I'm glad you guys like the new romance! Please keep reviewing and tell me what you think!

Actually, though, this time I've got to say something I failed to mention before, and let me use caps for emphasis: THERE WILL BE CHARACTER DEATHS IN THIS STORY. I know at least one character will die (No, I'm not gonna say who, you snoopers) but I'd like it better if there were two. So, all that to say, if your favorite character dies, please don't flame me, because I won't pay any attention to you. Enjoy chapter twelve!

Percy's POV

We tore away from the Parthenon and back into the city. Annabeth was blabbing the whole time about how there was no possible way the Gorgons could have come back… "I mean, they died thousands of years ago!" I agreed with her, but I waited until we were back in front of the Batman Building to talk.

Somehow, I knew the Gorgons weren't dead. They had just been weak back there. Somehow Luke had brought them back from the dead, and they were just getting warmed up. What they had said about Medusa scared me. I had no doubts that they would keep their promise and get revenge on me.

We sat in front of the large building and watched the bustle and traffic of Nashville. I watched the guitar players on the streets, secretly hoping one of them might be Apollo, hear to give us a ride like when me and Grover and my other friends went on the quest to save Annabeth. No such luck, though.

"This is so bad," Annabeth was saying. "We have to get out of here, like, now. But how? There isn't even a taxi!"

I realized she was right. Nashville was pretty big, but it wasn't big enough that you couldn't drive around in your car if you had one. We were stuck with no ride, no way out of the city.

Tyson suddenly tapped my shoulder. "Man wants you," he said, pointing.

I looked. Standing at the bottom of the steps was a large man in a big sweatshirt. A hood covered his face, but he pointed down the street. I looked where he was pointing and gasped.

It was a huge, creamy white limousine, the kind Hollywood stars rode in. It was long enough to fit all of us easily, and it was parked on the side of the road. I got the strange feeling it was waiting on us. "Hey, guys," I said, pointing. "There's our ride."

I turned to look at the man, but he was gone. Weird, I thought.

"What are you talking about, Percy?" Annabeth snapped. "That's not for us."

"No, he's right," Nico murmured. "Can't you feel it? It's…calling us." The others nodded, and Annabeth looked even more annoyed.

Finally, she gave up. "All right, fine," she said. "But for the record, it was not my idea to walk into some stranger's limo and…" She continued ranting as we walked across the street and stepped into the limo.

The inside had its own miniature bar, which only served nonalcoholic drinks, and it was loaded with food and massage chairs. It even had its own 40" cable TV. We stepped inside and sat in the seats, looking at everything in awe.

The minute everyone was inside and we had shut the door, the limo began pulling off, although where it was going, I didn't know. We rode toward the hills in the west, and Jacob looked back, sort of regretfully, like he didn't want to leave. "Don't worry," I said to him. "We'll come back someday."

He nodded. "I know," he said. "Someday."

--

We spent the following night in the limo, heading west up through Missouri. I still didn't know where we were going, but spending our first night in a limousine was pretty okay with me.

I quickly found out the limo was magic. For one thing, there was no visible driver, although the limo seemed to know where it was going. Then, each of our individual favorite drinks poured themselves and served them to us. It was weird, but pretty cool. I still wondered who that man could have been, but I didn't dwell on it too much.

We sipped our drinks and munched on snacks while we discussed our next move, but we were all too tired to talk. Pretty soon, we hit the lights and settled down for the night. Jacob began flipping channels on the TV. After a few minutes of arguing, we finally found The Bourne Identity on one channel and decided on that.

Annabeth sat down next to me and sipped on her Coke timidly. "You should sleep," I told her.

She just nodded. "Percy…" she began. "This feels weird. The quest, I mean. We've already been attacked twice on our first day, and we don't even know if the Hunters are at Mount Tam. It just doesn't feel right."

I shrugged. "We've just got to trust Chiron's word. Don't worry, we'll figure something out." I smiled at her, and she smiled back, though I could tell she was still worried.

Late into the night, as we sat watching the movie, Annabeth slowly slipped into slumber. Her eyes closed and her head slowly fell onto my shoulder. At first, I was surprised. I considered waking her, but she looked beautiful, sleeping so peacefully…well, I left her be, to put it short.

Lying there, my head resting on hers, smelling the sweet scent of her hair, it made me realize that it was little moments like this that made things like the quest worthwhile. This was what life was about. This was why I had to defeat Kronos. Because unless I did, the world wouldn't have things like this anymore. That, I thought as I slowly fell asleep, was something worth fighting for: the little things like a teenage guy and a girl falling asleep next to each other, the things that made life suddenly seem so worthwhile.

--

Jacob's POV

Maybe it was the caffeine in the Coke in my hand, or the action movie playing on the screen in front of me, but I couldn't sleep.

The limo was pretty amazing. Magical servants gave us whatever we wanted. But it didn't help what I was feeling inside. The truth? I was afraid.

Back at the Parthenon, I hadn't been able to fight the Gorgons. If Percy hadn't distracted it, it could have killed Annabeth and me. Killed. For the first time the word rang through my head, and I suddenly realized that there was a good chance I would die on this quest. Not disappear. Not go into a coma and then miraculously revive. Die. D-I-E. Never come back. The concept scared me beyond anything else I had seen.

I looked over. Annabeth had her head against Percy's shoulder, and they were both sound asleep. I smirked, thinking maybe I should take some pictures or something. Percy was twitching and mumbling in his sleep, and I figured he was dreaming. His eyes suddenly shot open. He glanced at Annabeth, who hadn't moved. He gently moved her head so he didn't wake her, then he ordered a Coke and sat down next to me.

"Bad dream?" I asked.

He took the Coke and took a gulp, and then he nodded. "You wanna talk about it?" I asked.

He glanced at me suspiciously, then gave in. "Okay," he said. He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.

"I was standing in Kronos's throne room, on top of Mount Tam. I saw Artemis standing there, accusing Luke of keeping the Hunters as hostages. Luke told her he would return the Hunters to her as soon as his other problem- I'm guessing that's us- was taken care of. He told Artemis maybe she should help him out. She acted like they'd had this discussion before and snapped that she wouldn't do it. Then he-" Here Percy gulped before going on- "He brought one of the Hunters in and had her tortured before Artemis."

I gasped. "What did she do?"

"I don't think she could do anything. She seemed like she wanted to help, but something was holding her back. Then suddenly the Gorgons walked in. They said they had failed in killing us. Luke got really angry and the whole throne room started crumbling. That's when I woke up."

I laid back. "This is really bad," I said. "We have to get to Mount Tam, and fast."

He nodded, obviously still shaken by the nightmare. "You don't know what it's like, being the hero of a prophecy like this," he said. "Having so many hopes on your shoulders, so many people staring at you, wondering if you're the one who'll save us. Sometimes I wish-" He cut off, and I got the feeling he was about to say something personal.

Instead, he looked at me and managed a small smile. "I wish I could be you, Jacob," he said. "You're so laid back and calm, it seems like you're not afraid of anything."

I stiffened, and stared at the TV. "Not everything," I said quietly. He looked confused, so I told him about my fears for the quest.

He stared at his glass for a while. "It's your fatal flaw," he said finally. "I should've guessed, considering who your dad is."

"What is?" I asked. I'd heard of fatal flaws, but I'd never thought of what mine might be.

"Your thirst for control, and leadership. It should've been obvious, considering who your dad is. You crave control. You want everything to be good, in balance, and you want to be the one who makes it happen. That's why you fear death so much. If you die, you disappoint everyone and lose your chance to maintain control. It would be like your ultimate failure."

I thought about that for a while. The more I did, the more I knew Percy was right. My thirst for control was my fatal flaw. I tried to think of a way to counter it. The only way I could think to stop my fear of death was to get better at fighting, but that would only make me want to be more powerful. That is, unless I had someone who would help me and criticize me even if I was good…

"Percy, will you train me?" I asked.

The question surprised him. He just said, "What?"

I looked down. "I think I need someone to teach me about the sword, in the right way, someone who can humble me and stopper my thirst, yet at the same time improve me so I don't fear death anymore. And I can't think of anyone better to do it than you."

He looked me over, like he was trying to decide if I was being honest or not. Apparently, he realized I was. "Okay," he said slowly. "I think I can do that. We'll start tomorrow. Or, at least, whenever this thing stops." With that, he got up and sat next to Annabeth. Pretty soon he was asleep again.

I stared at the movie playing on the TV, and wondered if I had just made the right decision, or gotten myself into a world of trouble.

--

Early the next morning, the limo stopped.

We all got out, and found ourselves in the middle of Kansas, with nothing but trees and forest around us. The limo pulled off and drove into the trees, and suddenly it was gone.

We all watched it go, then Grover said, "So…what now?"

Annabeth shrugged. "We keep heading west," she said, and started walking. The rest of us followed.

We spent the next three days trekking through Kansas, seeing few towns and even fewer people. We tried to keep on the DL most of the time, but it wasn't really necessary. There wasn't a person in sight.

Each day I spent getting to know everyone in the group. Some things I found out quickly: that Nico had stayed at the Lotus Hotel for seventy plus years too, that Tyson worked at the Cyclops forges in Poseidon's kingdom, that Annabeth had come to camp when she was seven years old. Other things came slower, and with much reluctance: that Grover felt like he couldn't lead the search for the wild places, Nico's frustration at not knowing his background, Annabeth…well, don't even get me started on her.

I spent more time talking to Rachel than anyone else. The others in the group thought it was so she wouldn't be shunned; she was mortal, after all. I almost convinced myself that was the reason. But that wasn't it at all.

She taught me more about art, told me about the quest in the Labyrinth and how scared she had been. One night, when we were sitting alone, she finally told me about her father.

"He's a good man," she said, staring at the night sky. "Big and powerful. But his work…it just goes against everything I want to defend. He tears up wild parks for his business. We fight a lot about it. I run away every other week, stay at one of my friend's houses. They don't mind, but still…" She choked, and lowered her head.

I wanted to think of a way to comfort her, but I didn't know how. I wanted to put my arms around her, protect her from everything around us that tried to hurt her, but I didn't know how she'd react to that.

I walked back to where we were making camp for the night, deep in thought. I had to think hard about this. I couldn't help how I felt for Rachel, but there were several problems. For one thing, she was more than a year older than me. She might think of me as some kid, for all I knew.

For another thing, Rachel was…mortal. As much as I tried to ignore it, the blatant fact stared me in the face every time I talked to her. There was no ignoring that relationships between Greek heroes and mortals hadn't gone too well in the past. I didn't know if it would work out for us either.

And then there was Percy. She followed him around all the time, talking to him, laughing with him. It was obvious she liked him, and he had a way better shot with her than I did. I could tell Annabeth didn't like it either, but I couldn't get the courage to go talk to her about it. I was afraid she would gut me or something.

Late that night, after everyone else was asleep, Percy picked up Riptide and whistled quietly. "Come on," he said, jerking his head back into the woods. I got up reluctantly and followed.

We had sparred twice a day for the last three days, and I was still sore from the last match that day. We found a spot deep in the woods and Percy began teaching a left-handed backswing. I was forced to push all thoughts of Rachel out of my head as we began to spar. Percy was…astounding. I've never seen a better swordsman in my life. And the cool thing was, I was a match for him. I tried to ignore it, to be humble, but I had to suppress a smile every time I knocked the sword out of his hands or he called us off when I could've kept going. I was about as good as he was, with a fraction of the training.

Although the training brought us a little closer, I could still tell Percy resented me. For one thing, he was the only one who still called me Jacob. Everyone else had followed Annabeth's lead and started calling me Sparky. Maybe he disliked me because of my dad. Maybe because I had beaten him in my first sword match. Whatever the case, Percy Jackson didn't like me, and I was too nervous to ask why.

After the sparring, I washed my face in a stream and plopped down on my mat, exhausted and wanting to sleep. I dully wondered how long this schedule was going to last.

Little did I know it wouldn't last long. In fact, it would only last two more days, until June 22nd. On June 22nd, everything changed.