I know I've disappeared for quite a long time, and I apologize greatly for this. I know there is no excuse for this, and I am not going to try to trick you with a lame excuse. I haven't updated for nine months, and many of you, if not all, came to believe I had abandoned this story. And for a while, I had. However, I assure you, I am back. And the only way I see for me to offer any sort of redemption is to write.

I've gotten better, I must say. I don't know if I've reached "good" yet or if I will, but I'm better than I was. xD My assistant quit, understandably, so I must find a new one.

I aim to defeat this story by summer's end (Haha, Avatar reference. :D) (And not the blue people. -_-), and I think I can do it. Your reviews and PMs were what inspired me to return. I thank you for that. You are the best fans ever. So, I won't stall any longer -

- except for the DISCLAIMER: Even if I did own Percy Jackson, he'd have run away by now, I think. It wouldn't have been that hard, either. Now I'd have to wander the streets and the cities and the deserts and the forests, calling, "PERCY! PERCY! I'M BACK, AND I WANT TO OWN YOU AGAIN! PLEASE COME BACK TO MY BASEMENT!" Something tells me he wouldn't come back. D: Maybe the cops are the ones telling me that, as I'd probably get taken into custody eventually.

Anyway. To recap: Annabeth, the lunatic, has found Percy and slain the Chimera. Percy has healed his cuts and bruises and Annabeth's burns from the fight before collapsing. And then there was that ending ... but more on that later. Well, here we go!

~THE KIDNAPPED HERO TRILOGY 3: FRAGMENTATION~

IV: Consolation

{DAY EIGHT}

PPOV:

When I awoke, expecting complete darkness, the sight of the hallway and Annabeth before me came as a surprise. I sat up. My girlfriend was still asleep, which I could have predicted; I probably hadn't been out for very long, anyway. I had slept enough in the closet.

My head ached horribly, and I suddenly became aware of my desperate need for water. Though it contradicted my earlier attitude, I now felt a strong determination to survive and get back to camp. I guessed that was a good thing.

I knew if I could get outside and look around, I'd find water somewhere, but I couldn't leave Annabeth alone.

Before I could even decide what to do, I noticed Annabeth was moving.

She leapt to her feet and stood in front of me with her dagger out. Alarmed, I rose as well, and my eyes widened when I saw the look of terror on her face.

"You're not real," she accused.

Hearing her voice for the first time, I realized something … it wasn't her voice. She sounded changed, rasped. And the look in her eyes – she always had a fierce look about her, but when she was with me, there was a softness to them, a friendliness that showed her competitiveness was accompanied by care and trust.

That was gone.

Her eyes were cold now, hiding behind fear and abuse. She had receded, and, though I never thought I'd say this about my girlfriend, she appeared almost animalistic.

Then her words sank in.

"A…Annabeth – it's me. Percy."

Her knife stayed in the air, wobbling like a trapeze artist teetering on the edge. It appeared her entire body was trembling slightly, a feature that was amplified in her unsupported, outstretched arm.

"Annabeth, listen to me. I'm here. You saved me."

She shook her head quickly, refusing to listen. "No! I saw you before – on the road – I talked to you – but you weren't real! You're not real!"

I took a step forward, lifting a hand, trying to calm her down. "Please, A –"

"Stay away from me!" She thrust forward her dagger and I lurched back.

"Annabeth, what –?"

I froze.

There's something wrong with her, Perc. She's losing it without you. She's kind of going crazy.

I swallowed hard. I wouldn't let this happen.

"Percy…" she muttered, staring at me. "No. If I believe it, then … then you'll just disappear again and I'll be here alone."

Her knife hit the ground. "I can't be alone. I won't go back to being alone."

I watched as her eyes began to glisten and her right knee buckled, and she collapsed hard into a kneeling position. Sudden sobs racked her body as her hair fell and hid her face from view.

"I can't … be alone … not again."

I watched as my Annabeth deteriorated into a shuddering mass on the floor of a school we never attended.

Cautiously, I took a slow step forward. Then another. When I saw that her offense was gone entirely, I knelt before her and laid a hand on her shoulder; she jerked back instantly in surprise and looked up to see me.

I watched as her broken, gray eyes let down their guard, and she threw herself forward and clung to me. I wrapped my arms around her and held her closely as her sobs continued for a different reason, and listened as they began to die down and finally cease.

We stayed like that for moments more. Suddenly something occurred to me, and I began to say with a grin, "Lying on the floor … you found me …"

Annabeth pulled back and slapped me on the arm. "You are not about to start singing that."

My grin widened, and after a moment of silence, we burst into laughter. It was badly needed for both of us – it was the first time I had laughed in days – but it didn't last long.

"Annabeth," I said. "Echidna left me here on purpose. It was a trap."

Her features darkened as if her worst fear had been confirmed.

"She wanted me to … to … she said that if you freed me, she'd attack the camp. We have to get back there."

Annabeth quickly got to her feet and extended a hand to me; I took it. "Grover warned me about something like that. I don't really remember all of it. I can't believe I didn't listen to him."

"Hey, we're together now because you didn't listen," I reminded her, keeping my hand in hers even after I had stood and we had started running from the building. "Still, he's on his way here now. Who knows how close he is?"

"If we're going back, we might run into him." We were out the door.

"Yeah, but there's no guaranteeing we'll take the same roads. And even if we do, it's not like we can pull over on the highway to chat."

"Yeah, well, I found him once, didn't I?"

Annabeth ran to the driver's side door. I watched nervously. "Um, you sure you don't want me to drive?"

She stopped in the middle of opening the door and stepped back slightly, embarrassed. "Yeah, maybe you should for now," she muttered awkwardly, and we changed sides. We both hopped into the truck and closed our doors.

"I could try to get him on the empathy link before we go," I said.

She stared at me. "Uh, Seaweed Brain? Don't you think it's a bad idea to do that while someone's driving? Trust me, I shot him an Iris message while he was on the road a few days ago and he nearly crashed the car."

"Oh. Right." I grinned despite myself; it was good to hear even the nickname Seaweed Brain again.

Then I blinked, and turned to her. "Do you have the key?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry." She reached for her pocket and stuck her hand inside; when it came back out, the key was there. "It's a miracle I didn't lose it in that place."

I took the key and put it in the ignition, and I was about to turn it when I stopped. I looked at Annabeth again.

"What?" she asked.

I reached out and grabbed the back of her head, then leaned toward her and firmly kissed her. After a few seconds, I let her go, and said, "I've missed doing that."

Then I turned the key and started to drive.

After barely twenty minutes, we ran into Grover.

Literally. The road was an empty narrow two-way just outside the town, and Grover was going so fast, we barely saw him before he was swerving to avoid us and skidding uncontrollably at a diagonal down the road. We hit the back of his car before I had time to brake.

We both pulled over on his side of the road. Annabeth and I exchanged looks before hopping out of the truck.

Grover looked shaken and horrified as he came to approach the driver he'd nearly killed. "I'm so sorry, I didn't –"

He froze when he saw it was us.

"Percy! You're okay! Thank the gods you're all right! And Annabeth!" The excitement vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "…Oh. Hi, Annabeth."

He looked at me with despair. "I'm so sorry, Percy! I swear, I tried to stop her! I drove as fast as I could to get there and intercept her –"

"I can see that," I remarked.

"Well, if I remember correctly, you were the one who said I could go a hundred miles per hour if I needed," Grover retorted.

"As much as I love this little reunion, we need to get moving again," Annabeth said from beside me. "We can chat on the way."

I nodded, and Grover looked over his shoulder at his smashed car. "It's going to look a little weird if I drive that," he noted.

"Then come with us, and leave it here," I told him, already running back to the truck. "We have to get back to camp."

"Leave a stolen car half-destroyed on the side of the road? Who does that?" But he followed us anyway, opening his door and climbing into the backseat.

I flattened the gas pedal, and we zoomed back into our lane and down the road.

"Annabeth, don't you have something to say to Grover?" I asked with a half-mocking tone.

She sighed. "Grover, I'm sorry I knocked you out with a stick," Annabeth said to the satyr over her shoulder from the passenger's seat.

Grover's ears turned red and he cracked a smile. "It's okay. Just don't do it again," he said with a laugh.

It was an hour later. Earlier we had pulled over to a 7-Eleven to get water; I was the only one to enter the store, seeing as how the others were both wanted for carjacking. I bought a few snack bags and spent the rest of what I could afford on water bottles with the money Grover gave me (I didn't ask him how he got it; I was just grateful for it.). Once I got back to the truck, we each took a bag and a bottle and tossed the rest in the back to save for later in the trip; I took an extra bottle just to use for the strength it gave me.

We all swapped stories during the ride. Annabeth went first, and Grover assisted the parts he was in. Then he filled in the gaps of what happened before they met up on the road, and what happened after I had contacted him.

"I sent an Iris message to Chiron at camp," he told us. "I told him everything that's been happening. He has the camp on alert, and he's told the campers that Echidna plans to break in. He says it's not safe to Iris message him again until we're really close; then we should contact him so he can allow our way in."

"If she hasn't attacked by then," I muttered.

He gave me a worried look. "He said he was closing the boundaries; no one gets in or out. He has some of the centaurs as guards."

"Do you think a couple centaurs will stop her?"

He gulped. "After I talked to him, I kept driving toward Powell. I didn't sleep much until last night, when I finally checked into a hotel. The rest of the nights I just pulled into some parking lot, napped a few hours, and kept going. Though for such unchallenging straight lines, highways are really exhausting."

"It's because your brain is forced to concentrate on such a boring task nonstop; a really confusing road would have kept your energy going a lot longer," Annabeth commented.

When dusk finally came, I decided we all needed a night of rest. We found the hotel with the cheapest three-bed rooms, the Chare Jimerk, and settled in.

Grover fell asleep instantly. "He really was exhausted," I commented to Annabeth, and we laughed quietly.

Our beds were adjacent, and for a while we kept the light on and talked quietly to each other. Neither one of us could sleep.

"What do you think is going to happen when we get back to Camp Half-Blood?" she asked me.

"I don't know," I responded, and I didn't. But I knew it wouldn't be the same.

When I saw she was getting sleepy, I got out from the covers of the comfortable hotel bed and walked the few feet to hers. She smiled as I stroked her hair, and she leaned up to kiss me.

"Good night," I whispered, and she lay back down. As I returned to my own bed, she returned the phrase, before soon falling into a deep sleep.

A good night. For once, even with the impending doom of the camp and its inhabitants, I knew it would be.

The woman smiled down at the boy. "You have been much help to me, fine demigod. I thank you for your service."

The boy smiled back at her, ready to serve her cause.

"Unfortunately," the woman continued, "demigods are notorious for being traitorous fools. Simply by listening to these words I speak, you're betraying your own kind, and I do not doubt your potential to turn back. I am sorry; we could have been a good team."

Before the boy could reply, his throat had been slit and his life was gone.

The woman smiled as she moved the body of the teenager. When she was finished and retreated into darkness, she smiled still.

She was not sorry.

And on that note -

This is unedited, but it's late (after midnight Saturday night) and I really want to get this out there, so I'll edit it and likely make changes in the morning. Oh, and as a heads up, the story's rating will be changed to M after a chapter or two; this is because of future violence that I won't yet spoil. xD

Chapter five the night of Sunday the 24th if I'm lucky, Monday the 25th if I'm not, Tuesday the 26th if I'm very unlucky.

TTFN - ta-ta for now!