Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any related characters! Please, please, PLEASE review if you read; all feedback is greatly appreciated. You all are awesome, and thank you for reading my story!

Voicemail. Annabeth's phone had gone to voicemail for the fifth time; but immediately to voicemail as opposed to the voice mailbox thing that happens after a few rings. Percy fought the urge to throw his phone against the wall; Annabeth was one of the only people who could help him with this problem. The note in his hand seemed to be crackling as the seconds went on. The son of Poseidon read the note over and over again. Who was this person? A new enemy? A demigod? No one knew about Cyrene except for a select few people, and he trusted all those people with his life. But if one of those people were compromised, Percy and his family may be in a bad position.

Percy looked at the clock and saw that it was 8:30; he was a half hour too late to leave for New Rome; he had already missed the deadline to move in by 10:00 a.m. He and Annabeth would not be able to get to San Francisco in an hour and a half even by Pegasus. They would have had to take Arion, the fastest horse in the known world, dangle sugar cubes in front of him and have him chase it to California. Even so, it would be a tight fit. Anger surged through his veins, and he felt water threatening to burst from the pipes, but he forced it down. This enemy had cost him his life in college; New Rome was unforgiving when it came to lateness. Whoever did this to him would hurt. They would hurt badly.

The Mycenaean paper started to feel dry in Percy's hand, and he realized that he only had a few seconds before the paper did its usual thing and crumbled into dust. Percy silently thanked Annabeth for her distribution of random facts as he bounded into the living room. His mother was still sitting in the same position. Her eyes looked fractured, almost like Piper's kaleidoscope eyes. However, the eyes had an air of defeat to it. Percy knelt in front of her and focused on her as he tuned out Paul's frantic yelling at the police. It seemed to take her seconds to register her son kneeling in front of her. Two streaks of dried tears led from her eyes down to her chin. She reached out with one shaky hand and caressed his face, sobbing once more. Percy noticed that no tears were coming down anymore. She took a deep breath and whispered to him.

"I always knew this life was going to catch up with me. I knew as soon as I had met your father, that he was going to change my life, for good and bad. But I let him. And you showed up in my life, this bundle of green-eyed joy. Your very name came from my hopes and dreams that you would live a peaceful life. But this is the line. This is the last straw, and frankly, I am out of tears. It's time for me to act. I need to find my child…I need to."

Percy thought back to the times when he was in a situation that may have resulted in him never coming back to his mother; when he was on Calypso's island, when Hera had taken his memory and was in California, when he and Annabeth tumbled into Tartarus, and frankly, every single mission and quest he had gone on. It broke his heart to know that he could have made his mother feel this way if he never came back. But he was going to come back from this mission. And so was Cyrene. Percy focused on the task at hand. He held up the Mycenean paper to his mother. The writing was still there, but the corners of the note had already turned into a powdery dust. His mother scanned the note over and over again, and Percy repeated it in case it broke apart before his mother could have a chance to actually read it. "It says, 'Welcome to your Trojan War.' I found it in Cyrene's sack a few minutes ago. I'm not sure who it is, but it has to be someone who's involved in the…other side of my life." The note crumbled into dust.

Sally and Percy had an understanding regarding the demigod side of his life; when he was living with her, he would do his best to keep his demigod affairs as low-key as possible. It helped keep her sane, and frankly, helped keep Paul's head on straight. Paul had a bit of an existential crisis when he was introduced to Percy's world; asking questions like: If the gods exist, then what is our purpose for them? There is a whole other world of Greek gods and monsters? Is there also Egyptian? Christian? Muslim? Are all gods real and we can just take our pick? Is one pantheon right and the others are wrong? What happens when you die? What if the guy on the metro who asked me for money was a god and I failed my test?

That's part of the reason why Percy was so irritated when a young girl and a guy who claimed to be Apollo showed up at his door. Annabeth was already gone, having to deal with a family emergency involving her…interesting cousin. Sally was pregnant with Cyrene, and Percy wanted to give her as peaceful of a life as possible until he and Annabeth moved to New Rome.

Sally regarded the dust of the letter and took a shaky sigh. "Percy, this may be the last time that I blatantly tell you what to do. But I need you find Cyrene and bring her back to me. Whoever took her wanted to send a message to you as opposed to taking her life…if they wanted to kill her, they would've done it already. If you go and find that she's…gone…I will go to the Underworld myself and personally bring her back."

Her eyes had taken on a strength that caught Percy off guard; he saw another reason as to why Poseidon was attracted to her; those eyes and that look would make a god blanch. He tried for a grin. "I believe you. I'll find her, Mom."

He stood up to get ready to head out and saw Paul in the corner of the room, watching the two of them. He nodded to Percy respectfully, and Percy returned the gesture. He trusted him to take care of his mother; Paul's stronger than he looks as well. Percy ran to his room, grabbed his duffel bag of armor and weapons, and whistled as loudly as he could. Riptide was tucked safely in his pocket. He felt a familiar presence and Percy jumped out the window with his bag.

The fall air was cool and startling, waking his body up as well as his senses. His hair whipped back as if it was trying to fly off his head and the wind dried his eyes quickly. He fell through the crisp New York air, as the sounds of the city began to blend together. He turned his body and fell onto a mat of black fur and wings. Blackjack soared through New York on his wings and neighed affectionately. Percy telepathically asked Blackjack to take him to Camp Half-Blood; Chiron needed to hear this. Hopefully Annabeth was at camp so they could solve this problem together. With a destination, Blackjack poured on the speed and whisked through the air.

Percy never got used to the feeling of flying. It was absolutely thrilling; imagine riding a roller coaster and multiply it by twenty times, except you control how high, how fast, and how fun the roller coaster is. He would be having so much fun under most circumstances; flying to a monster? Still fun. Going to Camp Half-Blood? Still fun. Flying to face a Titan? Still fun. But flying to find his sister? All business. After ten to fifteen minutes, they approached Camp. Everyone was outside, enjoying the cool September air. Peleus looked lazily up and seemed to wink at Percy. They started to dive towards the Big House, and when they landed, a crowd started to form and they heard multiple people whispering and talking. Percy was scared that they already knew about his baby sister, but that was not the case.

"Oh my gods…"

"Is that…"

"He's even cuter in person…"

"His hair…"

"His eyes really are green…"

"He ain't all that…"

"He's smaller than I thought he was…"

"What a nice horse…"

"HIS HAIR…"

Percy walked into the Big House, and Chiron was there, playing Pinochle with Grover, who was now on the council of the Cloven Elders. There was a small demigod who looked to be about thirteen. He had coffee brown skin, curly black hair, and light brown eyes. He had the traditional orange camp shirt, but with black jeans instead of the standard casual blue. His sneakers were Black and Red Jordans. He seemed nervous to be around Chiron and Grover, probably because it was too many hooves to take in at once. It was a stark contrast to when Grover was a small, scared little goat who was frightened by Mr. D and Chiron playing the same game. Percy approached them and the kid turned and saw Percy. His eyes widened, and he backed up a little bit. "You're…Percy Jackson…."

Percy grinned. "Guilty. Nice shoes, man."

The kid looked down at his shoes and smiled at him. "Thanks!" He laughed and jogged out of the room. Percy turned to address Chiron and got attacked by an unseen force. Grover was giving him a huge hug, and Percy couldn't breathe. "Perrrrrrr-cy!"

Grover grinned and let Percy breathe. Once he stepped back, Percy saw that Grover had matured. His non-existent muscles were now ripped and toned. His goat legs seemed bigger and more muscular. His wispy goatee was now almost a full-grown beard, and his horns grew confidently out of his head, curling slightly at the top. He seemed to glow with authority and confidence. Chiron didn't look like he changed much, despite his hair being longer. Percy wondered if those centaur curlers were working properly. His eyes gleamed and a kindly smile was plastered on his face. Percy realized that he is probably not used to demigods having happy endings or even living this long. Percy smiled, but quickly remembered that he wasn't here to visit or to socialize. He was here on a mission. To Chiron though, at this moment, Percy lived a happy ending. And hopefully one day, he will live up to his namesake in that respect. But today was not that day.

"Chiron. Grover. I need an emergency meeting. Now." Grover looked worried, but Chiron seemed to understand. He clopped over to the wall and pressed a rusty button. Alarms sounded, three blasts in succession. That combination meant that there was an emergency meeting in the Big House, and that all the cabin heads need to report to the Big House immediately.

Within one minute, over twenty cabin counselors with bright orange shirts were crowded into the Big House, around the ceremonious Ping-Pong Table. Percy recognized a few after a quick glance over; Jason from Zeus' cabin (Percy still felt like they needed a proper fight), Katie Gardner from Demeter's cabin, Will Solace from Apollo's cabin (who was in a relationship with Nico; go figure), Piper from Aphrodite's cabin, Connor and Travis Stoll from Hermes, Butch from Iris, Lou Ellen from Hecate, and Clovis from Hypnos. The room seemed to tingle from all the power in one spot. He also did a double take at Sherman representing Ares' cabin. He was so used to seeing Clarisse there. However, he remembered that Clarisse is at the University of Arizona. Percy felt a twinge of jealousy that Clarisse was able to get out of this life peacefully.

Out of all the campers, though, Percy couldn't find the one person he was looking for. He scanned the room once more and his heart did a leap when he saw a flash of blonde hair and gray eyes; however, he quickly realized that it was Malcolm instead of Annabeth.

Percy asked in slight desperation, "Does anybody know where Annabeth is?"

Muttering started to occur amongst the group. Jason stepped forward. "Percy, we thought that you knew where Annabeth was. She's been missing for weeks."

Before Percy had a chance to react, the doors of the Big House opened, and in walked a girl who looked to be about eighteen, with a silvery glow around her. She had a black shirt and black-and-silver camo pants. Her black hair was long and straight, her skin was tanned and healthy, and her body coursed with muscles. Arrows were slung across her back, and a sword and knife were attached to her hip. Though she looked different, Percy immediately recognized those electric blue eyes that seemed to have lightning striking in them. Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, was here.

Percy saw that her eyes were uncharacteristically darting back and forth, almost like a caged animal. As if on cue, those eyes locked onto his immediately. The air of the room turned tense, but Percy wasn't sure if that was because of the nervousness in the room or because of Thalia. She strode to him, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him so close that they were nose to nose. She smelled like Christmas; a mixture of candy canes, pine trees, gingerbread, chestnuts, and hot chocolate. Percy thought that was an odd thing to realize, but then Thalia spoke. Her voice was tight, controlled, but brimming with anger.

"Where is she?"

Percy saw that her eyes seemed to strike with lightning again. He realized the severity of the situation in that split second. Annabeth wasn't here, she hadn't been in contact with any of her friends or anyone from camp. So now, Cyrene was missing and Annabeth was missing. Percy couldn't shake the feeling that she had been taken. And he felt like the same person who took Annabeth was the same one who took Cyrene. Thalia's eyes struck again. She pulled him closer. Counselors started to crowd in to pull her away, but the air around her crackled with ozone. Through gritted teeth, Thalia asked the same question that Percy, and probably everyone in the room had been thinking.

"Where…is…Annabeth?"