Here we are again. Looking forward, very much so, to the Mark of Athena. I really cannot wait to see how Riordan manages the actual mark itself, what has happened to Athena- not too stunned that something has happened- indeed, gods are not really the supreme power, as Percy and a whole lot of other people have shown- so she's probably been captured, sliced to peices- i'm pretty the message 'avenge me' wouldn't come for a simple capturing- more like a little humiliation. But, anyway, here we go- and this is really, really short, so, I am dissapointed myself, but I apologise, and promise to have something at around 10,000 words next update. Review plzkthnxbai

Annnabeth

Annabeth wandered out from the second cabin on the deck, looking back at the fast spiraling circular doorway that held Piper, Frank, and Hazel. Frank and Hazel had been inside there, playing about with the television- apparently the noise that had made blocked out all the other sounds coming from jason and Percy's tussle, when she had herded Piper in, who had looked increasingly fragile by the minute. Worried about Piper's state of mind almost as much as she did for Jason- even so, she tried to empathise with the situation, imagining Percy attacking- no. That was the most ridiculous thought. It was impossible. Exactly, she told herself. That perfect, infalliable Jason would attack Percy like that...well, it had shocked her. Not enough to make her refrain from clubbing him with her knife hilt, mind you. After she stood there a moment, she strode downstairs, looking for Percy and Leo. Who had been no help at all, thankyou very much. She'd spoken to Piper very briefly after comforting her for a while, and the most she'd been able to wriggle out of her was that he'd been acting...well, pretty much insane- too far gone, at least, to doubt that. She had to organise some way of looking after him until she found a way of bringing him back, and she doubted very much that they'd done anything other than sit with him. She strode downstairs, quickly, and, hearing and seeing, just, the door close to the third bedroom, she started in surprise and walked over to there. Could it be they had actually formulated a plan to do something about it? She opened the door, to see Percy and Leo binding an unconscious Jason to the deck with straps and strips of leather, tied and knotted underneath the bed. Wow.
Percy turned, and greeted her. She hesitated as he turned, to reply from his greeting. Percy with his shirt off was distracting, she had to admit. But not that much. Percy raised his eyebrows. "Annabeth?"
She shook herself slightly. "Yeah. Um, you guys are tying him up? Great, so I was thinking we should get two of you down here and staying in here to guard him, you know...until we can figure out how to heal him of whatever's got him like this."

"Yeah, I was thiking about that. Maybe me and Frank should get down here, you know, until we can, as you said, cure him." Agreed Percy.

Leo stood with his arms folded looking at Jason, and then Annabeth. "How soon is that, then?"

Worried, then. Annabeth thought. Only he'd prefer it if we didn't see.

"well," she replied. "I should probably go back upstairs and send an Iris-message back to camp. Chiron can probably talk with the Apollo cabin. But, about Jason, you and Frank, percy, can you keep him under guard and everything?"

"Yeah, of course." Percy replied.

"Right," Leo said, clapping his hands together in a fair imitation of anticipation. "I'll get Frank to come back downstairs, and then i'll just carry on steering the ship to wherever it is we have to go..." he trailed off as he wandered out of the door.

Annabeth sat herself down on the bed next to Jason's, which Percy was leaning on, though with a very faint air of apprehension about him.

"Are you ok, Percy? That did't look too comfortable when he was strangling you," she asked with the faint hint of a smile.

He looked at her for a moment, expression not changing, then the corners of his mouth twitched. "Yeah, i'm fine. Could barely speak for a moment or two afterwards though," he said. "I've had worse."

"Awww." She got up off the bed, and walked to the front of Percy, tracing the lines on his chest with one hand as the other sanked round his neck and brought him down slightly, as he was not too much taller than her, to kiss him.

A slight shuffling of feet turned her head from Percy's, and she turned to to see Frank standing haltingly in the doorway.
"Er...Leo said to come downstairs- do you...need me?" He stammered.

Annabeth realised how was still curled around Percy, and wthdrew herself, face flushing, if slightly reluctantly- which he seemed to be, as well. "We were talking about Jason," she said.

"Yeah, right." Frank seemed to recover from his embarassment. "I heard what happened..."

"Basically, we need someone to keep and eye on him. Well, two someones, actually, since everyone's got to sleep, so would you be all right with Percy in here, keeping an eye on him?" she asked.

"Er...yeah, no reason not to," he replied.

"Ok, great," she said, satisfied. "Why doesn't one of you collect your things for a night or two- it may take a few days to get him back to normal-" she hadn't the faintest idea, but she was hoping what Chiron or the Apollo campers told her would be promising. "And i'll go back upstairs and send an Iris-message." She walked out of the doorway in front of Frank, who had come further into the room, and smiled at Percy before walking upstairs, onto the deck.
She took a quick glance into the other cabin to see Piper talking with Hazel, who had her arm round her, but mostly crying. She walked round to the back of the cabin with the instruments in, and, fishing in one pocket, brought out a golden drachma. WIth the other, she unravelled the hose, and, holding the nozzle out in front of her, created a delicate rainbow with a combination of the fine spray and the late afternoon light shining on the deck.

She threw the drachma into the mist and intoned, "O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Chiron, at Camp Half-Blood."

The drachma simply dissapeared in the rainbow, as if enveloped up by an invisible, gargantuan hand. There was silence, apart from a faint murmmur from the other cabin, and then Chrion appeared, in full horse form, bow hanging at one side in his hand and quiver over his back. He was teaching a class, watching a bunch of kids drill arrows into bullseyes a distance away.

"Chiron!" She called.

He turned, surprise evident on his face as he recognised her. "Annabeth!" he greeted her. "How goes the journey? Is Percy well? and Jason?"

"We're making good progress," she assured him. "And Percy's fine." Her hesitation filled in the words more completely than words could.

Chiron cantered slightly. "What has happened to Jason?" He looked to the side, and appeared to be waving campers away. For the best, Annabeth guessed. Won't really look good if Jason's out of the game a few days into it.

"I don't know. He was injured during an attack on the Argo II- he was out cold, completely out for quite a while, about nine hours, and when he woke- I don't know, it was almost like he was going completely insae- he chased Piper out of the room with a spear, gods! And then he barged me over and almost killed Percy-" her lip trembled slightly, although she barely realised it. "I managed to knock him out, and we're holding him down, with a guard on him. What we need is a way to make him better. I was hoping someone from the Apollo cabin, maybe Will could-"

She said no more before Chiron gestured hurriedly to the side, beckoning, and then Will, form the Apollo cabin, ducked into the image slightly in front of Chiron.

"What's up, Annabeth?"

She explained the situation, as briefly as she could, to him. When she had finished, he sighed in consternation, running a hand through his blond hair.
"Jesus. There is something you can do, but it's fairly risky."
"Well, it's for the best, Will. We've got to get him well, soon!"
"Ok. What you've got to do is feed him ambrosia and nectar, right up to the point where if he takes another drop he'll burn up. Different people have different resistances, so i'm not sure how much he could take. Essentially what this does, is- you know how we're all half-god, half-mortal? This basically pushes our mortal half to its very limit, it almost burns it away, and, in doing so, while the mortal part of the body is practically being incinerated, it's...really weak, you know? And what you need to do then, is to remind him of a personal memory- best coming from the person the memory concerns, but anyone may do- well, you know, just as long as it's not someone he hates- and the memory serves as a lifeline to who they were before, it brings them back to the state beforehand, to their usual state. And that's it. You see the risk? If you feed him the wrong amount, he'll burn up, or, if it's too little, the memory won't work, and you'll have to wait days for him to recover- he may even remember the memory and stop himself from responding to another attempt."

Annabeth caught her breath. It was by no means the riskiest thing she had ever done, or, most likely would ever do, yet anything risky concerning one of the seven can be considered twenty times so. Piper would have to do it- and yet, she needed time to recover. She could hardly just keep up as she had been before.

"All right. It's the best we've got." Annabeth reasoned.

Chiron attempted a smile, though worry prevented the full upturning of his mouth, and tightened his eyes. "I'm sure you'll succeed. Remember to take care of-"

Annabeth just looked at him. And raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," he conceded, smiling in a more lively fashion this time. "I'm sure you'll do that better than anyone else.