"Annabeth, come on!" Hazel screamed.

Annabeth looked at her, dazed. Percy. No, this can't be happening. Hazel tugged on her arm desperately, but, since Annabeth was bigger, she didn't move. Hazel shouted desperately, but Annabeth didn't hear her.

A second later, a leopard raced up to them. It morphed back into a winded Frank. Annabeth still wasn't used to seeing him like this, all tall and muscular. She still thought of him as that sweet guy who had come for her help when the only way he could get out of Chinese handcuffs was to turn into an iguana. Not that he wasn't still a good guy. He was just a tad bit… scarier.

"What is it, Ha- Annabeth!" Frank said. "Took you long enough! Where in Hades have you been?" He realized what he had said as soon as it came out of his mouth, and he blinked. "No! That's not what I meant! I mean, where have you been the past few hours? 'Cause you've already kinda been in Hades and… uh. Yeah. Where were you?"

Hazel couldn't resist the small smile creeping on her face. "Frank, Annabeth had a bit of amnesia." When Annabeth looked at her, surprised, Hazel added, "Piper told me."

"Amnesia? Again?" Frank asked, then cursed.

"Frank, please stop talking."

"Right."

Hazel took a deep breath. "Okay, I need you to get Annabeth up there, fast."

"Where?" Frank asked. Hazel glared at him, and he ducked his head. "Sorry, no talking."

"Where do you think?" Hazel rolled her eyes. Annabeth was surprised for a second. Normally, Hazel was pretty calm. She wasn't prone to sarcasm much. I guess this is what she's like when she gets really stressed, Annabeth thought. Like, 'my friends might die and my boyfriend is being an idiot' level stressed.

Frank nodded and morphed back into a leopard. He looked up at Annabeth and nodded. Hazel put her hand on Annabeth's shoulder. "You can do this, Annabeth," she said. "Ignore everyone else. We can take care of it. Just find Percy."

Annabeth finally nodded and climbed onto Frank. For a split-second, she caught Hazel staring at Riptide sadly, as if she knew she'd never see its owner again. Then she caught herself and tried to smile encouragingly.
Frank took off with a jolt. Annabeth almost fell off his back, but managed to grab onto the hair on his neck and shoulders. Riptide was still in one hand, so it stuck out awkwardly to the side. Annabeth wanted to cap it- if running with scissors was bad, she was sure riding a leopard with a sword was worse- but she couldn't without falling off. If she was Percy, she could have just let it drop and waited for it to reappear in her pocket, but she wasn't sure that it would work that way with her.

Frank dodged through several pairs of monsters and demigods, and Annabeth had to restrain herself from jumping off to help them. She felt like just running past them was cowardly. What was the point of having a sword if you don't use it, right? As Frank ran past, she saw a demigod, no older than fourteen get disarmed by a snake woman with a trident. He lost his balance, and the snake woman ran him through without hesitation.

"No!" Annabeth screamed. "Enough! Frank! Stop!" Either Frank couldn't hear me or he didn't want to hear me. Either way, he didn't slow down. "Fine," Annabeth muttered. She took a deep breath and let go of Frank. She immediately slid off of him. She tried to land on her feet, but the art of dismounting a leopard was something Chiron had never seen fit to add to their training.

Suffice to say, she landed less than gracefully. As soon as her feet touched the ground, her momentum carried her forward, and she tumbled to the ground painfully. She scrambled to her feet and took a moment to reorient herself.

As she did this, she suddenly realized what the implications of what she had done were. Now she had no fast way to get to Percy before Gaea decided that she was tired of waiting. Even if Frank returned for her, which she was almost certain he would, she couldn't get back on, no matter how mad Hazel would get at him. Annabeth wasn't okay with leaving all these demigods behind, even if it meant that Percy would have to take care of himself for a few more minutes.

Annabeth began to sprint toward the side of the field where Gaea waited. She swiped across the back of an empousai and left her for another demigod to finish off.

As she ran toward another giant, she saw Frank out of the corner of her eye, searching for her. She felt guilty, but she angled away from him. She didn't need to have an argument with him right now.

"Wise Girl?"

Annabeth skidded to a stop. If she just did what I think she did….

"Come on out, Wise Girl. He doesn't have much longer." Gaea laughed.

"She used Percy's nickname," Annabeth muttered. "She used Percy's nickname! That's it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Gaea is officially worse than Hera."

"Annabeth!"

"Frank." Annabeth sighed. "Look, I just-"

"No time!" Frank sprinted next to her, breathing heavy. "Look, I know that you don't like leaving all these people behind-"

"They're kids, Frank!" Annabeth shouted, still running. "They didn't sign up for this!"

"Yes, they did!" Frank stopped suddenly and grabbed her shoulder.

She spun on him angrily. "What, Frank?"

Frank panted. "Yes, they did," he repeated. "They could have chosen to run. They don't have to fight this battle. They could be on the interstate driving home, or out eating with some of their friends, but they chose to be here. They chose to stay and fight. Do you know why?"

Annabeth tried to brush him off, but he stayed in front of her. "Do you know why? Because they know that this- all of this, the camp, their friends, the dryads and fauns-"

"Satyrs," Annabeth interjected.

"Whatever. They know that all of this is worth fighting for. They knew the risks when they chose to stay, and now they're getting the chance to save what they love. Let them do their job, Annabeth, and you do yours."

"Which is?"

"Saving Percy, obviously. He can barely make breakfast without you, let alone fight Gaea." He leaned down a bit and whispered, "Trust me, I've had his pancakes."

Annabeth struggled to keep down the smile that was growing on her face. "Fine, you oversized panda." She turned and began running toward Gaea, leaving an extremely confused Frank. The smile she had been holding down finally spread across her face. I've always wanted to call him a panda, she thought.

Annabeth had to resist the urge to help a Roman fighting a cyclops. She watched him as she ran past. He was probably around her age, and he looked like he had it in hand, but she still had the urge to join in the fight.

Someone barreled into her and knocked her over. She landed on her side, hard, and someone landed on top of her.
"Ah! Sorry, sorry!" Whoever was on top of her scrambled to get off, but Annabeth stopped.

"Leo? What- what are you doing?"

Leo sat back. "Oh, hey Annabeth!" He was wearing some kind of leather vest and arm guards. Connected to his right hand was a long metal pole, at least as long as his arm. "I, uh… I had to improvise."

Annabeth raised her eyebrow. "With a metal pole?"

Leo stood. "Hey now, don't be hating on my metal pole. It's like a flamethrower, but- much more dangerous."

"It's more dangerous than a flamethrower, but is one?"

"Right." Leo helped her up. "I would explain, but you need to get going, right?"

Seeing Leo in such a weird get-up had taken her mind off of her problems for a second, and that made her feel guilty. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

She made to get up, but Leo held out one hand. "Take this," he said. "In case Percy needs it."

Annabeth took a small piece of ambrosia out of his palm. "Thanks. Be careful, Leo. Don't get yourself killed!"

Leo scoffed. "Ha! Why would I ever do that?" And with that, he returned to his flamethrowing. Annabeth shook her head and started to run. She could see Gaea more clearly now. She looked bored, her dead green eyes half-closed, as if she didn't even need to pretend like she was in any danger. She was lounging back, all ten feet of her, casually swatting away arrows and the occasional demigod. She looked so detached about it, too, like she did this every Friday to relax and couldn't care less.

That thought made Annabeth angry, more angry than she already was, even than she was about the whole "Wise Girl" incident. Gaea was now way above Hera on Annabeth's "Total Jerk" list.

Yes, she had one. Included on said list was Gaea (as before mentioned), Hera (as also before mentioned), Drew (she had heard the stories from Piper), Aphrodite (you need only take a look at Annabeth's love life to understand this one), and the lady who worked at Starbucks (who, for some unknown reason, extremely disliked Annabeth and never gave her the right order).

But now was not the time to think about Starbucks. Now was the time to worry about the monsters that were popping up all around her. There were ones that she hadn't seen for years, like the giant scorpions and stymphalian birds, and ones that she had never heard of, like the double headed dragon that was moving around by biting one head with the other and rolling around, occasionally biting people.

Actually, now that she saw it up close, she remembered something she had read late one night when she couldn't go to sleep. She remembered because it reminded her of an infinity sign. What was it called? An Amphisbaena? That was it.

That wasn't important. What was important was that Annabeth made it to Gaea in time. She ran past the Amphisbaena and headed straight toward Gaea, who was still a couple hundred feet away. Through all the noise and monsters, she couldn't see Annabeth yet, but she soon would.

Suddenly a sharp pain flared in Annabeth's calf. Annabeth's leg buckled and she cried in pain as she hit the ground. She looked down at her leg and saw a snake-like monster with its jaw clamped around her calf. It had two ram-like horns, and was at least five feet long. Its yellow eyes stared Annabeth down as its jaws closed tighter.
Annabeth grunted and lifted Riptide to strike it, but its tail whipped around and smacked it out of her hand. "No!" she shouted, but it was too late. Riptide was a few feet away, and the stupid monster- a Cerastes, she remembered- had no intention of letting go.

Annabeth looked around desperately and saw a large rock to her right. She stretched and was just barely able to reach it. As soon as her hand wrapped around it, she lifted it and slammed it against the Cerastes' skull. It made a whimpering noise and tightened its grip even further. Any more and it would take off the rest of Annabeth's leg.

She raised the rock one more time and smashed it down with as much energy as she could. There was a dull cracking sound, and the Cerastes went limp. Annabeth gently pried it away from her leg and grimaced at the sight of her leg. There were four deep holes in her leg from the fangs of the monster. They were really deep; she didn't need to look to know that. The entrances were starting to turn slightly green and black.

Annabeth cursed. "The stupid thing was poison!" She moved her leg slightly and bit back a scream. There was no way she would be able to move until it was healed, and there were no demigods around that could help her. Any that were nearby were too busy trying not to get killed. She saw a Roman fighting the Amphisbaena. It spewed liquid fire at the demigod, and she wasn't able to get out of the way in time. She ran, screaming and trying to put out her hair.

Fire. Leo gave her ambrosia!

Well, the ambrosia was supposed to be for Percy, but if Annabeth died, he wouldn't be saved anyway. Annabeth only felt slightly guilty as she unwrapped the ambrosia and bit down on it. Immediately, a warm taste of chocolate filled her mouth.

Ever since she had visited Mrs. Jackson when she was fourteen, before she met Rachel and went into the Labyrinth, ambrosia tasted like Mrs. Jackson's cookies. It was kind of sappy, but that was where she felt most at home, even now. Mrs. Jackson just made her feel so welcome, so loved, as opposed to her step-mother, who never seemed to be able to choke out the words, "I love you." or "How was your day?" She could at least try.

Was it sad that Percy's mother loved her more than her step-mother? Maybe. More than Athena? Annabeth wasn't sure about that one. They both showed it in different ways. Annabeth just happened to prefer Mrs. Jackson's method via chocolate chip cookies.

They also reminded her of Percy, which was never a bad thing. Percy was such a huge part of her life now. She felt like they had been through so much, they deserved to have a normal life. Despite the never-ending ways the gods came up with to postpone that, she still believed- hoped- that it would come someday. She couldn't afford not to.

She couldn't help a sigh as the pain in her leg slowly dissipated and the wounds vanished. She carefully massaged her leg for a few seconds before deciding that she was healed.

She carefully rewrapped what was left of the ambrosia and stood. She bent to grab Riptide, and when she looked back up, she saw Gaea standing as well. "No, no, no," Annabeth muttered. "What are you doing? I'm not there yet!"

Gaea stretched calmly, and Annabeth gritted her teeth in anger. The ancient goddess yawned and looked out over the battlefield. "Well," she said, calmly. "I see that Wise Girl doesn't care for you as much as she said she did, Perseus." A pause. "Oh, don't delude yourself, dear," she continued, as if replying to someone. "If she did love you, she would be here right now, wouldn't she?"

Annabeth wanted to scream that she was here, that she was so close, that if Percy could just hold on for another minute… But she was frozen, unable to move out of pure shock and fear. She's going to do it. She's going to kill Percy.

"Let's get this over with, then, shall we?" Gaea raised her hand and the earth twisted under her. A huge spear came up out of the ground under her hand as if she were dragging it from Tartarus with sheer force of will. Which, Annabeth guessed, was exactly what she was doing.

It rose to almost eight feet, with a two foot long blade, sharpened and glistening in the dying sunlight. Gaea sighed. "It has been a long time since I wielded this weapon. A weapon worthy of me is hard to find, Perseus. I had to contract my own sons to make this for me, and, would you believe it, there was no discount for being their mother! I had to pay full price for this magnificent spear!" She sounded indignant. "Do you know how expensive this was? Why, I had to- well, that is irrelevant. I don't think dying man would want to hear all the nitty-gritty details."

This finally galvanized Annabeth into action. She took off, and she got near enough in time to hear Percy shout, "Oh, on the contrary, I would love to hear more details! Please, regale me with all your stories! As many as you would like! I'll listen to all of them!"

Gaea looked interested. "Really? You would? Why, not even my own sons are willing to do that." She seemed to mull this over, and Annabeth sped up, desperate to reach them before Gaea decided that it wasn't storytime.

Gaea shook her head. "That's a very tempting offer, but I'm afraid I must turn you down. You see, there are so many things I need to do, and killing you is currently number one on the list, not storytime."

Crap. I'm too late. Annabeth shoved through a group of demigods who were just standing there for some reason. Annabeth wanted to shout at them to help, to do something, but she was already breathing pretty hard from running all the way across the battlefield.

Gaea raised her spear. "My children, are you ready to take back your birthright?" Every single monster on the field shouted in agreement, and the sound was deafening. Annabeth stumbled to a stop and held her hands over her ears.

Gaea smiled evilly. "My warriors, are you ready to destroy Mount Olympus, brick by brick? Are you ready to tear it down stone by stone?" Another deafening cheer. Gaea's phrasing reminded Annabeth of Kronos, when he was making his way to the throne room and defacing every possible monument on his way. She could see where he got his crazy from.

Sadly, Annabeth missed the days when her only problems were Kronos destroying Olympus and Percy. Now, her problems included Gaea destroying Olympus, the camp, the gods, anything and anyone remotely related to them, and taking over the entire world. Not to mention Percy. He was still a problem, just in a much different way.

"Come on, Annabeth," she told herself. "Get it together." She clenched her teeth and ran forward again. She ignored Gaea's rousing speech about birthright and murder and focused on running, on putting one foot in front of the other.

She could only do this for so long, of course. She had to look up when Gaea stopped speaking. She was already almost to Percy, almost to the front, and she could see Percy, lying tied up on the ground, an oozing gash on his forehead and in several other places. She almost cheered up when she saw him, despite the circumstances.

Then Gaea raised the spear, and Annabeth's heart almost stopped. Gaea paused for a second, taking in the moment, reveling in her power, in her new form. Percy's eyes were wide open, full of a fear that Annabeth hadn't seen from him since Tartarus, and not often before that. Gaea noticed this. Her smile didn't reach her eyes.

Then she plunged the spear down toward Percy's chest, and Annabeth knew that she wouldn't be able to reach her in time to save Percy's life.

Please know that any reviews absolutely make my day that much better.

All of the monsters that I mentioned in this story are real (well, were actually in mythology), although I may have added a few details here and there... oh well.

Honestly, this story came out of nowhere, and I didn't really know where I was going with it, and I didn't expect anyone to see it, so thank you to whoever does see it and decides that it is worth their time. This does mean, however, that I have no idea how long I'm going to make it, and any updates are going to be kind of sporadic. Apologies.

I hope you enjoyed, and thanks again for reading!