Percy Jackson

After eight hours of driving, the city of Savannah came into view through the windshield. Percy was exhausted while Annabeth was asleep in the seat next to him.

So far, the drive had been pretty uneventful, save for a hellhound that decided to attack Percy while he was getting gas. Annabeth had patched up his arm after the hellhound got a lucky hit in with its claws.

Other than that small incident, the drive had been pretty easy. Percy knew better though, it wouldn't stay that way for long. He learned that on his first quest, nothing ever stayed calm, eventually he'd find himself either running or fighting for his life.

It was dark by the time Percy arrived to Savannah. He tried his best to not stop in a city, cities always led to fights. One look at the dashboard however, made it clear to him that he didn't have a choice. The meter for fuel was running dangerously low, there was no way they would make it to Florida, forget the Everglades.

A light drizzle of rain had started to come down. Percy had no problem with driving in the rain but at the same time, he knew it wouldn't be easy if it started storming. With Zeus's attitude, that was a pretty high chance.

Percy looked in the back of their SUV. They had their bags of supplies back there but they were running low on food. Athena had misjudged how much they would need, which kind of surprised Percy, she always carried herself so confidently that it almost felt illegal for her to make a mistake.

Annabeth turned in her sleep. Percy watched her carefully, she'd been having some vivid dreams since she fell asleep. He had to wake her up once because she started screaming his name like he was getting murdered in front of her very eyes. She seemed okay now but she had been twisting and turning in her sleep for the past few hours.

A loud rumbled in the distance caused Percy to nearly stop. He looked through the wet windshield to see storm cloud hovering exactly where he was headed. A storm was bad news, trying to explore swamplands during a storm sounded like suicide, especially with that monster that Athena mentioned roaming around there.

Another rumble made Percy curse. He looked at the passing buildings for any places to stop. The streets were empty, far emptier than the bustling streets of New York.

Annabeth stirred next to him, her eyes slowly opening as she looked around. She stretched her arms and yawned, "Where are we?"

"Georgia." Percy said, keeping his eyes on the road, "We have to stop here though. We barely have any gas and food left. Plus, there's a storm in our way so we'll have to wait."

"Alright, we should probably find a gas station first. I mean, if we need to run and we don't have any gas, we'll never get far." Annabeth said, "The last thing we need is to get caught by something worse than a hellhound."

The green and white lights of a gas station came into view. Percy noted the inside was dark, which meant the place was probably closed. There weren't any cars either, not that he expected any. It was late at night, he'd be surprised if he saw anyone at all.

"Be careful out there, I'll be watching." Annabeth said as Percy put the car in park.

Percy nodded, "Okay." He got out of the car and looked around. No monsters in sight.

The smell of wet concrete and asphalt filled Percy's nostrils. He took out a couple ten dollar bills and put them in the gas pump before starting to refuel the SUV. The smell of gasoline started to overpower the rain smell but Percy wasn't focused on smell, he was more focused on what he was currently hearing.

A light hissing sound was coming from somewhere around Percy but he wasn't sure where. He knew it wasn't the gas pump, something else was making that hissing noise. It sounded a lot like a snake, which meant only one thing. A dracaenae had to be nearby. He reached into his pocket just in case.

The pump clicked and cut off. Percy put the pump back into place and got ready to leave. He collected his change and was about to walk back to the driver's side when he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye.

A spear tip came flying from his left, barely missing him. Percy jumped back and drew Riptide and struck at his attacker. The sound of Riptide clashing against metal and the force of his strike being blocked sent vibrations up Percy's arm.

Percy glanced at the spear's owner. A dracaenae with brown and red scaly skin was staring him down. Her forked tongue shot in and out of her mouth. Her armor looked quite old, scratches and dents were all over. There was a puncture in the shoulder plate, possibly due to a Apollo camper's arrow. Her spear though, looked brand new, the bronze was shiny and showed no signs of use except for now.

"Percy, look out!" Annabeth's voice yelled from behind him.

Percy looked over his shoulder just in time to see a small hellhound, about the size of a wolf, charging straight at him. His heart leapt into his throat, he hadn't known there was a hellhound around.

He broke the deadlock between his sword and Dracaenae's spear. He rolled away just as the hellhound pounced, missing him and catching the dracaenae. Percy watched as the hellhound realized who it attacked and let go.

Annabeth stood next to him, her Drakon bone sword drawn, "You take the hellhound, I got the dracaenae."

Percy nodded and charged at the hellhound. He didn't bother even trying to be careful, all it took was one good hit from Riptide and that thing was as good as dead. The hellhound charged at him as well, bounding with its four paws slamming the concrete below them. The hellhound's pointy canines and sharp teeth seemed to be begging to have something to bite on.

Percy swung his sword and watched with satisfaction as the bronze blade connected with the hellhound's jaw. With a yelp, the hellhound turned to dust. The yellow dust was quickly washed away due to the rain.

He looked over when he heard Annabeth grunt, only for his eyes to widen at the scene. Both Annabeth and the dracaenae were on the ground but the demigoddess had the upper hand. She had her legs wrapped around the dracaenae's neck area. The dracaenae's spear was on the ground a few feet away from them.

With a snap, the dracaenae went limp and started to dissolve. Annabeth stood up, her clothes wet but showing no damage. She dusted herself off and smiled at Percy.

He stared at her with a gaping jaw, "Did you just snap that thing's neck with your legs?"

"Yep." Annabeth said, "Learned a few leg submission moves back at camp, you'd be surprised by how many ways there are."

Percy stared at her long muscular legs, he had no idea Annabeth had that type of power. Sure, she didn't have the awe-inspiring power that he had or the terrifying powers like Nico, but Annabeth didn't need those powers. She was frightening enough on her own.

Then there was the fact that he had been between those legs so many times before. He lost count of how many times his head was trapped between those legs, now he realized how much power he was giving Annabeth in that position.

"Let's get going." Annabeth said.

Percy watched as she walked to the passenger side of the SUV, the entire time he was still staring at her in awe.

Ω

Percy sat on the bed in the hotel room, watching the TV in front of him while the sound of a shower ran in the background. He wasn't really focused on the TV, rather more about the quest itself.

The weather had gotten worse since he and Annabeth had found a hotel, far worse. Thunder was starting to sound more like artillery than thunder. The rain had gotten so bad that Percy wouldn't be able to drive normally, it was just too dangerous.

The hotel room they had found was actually pretty decent. After most mist manipulation by Annabeth, they managed to get a really good room. Sure, they had a single bed but that wasn't a problem for Percy and Annabeth. Sleeping together wasn't exactly new to them.

The door to the bathroom opened as Annabeth walked out, her blonde hair wet and flowing down her shoulders. She wore a pair of black athletic shorts and a blue tank top. Apparently, Annabeth had packed for comfort as well as practicality, something Percy wished he had done.

"Well, we should be in Florida tomorrow." Annabeth said as she walked over to the bed and laid down next to him.

Percy looked over at her, "Yeah, but that's if this storm lets up. We can't go through the swamp if it's raining like this."

"Right." Annabeth said as she nonchalantly took the remote from Percy and changed the channel.

"You know, this whole Artemis and her bow thing might work out for us after all." Percy said, "I mean, we're not doing it so you won't get pregnant, but I think it can still help us out."

Annabeth looked over at him, "Yeah, it would mark one item off our list."

"No, I mean if we get her bow back, maybe the Hunters will help us out and find some other items."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "The Hunters would definitely speed things up. I wonder what they're up to."

"Probably just killing monsters. You know them, they don't really care about what's happening on Olympus unless the world is about to end and even then, they're probably weakened or something since Artemis is gone." Percy said.

"I don't know about that. The Hunters are pretty independent. I'm sure they know what's going on and they're probably just trying their best." Annabeth replied.

Percy thought about it. Annabeth knew more about the Hunters than he did.

"Thalia is pretty perceptive." Annabeth said, "Even if no one told them something was wrong, she'd figure it out."

"Yeah, well, they definitely know because Jason told them a while back to not come to camp."

"Speaking of Jason, has he told you anything new?" Annabeth asked.

"No, besides a missed call but when I called back, he didn't answer." Percy said.

Annabeth tilted her head, "When did he call?"

Percy felt his face heat up, "Um, when we were…fucking."

Annabeth's face reddened.

Percy remembered the incident. Jason had called them the night Annabeth was riding him in the back of the SUV, but he had turned his phone off. Percy turned his phone on during a break and saw the missed call. He tried calling back, but no one answered.

"Well, I hope he's alright." Annabeth said sheepishly.

"Yeah, same."

Percy hoped that the call from Jason wasn't some call for help because the last thing Percy heard from the son of Jupiter was that he had found Hermes's caduceus. If he got caught trying to return it to Olympus, Hektor might've had him jailed or worse.

"We should get some sleep, it'll take almost everything we got when we get to the swamp." Annabeth said, climbing under the covers and turning on her side.

Percy got up and switched off the lights before climbing into bed with Annabeth. He looked over and smiled at Annabeth's sleeping form.

Percy wasn't going to lie, he thought everything was over when he had been pushed out of camp. He knew heroes didn't get happy endings and he thought that saying had finally come true. Yet now he was back with Annabeth. It sounded corny but Annabeth made everything he was going through much easier.

He turned on his side and wrapped a arm around Annabeth and pulled her close as he fell asleep, he had a feeling he'd need plenty of sleep for what was coming.

A/N: Thanks for the awesome review!