Percy had no trouble resting before - once after a particularly brutal training session, he hadn't gotten up until Bianca dragged him by the ear out to breakfast four days later. Tartarus had even made a nickname in this aspect for him once, although Tartarus made so many nicknames for him it wasn't much of a surprise.

But now? Now he was wide awake: dead tired, of course, but not the slightest bit sleepy. Percy had an unknown feeling in his gut, yet he felt like he should know it, after it was gone for a really long time.

Fear. He was feeling fearful of his and Bianca's lives. He felt like the little eleven-year-old on the streets again, the one that constantly moved from state to state to get away from the tormentors that would eventually get him.

Pair that with the nightmares he usually had…

Percy decided to take watch for a while, knowing no sleep was coming to him soon. Even though nothing should attack them in the Garden of the Hesperides, it wouldn't hurt to have a watchful eye out.

As he was waiting, Percy glanced over at Bianca. Sleep was one of the times she lost her natural worry, and Percy could actually pretend that they were just two fourteen-year-olds going on a normal trip.

Yeah, as normal as you can get when you have to constantly watch your back, and you have no adult supervision.

Percy could feel his eyelids pulling at the ground again, so he decided to sleep. The instant he hit his pillow, he slipped into the bliss of unconsciousness.

AN: This won't be a serious part, but I thought of the idea and it was funny as hell to me

Percy woke up from what seemed like an instant of sleep to lips on his own. His eyes snapped open, and he saw what had to be the scariest sight he'd ever laid eyes on.

An empousa is kissing him. Percy thought he'd be a meal by now, but no, the monster had to mouth-rape him too.

Percy lay stock still for three seconds. Then, he kicked upward, throwing the empousa off of him. It hissed, only to be run through by a spike of darkness. Messed up part over.

The commotion had woken up Bianca, who took out her bow groggily and slurred, "w-what is it Percyyyy...Ineedmysleep…"

Percy, still breathing heavily, answered, "I woke up about thirty seconds ago to an empousa kissing me. That's it."

Bianca nodded wearily, then promptly fell asleep again.

Percy groaned, not even bothering to hide it. He took out a bottle of nectar and dripped some of it down Bianca's throat. Her left eye opened lazily, and she slowly said, "Percy, you can't use all of the healing for speeding up resting. Use a bit on yourself, who knows what the empousa did?"

Percy raised an eyebrow. She had a point though, so he sipped the nectar tenderly. Immediately, a relieving feeling spread through his body, particularly over his leg, where Percy watched a bite mark slowly fade away.

Now that there was no life-or-death situation, Percy could feel the adrenaline rush slowly fade away, but there was no sleeping now. "Come on Bianca, neither of us are going to sleep anytime soon, so we might as well get a move on."

Bianca nodded, and in record time they had packed up their stuff. Trekking across the before-dawn lit landscape, Percy and Bianca walked in silence for several minutes until Percy dragged Bianca behind a bush.

"Look," Percy murmured, "the Apples of Immortality." True to his word, there stood a giant tree, filled with golden apples that looked so ripe they compelled the two teens to pluck some. And they would, if it weren't for the massive dragon around the tree.

Towering over the tree itself, and in that the two demi-Primordials, was Ladon, the famous guardian of the Apples.

Percy whistled. "Well, we better get a move on before Ladon thinks we're waiting for him to lower his guard. That guy is crazy," he muttered, thinking of the time he fought the hundred-headed beast.

Bianca nodded, and the duo made off again, wandering off somewhere to the east. The drive that she had to find her brother powering her senses and instincts, she took a left on US-101. "Wait," Percy called, "How do you know where we're going?"

Bianca turned to him. "I don't," she grinned, "I'm guessing. But I'm pretty sure our guesses are about the same." With that, she turned on her heel and kept going.

Five minutes later, they reached the Ellis Brooks Auto Center, and both Percy and Bianca knew what the other was thinking. "Should we deal with stealth…?" Percy began…

Bianca grinned. "Or should we just jump and get the hell out?"

Percy pretended to be in deep thought. He took a drachma out of his pocket and flipped it. Tails.

"Well…" Percy drawled. "I guess we have to…"

"IMPROVISE!" both of them shouted at the same time. They raced towards a sleek car that they both knew was the fastest consumer car on the market, a Hennessey Venom GT. A 1.4 million dollar tag? Hell no.

Bianca drove her knife through the car window, shattering it and sending the shards flying through the other window, thus breaking it. Swiftly cleaning out her seat, she waited as a split second later, Percy flipped in the shotgun seat, not even bothering with the shards.

Percy went to work, giving Bianca a shadow car key, then setting up a ward so that everything within five feet was knocked back. Immediately, two security guards went flying through the front doors.

Just to taunt them, Percy and Bianca leaned back in their seats and started playing a mellow song, Right Here Waiting for You by Richard Marx. Fitting, with a bunch of mortals trying to get them.

Laughing their heads off, Bianca casually drove out of the parking lot, with Percy in tow.

Four hours later, Bianca finally slammed on the brakes as they pulled into the premises of Westover Hall. She laughed in exhilaration; that four hours had been nothing but keeping her foot on the pedal. It felt nice to stretch her legs out.

"Come on Percy, Nico's not gonna wait for much longer." Bianca literally dragged Percy in by his arm, acting much more excited than she had before.

"Okay, ow, okay, ow, you don't have to - ow - be so damn - OW - energetic…ow," Percy exclaimed. Bianca, mostly satisfied, let go of his arm.

Entering the front doors, they were immediately flanked by two teachers. "Why are you not at the dance?" the man on their left asked suspiciously.

Bianca snapped her fingers, creating a ripple in the air. "You will ignore us forever." The Mist did its desired effect on the man on the right, causing his eyes to glaze over and saunter away, but the man on the left wasn't fooled. He narrowed his eyes slightly and walked away stiffly.

Taking her bow out, Bianca fired an arrow at his head. At the last second, the teacher spun around and snapped the shaft.

Both Bianca and Percy's eyes widened. The man smirked, and changed into his true form of a manticore.

"Oh," was all they said as the manticore charged. Percy raised his hand, and three spikes were made to impale him, but the manticore slipped between two of them. Bianca seized her chance and fired off two arrows, but they only grazed him and made him angrier.

Finally taking out his sword and shield, Percy lunged forward and tried to shield bash the monster, but the manticore jumped back and shot spikes from his tail. Deflecting them with his sword, Percy slapped him back with his shield again.

Suddenly, the monster turned around and kicked back an arrow that Bianca had fired from behind. Utilizing the momentary distraction, Percy drove his sword through the manticore's face. He took delight in watching the beast's look of pain as he dissolved into dust.

"Let's go," Percy said. "We don't want any more fights than necessary."

Infiltrating the gym seconds later, Percy and Bianca looked over their hastily assembled, Mist-powered disguises. It wouldn't fool anyone worth beans in the godly world, but for mortals it should be fine.

Percy, Tartarus spoke in his head, making the formerly named boy jump two feet in the air. The Hunters and a group of Greeks are making their way to the demigod as well. Time is of the essence as both groups are extremely close.

"Bianca," Percy murmured, "we gotta hurry. We got company."

She understood immediately, and they darted over the gym floor, sensing out for any powerful auras. Close to the bleachers, a boy stood in a corner, watching mournfully at the pairs of people dancing.

Nico had been separated from his sister at eight, when she went out to get some food and never came back. Ever since, he'd been registered at Westover Hall and just keeping a low cover.

But looking at the two people running over in his direction, he had a dreadful feeling of familiarity…

A boy and a girl, talking and joking completely at ease with each other, as if nothing mattered except them. It felt like a stake through his heart as it reminded him of what Bianca and him should have been.

Then they got within fifteen feet, and Nico sucked in a breath. Those onyx eyes, that flawless smooth hair…

"Bianca," he managed out. She took a step back.

"Nico…" she breathed. She reached out to brush his hair from his eyes, but he flinched back.

"Who's this beside you? My replacement? Why didn't you come back that day four years ago? Did you ever actually care for me?" Nico fired off questions, not caring if his tears stained the ground or not.

Bianca pulled a pained face. "Nico, listen -"

"No, you listen. Did you ever think about me when you were gone for four freaking years, doing who knows what? You abandoned me to die, Bianca! But I doubt it ever crossed your mind." He laughed bitterly.

"Nico, dude, you need to come with us -" Percy started before Nico cut him off.

"And join the girl that left me to rot? No thanks." With that, he turned and ran from the gym.

The chase was only three minutes, but to Bianca it felt like centuries. What Nico had said stung her, because she knew all of it was true. But when the treeline of the forest they had been running through thinned, Bianca shoved all emotions to the back of her mind.

The Hunters were here, as well as the group from the Greeks.

"WHY!?" Nico screamed. "CAN'T I GET SOME PEACE OUT IN THESE WOODS!?"

"Boy," a Hunter sneered. "You are a demigod. Demigods do not have 'peace'."

"Alright, that's enough!" A buff girl pushed to the front of the Greeks. "Where's the manticore? We were alerted that there was going to be one here."

Percy scoffed. "We took care of him. It's just the matter of who the boy goes with now."

"Us," the Greeks and Hunters said simultaneously.

"Not so fast," Bianca replied. "We've no intention on failing our adopted parents when they say to capture the demigod," deciding against revealing her connection with the "demigod".

"They've been adopted by Kronos! Capture them!" The buff girl from earlier shouted.

Percy and Bianca shared an eye roll. "Not unlike you, we'd like Kronos ripped to shreds as well. Our adopted parents are different, and have no wish to conquer Earth."

"In any case," a Hunter chipped in, "we have orders from Olympus itself to capture this unknown demigod, but no issues were against any others as well." She pointedly glared at Percy and Bianca.

"Okay," Percy snapped. "Who are you?"

"I am Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. Come with me and you might not be castrated."

AN: Hate, don't hate, m'sorry for not updating yesterday. [insert crappy excuse for why I didn't update] Toodles.