This is one of my longest chapters yet! I hope everyone likes! I'm open to suggestions, and this chapter is told from Annabeth's POV. If you haven't noticed the pattern yet, I like to keep Percy's chapters filled with action and Annabeth's filled with emotion and development between the characters. Enjoy!

Chapter 5

Paul, Sleeping Beauty, And The Terminator

I admit, when I first saw Rachael, I was not pleased. I tried to tell myself that I was just mad at this stranger for imposing their company upon what would have been a relaxing, personal engagement between me and my best friend. I tried to convince my agitated, thumping heart that I would have felt the same if it'd been Thalia or Grover, but…I still had this cold feeling at the bottom of my chest. It was a feeling I got whenever I was trying to lie to myself. 'Lying is the bane of wisdom,' my mother once said to me and my siblings during the yearly fieldtrip to Olympus. 'It is to force false information upon others and oneself.' Ugh. Whatever I was feeling, it couldn't mean good things for my current relationship with Percy.

When Percy told me the situation at the theatre, I had responded as a warrior and daughter of Athena ought. But, as we began our ascension of Halfblood Hill and Percy, skin cleared, an inch taller, and bathed in golden light (to my immense relief, I found the cause of that last image to be sunlight reflecting off the golden fleece that protected Thalia's tree, and not my own imagination), I began to feel more reluctant to allow this girl to pass the borders into my home and into my life. And Percy's, for that matter.

She was definitely not a halfblood, for she couldn't get through the barriers on the first try.

"I, Perseus Jackson, give you permission to enter camp," Percy said. Sure enough, she got through. I was disappointed, though: it was strangely satisfying watching her stumble in place, confused, like a lost soul on a weird, grassy treadmill.

Chiron, who always knew when someone was passing over the borders, walked out to meet us halfway from the Big House. Or trotted is a better word, for he was displaying his centaur form. Apparently, this was just too much in one day for the new girl, because she crumpled to the ground in a dead faint, and I felt horrible for being so inwardly, if not outwardly, cold towards her. She'd been in battle, run across Manhattan, gotten into a cab made of smoke and driven by undead prophets, all while enduring monster-filled nightmares and a God's burden over many months prior. It was a lot for a halfblood to deal with over the course of a lifetime, let alone an untrained mortal girl in one afternoon.

Chiron burst into action like a top form mother hen. After checking the girls pulse and temperature, and interrogating me and Percy as to who she was, why she was there, and what had happened, Chiron thought it safe to carry her the rest of the way up to the big house. Me and Percy followed quickly behind, Percy looking immensely surprised and concerned.

"I don't understand," he said, shaking his head. "She was taking in everything so well. I've seen this girl outsmart skeletons carrying hand guns without breaking a sweat. Why would the sight of Chiron do that to her?"

"Stress doesn't come and go. It builds, layering on top of itself. It can make even the toughest individuals crack," I said, shrugging. He smiled at me.

"I suppose it's only a matter of time before we and everyone in this camp crack, huh?"

"Not possible," I said, grinning. "I am infinitely tough, Seaweed Brain." This felt good, relaxing. It felt the way being with Percy was supposed to feel.

"Awfully sure of ourselves, aren't we?" He countered, raising his eyebrows.

"I wouldn't say it if it weren't true," I said, raising my eyebrows as well. "As a very famous half-brother of mine once said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' As Percy laughed and we ran the last stretch towards the Big House, I felt that cold feeling again, just beneath my racing heart.

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Even though he was worried, Percy knew nothing about healing and left Rachael in my and Chiron's hands, lest he just get in the way. When Rachael was settled, I found him sitting on the stretch window seat of Chiron's parlor, looking out at the grounds. They were bathed in the beautiful, red glow of a fading afternoon sun, but he didn't seem to really see them. He had a pensive look on his face.

He turned at the sound of my footsteps and smiled. "Hey. Is she okay?"

"Yep," I said, sitting down next to him. "Chiron's seeing to her right now. I think she was just suffering from an information overload." I paused, feeling worried. "Are you?"

He looked surprised by the question. "Yeah. I am. I was just thinking… about my mom, and how when she comes to get me, I won't be there. Again." He sighed. "She'll have to lie to her boyfriend again, just to cover for me." I had never heard Percy talk about his mom's boyfriend before; it had just never come up. Regardless, I chose my words carefully.

"It's never easy for parents who have halfbloods for kids. But it does get a little simpler once the truth is out, if the step-parent accepts the halfblood. Fewer lies to maintain. The greatest hurdle-" I tried to deliver this info gently, "-is for the halfblood to accept the new addition."

Percy nodded, a faraway look in his eyes.

"I do accept Paul, as he is. I just have trouble accepting the life that comes with him, because, once I do, there's no turning back." He took a deep breath before continuing, looking a little pale. "Sometimes I just want to scream at whatever force it is out there that's keeping me and my mom from my dad, and demand to know why that life was never good enough. I want to know why I can't live normally and freely. I want to know whatever it is out there, whether it's Fate or time or something else, that forces even the Gods and Titans to bow to it. I feel like I'm a small pawn against it. It's a losing battle, and it hurts."

He took another breath, turning away from me as if embarrassed by how much he'd let go.

"I understand," I said, and it was an understatement. I so truly, deeply understood, as most halfbloods would have. He turned back to me and grinned, the sight making my heart nearly flip over and fall into a faint like Rachael.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I said it." He suddenly looked a little drawn. "You're probably the only person I would have said all that to," he said, quiet and breathless. He leaned towards me slowly, closing his eyes as if tired. Oh, my Gods.

Before I could think coherently and logically to determine a good response, I found myself leaning forward slowly as well. What are you doing?! I asked myself, enraged. It's not as if you… One half of my brain ignored the other. My body moved on its own, my head tilting at a very specific angle.

But rather than tilting his head to meet my mine, he just kept going. Eventually, he face-planted right into my shoulder and remained motionless.

"What… the Hades?" I said aloud. Noticing the steady rise and fall of Percy's back as he breathed, I came to a very humbling and mortifying conclusion: He hadn't been trying to kiss me; he'd been falling asleep!

"Um, Percy?" I said, shaking his shoulder in an attempt at rousing him. This was getting a little awkward. Perfect clichéd, movie moment: terminated. Massacred to the point of unrecognizable.

When he didn't move, I began to feel a flicker of fear in my heart. Grabbing his shoulders and easing him down onto the seat, I tried tapping his face and calling his name again, both to no avail. There were bluish shadows under his eyes, and his face was too pale to be natural.

"Chiron!" I called, feeling a touch panicky. "I think there's something seriously wrong with Percy!" Chiron hustled into the room, carrying a bowl of the Gods' healing poultice diluted with water. Considering it was only used for open wounds, I wondered why he brought it.

Giving Percy a once-over, he told me to chill, though not in those exact words.

"What is plaguing Percy is the same thing that is plaguing our friend in there." He gestured toward the door of the room in which Rachael slept. He began checking Percy for marks of any kind. As he lifted Percy's sleeves, I gasped when I saw the deep claw marks on both of his upperarms, not permitted to bleed freely due to a gray film that was covering them.

"They are the claw marks of an empusai," he said, cleaning away the gray film with a cloth doused in poultice. "This venom-like substance is like a sleeping draught and has some delayed effects once it works it way through the bloodstream, like making a person sleep for a bit. It works even if the monster has been destroyed, which is one of the ways an empusai is so unusual. That girl had similar scratches on her legs and face." I blushed when I realized the implications of Percy coming in contact with an empusai. As if reading my thoughts, Chiron gave me a sympathetic smile.

"Don't worry, child. Percy and the girl will wake by tomorrow. And when they do, I expect a far more detailed explanation as to what's going on." I nodded, dumfounded. Even though I knew there were bigger issues at hand, all I could think about were my conflicting emotions. Why would I have let Percy to kiss me in the first place? And why did I feel so disappointed? They seemed like simple questions, but for all my wisdom I couldn't find the answers.