleasant. But think about it this way – we got to go to a sweet nightclub, we're literally in Greece where all of our lives truly started, we've seen wonderful monuments, got closer with each other, and we're all going to save the world! That sounds like a really good time to me," Andee said. I had to agree with her. I really did like going on quests – sometimes it was awful and miserable, but it was exciting and full of new things. And I got to spend all this time with her, which seemed to be paying off in the relationship department.

We got back to the motel around midnight, and everyone was wasted. Everyone got ready for bed quickly, taking showers and getting into pajamas before looking at the room to try to figure out sleeping arrangements. We had two beds and a sofa bed to sleep on.

It was finally decided that Annabeth and Andee would sleep in one bed, me in the other, and Grover would take the couch/bed. I noticed Andee was wearing my shirt and when she saw me looking, she smirked, giving me a look that clearly said she wasn't going to give it back to me.

"You do know I'm going to need that back at some point," I told her, wrapping my arms around her.

"No you don't," she said in a sing-song voice, kissing me lightly on the lips. "Goodnight, Ducky."

"Ducky?" I asked and she grinned before I kissed her back. "'Night, Sunshine." She climbed into the bed with Annabeth as I got into my own and we all fell asleep.

I was standing in front of the same golden coffin, and I felt like rolling my eyes. I didn't feel like dealing with this again. I should've just taken out Riptide and stabbed Kronos, who was in the process of taking over Luke's body. I had a feeling it wouldn't help, and not just because it was a nightmare.

The little hero, Kronos mused, the eyes of Luke's body still closed, You have been misled. An invisible forced pulled me forward. Help me rise, boy. Bring me the girl and hit the gods with a devastating blow!

I shook my head. A voice started asking me to wake up, telling me to wake up.

"Percy!" I looked beside me to see Andee crouched beside my bed. Her hair was a bit messy and she looked extremely concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," I told her, trying to get my breathing under control. "I'm fine."

"You look like –" she stopped, inspecting me closer for a moment. She stood up and sat on the edge of her bed, leaning back on her hands and closing her eyes. "I haven't been completely honest with you about my nightmares."

"Oh?"

"Only because…well, it's not something I really like to talk about and I thought he might be appearing to you too, but I wasn't sure, and now I'm almost one hundred percent certain that he is," Andee said hurriedly, sounding a touch crazed.

"Andee, you're not making a lot of sense," I said and Annabeth stirred in her sleep, making a bit of a moaning noise. Andee pointed to the door and stood up, creeping over and out. I followed behind her.

"The Lord of the Titans is trying to invade my mind," Andee said once we were in the hallway, letting herself slide down the wall to sit down. Unfortunately that was exactly what I had been fearing.

"How do you know for sure?" I asked. If there was any doubt at all, we need to grasp that.

She held up her necklace, the jewel now mottled with green spots. "My dad gave me this a long time ago to show the state of my mind and soul. It used to be pure white. It'll turn fully green soon, I'm sure."

"What does he even want with you?"

Andee just shrugged. "I wish I knew. It really doesn't make sense to me."

"So that's what giving you the migraines?"

She nodded. "It's because of the fight to keep control. My inner part of me – my soul, I guess – is fighting to keep me in control while he also fights to get me. It's not a pleasant experience."

"I got that." Seeing her crying and moaning like that, not able to stand the dark or any noise was horrible. Not something I'd like to see repeated any time soon, but I was pretty sure it would happen a lot sooner than I wanted. "But why is he trying to invade your mind when he's already taking over somebody else's body to use?"

She frowned. "I didn't know that…like I said, I don't understand it, but it's going to happen eventually. When I make eye contact, apparently. Lee's already foreseen it happening, but the circumstances keep fluctuating."

"Aren't you scared?"

"I'm terrified," she said, leaning her head on my shoulder and hugging my arm to her. "I should be the only one in control of me. No one else should be able to do that. But I know it's going to happen, and I just have to keep trying to change what's already been foreseen, as impossible as it seems. It's really hard, you know?"

"I do, unfortunately," I said, thinking of the Prophecy about myself, and how even though I had found two other people it could have been about, they were both exempt. Thalia, daughter of Zeus, became a Hunter when she was fifteen. Nico was only thirteen, and the war was coming soon. There was no way it would wait another four years. I was the only person it could be about as far as I knew, and I only had a vague idea of what it even predicted.

"I hate being a demigod some days," Andee sighed. I wrapped my arm around her and have her a one-armed hug. "Wanna go back to bed?"

"It'd probably be a good idea – we've got an early start tomorrow," I said and she nodded, forcing herself to her feet. She took my hand and pulled me up, leading the way back into the room.

Instead of going back to the bed with Annabeth, she climbed in with me, wrapping an arm around my torso. "I'll protect you if you protect me, sound good?"

"Sounds great." I couldn't stop smiling as I kissed her lightly on the top of the head before closing my eyes and trying to sleep.