The Battle of Manhattan

by Canon-ishPairings

AU. When the Argo II hung above New Rome not everything went according to the plan. Even without Leo firing at the Romans, they all want to kill each other and it seems someone wants to prevent it. So they got a book. To read. Because there's nothing better to do in the middle of a war than reading a book. (canon ships)

6. 4 TWO SNAKES SAVE MY LIFE

"Actually" said Percy. "Maybe a break would…"

"What?" cut him off Reyna. "You want a break now? We just started reading."

"Uh, I know, but… I'm hungry" he lied.

Everyone rolled their eyes fondly or snorted.

"You're always hungry," said Annabeth in a tone suggesting she'd said it more times than she'd like.

"Well, yeah, but – "

"No way, Percy" said Reyna sternly. "One chapter is not enough. You have to wait two more, at the very least."

"At that pace, we'll never finish it," agreed Jason.

"It's not like we don't have the time" he mumbled, but then nodded. "Right. Two more chapters."

He stared in the direction of where Nico would be now. That little shit was probably pleased with how things turned out, but Percy would get him out of there anyway. Nico was almost in the clear now, and after the chapter (or chapters?) where he fights along, the Romans will give him the respect he deserves.

Percy would make sure of that.

A hand slipped in his and Annabeth bumped shoulders with him. Her eyes seemed to say 'nothing we can do about it, buddy'.

"So, who's reading now?" repeated Jason.

Silence rang in the air.

"Come on, people" groaned Leo. "Somebody has to read!"

"Are you volunteering?" said coolly Reyna.

He stared at her in horror.

"No!" he spluttered and threw himself off the chair to get farther away from Praetor Ramirez.

"Oh, but it's a great idea" said Piper cheerily and glanced pointedly at her boyfriend. Jason shrugged at his friend, who had gasped loudly, and chucked the book at him.

Leo cried out like he was in pain, but Percy kicked him, so he sighed deeply, scrambled back on his seat and opened the book.

"TWO SNAKES SAVE MY LIFE" he begun dramatically.

Everyone resisted the urge to roll their eyes. Only Annabeth reached for Percy's hand and squeezed it tightly. He smiled back reassuringly.

I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.

Those who had never been outside the camp and New Rome's boundaries appeared bewildered. Others just chuckled or sighed longingly.

Of course, the Mist helped. People probably couldn't see Mrs. O'Leary, or maybe they thought she was a large, loud, very friendly truck.

"Actually" said Percy. "They see a poodle."

After a beat of silence, everyone snorted or giggled.

I took the risk of using my mom's cell phone to call Annabeth for the second time. I'd called her once from the runnel

"I don't think there's good signal in the Underground," said Jeremy with a sneer.

but only reached her voice mail. I'd gotten surprisingly good reception, seeing as I was at the mythological center of the world and all, but I didn't want to see what my mom's roaming charges were going to be.

Percy barely kept a smirk from his face, but Leo paused to laugh sardonically in Jeremy's face.

This time, Annabeth picked up.

"Hey," I said. "You get my message?"

"I wouldn't be so casual."

"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing!

"There wasn't that much to say. 'Hey, I bathed in the River Styx, but I'm alive. I'm on my way.'"

We've been worried sick!"

"I'll fill you in later," I said, though how I was going to do that I had no idea.

"So, as usually?"

Percy drenched his girlfriend in water. She looked at him murderously, though shock was evident in her eyes, so he dried her off in panic and gave a kiss before she attempted to kill him.

"Where are you?"

"Better question, where are you?"

"What?"

Everyone looked confused as to who'd said it and what the Hades did they mean.

"We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. But, Percy, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods-"

"You had no idea what he's planning and you still followed his insanely dangerous plan?" interrupted Octavian hoarsely. "How stupid is that?"

Many glanced at him in surprise. Stunned, Percy realized he had forgotten all about Octavian up until now. And there was a reason behind it, he could tell.

His hair was for the first time ever messy, his eyes bloodshot and face red. Had had red marks on his face, too, like he had been hit or gagged.

"He's croaking or…?" Hazel trailed off when she saw Percy nod.

"I think we missed something," he muttered back.

He noticed then Piper's suspiciously smug face. She smiled innocently at everyone, as more people were staring at her with each second.

"This" Annabeth glared at Octavian, who seemed uneasy enough by Piper's stare. "is trust. You could learn about it a thing or two."

Leo whistled and clapped with approval and Percy had a feeling if there were some demigods from Camp Half-Blood, they would join in.

"Read on, Tool Boy" Piper waved him off, but she was clearly pleased with herself.

Whatever happened, Percy would get it out of her.

"Trust me," I said. "I'll see you there."

I hung up. My hands were trembling. I wasn't sure if it was a leftover reaction from my dip in the Styx, or anticipation of what I was about to do.

"Both, probably."

If this didn't work, being invulnerable wasn't going to save me from getting blasted to bits.

"That's assuring."

It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped me at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts.

Chuckles followed the sentence.

Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close.

"Wonder what they saw."

I whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb.

"That's so exciting" whispered an eleven-year-old demigod.

They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. I'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though I knew they shuttled our fresh produce into the city.

The tension seemed to suddenly run high when each person apprehended it was the begging.

The first van was driven by Argus, our many-eyed security chief.

"At least you know he keep an eye or two on the road."

The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes.

The Romans looked appalled.

We used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too.

A few giggled at the mental image.

The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive. I was glad so many had come: Pollux, Silena Beauregard, the Stoll brothers, Michael Yew, Jake Mason, Katie Gardner, and Annabeth, along with most of their siblings.

Percy smiled at the memory, but something tugged at his insides. Each name jogged a different memory and feeling. He had literally forgotten it all and now it returned with whole force; the reminder of the deaths especially stirred up some unpleasant emotions that hit him hard.

As though sensing it, Annabeth nudged him worriedly.

A few seats away Piper moved in anticipation in her chair. She almost gasped at Silena's name, but resisted herself in the last moment, scolding for not predicting it. She knew she would be there, and yet it caught her by surprise.

Chiron came out of the van last. His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift.

"Cool."

The Ares cabin wasn't here, but I tried not to get too angry about that. Clarisse was a stubborn idiot. End of story.

Romans were outraged at the Ares cabin, though no one as much as the children of Mars. Angry muttering spread around the Forum and Leo had trouble being heard above the noise.

I did a head count: forty campers in all.

Jason chocked up.

"Excuse me?" said Ramona. "Forty in all?"

Piper and Leo appeared gobsmacked and the Romans were taken aback.

"No way" breathed out Andrea.

Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of halfbloods I'd ever seen gathered in one place outside camp.

Diana placed a hand on her mouth and gazed around solemnly. Many looked sympathetic, too.

Everyone looked nervous, and I understood why. We were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew we were here.

"So, just what you needed."

As I looked at their faces-all these campers I'd known for so many summers-a nagging voice whispered in my mind: One of them is a spy.

Piper squeezed her eyes shut. Percy and Annabeth shared a look.

But I couldn't dwell on that. They were my friends. I needed them.

Some smiled at Percy in appreciation.

Then I remembered Kronos's evil smile. You can't count on friends. They will always let you down.

Annabeth fumed.

"That's not true!" gasped Hazel.

"Yeah. It's not" agreed Percy.

Annabeth came up to me. She was dressed in black camouflage with her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder-ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first.

The described girl snorted.

She frowned. "What is it?"

"What's what?" I asked.

"You're looking at me funny."

I realized I was thinking about my strange vision of Annabeth pulling me out of the Styx River.

"AWWW."

"It's, uh, nothing." I turned to the rest of the group.

"They so knew what he was thinking about."

"You sure about it?"

"…well, not literally. But they knew he was thinking about her in that way!"

"Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

My old mentor shook his head.

"Huh?"

"I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

Fuzzy and warm feelings he would never admit to having stirred up in Percy.

I wanted to protest, but everybody was looking at me expectantly, even Annabeth.

"That's saying something."

I took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

"You. Are. Bonkers. Completely bonkers."

"With such disrespect!" cried Octavian. "That's… that's…"

Piper's eyes bore in him, causing him to stutter. He tried to open his mouth and continue, but obviously, she scared the shit out of him (Percy had to find out about this), so he clenched his jaw and crossed arms.

"I'd like to see that," mumbled Jason to his girlfriend, imaging his father's face.

I asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them looked happy about.

Chiron shook my hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses."

"That's so sweet how much he trusts you" a daughter of Venus twirled hair around her finger.

It sounded eerily close to what Achilles had told me. Then I remembered Chiron had taught Achilles. That didn't exactly reassure me, but I nodded and tried to give him a confident smile.

Leo snorted.

"Let's go," I told the campers.

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower on the cover. He glanced up when we all filed in with our weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."

Ramona mouthed 'what' and made a movement with hands as though her head exploded.

"No," I said. "Six-hundredth floor."

"So, that's where Olympus is!"

Understandably, the Romans were excited to find out location of Olympus. A few 'ooh' and 'aah' were heard and everyone turned animatedly to their friends, some even gasped or squealed. The Greeks grinned.

He checked us out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. I couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice our weapons, so I guess he wasn't fooled by the Mist.

"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid." He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe. "Move along."

"You notice surprisingly good amount of details," said Annabeth, narrowing her eyes.

He grinned lopsidedly at her.

I leaned across the desk. "Forty demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"

Soft laughter sounded around the Forum.

He thought about that. Then he hit a buzzer and the security gate swung open. "Make it quick."

"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," I added.

"Well, aren't you demanding" mocked Ramona. Leo grinned as if he agreed with her.

"Um, no," he agreed. "Elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."

"Are really there so often he knows you?" said Frank.

The Romans shook heads in disbelieve at his shrug.

I tossed him a golden drachma and we marched ill rough. We decided it would take two trips to get everybody up in the elevator.

"They won't know what hit them" snickered Leo.

I went with the first group. Different elevator music was playing since my last visit-that old disco song "Stayin' Alive." A terrifying image flashed through my mind of Apollo in bell-bottom pants and a slinky silk shirt.

Everyone bursted out laughing.

I was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open. In front of us, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.

I'd seen Olympus several times,

"Jealous" murmured a Roman.

but it still took my breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain.

Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. Then I realized the mountain was silent-no music, no voices, no laughter.

"Whoa."

"It looks better now" Percy winked at Annabeth. She rolled her eyes.

"It's not finished yet" but she couldn't keep a smile off her face.

Annabeth studied me. "You look . . . different," she decided. "Where exactly did you go?"

The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of halfbloods joined us.

"Tell you later," I said. "Come on."

We made our way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus.

The shops were closed.

"There are shops?" said startled Hazel.

The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be in it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree.

A minor godling spotted us from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.

"Warm welcome, I see."

We passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth made a face at the queen of the gods.

As she did now. Piper grinned at the similarity.

"Hate her," she muttered.

Reyna looked at her sharply and some of the gathered sucked in a breath.

"Has she been cursing you or something?" I asked. Last year Annabeth had gotten on Hera's bad side, but Annabeth hadn't really talked about it since.

"Just little stuff so far," she said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"

"Right."

"I see where this is going."

Annabeth glared at the amused demigods.

"So she sends cows after me."

Most of the people giggled.

I tried not to smile. "Cows? In San Francisco?"

"Oh, yeah. Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place-in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."

At this, almost no one could contain their laughter.

"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"

We all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. We watched them for several minutes and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

"Indeed" said Andrea thoughtfully.

"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."

"Let's get to the palace," I said.

No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Our footsteps echoed as we walked into the throne room.

Of course, "room" doesn't really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden.

Most appeared awed, only Octavian had a "no duh" face on. He didn't say it out loud, but anyone with half a brain would figure out that was what he was thinking.

High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a hearth. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam my old friend the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, halfserpent.

"You're friends with the Ophiotaurus" said flatly a son of Bellona.

"He has weird friends like that," said Annabeth.

"Moooo!" he said happily, turning in a circle.

Despite all the serious stuff going on, I had to smile. Two years ago we'd spent a lot of time trying to save the Ophiotaurus from the Titans, and I'd gotten kind of fond of him. He seemed to like me too, even though I'd originally thought he was a girl and named him Bessie.

Leo's voice shook with amusement, but he wouldn't have stopped if not for Reyna's hand and Jason's question.

"You named it Bessie?"

Both Romans, along with others, stared at Percy

"It seemed like a cow name to me at the time!" he raised his hands.

"Don't try to find sense," advised them Annabeth. "Just read."

"Hey, man," I said. "They treating you okay?"

"Mooo," Bessie answered.

We walked toward the thrones, and a woman's voice said, "Hello again, Percy Jackson. You and your friends are welcome."

Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She wore the same kind of simple brown dress as she had before, but she was a grown woman now.

I bowed. "Lady Hestia."

My friends followed my example.

Hestia regarded me with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles."

"Well, this is a way to break it to them, too" said lightly Ramona.

The other campers started muttering among themselves: What did she say? What about Achilles?

"You must be careful," Hestia warned me. "You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."

Annabeth nudged me. "Um . . . what is she talking about?"

"That's rare – Annabeth who asks me about what's going on" Percy raised an eyebrow at her.

I stared into Hestia's eyes, and an image rushed into my mind: I saw a dark alley between red brick warehouses. A sign above one of the doors read RICHMOND IRONWORKS.

"Errr…?"

Two half-bloods crouched in the shadows-a boy about fourteen and a girl about twelve. I realized with a start that the boy was Luke. The girl was Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

Jason flinched, not expecting any mention of his sister. He recalled something that she knew Percy, but he thought she was a Hunter at the time she met him, so didn't like him much. Therefore, he somehow made an assumption she didn't take part in the war – or rather didn't take her under consideration. Obviously, he was wrong.

I was seeing a scene from back in the days when they were on the run, before Grover found them. Luke carried a bronze knife. Thalia had her spear and shield of terror, Aegis. Luke and Thalia both looked hungry and lean, with wild animal eyes, like they were used to being attacked.

Annabeth bit her lip. Her boyfriend pulled her to his side, not really knowing what else he should do.

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked.

Luke nodded. "Something down here. I sense it."

A rumble echoed from the alley, like someone had banged on a sheet of metal. The half-bloods crept forward.

Old crates were stacked on a loading dock. Thalia and Luke approached with their weapons ready. A curtain of corrugated tin quivered as if something were behind it.

Thalia glanced at Luke. He counted silently: One, two, three! He ripped away the tin, and a little girl flew at him with a hammer.

Leo did a double take, like he didn't believe he'd just read that.

"Whoa!" Luke said.

The girl had tangled blond hair and was wearing flannel pajamas. She couldn't have been more than seven, but she would've brained Luke if he hadn't been so fast.

Hazel slowly turned to Annabeth.

He grabbed her wrist, and the hammer skittered across the cement. The little girl fought and kicked. "No more monsters! Go away!"

"It's okay!" Luke struggled to hold her. "Thalia, put your shield up. You're scaring her."

Thalia tapped Aegis, and it shrank into a silver bracelet. "Hey, it's all right," she said. "We're not going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke."

"Monsters!"

"Aww" a few children of Venus coed sadly.

"No," Luke promised. "But we know all about monsters. We fight them too."

Slowly, the girl stopped kicking. She studied Luke and Thalia with large intelligent gray eyes.

At the mention of the eyes, more people turned to Annabeth.

"You're like me?" she said suspiciously.

"Yeah," Luke said. "We're . . . well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster fighters. Where's your family?"

"My family hates me," the girl said. "They don't want me. I ran away."

Annabeth squirmed and glared at her shoes, hating the pity and sympathy in everyone's eyes. Okay, they didn't know it was her, but still.

Thalia and Luke locked eyes. I knew they both related to what she was saying.

"What's your name, kiddo?" Thalia asked.

"Annabeth."

Leo said the name with hesitance. Now, everyone looked at Annabeth.

"What?" she snapped. They quickly turned away.

Luke smiled. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth-you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "You could?"

"Oh, yeah." Luke turned his knife and offered her the handle.

A lump appeared in her throat.

It was hard to believe he had once been like that – so nice and sincere.

"How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."

A few people snorted.

Maybe under most circumstances, offering a seven-year-old kid a knife would not be a good idea, but when you're a half-blood, regular rules kind of go out the window.

"True."

Annabeth gripped the hilt.

"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," Luke explained. "They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

"Again, true."

Annabeth stared at him with adoration. "I am!"

Thalia grinned. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."

"You're . . . you're not going to take me back to my family?" she said. "Promise?"

Luke put his hand on her shoulder. "You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

Annabeth blinked rapidly, though her face was guarded. Percy looked at her helplessly.

"Deal!" Annabeth said happily.

"Now, come on," Thalia said. "We can't stay put for long!"

The scene shifted. The three demigods were running through the woods. It must've been several days later, maybe even weeks. All of them looked beat up, like they'd seen some battles. Annabeth was wearing new clothes-jeans and an oversize army jacket.

"Just a little farther!" Luke promised. Annabeth stumbled, and he took her hand. Thalia brought up the rear, brandishing her shield like she was driving back whatever pursued them. She was limping on her left leg.

Jason cringed.

They scrambled to a ridge and looked down the other side at a white Colonial house-May Castellan's place.

"All right," Luke said, breathing hard. "I'll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here."

"Luke, are you sure?" Thalia asked. "You swore you'd never come back here. If she catches you-"

"We don't have a choice!" he growled. "They burned our nearest safe house. And you've got to treat that leg wound."

"This is your house?" Annabeth said with amazement.

"It was my house," Luke muttered. "Believe me, if it wasn't an emergency-"

"Is your mom really horrible?" Annabeth asked. "Can we see her?"

"No!" Luke snapped.

Annabeth shrank away from him as though his anger surprised her.

"I . . . I'm sorry," he said. "Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll be back-"

A brilliant golden flash illuminated the woods. The demigods winced, and a man's voiceboomed: "You should not have come home."

The vision shut off.

Leo glanced up nervously, noting the lack of interruptions. Everyone seemed too engaged in the story or too intimidated by Annabeth to comment.

My knees buckled, but Annabeth grabbed me. "Percy! What happened?"

"Did . . . did you see that?" I asked.

"Why would she ask then?"

"See what?"

I glanced at Hestia, but the goddess's face was expressionless. I remembered something she'd told me in the woods: If you are to understand your enemy Luke, you must understand his family. But why had she shown me those scenes?

"Yeah" said Andrea. "Why these particular ones?"

Everyone looked at each other, clueless.

"How long was I out?" I muttered.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "Percy, you weren't out at all. You just looked at Hestia for like one second and collapsed."

I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I couldn't afford to look weak.

His girlfriend sighed and nudged him.

"You're just human, you are allowed to feel like that sometimes."

"Half human, to be exact."

She smacked his arm, noticing with satisfaction no curse saved him now.

Whatever those visions meant, I had to stay focused on our mission.

"Um, Lady Hestia," I said, "we've come on urgent business. We need to see-"

"We know what you need," a man's voice said. I shuddered, because it was the same voice I'd heard in the vision.

No one figured that would be the case and everyone seemed disconcerted.

A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-and-pepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.

The children of Mercury hung on every word, soaking in the description of their father they'd never seen.

"I will leave you now," Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. I understood why she was so anxious to go. Hermes, the God of Messengers, did not look happy.

"No shit."

"Hello, Percy." His brow furrowed as though he was annoyed with me, and I wondered if he somehow knew about the vision I'd just had. I wanted to ask why he'd been in May Castellan's house that night, and what had happened after he caught Luke.

"Not a smart move."

I remembered the first time I'd met Luke at Camp Half-Blood. I'd asked him if he'd ever met his father, and he'd looked at me bitterly and said, Once. But I could tell from Hermes's expression that this was not the time to ask.

I bowed awkwardly. "Lord Hermes."

Oh, sure, one of the snakes said in my mind. Don't say hi to us. We're just reptiles.

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Excuse me?"

George, the other snake scolded. Be polite.

"Hello, George," I said. "Hey, Martha."

"You know what, Percy?" said Ramona. "I reached my limit of surprises. I'll just stop being surprised that you know everyone, been everywhere and fought everything, okay?"

"Uh, go ahead" he said awkwardly.

His friends snickered at him.

Did you bring us a rat? George asked.

George, stop it, Martha said. He's busy!

Too busy for rats? George said. That's just sad.

Everyone sniggered.

I decided it was better not to get into it with George. "Um, Hermes," I said. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."

Jason's hand collided with his head.

"Seriously, Percy?" he groaned. "You had to?"

He answered with a sheepish smile. So maybe that wasn't his smartest move... shit happens, he told himself.

Hermes's eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"

Behind me, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This wasn't going as planned. Maybe if I tried to speak with Hermes in private . . .

"You guys," I said. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus. Meet Annabeth and me back here in thirty minutes."

Silena frowned. "But-"

"That's a good idea," Annabeth said. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."

"Really?" Piper turned to Annabeth. "The Stolls?"

"Yes."

Piper waited, but she didn't say anything more.

The Stolls seemed to like that-getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids. "We're on it!" Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Annabeth and me with Hermes.

"Oooh!"

Two girls grinned at each other.

"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."

"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow.

Everyone let out nervous chuckles.

"Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come back herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."

Some demigods' ADHD got the better of them and they had to stand up, whilst other tugged at their hair.

"Oh, come on!" said loudly Leo, staring at the pages. "It's right before your noses!"

"If they just listened to Athena… she always knows better," muttered Annabeth.

For once, the Romans agreed.

"But it is a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?"

The people winced, foreseeing what would happen.

Thunder rolled through the sky.

"Gee, I wonder why."

"I'd watch the comments, girl," Hermes warned. "Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."

"But there are these blue lights-"

"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I'd wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage.

"Really, now?"

"If the damage was obvious, then everyone would rush to stop it. Honestly, it's a trap. It's supposed to look harmlessly!" said Annabeth.

"Um…" Percy eyed her cautiously. "You know there's no point in getting mad, now?"

He just shrugged and tore his gaze away when she glared.

Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus,

The three demigods cringed at the name.

the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."

"Oh, he's so helpful now, isn't he?" mumbled Leo.

"Too bad he's not so nice more often" agreed Piper.

I raised my hand. "Um . . . what about that materializing/teleporting thing you guys do?"

"That's a form of air travel too, Jackson. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"

Collective face-palm is the only thing that could describe what happened.

"Is this some kind of joke?" said Reyna disbelievingly.

"This… this is just lame," said Ramona.

"These are supposed to be the all-mighty Olympians?" said Gwen, unimpressed.

Percy and Annabeth watched calmly at the incredulous listeners; even Octavian seemed disappointed in the gods. They just nodded 'yes, he said just that' and shook heads 'no, it's not a joke'.

"To be fair" said Percy quietly. "They asked for it."

"Oh, they did. They really did."

Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous-hordes of monsters going up in the elevator twenty at a time, listening to "Stayin' Alive." Still, I didn't like it.

"Maybe just a few of you could come back," I suggested.

Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Percy Jackson, you don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy."

"I thought that was Kronos."

The god's eyes glowed. "No, Percy. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is husband of Echidna-"

"Met her at the Arch," I muttered. "Not nice."

"Oh, yes," said Ramona loudly. "I just knew you would say it. Obviously. I'm totally not surprised that you fought yet another powerful historical figure."

"Good for you?"

"-and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he's fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter and Persephone follow his lead. It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can't divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."

"Okay" said a Roman girl. "That doesn't sound good."

"No duh!"

"Progress?" I said. "He nearly destroyed St. Louis."

"Yes," Hermes admitted. "But he destroyed only half of Kentucky.

"Oh, so it's good, then! Only half."

He's slowing down. Losing power."

I didn't want to argue, but it sounded like Hermes was trying to convince himself.

"Just great."

In the corner, the Ophiotaurus mooed sadly.

"Aww…"

"Please, Hermes," Annabeth said. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"

"Messages," he muttered. "'It'll be a great job,' they told me. 'Not much work. Lots of worshippers.' Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages."

"Uhh, okay?" said Frank.

"Get used to it" said Percy.

"They use every chance they get to wallow in self-pity" agreed Annabeth.

Rodents, George mused. I'm in it for the rodents.

Demigods chuckled at the snake.

Shhh, Martha scolded. We care what Hermes has to say. Don't we, George?

Oh, absolutely. Can we go back to the battle now? I want to do laser mode again. That's fun.

"Quiet, both of you," Hermes grumbled.

The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-gray eyes thing.

"Is that so?" grinned Piper.

The two girls shared another knowing and smug look; there was potential for a great friendship, Piper decided. Annabeth may seem intimidating, but it appears she uses the same tricks as her.

"Bah," Hermes said. "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn't know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I'm not sure."

"Gods get paid?" Hazel scrunched her eyebrows.

"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.

"She said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you would know what that meant."

The Romans were at loss of words. Seriously? Plan twenty-three?

Annabeth's face paled. Obviously she knew what it meant, and she didn't like it. "Go on."

"Last thing." Hermes looked at me. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.' And, um, something about staying away from her daughter."

Children of Venus giggled.

"And look how that turned out" Ramona wiggled her eyebrows.

I'm not sure whose face was redder: Annabeth's or mine.

"Thank you, Hermes," Annabeth said. "And I . . . I wanted to say . . . I'm sorry about Luke."

Annabeth again bit in her lip as some people hissed and winced.

The god's expression hardened like he'd turned to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."

Annabeth stepped back nervously. "Sorry?"

"SORRY doesn't cut it!"

George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a highvoltage cattle prod.

"You should've saved him when you had the chance," Hermes growled at Annabeth. "You're the only one who could have."

A few teenagers gasped in astonishment.

"How could he say it?" whispered Hazel to her boyfriend, so Annabeth wouldn't hear it.

I tried to step between them. "What are you talking about? Annabeth didn't-"

"Don't defend her, Jackson!" Hermes turned the cattle prod toward me. "She knows exactly what I'm talking about."

"Maybe you should blame yourself!"

Everyone groaned.

I should've kept my mouth shut,

"You don't say?"

but all I could think about was turning his attention away from Annabeth.

Instantly, a lot of people softened and coed, causing Percy to drop his head on Annabeth's shoulder with a groan.

This whole time, he hadn't been angry with me. He'd been angry with her. "Maybe if you hadn't abandoned Luke and his mom!"

Hermes raised his cattle prod. He began to grow until he was ten feet tall. I thought, Well, that's it.

"Always so casual."

But as he prepared to strike, George and Martha leaned in close and whispered something in his ear. Hermes clenched his teeth. He lowered the cattle prod, and it turned back to a staff.

"Good snakes" Hazel breathed out in relieve.

"Percy Jackson," he said, "because you have taken on the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. But you will never speak to me like that again. You have no idea how much I have sacrificed, how much-" His voice broke, and he shrank back to human size. "My son, my greatest pride . . . my poor May . . ."

No one dared to comment, but there was no need. Many covered their mouths with hands, others just stared at the book with pity radiating off them.

"Oh" said quietly Ramona.

He sounded so devastated I didn't know what to say. One minute he was ready to vaporize us. Now he looked like he needed a hug.

Some snorted sadly.

"Look, Lord Hermes," I said. "I'm sorry, but I need to know. What happened to May? She said something about Luke's fate, and her eyes-"

Hermes glared at me, and my voice faltered. The look on his face wasn't really anger, though. It was pain. Deep, incredible pain.

"This is… it's so…" Diana tried to put her emotions in words, but for once, she was lost.

"I will leave you now," he said tightly. "I have a war to fight."

He began to shine. I turned away and made sure Annabeth did the same, because she was still frozen in shock.

No one even thought about commenting on it.

Good luck, Percy, Martha the snake whispered.

Percy smiled to himself. After it all ends… after the war… he'll get these snakes big, fat rats.

Hermes glowed with the light of a supernova. Then he was gone.

Annabeth sat at the foot of her mother's throne and cried. I wanted to comfort her, but I wasn't sure how.

Right now, though, she looked more livid that everyone found out about her moment of weakness than pitiful.

"Annabeth," I said, "it's not your fault. I've never seen Hermes act that way. I guess . . . I don't know . . . he probably feels guilty about Luke. He's looking for somebody to blame. I don't know why he lashed out at you. You didn't do anything to deserve that."

"Not going to work" murmured Reyna.

Annabeth wiped her eyes. She stared at the hearth like it was her own funeral pyre.

I shifted uneasily. "Um, you didn't, right?"

Hazel slapped him lightly.

"That's not time for that question!"

She didn't answer. Her Celestial bronze knife was strapped to her arm-the same knife I'd seen in Hestia's vision. All these years, I hadn't realized it was a gift from Luke. I'd asked her many times why she preferred to fight with a knife instead of a sword, and she'd never answered me. Now I knew.

She played with her new knife now, then turned to Percy who was watching her intently.

"Don't look at me like that," she whispered. "I'm fine."

"Okay" he said simply, still focused on her.

They stared each other down for a second, but she finally sighed and leaned her head on his arm. It was more comfortable that way than in reverse, because she actually had her head about on the height of his shoulder, which Percy secretly adored.

"Percy," she said. "What did you mean about Luke's mother? Did you meet her?"

I nodded reluctantly. "Nico and I visited her. She was a little . . . different." I described May Castellan, and the weird moment when her eyes had started to glow and she talked about her son's fate.

Annabeth frowned. "That doesn't make sense. But why were you visiting-" Her eyes widened.

"And she figured it out."

"Hermes said you bear the curse of Achilles. Hestia said the same thing. Did you . . . did you bathe in the River Styx?"

"Don't change the subject."

People bursted out laughing at this.

"Smooth Percy, smooth" chuckled Frank.

"Percy! Did you or not?"

"Um . . . maybe a little."

"A little?" repeated Leo with a wide grin. "A little?"

"And how do you bath 'a little', huh?" said Jason. "I'm honestly curious."

"Cut it out," said Percy, his cheeks pink.

I told her the story about Hades and Nico, and how I'd defeated an army of the dead.

"Yeah, it went like 'Hades had this army of the dead, so Nico helped me to defeat them and somehow we escaped,'" said Annabeth. "But now I know it doesn't cover it."

He shrugged.

"I'm not a great storyteller, sorry."

I left out the vision of her pulling me out of the river. I still didn't quite understand that part, and just thinking about it made me embarrassed.

"Awww."

A few girls giggled at him.

She shook her head in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"I had no choice," I said. "It's the only way I can stand up to Luke."

"You mean . . . di immortales, of course! That's why Luke didn't die. He went to the Styx and . . . Oh no, Luke. What were you thinking?"

Many raised their eyebrows at her.

"So now you're worried about Luke again," I grumbled.

"Jeeealooous" sang Ramona and Diana in unison.

Annabeth nudged him with a grin.

She stared at me like I'd just dropped from space. "What?"

"Forget it," I muttered.

"You're dripping with jealousy."

I wondered what Hermes had meant about Annabeth not saving Luke when she'd had the chance. Clearly, she wasn't telling me something. But at the moment I wasn't in the mood to ask. The last thing I wanted to hear about was more of her history with Luke.

"Dripping? It's radiating off him."

"Yeah, it's so obvious, it's visible."

"Shut up."

"The point is he didn't die in the Styx," I said. "Neither did I. Now I have to face him. We have to defend Olympus."

Annabeth was still studying my face, like she was trying to see differences since my swim in the Styx.

"There was, believe me."

"I guess you're right. My mom mentioned-"

"Plan twenty-three."

She rummaged in her pack and pulled out Daedalus's laptop.

"Excuse me?" said Reyna.

Andrea stared with many others at Annabeth, wondering if "Daedalus" was just a term.

The blue Delta symbol glowed on the top when she booted it up. She opened a few files and started to read.

"Wait, is it really the Daedalus's?"

Annabeth arched an eyebrow conceitedly.

"Was. It was his once, but not anymore."

One guy let out a weird, high moan of longing.

"Here it is," she said. "Gods, we have a lot of work to do."

"One of Daedalus's inventions?"

This time more knowledge-thirsty demigods groaned.

"A lot of inventions . . . dangerous ones. If my mother wants me to use this plan, she must think things are very bad."

"If they just listened to Athena" Frank shook his head.

She looked at me. "What about her message to you: 'Remember the rivers'? What does that mean?"

I shook my head. As usual, I had no clue what the gods were telling me.

"Such is our lifestyle" put in Piper.

Which rivers was I supposed to remember? The Styx? The Mississippi?

Just then the Stoll brothers ran in to the throne room.

"You need to see this," Connor said. "Now."

"U-uh."

The blue lights in the sky had stopped, so at first I didn't understand what the problem was. The other campers had gathered in a small park at the edge of the mountain.

"Park at the edge of the mountain?"

"It is Olympus."

They were clustered at the guardrail, looking down at Manhattan. The railing was lined with those tourist binoculars, where you could deposit one golden drachma and see the city.

Campers were using every single one.

"Bad, bad sign."

I looked down at the city. I could see almost everything from here the East River and the Hudson River carving the shape of Manhattan, the grid of streets, the lights of skyscrapers, the dark stretch of Central Park in the north. Everything looked normal, but something was wrong. I felt it in my bones before I realized what it was.

All the Romans held their breath in anticipation.

"I don't . . . hear anything," Annabeth said.

"That's bad?" whispered a girl who had never been to New York.

Everyone shushed her.

That was the problem.

Even from this height, I should've heard the noise of the citymillions of people bustling around, thousands of cars and machinesthe hum of a huge metropolis. You don't think about it when you live in New York, but it's always there. Even in the dead of night, New York is never silent.

"Wow."

"Okay, it's bad."

But it was now.

I felt like my best friend had suddenly dropped dead.

Annabeth looked up at him amusedly.

"What did they do?" My voice sounded tight and angry. "What did they do to my city?"

Percy's friends laughed silently at his overprotectiveness towards a city.

I pushed Michael Yew away from the binoculars and took a look. In the streets below, traffic had stopped. Pedestrians were lying on the sidewalks, or curled up in doorways. There was no sign of violence, no wrecks, nothing like that. It was as if all the people in New York had simply decided to stop whatever they were doing and pass out.

"There is a book like that wher…"

"SHHHHH!"

"Gee, fine…"

"Are they dead?" Silena asked in astonishment.

Ice coated my stomach. A line from the prophecy rang in my ears: And see the world in endless sleep.

"Oh!"

It was like the last piece of puzzle fit in. Understanding dawned on everyone and then dread when they realized there was a huge full-on battle with monsters and weapons about to start around these helpless people.

I remembered Grover's story about meeting the god Morpheus in Central Park. You're lucky I'm saving my energy for the main event.

"Not dead," I said. "Morpheus has put the entire island of Manhattan to sleep. The invasion has started."

Leo let out a breath and glanced up.

"And?" prompted him Ramona.

Once again, everyone was leaning on the edge of their seats.

"That's the end. Who reads now?"

Aah, late again!

Confession time: I'm really bad with deadlines. This is a little rushed and I'm really, really sorry about any errors. On Thursday, I could swear I have another week to finish the chapter (or even start it) and then my phone goes off with "fanfic update". I wasn't able to write it all that day, and then I was really busy, so here you are a few days later once again.

I hope it's not that bad. Sorry!

Anyway, here, have a big fat THANK YOU. Your reviews give me life, guys, please keep it up. Criticism, advise, opinion – anything. Just write it in this box down there and make me a happy writer :)

Thanks for reading, I'll try to get chapter 7 in time.

Love, Ronnie