A/N: Yes, I have finally returned and updated. Please don't get mad at me for my erratic updates; my home computer hates this website and I have trouble getting to the library. But, anyway, here it is! Chapter 2! *dun dun dun*

Disclaimer: I promise I'm not doing this for profit, and I don't own ANYTHING (Do I have to do this every chapter?)

Chapter 2

-Nico

"Okay," I said finally. "What the (insert ancient Greek swear word) is going on?"

I could tell Annabeth was thinking hard, but wasn't coming up with any answers. Percy ventured a suggestion from his position leaning heavily against a tree. "Maybe the portal changed us so we'd match this world better. Or something." He looked kind of pale.

Thalia scowled. She had her silver Hunter's bow slung over her shoulder, and her spear and shield, Aegis, were on the ground beside her. Strangely enough, Aegis didn't disturb me like it usually did, as if Medusa's image had lost some of its potency during the trip through the portal. "These idiot marks will help us fit in? Nico didn't say anything about weird markings on the characters." She was tugging uncomfortably at her new clothes as she spoke.

I shrugged. "It's been awhile since I played that game, so I don't know. But these clothes are definitely very Fire Emblem."

Annabeth spoke up. "I think Percy's right. At the very least, he's close. I can't come up with any other logical explanation, and it also explains the clothes." She frowned. "Now we just need to figure out exactly what's changed, besides just those marks."

Percy nodded. "I guess if that portal changed us to match this world, it might have taken away abilities that didn't fit into their reality."

I winced. I hadn't thought of that. What if we'd lost our powers? I concentrated, using my sword to focus my energy, but I couldn't sense the afterlife like I usually could. I could hear whispers of the dead, but nothing understandable. "Crap," I said after a few minutes of pointless effort.

Thalia shared my sentiments. She was trying to create sparks by snapping her fingers (which actually looks really cool when it works – don't you dare tell her I said that) but was failing miserably. Percy looked too tired to test out his powers, but he closed his eyes. After a moment, he opened them. "Maybe I could use my powers, if I had some water. But the earth, at least, isn't listening." As the son of Poseidon, the Earthshaker, Percy could usually summon a small earthquake or two, though he didn't have the control over rocks that I did.

Annabeth searched through her new dress-tunic-thing, but all she found was a couple of books with red covers and words we couldn't read. "I still have my dagger, but my cap is gone," she announced.

I couldn't quite decide whether I should be excited or extremely ticked off. I mean, being inside a video game? That's awesome! But being trapped inside a video game with your powers gone and no way to call for help? Not so much. Besides, it wasn't like we could just beat the game and get out. This world was real, in its own way. On a whim, I reached out to my father, but I couldn't feel his presence. Apparently, the gods couldn't reach us here. Well, crap.

"Okay, this sucks," Thalia said, interrupting my train of thought. "Now that we've figured that out, what are we going to do about it?"

"We need a plan," Annabeth responded immediately. Well, she was a daughter of Athena.

"For once, I agree with you," I said. "We need to figure out a back story, so we're not trying to come up with something on the spot."

"We don't know the names of any of the countries or cities," Percy pointed out.

"So we make one up," Annabeth countered. "A small town in the middle of nowhere."

"Or an island," Thalia said, warming to the idea.

I grinned. "Yeah. A really small island, just off the coast of… somewhere. Let's call it Manhattan."

The four of us cracked up. It really wasn't funny, but we were tired, confused and really stressed out. It felt good to laugh, even at something so stupid.

"No, seriously," Annabeth said, trying to stop laughing. "We'll say we lived a small island off the coast. That's pretty nonspecific."

"Can we please call it Manhattan?" Percy begged.

"Oh, fine." She scowled at him, but we could all tell she didn't mean it. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "So, why'd we leave Manhattan?" There was another round of muffled laughter.

"A quest," Thalia offered.

"No," I said. "We need something more… normal. As far as I can recall, they didn't have quests in Fire Emblem."

"Okay, then. How about… we got bored of our parents? Left in search of adventure, that sort of thing," she responded.

"And then we got hopelessly lost," Percy finished. "I like it."

"Perfect." Annabeth smiled in satisfaction. "Now, which direction should we go?"

"East," Thalia said simply, pointing in that direction. "That way the sun won't be in our eyes."

"Good thinking." Annabeth nodded. "Let's go."

-Annabeth

"Good thinking." I nodded. "Let's go." And off we went. It was pretty easy going, at least for the first hour. The trees were widely spaced and the ground was level. After a while though, Thalia started limping again, and Nico was even paler than usual. Percy looked like he was about to collapse. Maybe it had something to do with being a child of the Big Three, because I was mostly feeling fine. My head still hurt, and my neck was throbbing, but I wasn't tired.

After Percy tripped on a root and almost fell, I called a halt. We didn't really have any place to go; we were just moving for the sake of moving. "Let's take a break," I said. Thalia leaned casually against a tree, as if she wasn't absolutely exhausted. Percy and Nico didn't bother to pretend; they sat down hard on the tree roots and closed their eyes.

I ran my finger through my hair, trying to think. Okay, three out of four demigods are probably too tired to fight, so we'll have trouble defending ourselves. Options… Hiding? No, we don't know anywhere to hide. Recovery? Difficult. Would require shelter. And food. Lots of food. The only food available is animals; I don't recognize the plants, so therefore cannot know which are safe. Thalia could probably hunt, but that would require the use of a fire. Fire! We should look for smoke and find other people, beg for help. No… Not a reliable strategy. Too reliant on the demeanor of natives. So… do both. Percy and Nico can most likely put a fire together without my help. Thalia is a Hunter; she can find food for them. I will search for help. Wait. We need shelter too. Should we keep moving then, or –

"Annabeth. Annabeth." I suddenly became aware of Thalia trying to get my attention.

I snapped back to reality (or whatever messed-up version of reality we were currently inhabiting). "What?"

Thalia stared at me patiently. "You were staring off into space. I was starting to worry."

I waved her off. "I was just trying to think. Athena always has a plan." I composed my thoughts. "Okay, we need to find some kind of shelter before nightfall. Then we need to find food – and by "we", I mean "you". The boys will make a fire – if they can do so without burning themselves. I will go find other people and return to our shelter once I've gotten some help." As far as plans went, it was pretty bad. In fact, it was downright horrible. There were way too many holes in my logic, but our situation was pretty impossible to begin with.

Thalia frowned. "I don't want to separate. What if you get into trouble?"

I spoke with more confidence than I felt. "Come on, Thalia. I can handle myself in a fight. Besides, we'll have to contact the people here sooner or later. What other choice do we have?"

It took me a few more minutes to completely convince her, but within the hour we were walking eastwards once more. Just as the sun was setting, we came across a wide clearing with the ashes of a campfire in the middle and a run-down cabin on the edge, almost hidden by trees. It was some kind of traveler's sanctuary; clearly, the cabin was not meant for long-term habitation, but there were several signs of recent activity. Thalia declared that a group of six people had stayed here for one night two days ago. According to the Hunter, there had been one horse-rider, one person in heavy armor, two men, and two children. They had oh-so-conveniently restocked the wood pile, so we didn't even have to look for fire wood.

"Perfect," I said. "You guys stay here. I'll be back by sunset tomorrow." Percy grabbed my arm. Despite our rest earlier today, he looked awful.

"No way, Annabeth. You're tired too, I can tell." I hated to admit it, but he was right. The portal hadn't affected me too much, but the day's trek had begun to tell on me. "We can all stay the night here. In the morning, you and I can both go after those people. Nico and Thalia can find a more permanent shelter for us."

I wanted to argue, but just then, I yawned. After that, nothing I could say would convince Percy that I didn't need sleep just as much as he did. There were no beds in the cabin, so we copied Thalia and made beds of leaves and grass outside the cabin. I slept peacefully, without dreams.

The next morning, Percy and I set out, following the tracks of the group that had stayed in the cabin two nights before. We had been walking for about an hour when Percy suddenly perked up. "I hear running water," he told me. "Come on!"

I smiled and followed him, but my smile twisted into a frown the moment we caught sight of the river. About a dozen large, dirty men were relaxing on the riverbank. Their tracks led upstream on the edge of the river, which was why we hadn't come across their trail in the forest. They were so ugly and gruff I felt sure they had to be some kind of criminal or bandit. Percy was so eager to get to the river he nearly tripped over his own feet when he saw the men and started backing up. Too late. They had already seen us.

Even as I drew my dagger and prepared to fight, my head was spinning. Could we fight them? How did Celestial Bronze work here? At least I could understand the bandits' language, as coarse and rude as it was. The possibility of a language barrier had been bothering me. Percy, as usual, didn't bother to pause and plan. He charged right towards them, trying to rush through and get to the river. My heart pounded as the adrenaline entered my system. That could work out very well, if Percy still had his water-based abilities. If he, like Thalia and Nico, had lost his powers, he could be in trouble. Obviously, he had the Curse of Achilles, but he wasn't wearing any armor, and there was always a chance a stray axe-blade could hit his back…

Riptide slipped through the first bandit's ribcage, then came up, bursting the man's heart. Well. Apparently, Celestial Bronze could cut mortals. Or, these people weren't considered mortals… A nasty looking axe-blade descended towards the top of my skull. I dodged easily and drove my dagger into his shoulder, slicing the tendons. Whipping the dagger out, I slid the blade into his neck. Ignoring the warm spray of blood – and the sudden, sickening realization that I had just killed someone, not a monster, for the first time in a year and a half – I backed up, keeping my dagger at the ready. I checked on Percy. He was fighting brilliantly, and he was close to the water. Then, an axe came in, deceptively low. Percy's blade was lodged inside another bandit's throat; he didn't even try to block. Why should he? Achilles' Curse would protect him… wouldn't it?

Riptide bit into the man's arm, but the axe had already cut a diagonal slash from Percy's chest to his left hip. My heart almost stopped. Percy stared open-mouthed at the bloodied axe and fell backward. Blood roared in my ears, but I tried to push my panic away. He had fallen into the river. The water would heal him. It had to. It had to.

But Percy didn't get back up.

I wanted to scream, but my jaws were clamped shut. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. Not Seaweed Brain, I thought. Oh, gods, no, not my Percy. One of the men, his arm bleeding from Percy's final strike, rolled Percy further into the river's current, but my attention snapped back to the other bandits, who had gathered in a circle around me, blocking any escape.

For the first time in my life, I didn't know what to do.

"Lookit what we found, boys," one of the men sneered. I ignored him and assessed my enemies – Percy had killed two and crippled one, and I had killed one more. Eight were left. I couldn't take that many, not in this condition. If only I had my cap!

The man was still talking. "Them slave traders like sub-humans, but they'll always take a pretty girl too, won't they, boys?" What in Athena's name was a sub-human? Oh, what did it matter? Percy was… I looked at him, fury tightening my grip on the hilt of my dagger. I didn't have my cap. There was no way out, and I'd rather go down fighting than be sold as a slave. I rushed forward, digging my blade into the man's stomach. He choked on his own blood and turned away, but another man must've come up behind me. The flat of an axe crashed into the back of my skull, and everything went dark.

A/N: OH NO! IT'S A CLIFFIE! Don't worry, I hate those too. I'll update as soon as I can.