A/N: Phew. What a week (well, two weeks, actually, but who's counting?). My apologies for the delayed update. Homework, as usual. I should actually be doing my homework right now, but I needed to put this up first. See? I do care about you. Chapter three is especially long- almost, if not as long as the first two chapters combined. (Still feels rushed, to me at least.) Mostly fluff, but I wanted to give the story a bit more substance than only Percy's predicament, because eventually you're going to wish for a break from the constant torture (how cheery). And, yes, it's from Grover's POV. Most of the story will be Percy, but other characters will make the occasional appearance. Enjoy!

Double Cross

III Grover

December 14

Grover hummed to himself as he walked out of the forest, saying a quick hello to some campers as they passed. He wasn't exactly sure what their names were. Lately, he hadn't been spending enough time at camp to get to know the new demigods. He was here for the next two weeks, though, taking a bit of a break from being the Lord of the Wild. Most of the wild places were frozen with winter now, and he could take the time to talk to the satyrs at camp, see what they were finding.

He wandered towards the arena, hoping to find Percy. For one thing, he had asked the son of Poseidon to keep an eye on the parks in the city, but he also just wanted to talk. It had been so long since the two of them had hung out—especially since Percy had finally gotten the guts to kiss Annabeth. If those two had been inseparable before, they were practically one person now.

Just as he was about to enter, Grover heard someone call his name. He turned to see Annabeth jogging toward him, and he started clopping over to the cabins to meet her. Speak of the devil, and (s)he shall appear, he thought wryly.

"What's up, Annabeth?" She looked anxious, he noticed. And puzzled. Now, Annabeth was usually anxious or thoughtful about one thing or another, but confused was a rare state of mind for any child of Athena.

"Nothing. I was just wondering… have you seen Percy anywhere? I've been—"

"Blah-ha-ha. I was afraid this would happen," he smirked.

She paused, looking taken aback and even more confused. "What?"

"We were taking bets on how long it would take before you two couldn't spend a few hours without seeing each other," he explained, grinning sheepishly. "And, well…"

"Shut up, goat boy. I'm serious. He didn't come to breakfast or lunch, he's not in his cabin, and no one else has seen him all day. He's not anywhere," she finished with a moan. Annabeth looked like she was really worried now. Her eyes were wide and slightly panicked-looking, as if by making themselves bigger they would be able to see more. She seemed to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown. But it wasn't like Percy was missing or anything...

"Calm down, I'm sure he's not in any kind of danger. And even if he is, he's Percy. Did you check the beach?"

"Grover, I've looked everywhere. The beach, the forest, the arena… I even called his mom. He isn't in any of those places. And…" she trailed off.

"And what?" he asked, suddenly seized by a foreign sense of urgency. His heart was starting to pound anxiously, and there was a strange buzzing noise at the base of his skull. He was just beginning to realize that his friend could be in some serious trouble. It wasn't like Percy to simply disappear like this.

Annabeth's voice was trembling now. "When I looked in his cabin… it was a disaster. The dresser was knocked over, and things were broken, and there were ropes, and oh, gods, Grover, I think someone took him!" Her knees buckled, and she stayed sitting on the grass. He kneeled next to her.

Grover patted her back while she struggled to pull herself together. She didn't cry, though, thank the gods; she was too proud to allow herself to fall apart after only a few hours of frantic searching. "It's okay, Annabeth, we'll find him," he mumbled, over and over. His mind seemed stuck; he had no idea what to do about comforting Annabeth or finding Percy or his dawning realization that something bad was probably going to happen, soon, again.

Percy wouldn't leave on his own. Why would he? He had never been one to desert his friends, and it wasn't like him to simply wander around, going from place to place at will. He liked having a home, he'd told Grover once.

Only something really powerful or really evil (or both) could kidnap the invincible Hero of Olympus. If, Grover reminded himself, he had indeed been taken by force. There was still the possibility that Percy was down in Atlantis, maybe, or had run off to fight some monster, and that he had randomly felt like tearing apart his own cabin before he left, and that he'd just not bothered to tell anyone where he'd gone. Yes, definitely still a possibility.

"Have you told Chiron?" he asked Annabeth. "Maybe he knows something. Percy could have been… sent on an emergency quest, or something."

Annabeth looked up at him dubiously, the expression ruined a bit by her splotchy face and her panicked eyes. He could feel that she was scared and helpless and frantic. They needed to find Percy quickly, or Annabeth would snap.

"And you're positive that you've checked everywhere at camp? The lake, the beach? The forest?" Chiron asked for the umpteenth time, pacing the floor of the living room. His tail swished back and forth anxiously, hypnotizing Grover momentarily. Annabeth, sitting beside him, was clutching an untouched mug of hot chocolate in her hands as she stared at the floor.

She nodded. "I got Juniper to ask the naiads if they'd seen him, too. He wasn't in the lake, or near the beach, they said. I just… he wouldn't've left on his own—don't look at me like that, Chiron, you know it's true—so someone must have taken him by force. But… who?" She looked up, her gaze switching between Grover and Chiron like they knew the answer.

The centaur sighed. Clearly, he'd seen too many heroes disappear. Percy's seemed to affect him a bit more, though, Grover thought. They'd probably both come to the same conclusion: something big was going to happen. Again.

"Percy has made many enemies, Annabeth. While I don't think most monsters could have kidnapped him, there could be some older, more powerful ones that might have been able to overtake him. Or a minor god, maybe, who is still loyal to Kronos? There are so many possibilities…"

"This is ridiculous," Grover said. "We'll never be able to track down every monster, god, and/or demigod that Percy's ever offended. That would take centuries. Annabeth, couldn't you get your cabin to do some kind of CSI thing?"

Annabeth gave a weak laugh. "Taylor's pretty good with forensics, if that's what you mean. I could ask him, although I doubt that we'll come away with any conclusions, even if we do find traces of evidence. Gods don't have DNA, or even distinct fingerprints, that I know of, and we wouldn't have records of any demigods' information- we should start doing that, Chiron, by the way. It's still something, though… I'll ask as soon as I can."

"Chiron, do you think…" Grover started, but then stopped. There couldn't be something similar to Kronos's uprising. Not again, only a few months after the last war. But he continued anyway. "Do you think that whatever's behind this… well, what if it's similar to what happened with Kronos? It couldn't be, right?"

"My dear satyr, let us hope not. Frankly, we wouldn't survive another war. We've gathered more demigods, but they are young and inexperienced. We must pray that whatever took Percy remains… dormant."

"You know what's happening, don't you?" Annabeth asked shrewdly. "Or, at least, you've got some ideas?"

"A few vague ideas, yes. However, I think it best that we not jump to any conclusions at this point." He glanced at the clock and raised his eyebrows. "Di immortales, is that the time already? Annabeth, child, and Grover, I must go to dinner. If you two want to remain in here, I can have one of the nymphs send some food in for you."

Grover and Annabeth both nodded and said thanks, and Chiron clip-clopped out of the Big House.

Annabeth was quiet for the rest of the night, although she seemed to be a little bit back to her usual self, which Grover was happy about. They talked about where Percy could possibly be—mostly just random suggestions: somewhere on Long Island or in New York, Canada, California, Maine (Annabeth shot that one down pretty quickly), even Greece… But it was nearly impossible to narrow down any options without knowing who had taken him.

Please, Grover thought as he fell asleep later, anyone who's listening, help us find him. Please.