CHAPTER FOUR: ANNABETH

When they arrived in New York, Annabeth sensed Percy's energy levels shoot up. And that was before the guy scoffed down a whole pizza and two glasses of cherry coke at the Cafe Olay (seriously, cafe's had the weirdest names sometimes.) Annabeth got the feeling he wasn't just excited though; there was a whole lot of nervous energy coming off him too.

"More pizza?" Nico offered Percy a slice of his own, eyebrows raised.

The four of them, Nico, Percy, Bianca and Annabeth, sat at one of the cafe tables out on the pavement, underneath a colourful pink awning.

"Yeah, sure, thanks man." Percy grabbed the slice; he and Nico brushed hands. Nico's face flushed, but he looked pleased, not embarrassed.

Annabeth frowned. She had a nagging suspicion about why Nico was so fixated on Percy in particular… but it was a vague thought and she quickly brushed it aside. "So, Percy. Seaweed brain extraordinaire," she spoke dryly.

"The son of Neptune, apparently," Bianca added, her eyes narrowed at Percy, her tone frosty.

"The Big P," Nico put in.

Percy winced. "Please don't call me that."

Annabeth hid a smile, even though her head already buzzed from what little Percy had told them so far. "So, let me get this straight. You're a Roman demigod. And that's different from being a Greek demigod…?"

"Exactly," Percy nodded. "It's confusing, I know..." Percy continued his story. He told them how he'd been given a quest to save the sea creatures imprisoned in Atlanta, when he found Grover. He talked of a wolf goddess called Lupa and a Roman camp, Camp Jupiter. He talked about the Roman forms of the gods. He explained how in the Roman camp they didn't really believe Greek demigods existed, but that there was still some sort of rivalry between Greeks and Romans, thought to originate from past experiences the Romans had had with the Greeks. Then he stopped and hesitated. "I don't think there's any reason for rivalry in this day and age though. I'd never want to attack a bunch of demigods needlessly."

"Is that true for the rest of your camp though?" Bianca raised her eyebrow.

"How old are you?" Nico asked.

Percy chose to answer Nico, and Annabeth and Bianca exchanged a glance. "Eighteen."

Bianca had a fair point; all this news about Roman and Greek demigods was troubling. As was the idea that the Romans already had some sort of understanding about the existence of Greek demigods, whereas Annabeth had been completely in the dark about the existence of Roman demigods. Would the Romans perhaps want to annihilate their camp once they realized the Greeks existed after all?

Most importantly, was Percy Jackson even telling the truth in the first place? His story was hard to believe, even after all Annabeth had been through. And she'd fought Typhoon with the gods! She'd lead the assault on Hyperion in the Titan War!

Still... Percy's SPQR tattoo, his words… Annabeth's instincts told her he wasn't lying, but she kinda wished he was. It would make things easier.

"So is Annabeth," Nico nodded. "I'm sixteen, and Bianca's-"

"Not in the mood for fraternising with enemies." Bianca clenched her fists.

Nico shrugged. "Just trying to keep things from escalating. I'm making diplomatic small talk and all that."

Bianca rolled her eyes at Nico, then glared at Percy. "Jackson, I'm only going to ask you once more; how on earth do we know you won't go running back to your camp, telling them all about us nasty Greeks - and telling them exactly where our camp is located?"

"Well, for one thing, I don't actually know exactly where it's located," Percy protested.

Nico opened his mouth. Annabeth knew he wouldn't actually be telling Percy the location of the camp, or at least she hoped not. Bianca, however, decided not to take the risk. She covered Nico's mouth with her hand. "You know it's in New York," Bianca continued talking to Percy as if nothing was unusual about Nico suddenly using her hand as a dummy. Bianca waggled her other finger at Percy. "We don't even know where Camp Jupiter is!"

Percy looked at Annabeth. The seconds stretched by. Annabeth wished she could read his thoughts. Finally, he seemed to make a decision. "You're right. It's… It's in San Francisco. Or at least, near there. Now we're even."

Bianca let her hand drop from Nico's mouth. She was surprised by Percy's clear cut answer. Frankly, so was Annabeth. Percy continued looking at her, and she suddenly had to look anywhere else but at his sea green eyes. What the hell? Why was her heart beating faster? Focus, Annabeth!

"Believe me when I say I'm not gonna be telling anyone at Camp Jupiter about," Percy gestured around them, "this. Meeting you." Again he was looking at Annabeth. The he looked around the table. "All. Err, meeting you all." He smiled sheepishly and looked down for a moment, running a hand through his hair. Embarrased. He was embarrassed.

"Why?" Bianca sniffed. "What, we're not cool enough for the Romans?"

"What? You were just grilling me-"

"What, you need to be extra macho and descended from Poseidon," Bianca made a point of choosing the Greek term, "to be worth the Roman demigods' time?"

Percy scoffed. "Are you kidding me?! They hated me for the longest time! Or didn't trust me. Poseidon-I mean, err, Neptune-he's not a good omen. Whatever. Look, I'm not going to tell them about you super cool and amazing Greek demigods," and here his voice was heavy with sarcasm, "because… well. Some people in my camp aren't very open minded. Not at all."

"Aha!" Bianca's eyes lit up. This was of course why she'd been playing at being offended. "So you admit there is real danger in your camp knowing about us Greeks."

"Yes. I do." Percy's eyes grew clouded. Annabeth had a feeling he was back in the past somewhere, reliving some memory. Because suddenly the atmosphere changed, and changed instantly. One minute, it was a quiet and lazy late afternoon; the next, the hairs on Annabeth's arms stood up. Water glasses started trembling all around them, on their table and also on other tables around them. East River, which was nearby, suddenly started sloshing a lot more loudly than it had a moment before, the water getting more and more agitated. People started murmuring apprehensively. Someone gasped nearby. "Earthquake?" they asked uncertainly.

Annabeth cleared her throat. This did nothing. She lightly touched Percy's arm. He seemed to snap out of a daze. The glasses stopped rattling. The East River stopped making ominous noises. "Oh." Percy looked at her, his expression unreadable. "Sorry." His tone was unusually serious. He gently moved his arm back.

Bianca looked surprised and a little scared. Nico looked impressed and a little scared. Annabeth, however, was neither surprised, impressed nor scared. Percy was powerful. After all, he was the son of the big three (and honestly, she was still in shock over that). This was just him losing a bit of control. It must take the guy a lot of restraint to keep that power in check. Annabeth had barely been in the guy's company for an hour, but already she could tell he was impulsive. A little bit reckless.

"I… Well, anyway." Percy addressed them all. "I don't want anything terrible to happen to the camps; Camp Jupiter is my home. I'm sure you feel the same way about this Camp Half Blood. Judging from your behaviour," he looked at Bianca. "You're angry at me for being Roman. Maybe the rest of your camp would be too. I think you guys shouldn't tell anyone about meeting me either. We should all swear on Styx." He sounded grim.

Bianca and Nico both looked at Annabeth. What do we do? Their expressions were identical. Even though Bianca was older, Annabeth had been at camp Half Blood longer. The Di Angelo siblings valued her input.

"That's not what you want to do, though, is it?" Annabeth mulled everything over; Percy's story, his body language, the way his shoulders carried a lot of tension, as if he were holding up the sky (and Annabeth knew a thing or two about that!) "You want to see our camp."

Percy opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "Well - yes - but, I don't think there's any way it could happen. I can't show you my camp. There's just no way." Percy shook his head. "So how can I expect you to show me yours?"

"Just to be clear," Nico ventured. "You can't show us your camp because you don't trust us or because…?"

"You'd be killed," Percy said it uncomfortably, but there was no doubt in his voice. "The way things are run now, the camp is very traditional in it's views."

"You sound like this bothers you," Bianca noted.

"I stand by my friends in my camp," Percy said. "I am loyal to them. But," he admitted, "not necessarily to all the camp's old fashioned ideas."

Annabeth considered him. "Okay, here's the plan." She looked at Nico and Bianca. "You two, how's your energy? Do you feel a little better now?" The shadow travelling had sapped a lot of their strength (although Bianca had certainly had enough left to give Percy a rigorous questioning).

"Yes," Bianca nodded tightly, but she still looked too pale.

Nico gave a thumbs up.

"Great. You two should go back to camp. Talk to Chiron, tell him about Percy." Annabeth held up her hand as Percy protested. "Percy, Chiron is a centaur. He runs our camp. He's to be trusted."

Percy looked shocked. "Centaur's are evil!"

Annabeth, Bianca and Nico exchanged a bewildered look. "Can we really trust someone who thinks Chiron is a bad guy?" Bianca asked.

Annabeth pursed her lips. "Maybe the centaurs the Romans have met aren't very friendly. But Chiron is. He's on our side." Annabeth's tone was maybe a little too fierce, but she didn't care. Her eyes dared Percy to say another bad word about Chiron. Chiron was important to her… So much so that if she tried to describe how much he meant to her she'd probably sound like a cheesy greeting card.

Percy set his jaw, but didn't say anything. Annabeth turned back to Bianca. "Get Chiron's advice on the matter. Also, please check with him and Rachel about Grover's whereabouts. Then send me an Iris message."

"What are you going to do?" Bianca asked.

"Stay here with Percy, I guess," Annabeth shrugged. "He can't come to our camp, and he's Poseidon's - I mean, Neptune's - son. He'll attract a ton of monsters." Annabeth glanced at Percy. "Is that okay with you?"

"I've got no complaints. Well, normally I wouldn't anyway." Percy grinned. It was a kind of wolfish grin, but it didn't reach his eyes. "But, um, I've been a burden on you guys. I could just head off somewhere for a while, and meet up with you here in an hour or two-"

"NO!" Bianca stood up so quickly, her scone flew off the table. Percy caught it and took a bite. Man, the guy could eat. Where did he put it all? His body was all muscle and lean and tan. "You will NOT go anywhere alone. Annabeth will stay with you. I don't want you calling your Roman buddies and planning any sort of ambush. Got it?" She turned to Annabeth, her eyes wide and earnest. "Annabeth, promise me you'll keep an eye on him? At all times. And promise me you'll call me ASAP if he does one slightly weird or suspicious thing."

The thing was, Annabeth knew Bianca wasn't as harsh as she appeared. She was normally really mellow and sweet. But, she also cared a lot about Camp Half Blood; it was their home, after all. Camp Half Blood meant Bianca had a place where she was accepted, but most importantly, a place where Nico was accepted too. Nico had once admitted to Annabeth that he'd never felt as at peace with his crazy, chaotic life, as he did once he'd settled in at camp. Bianca didn't want Percy to ruin that by putting the camp at risk, particularly since Annabeth knew Bianca didn't plan on staying at the camp much longer…

"I promise." Annabeth said.

Bianca's shoulders relaxed. "Thank you." She pulled Nico up. "Let's go, brother."

"Whatever," he shrugged. Then he winked at Percy and grinned at Annabeth. "See you soon, and in camp I'll bet."

He and Bianca walked off to a nice quiet alley to shadow travel.

~x~

Fifteen minutes later, Annabeth wasn't surprised she'd received no Iris message. She knew it would take Nico and Bianca some time to travel by shadows, get their energy back, talk to Chiron and figure out what had happened to Grover. But, even though she explained this to Percy, he was still extremely edgy. Finally, it occurred to Annabeth that he must have something else on his mind.

They were now in a park, sitting on a bench. Percy finally turned to face Annabeth. The sun had started to set, and his face was painted in gold and orange. His turquoise eyes were like mini-oceans.

"Annabeth, do you trust me?" His question came out of the blue; he hadn't spoken for the last ten minutes.

"Um, no."

"Gee, tell me how you really feel then..."

Annabeth laughed despite herself. "Percy, I trust you in the sense that I get you're telling the truth. I trust that you're a good person. I'm sorry but I don't trust you to go off by yourself; you could get killed," Annabeth started listing reasons after catching sight of Percy's Are you kidding me? expression. "You could be ambushed by monsters. I might receive an Iris message at any point. I promised Bianca."

Percy crossed his arms and frowned.

"Well, do you trust me?" Annabeth challenged.

Percy hesitated. Finally - "Yes," he sighed. He looked agitated, but he stood up. He kept nervously shifting his weight. "Look, there's someone I have to see. This person's important to me and I can't have anyone putting her in danger."

"Oh."

"I -" Percy's voice cracked. He looked down. "I'm going to go see her. And him. Them. You can come with, since you promised you'd stick with me. Plus, I guess I wouldn't want you to be attacked by monsters while you're alone."

"Yeah? You guess, do you? I know my way around a blade, you know." Her eyes flashed, but with humour. She was just teasing.

"Yeah, I know. From personal experience." Annabeth could tell the guy was fighting a smirk as he pointed at his bicep. "I have no doubt you'd complete massacre any monster dumb enough to attack you." Percy grabbed her hand and tugged Annabeth up; he did it so naturally that Annabeth was pretty sure he didn't realize a thrill of pure excitement had just passed through her. "That's why I need be there too, to warn the monsters. At least offer them a chance to run away first." He let go. "So, coming?" he asked again.

Annabeth didn't bother to ask how do I know you're not going to lead me to a Roman ambush? or spew out any other interrogative crap. She could sense that he was genuinely going to visit someone important to him. Maybe a girlfriend? (For some reason Annabeth didn't like the idea.) Maybe some family? "Okay," she said simply. She smiled hesitantly. "Let's go." The wait for Nico and Bianca was making her anxious to do something anyway.

Twenty minutes later (Annabeth was getting slightly worried that Nico and Bianca still hadn't got back to her yet, but she guessed there was probably a lot they had to discuss) they stood outside a door in an apartment building, Percy shuffling around, getting ready to knock. He gulped.

RAP RAP RAP.

The knocks echoed loudly down the empty hall. Percy's nervousness was infectious; Annabeth felt jittery too. In the darkness of the hall, the brightest things were his eyes.

"Coming!" A muffled voice answered. The door opened a moment later. A woman with brown hair stood behind it. Her hair was streaked with grey and her blue eyes sparkled like lakes. She resembled her son. Annabeth realized with a sinking feeling that it was a mother-son reunion she'd intruded on. She tried to surreptitiously shuffle backwards.

The woman stared at Annabeth and then Percy, which is when her expression froze, her mouth puckered in an 'o'.

Annabeth looked at Percy, getting ready to whisper, well don't just stand there seaweed brain, hug her already!

But his expression stopped her; it changed rapidly, going from surprise to anger to happiness, before settling on being carefully blank. Percy's mother scooped him in a hug and Annabeth watched as he hugged his mother back. After a few minutes, Percy stepped back, studying his mother's face. His shoulders were still tense, Annabeth noted.

Then he spoke. "He was here." Percy's tone wasn't blank like his expression; it was furious.

Hey! : )

so, it's a cliffhanger. I think I really like having cliff hangers because they motivate me to write the next chapter faster.

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Lot's of talking in this one. Please let me know what you guys think, if you'd like me to add things in the story, or what parts of it you like so far/want to see more of.

Is there any particular character you'd like me to bring in from the Percy Jackson world? I think I want to bring in someone else, so lemme know who else you'd like to see in this fanfic!

Thanks for reading & cheers guys! xx