okay, this chapter is SUPER long, and mainly background. if you don't really care how they met, you honestly could skip it. but then again, this took me forever to write, so please read! thanks for the review anonymous guest! love ya 3 enjoy everyone. disclaimer: i only own the plotline. the characters belong to uncle rick.

I cannot believe I could have been so stupid as to think I could actually win in a disagreement with Annabeth. Stupid, STUPID, STUPID! I shouldn't have even invited her in the first place. Hazel's a great partner; I should have gone straight to her! Well, too late. Here we sat in awkward silence. I stared straight through the windshield, making no attempt to apologize. There wasn't a point in that, we'd decided long ago. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her slouched against the torn-up remains of the old truck's metal door. i laughed under my breath. Recalling the day I had met her and her companions.

Jason and I ran silently through the heavy night. The thick, humid, air suffocated us as the moon provided a faint light. So many monsters had come after us in the past month, we'd already made it all the way down the state and over into texas about an hour back. Sometimes I wondered what would have happened if we waited a week or so to leave Lupa. Or if I hadn't left at all. Sometimes I wondered what would have happened if we'd split up, but that thought never lasts for long. Everything was going to be better now. No annoying sister. No lonely silence. Instead, I had him. Life was great before we left. I still don't understand why we had to leave in the first place.

We'd lost the sound of the monster's snake-legs long ago, but I still didn't trust the world long enough to stop. Unfortunately, my body didn't agree. I slowed down to a stop and fell to my knees, panting hard. Jason slowed as well, bending over me with his hands on his knees and practically dripping with sweat. "we…should….make camp." He said, wheezing.

"agreed"

Within the next half hour, our tents were up, our water bottles full, and a nice golden flame heated two cans of soup stolen recently from the local mini-market. We ate hungrily, replacing conversation with the crackle of the fire until we were both finished. We went ahead and threw the cans in a trashcan along the nearby nature trail. "so what now? We can't stay put but we can't keep running. How are we even sure that that thing isn't too close for comfort already?" I asked

"it'll be alright. I'm sure we would hear a snake woman if there was one. For now, let's just get some sleep." He reassured me. "I can take first watch.."

"no, it's fine. You're probably more tired than I am, and…"I protested.

"rey" he said, placing his hand on my shoulder and giving me those big blue puppy dog eyes. "you're practically shaking. Go sleep."

"but..i'm older. I shou-" I started up again. He folded his fingers together and placed them under his tilted chin, creating a mocking pout.

"oh big sissy. Are you the only one who can save me?" he teased

"just stop it!" I snarled playfully, bumping his shoulder on the way to the tent as we both chuckled. "goodnight sparky" I called.

"sleep tight chocolate fiend." He hollered back. I closed my eyes and my thoughts instantly melted into the surrounding darkness.

"REYNA AVILLA RAMIREZ ARELLANO GET YOUR SORRY ASS UP!" is definitely a good way to get me alert after a whole hour of sleep. (for those of you who can't detect sarcasm, don't try that at home). I sprang up from my blanket, the hunting knife clenched in my fist, and nearly ripped the tent to shreds as my eyes tried to focus. My attention turned rapidly towards the chaos outside. Snake lady was back. I swapped the knife for my new golden sword (courtesy of Lupa, so we don't get killed as easily) and ran to help defend Jason. His shield was pressed against the side of her javelin, but it wouldn't hold for long. I raised my sword to finish her off for the third time this week, but something hit me hard and I was thrown to the ground. A heavy metal net pinned me down, as another snake-legged demon slithered up beside me. I strained my neck up to catch a glimpse of Jason, but only saw her give a cruel smile and hiss with enjoyment. Her arms raised up her javelin and positioned it right over my squirming abdomen. I felt my heart beat its way into my throat. "JASON!" I screamed, now in a panic. This was it. I was going to die. How could I find my sister from the underworld? How could she find me! Would Jason be alright? Well of course not. He'd do something stupid like go back to Lupa. Gods he could be such a moron. My breath shallowed into quick bursts, and I was about to squeeze my eyes shut when the most unexpected thing happened. Something flew through the air and slammed into my attacker's head, making her not only stumble backwards, but stab the ground beside my head instead of me. I stared at the bronze tip, reflecting the remains of our fire back at me. Suddenly, it was ripped upwards, along with the heavy net. A calloused hand flung me back on my feet, and I raised my sword. Before me stood a man, around 18-20 years old maybe? And a girl my age with a bronze dagger, just like the javelin. Both had blonde hair like Jason, and the man even had blue eyes, but one of them had a long scar over the lid of it that continued onto his cheek. The girl's eyes were an intense grey, and studied me with detail. "You wanna fight us or the dracnae over there?" she snarled. We both lowered our weapons, but only to find that another girl, around the same age as the man, was walking in front of Jason through the piles of ash. She had short cut choppy black hair with a faded blue streak, and swirled a charm bracelet on her finger. Her eyes were also blue, but more, electric. Jason fell in behind her, but with his hand on his sword hilt. Grey eyes retrieved from the pile of ash nearest us what must have been the life-saving projectile. A hammer.

"Never mind then. Thals got it." the scar face said. The sun rose in the distance as I tried to figure out whether or not I would need to fight these people.

"nice throw" the older girl said, giving grey eyes a high-five and a smirk. They stood on either side of scarf ace, who took his sword out and stabbed it into the dirt.

"now that they're out of the way," he gestured to the fading piles, "I'm Luke. Who are you two?" he asked, leaning casually on his sword and flashing a smile.

"I'm Rachel, and this is Jake." I replied cautiously. I'd learned the hard way that just because someone helped you, didn't mean they were trustworthy. Charm bracelet girl, who had been studying Jason, looked almost suspicious. I didn't like her. I didn't like any of them. Or this situation.

"well then Jake and Rachel, what is it that you're doing here, and who do you belong to?" he inquired again.

"we could ask the same of you three." I hissed.

"Fair enough, Annabeth, daughter of Athena, Thalia, daughter of Zeus, and I'm a son of that excuse for an immortal, Hermes. Your turn."

"I'm a daughter of Bellona, he's a Jupiter kid. And why are you here?"

"the hunters went north east, so we went south west." piped in Thalia.

"what hunters?" I asked.

"of Artemis. Duh." Replied the Athena kid. "plus, you're not Greek, so how are you alive?"

"we're ROMAN! Not Greek! Need me to spell it out for you? R-O-M-A-N. you got a problem?" I shouted. Jason moved to hold me back, but I raised my sword up. In a millisecond,Luke had his up to my throat.

"now now, no need for shouting. We're all friends here. Put it away." He ordered. I slowly obliged, still eyeing Annabeth. "why don't we sit down huh? You guys can tell us your destination, and your real names. We're not stupid. Heard him call for you a mile away from your camp. What was it? Reyna Avilla Rami-"

"stop it! we'll talk!" I cut him off.

A few hours later, we were all seated around the fire pit as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. Four of us were deep into conversation but Annabeth absentmindedly whittled herself another knife.

"so basically, she was almost sphinx meat, I was about to be a martyr, and she was still trying to mix that stupid repellant.." Luke trailed on about on of their 'adventures'. Thalia rested her head on his shoulder and laughed, remembering the incident. Suddenly, Annabeth screamed. No, she didn't scream. She screamed. as in the kind of scream you heard from space. All of us jumped as she dropped the stick she was working on and jumped onto the tree stump she had been using as a chair.

"again!?" Thalia complained. She nodded.

"it-it's a bl-black wid-d-d-ow." She stammered. I looked down; expecting there to be a small spider crawling out of the branch, but what we got was massive. It was easily the size of my foot, and with inch-long pinchers at the top. I drew my knife and stabbed it before anyone even blinked. It exploded into hundreds of tiny black arachnids, covering the blade and the beginings of the hilt. I retracted my hand and stared at the strangers.

"again?!" I asked. This was normal for them?

"my mom's nemesis is Arachnae herself. Thank you for killing it." Annabeth whispered as she sat back down.

"no problem?"

"they won't touch you. Only me. You can pick up that knife. It's a nice one by the way. Where'd you get it?" she stated.
"oh. My dad gave it to my sister. When we left Puerto Rico, he wanted us to be safe, and stick together, and… so I took it from her when we split about a year ago. She went north and I went south. End of story." I rushed out.

"oh. Sorry to hear. Well, at least you're never going to be alone again." She replied

"what do you mean?" I asked

"if it's okay with you, we'd like to join together. Make a group of five instead of three!" Luke said, rubbing Thalia's arm.

I looked at Jason. His scar made a funny shape as he motioned why not? I looked back at Luke.

Deal.

"We're almost there. You should put on your armor." I told Annabeth, breaking the memory and snapping me into the present. She shook her head, then straightened up and stretched. Her arm reached into the small back seat and pulled her bag up. After 2 minutes of clanking and wiggling in the small cab of the truck, she leaned back and looked at me.

"you ready to show these monsters what we're made of?" she asked as I pulled into a long driveway under an old unreadable ranch sign.

"ready as I'll ever be." I smirked.

We caught sight of something large circling the farmhouse down below. About five more swooped around it, clashing against the windows and scraping at the wooden sides. Annabeth took a deep breath beside me as I pulled to the side and parked. I turned to say good luck, but she got me. "I don't need your luck." She growled playfully as we always do, and hopping out of the truck. I bit my lip, then grabbed my bag and got out on my side. I opened the back, and the dogs jumped down as I slipped on my helmet and breastplate, then added on elbow and kneepads, just for good measure. Annabeth jogged ahead of us, the dogs beside her. I ran to catch up, only able to think about how much I wished sometimes I hadn't killed that spider.

yay! background! hope you all liked it. pleas follow and or review, and have an awesome day.

~~ Megi :) 3