I don't own PJO or A:TLA

Chapter 19

After the gang fled Mount. Atzel, they flew for a couple hours on Appa. Unfortunately it got dark and they had to land to set up camp before they truly felt far enough away.

Aang flew them all to a large grassy ledge on the side of a mountain, on one side they were covered by boulders and rocks and on the other side, a small cluster of trees. There was a small tinkling waterfall that reminded Percy of the naiads back home.

Once they landed, Percy directed Toph to earth bend a large fire pit. Zuko and Sokka filled it with as much dry wood as they could find and Zuko started up the flames. The pit crackled and snapped dangerously. The already warm summer night filled with the smell of smoke.

Percy's stomach clenched as he watched the bonfire climb higher and higher into the twilight.

It reminded him of the camp fire back home but also, he was nervous for what was about to happen because there seemed to be no logic surrounding the rest of this quest.

A few dryads had woken up and were peering shyly from behind the trucks of their trees but they didn't approach. A few of them gave Momo some fruit when he ventured near enough, though. Showing their peace.

Percy rubbed his hands together and finally told Zuko and Sokka that the fire was big enough. He hoped this would work.

"You sure this is going to work?" Sokka voiced his concerns out loud, coming to stand next to Percy. He had tried to explain what needed to be done but everyone seemed as doubtful as he felt.

"It has to."

Sokka shrugged. "Alright... it's your call."

The young Water Tribe warrior went to stand next to his sister. Katara was standing slightly off to the side of the fire. The flames made odd shadows on her face and her eyes stared with more intensity than Percy had seen in her yet, her fingers mindlessly touching the necklace around her neck.

She was pretty, Percy realized. He also saw Aang sneaking looks at her through the flames. His eyes were huge and grey and intense, but also kind. He hoped his crush on Annabeth hadn't been so obvious.

"You ready to go, Sea Legs?" Toph yelled. "We don't have all night."

"Yeah, yeah. Gimme a minute." He snapped back. Toph wasn't exactly the easiest person to get along with. Percy was from New York though, rude, arrogant, in-your-face people were his people.

Standing before the flames, Percy raised his two hands and held the pieces of the broken jewel. The fire burned his face it was so hot and close. He tried not to notice the whole dynamic of the group shift.

Everyone went from vaguely doubtful to on-edge in a couple seconds.

Katara muttered something to Sokka about Percy's eyes. That they looked strange.

"Hephaestus!" Percy yelled, trying to make his voice as deep and commanding as he could. "We thank you for protecting us in the volcano and blessing our quest. We offer this jewel as a sacrifice."

Then, he threw the two pieces down. They shattered at the bottom of the pit, echoing the breaking glass sound that they had heard at the wall.

The flames turned purple and roared towards the sky and everyone jumped back, feeling the heightened heat burning their bodies.

The ground rumbled and everyone except Percy, Toph and Aang was thrown down.

"Did he take it?" Aang asked breathlessly. He hadn't felt that much spiritual power since the last time he had been in the Spirit World.

The flames died down and went back to their normal colour. The jewel was gone from the bottom of the pit.

"Yeah... he took it. Great job, guys." Percy confirmed. His shoulders slumped and he let the relief that his plan worked flood his body. "We'll call Annabeth tomorrow and give her the update."

They all nodded at him. "Let's get some sleep, guys." Sokka said, he peered into the pit to get a look for himself. "We've still got a long way to go."

The next morning, Katara woke everyone up and made breakfast. It was the warm mush again and made sure to leave the fish out of Percy's this time

Even though she was only fourteen years old, she was so mature and motherly. She just took care of everyone. Percy wondered vaguely what happened when she needed someone to take care of her, who did that?

He didn't have time to worry about that though, he had to get ready for the IM.

Feeling light and happy, Percy couldn't help but whistle an old camp song "I Am My Own Great-Great-Great-Great Grandpa" as he worked. He missed Annabeth. They didn't really spend a lot of time away from each other now that they were dating. They would IM, plan to be at Camp the same weekends or visit each other. After Percy got his drivers license he bought a small, cheap car so that he could drive to her whenever he wanted to (and whenever his mom was okay with it). They just kind of rotated around each other.

At this moment, he was trying to earth bend a small water fountain like the one back in his cabin. It was proving more difficult than he thought.

While Toph and Aang could earth bend delicate designs or move rocks or make them dance, Percy only seems good at making small scale earthquakes or explosions. He blamed his dad for being named 'earthshaker'.

"Hey Toph," He asked finally, he hated asking her for help because she was so cocky all the time, but he didn't want her to make fun him for making the earth throw him off his feet every time he tried. "Think you could help me? There's some water underground here and I want to make a fountain kind of, so the water can be on the top of the pedestal."

She grinned to show her superiority. "I knew you'd ask for my help. I can't help being the best at everything."

Percy rolled his eyes but said said. "Thanks! It'll be easier to IM this way."

"Yeah yeah.. just don't roll your eyes at me anymore."

"Aren't you blind?" Percy blurted then immediately bit his lip. That would be his ADHD making him blurt stuff like that.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't see. I see with my feet, through the earth. I feel the vibrations."

"Oh, wow. No wonder you're so good at earth bending." Percy said earnestly, understanding now why she was so defensive about being the best.

"Hey," Toph said. "This Annabeth... What's she really like?"

Percy looked confused. "Why do you want to know?"

Toph shrugged. "You're heart is beating really fast. You seem excited to see her. She's just a girl."

"Just a girl?" Percy shook his head. "She's... I can't even explain her."

He looked at Toph glassy eyes under her hair.

"You know, she's kind of like you."

He wasn't even lying. They had this hardness to them, from living on the streets, to fighting for what they needed to survive, for being smart and figuring how to do stuff that people said they couldn't do because of their disabilities. It was beautiful in a kind of way.

"Well, I've been told I'm kind of hard to like."

"Really?" Percy said sarcastically, wrinkling his nose at her. "I can't imagine why."

Toph laughed and wrinkled her nose back.

Across the camp, Katara smiled at them. It made her feel good that Toph was leaning into a good influence like Percy. She needed a lot of good influence. Katara worried that running around the world as outlaws wasn't the best thing for her wild-child mentality.

Sokka slumped past mumbling to himself.

"Sokka, are you okay?" Katara asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said defensively and then sniffed.

"Are you crying?"

"No! I just... I just miss Suki, okay?"

"Aww," Aang flew over and landed next to Sokka, flinging an arm around his shoulders. "It's okay, buddy! She'll be back soon."

"Yeah... I guess. It's just-"

"Incoming!" Toph yelled. "There's a whole-"

She was cut off by a shout off to the side through the small thicket of tree.

"ATTACK! Fire at will!"

A small legion of Fire Nation troops burst through the trees and started attacking left and right.

Appa roared reared up on his two hind legs, terrified of the fire.

Using earth bending, Aang leapt up into the air and landed in front of Appa where Zuko was already trying to calm the beast down.

"What's the plan, Avatar?" Zuko asked. "Fight or run?"

Aang watched Katara use water bending to grab the ankles of a fire bender and flip him upside down and the slam him into three other soldiers.

"We could take them, but I don't want them carrying stories around... I think we should run... again."

"Your call." Zuko said. "You have to calm Appa down! He's freaking out!"

Aang was just turning to Appa when he heard a small scream escaped Katara's lips. He and Sokka both turned and started running blindly towards her to protect her.

She didn't need them though. There was a large burn on her upper arm, her Fire Nation summer clothes doing little to protect her skin from the flames. But she was still fighting furiously, holding nothing back.

Aang used earth bending to knock four guys away from her and Sokka's boomerang knocked the other one out-cold.

Slapping a water encased hand on her arm, Katara started healing herself, taking a step back and glaring at the remaining soldiers.

Everyone else was doing really well. Percy was fighting with his bare hands since his sword wouldn't hurt the fire benders. He was in a fist fight with a huge guy with a flame tattoo on his neck. Zuko was doing his best to calm Appa down, who was still freaking out and endangering everyone by sanding up and slamming all of his legs down, causing a huge wind storm.

"We have to get out of here!" Zuko yelled, but nobody was listening. "Oh, forget it."

Zuko abandoned Appa and ran towards Percy, who watch the neck tattoo guy crumble under his final blow.

Zuko grabbed Percy's shirt from behind and quickly ducked the fist he threw at him. "We have to retreat!" Zuko yelled. "Get everyone to Appa."

"Oh, yeah. Right." Percy sprinted towards a large boulder that Toph hadn't destroyed yet and cupped his hands to his mouth.

"RETREAT!" He yelled. "EVERYONE, FALL BACK TO APPA."

The whole gang responded to Percy and started running towards Appa.

Katara and Zuko calmed him down well enough for everyone to scramble on.

Everyone except for Aang.

He swept his staff around and blasted all the Fire Nation soldiers off their feet and then used earth bending to launch them further away into the woods.

Then he opened up his glider and followed Appa as he took off.

Percy was gasping for air. "Friends of yours?" He asked Zuko, massaging his bruised and bloody knuckles.

"They might have followed us from Mount. Atzel." Zuko said.

"Or they just stumbled on our camp..." Aang added. "We are in the Fire Nation and we used to walk into enemy camps all the time."

Sokka nodded. "They did seem kind of disorganized. Hey, maybe the Fire Lord is getting sick and his whole kingdom is falling apart. Save you a job, hey, Aang? No offense Zuko."

Zuko scoffed. "None taken."

Aang looked pained but nobody caught it except Percy, who didn't say anything.

"Well, either way, it was fun." Toph said, stretched out and resting her feet on the top of the saddle.

"Has the definition of 'fun' changed in the last hundred years?" Aang smiled. "But we do still need to contact Annabeth. We have no idea where we're going... I wish I could ask Ruko."

Percy nodded. "We just need a rainbow..."

"I got it." Katara pulled water out of the air and then masterfully turned it into mist. The bright sunlight shone through and made the droplets sparkle like tiny diamonds, making a perfect rainbow.

"I don't get it." Toph complained. "Why couldn't you have done that when we were captured by Sparky Sparky Boom-Man instead of just sweating all over the place?"

"I learned this technique after that happened. And, what's with this 'we' stuff? I seem to remember me busting us out while you just sat there."

Toph shrugged. "Your idea also got us captured, Sugar Queen..."

"I'm sorry." Percy interrupted, laughing. "Sparky Sparky Boom-Man?"

"That guy was a very expensive, very prestigious hitman. I don't know why you had to give him such a ridiculous name."

"I don't know why you had to hire a hitman." Katara shot back.

Zuko opened his mouth and the closed it again, nodding. "That's fair."

Percy pulled a gold coin out of his pocket while everyone was talking. "Zuko, I'm not really sure what's going on, but it's not very nice to hire a hitman for your friends. I'm gunna call Annabeth now."

He threw the coin into the mist and did his chant while everyone watched with interest. This magic was still new to them.

The mist swirled for a long time, while Percy muttered encouragement under his breath.

Finally, shapes started to take place. This time, instead of a dimly lit room with a piles of papers and tired eyes, Annabeth was standing in a field, patches of late spring snow scattered the open grassy plane.

There were dummies dressed up in Greek armor and looked beat up. Annabeth had a heavy sword in her hands, hacking away at one of them. Her usual knife hung at her hip.

Percy's heart skipped a beat, or maybe three when he saw her. She was familiar.

"Hey Wise Girl."

"Hey." She hardly looked surprised as she stopped mauling the dummy. She blew a strand of golden hair out her eye and stuck the blade in the ground far enough that it stayed there. Her red mouth broke into the warmest smile when she locked eyes with Percy.

They always did that. Look at each other like there was nobody else in the world. Like looking at each other was a lifeline holding them to the surface of the earth. It was so automatic and easy.

Percy's hands twitched and reached out to her before he remembered that she wasn't actually there. That she was worlds away.

"Hey." She said again. "I've been waiting to call until we had good news." She nodded her blonde head at the rest of group, but didn't smile. It was more like how Azula looked at people. Analyzing.

"Well, that's discouraging." Percy said. "No news?"

"There's news. It's just not really good or bad. We got a quest issued... Nico's leading."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah... I asked him to take my brother, Malcolm. And that big kid from the Hephaestus cabin."

"All the kids from the Hephaestus cabin are big." Percy reminded her.

"How are things on your end."

"Good." Percy looked around for someone to explain before he remembered that this was his quest and he had to explain. "We went to the volcano and fixed physical wall over on this side. Hephaestus helped us."

"Really?" Annabeth's eyes brightened. "That was fast."

"And we got attacked by monsters." Toph said. "It wasn't as bad as you made it out to be."

"Monsters? Again?"

"Yeah... they're getting stronger... Has... has anyone found people from this world over there?"

Annabeth shook her head. "We've got feelers all over but nothing has turned up. We even convinced Hermes to help keep an eye out."

"Okay... good." Percy thought about Azula and was glad things didn't seem to move around both ways.

He learned about this in biology. A semi-permeable membrane? Osmosis? Something like that...

"Do you happened to know where we can find the spiritual wall?" Aang broke in. He was tired of watching Annabeth and Percy talk like that. Talk like this wasn't a huge disaster over another huge disaster.

Annabeth shook her head again. "Sorry... my resources are limited. The volcano was the only thing I had and even that was just a guess."

"Oh... okay... thanks anyways." Aang face fell and he took a step back.

The IM buzzed and went out of focus.

"AAAAAAANNNAAAAAABEEEEEEEEETH!" Somebody yelled behind her.

It sounded like they were talking under water. It was all blocked and muted.

"I'd better go see what he wants."

"'ll try to call again when we know more."

"Bye Seaweed Brain."

"Bye Wise Girl."

The connection broke off and Percy sighed heavily. He threw an arm comfortingly around Aang.

"Don't worry. She's smart. She'll find something for us."

Aang half smiled. "Yeah... Or we'll find some huge knowledge base here and figure it out ourselves."

Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews on my last chapter. I really appreciate it :)

I feel like I need a cool sign off phrase. It feels lame to just say 'bye'

Please leave all your suggestions in the review box and I'll pick one. Haha.

I also wish I had a cooler username on here. Don't be surprised if it changes soon :P