Look, another one. That was awfully fast.

Bolle Accidentali: Ha ha! That much is resolved this chapter, at least. Note the time difference carefully, though...

pjsandwich: Thank'ee very much. I was hoping that I'd poked at the motives behind Annabeth's choice enough to not make the reader explode with "Annabeth would never do that what are you thinking" type thoughts. I also hope I did a decent job of holding off exactly who she was serving until the end... it's hard when the original summary mentioned the fact that she was with the Titans, only that summary didn't fit on . Anywho.

Word Count: 2,375 (well, I did promise a longer chapter; this'll be closer to average length)

Deep in the sewer systems of New York City, a fight was brewing.

"Take it back, before I run my spear through you," a boy with a buzz cut growled, circling his opponent.

The girl scoffed, tossing a lock of blonde hair over her shoulder as she turned to keep him in front of her. "You couldn't scratch me if you tried, graecus dog."

"Why, you little -"

"Knock it off," a new voice commanded, and everyone – boy, girl, and the small crowd that had gathered to watch the fight – went silent. People shuffled aside to let the teenage girl through. Her brown hair was in a choppy, shoulder length cut she'd done herself, a braid on one side. She wore no makeup, but she was still seriously beautiful, even when she was ticked off – Native American complexion, kaleidoscope eyes that constantly seemed to change color. She stood with her arms crossed, battered old army jacket somehow making her more impressive, not less. "Marcus, Vic. We've talked about this, haven't we?" she asked sweetly.

"Yes, Piper," they both muttered, exchanging a glance that said they both knew they were in for it.

"Then why do I have to keep reminding you?" She glared, every appearance of sweetness falling away. "We're in the middle of a war. We can't afford to be fighting each other. I know, there was some big rivalry between the Greeks and Romans – I get it. But we're not Greek or Roman anymore. We're barely even American. We're barely even alive. So -" she pointed a finger at Vic - "stop bringing up old grudges, and -" her finger swung over to Marcus - "stop provoking fights with other demigods. Okay?"

Grudgingly, the two of them agreed. There was no arguing with Piper. She was beautiful and impulsive and she was generally accepted as a leader even though she was technically equal with the rest of them, but beyond even that, she was a daughter of Aphrodite. She had inherited her beauty from her mother, but she had also gotten a rarer gift from her godly parent: charmspeak, the ability to convince others to do what she told them to with only a few words. Though she rarely used the ability, everyone was always aware of the fact that she could use it if she chose. And if you really ticked her off, her 'siren voice' sometimes kicked into gear without her meaning it to.

She flicked her hand at the gathered demigods, and everyone dispersed, scattering, gone within seconds. The only boy left padded over to her, adjusting the bow over his shoulder. "Nice," he commented. "That could have gotten ugly fast."

She tipped her head to acknowledge him. "Didn't realize you were watching."

He nodded. "I was about to get into that, actually, but it probably wouldn't have gone too well."

Piper studied the Chinese-Canadian boy for a moment. Although he was built big, and was by no means weak, he was still padded in baby fat, rounding the edges that otherwise might have given him an imposing figure. Still, he was smart and he was a good shot, and he had stepped into his new role as the leader of the Underground well, despite his own misgivings. "They respect you, Frank," she reminded him gently. "You just need to learn to respect yourself. They gave you this job, remember?"

"I know," he agreed. "But with everything that's going on up there..." He jerked his thumb at the roof of the tunnel, trailing off. She quieted too.

She hadn't been active during the Titan War, but she had heard stories. How the demigods of both camps, which had at the time been unaware of each other, had fought – the Greeks to defend Manhattan, and the Romans to topple Mount Orthrys. How the palace of the Titans had been destroyed, and Krios killed by the great hero Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. How the fight in Manhattan had boiled down to one choice, the choice of the Great Prophecy, which it was agreed had taken place up on Olympus. No one knew the details of what had happened up there – for the demigods who had been present, the Greek heroes Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, and Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, along with their satyr protector, Grover Underwood, had all been reportedly killed in the blast – but it was evident that the wrong choice had been made. Kronos had risen. Olympus had been destroyed. A new palace had been built in the wreckage of what used to be the Empire State Building. Most demigods had been killed or captured. Only a very few had escaped. The Second Titan Age had begun, and the mortal world had been all but destroyed.

Piper had learned she was a demigod a few days after the fall of Olympus, when a pair of dracaenae tried to kill her. Scared out of her mind, she had screamed out something along the lines of, "No, please don't!" and the monsters, much to her surprise, had stopped. She figured it out in time to escape, fleeing, running for weeks until she stumbled across a trio of demigods searching for survivors. She had been brought to the Underground, and though obviously no one was claimed anymore, it quickly became clear whose daughter she was.

In the following months, she had learned to fight with a dagger, Katoptris, which had once belonged to Helen of Troy, and to control her charmspeak. She had rapidly gained respect from her fellow demigods, Greeks and Romans alike, and now had her job smoothing over the fights that regularly sprang up among them. It was a largely thankless task, but one she was good at. She had helped search for survivors, her charmspeak proving useful in calming mortals and demigods alike and convincing them that she and her friends were not enemies, that they would bring the survivors to safety. The Underground housed mortals as well as demigods, but they were few and far between by their very nature, and they didn't mix well with the half-bloods. It was a tough, stressful, very hard life, but all of them were grateful to be alive at all – even if it might not last much longer. So far, they had managed remain under Kronos' radar, hiding from his spies, but it was getting harder and harder as monsters multiplied, without a sufficient population of demigods to send them back to Tartarus.

"I know," she said softly. "But we're alive. That's what matters right now."

"And we're going to stay that way," he said firmly. "Keep the Underground alive, above all else. There are still demigods unaccounted for. My closest friend from Camp Jupiter... there's no way that the Titans took her alive. She has to be out there somewhere."

Piper rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. "We'll find her. If Hazel can be found, we'll find her."

Hazel Levesque happened, at that moment, to be fighting for her life.

Of course, it was becoming more and more common for that to be the case at any given moment. With monsters multiplying by the day and no heroes left to kill them off, it was getting harder to keep away from them. Still, she managed. Sort of.

"Come on," she muttered, cavalry sword flashing as she sliced at one hellhound's snout when it got too close. "Where are you?"

The second hellhound snarled and lunged at her, but she stabbed her Imperial gold sword up into the underside of its jaw and it exploded into monster dust with a whimper. She swung at the other one and missed, the weight of the blade pulling her a little off balance, long enough for the monster to pounce, jaws snapping at her throat.

There was a sonic boom, and a shrill whinny, and hooves slammed into the hellhound's neck, throwing it away. "Good boy," Hazel gasped, relieved. Arion snorted and bobbed his head, as if to say, Of course I am. Hazel grabbed his mane and swung up onto his back, urging him forward, and by the time the hellhound thought to run, she had already stabbed it in the neck, sending it back to Tartarus and going on her way.

Arion snorted, unhappy to be back here, and she rubbed his neck. "I know, boy. But even the Amazons had to go into hiding; they're not here anymore." A few months ago, Hazel had watched an Amazon shipping convoy moving Arion to a safer location, struggling to get the stallion to cooperate. She had seen Arion and immediately known that he was the same horse she had seen in Alaska seventy years ago, though how that was possible, she had no idea. Either way, she knew he had to be hers, and she'd stolen him from the Amazons – obviously with the stallion's help. Since then, he'd saved her life multiple times, providing the fastest means of escape other than the blinking that gods used.

Now, she was looking for weapons, and this place was one of her best chances. The Amazons were long since gone, withdrawn into their strongholds, sending only small convoys of their best warriors out between their bases when necessary, but in their heyday, this had been one of their major shipping routes for weapons and armor.

Hazel slid off of Arion's back and sent out her senses. Gold, lots of it, was scattered throughout these hills, but it was really a question of how much of it was Imperial gold and how much of it was just the average stuff, from bank vaults and whatnot. Closing her eyes, she called for Imperial gold.

The ground rumbled and split open as gold came to the surface. Hazel knelt and started rummaging through the wreckage; most of the weapons were broken and splintered, but she tucked away several arrows that had survived intact, despite the fact that she couldn't shoot worth beans. A tiny glint caught her eye, and she stopped, picking up the small piece of the godly metal with great care. She had never seen it before, but she had heard stories about this magic weapon, and she stared at it in awe. The daughter of Pluto had never expected to find this; she had thought it destroyed in the Second Titan War.

But it was worth keeping. If its owner was still alive, he would want it back. And if anyone was liable to run across him, it was one of the only rogue demigods left.

Hazel tucked the coin into her pocket, jumped up onto Arion's back, and vanished.

Five Months Ago...

When Percy woke, the first thing he saw was a dolphin snout six inches away from his face.

He yelped, jumping nearly out of his skin. The dolphin backpedaled, chittering apologetically. Sorry, lord! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to startle you, but you were out for so long...

Percy put a hand to his forehead, head pounding. "Ow..." His whole body hurt, despite the fact that he wasn't supposed to get hurt anymore. He stared up and slowly came to terms with the fact that he was on the ocean floor, his only company a bottlenose dolphin that should not have by any means been this far from the surface. "Where..?"

Oh – right, of course – Atlantic Ocean, way out in the middle of nowhere. East of Manhattan, north of Atlantis, way, way, way west of England, the dolphin squeaked, all way, way, way too fast.

Percy wanted to mention that that basically described most of the Atlantic Ocean, but his head hurt a little too much. "What..." His eyes shot wide open as everything returned in a rush. Luke. Annabeth, hurt, fighting Kronos. The explosion. Annabeth. "What happened?"

The dolphin swam around to help nudge Percy upright. Hard to say exactly, but wow, we felt that blast all the way down here. I mean, not here, exactly, but the ocean next to -

"Got it," Percy muttered. "There was another demigod with me... Annabeth. And a satyr, Grover. Up on Olympus... is she... are they..."

The dolphin was silent for a moment too long. Lord... no one else could have survived that explosion. You barely made it; you were unconscious for almost three days, and you only survived by the good graces of the Fates, causing you to land in the water, and the Achilles curse, which probably burned away in the blast. If there was anyone else up on Olympus when Kronos rose... I'm afraid they're dead.

Percy couldn't comprehend that for a moment. Annabeth... Grover...

"No," he whispered. "They can't be... they..." He doubled over in the water, and the dolphin hesitated, as if unsure what to say or do.

The strangest thing? Percy knew, somehow, that Grover was gone. He no longer had the empathy link with the satyr – Grover had removed it at the dawn of the Second Titan War, insisting that the danger was too great of one of them dying – but he could sense that his friend was gone. But Annabeth...

"No," he said again, stronger. "She's alive. She has to be alive. She would find a way. She has to be alive..."

The dolphin stared at him, then chittered, If you say so, lord, then it must be so.

Percy looked over at him. "What's your name, anyway? And, um, what are you doing on the ocean floor? Dolphins don't usually come this deep."

He laughed, a rapid squeaking sound, then whistled, My name is Phil. I'm a son of Delphin – the dolphin god – and a mortal dolphin. I'm a half-blood like you, technically. I can withstand pressure and temperature changes far past the range of a normal dolphin. And I can swim a lot faster. And hold my breath a LOT longer. And most dolphins will accept my leadership. Though Dad says I have ADHD... and that I talk too much. Do I talk too much? I don't think I talk too much, mostly, but every once in a while...

"A demigod dolphin. That's just weird," Percy muttered, but he shook his head and said out loud, "Well, Phil, we've got a lot of work to do. We've got an army to rebuild."

Lord?

"You heard me. We're taking down the Titans, and I'm saving whatever demigods are still alive up there."

Do not question the name Phil. I have no idea. These things just kind of happen.

Don't expect me to update every day, by the way; I just happened to have Chapter Two on hand because my muse exploded yesterday and I decided I'd better post it before my readers came to kill me for what I did to Annabeth. Sorry no development on her this chapter, by the way; I have a lot of characters to cover, and I know that chapters that are too too long can get really hard to read (although I do despise too-short chapters as well, m'self).

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed or is reading without reviewing! Reviews, please? Don't be shy!