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!

Percy sat up with a guttural scream. Thalia leapt up in her bed with her bow and arrow ready. Grover continued to snore. Percy gathered himself and looked around the room. The lamps were off, the door was closed and bolted, the regular Camp Jupiter nightlights were on. Percy looked behind him and saw an oval shaped section of dampness, which he recognized as sweat stains. Percy's white T-shirt was borderline see-through due to the sweat, and he felt sticky all around. Being that he was the Son of Poseidon and has power over saltwater, Percy shakily put out his hand and his shirt and bed immediately dried up the sweat (which Annabeth had taught him was mostly salt water). He took deep breaths and stared at the black television, which seemed to be staring right at him.

In a flash, Thalia was at his bed, looking at him. She was in a black athletic Underarmour shirt with gray jogger sweatpants. Her hair was un-brushed as if she just rolled out of bed, which Percy saw was exactly the case. "Percy, what's wrong? What happened?"

Her voice had a sense of urgency to it. Percy looked at Thalia. Her eyes were not crackling anymore, but were filled with concern. All awkwardness and anger from the incident in the crystalline pools seemed to have disintegrated, but Percy knew it would come back in a split second after he told her about the dream. Percy took a shaky sigh and focused his eyes on the black television. He recounted the entire dream for Thalia, having to take a moment when Annabeth entered the picture before he continued. She listened intently, though the crackling in her eyes appeared again when he had mentioned Annabeth's part in the dream. Once Percy was done, she put a hand on his knee and bore into his eyes as if to say, I got you. She held out her finger and a small arc of lightning flowed from it and hit Grover in the bottom. The satyr cried out, grasped his behind and sat up in his bed. "What happened? What'd I miss? It wasn't me, Juniper!"

Thalia pointed at me. "He had a dream."

Grover woke up instantly and sat forward on his bed. "What happened?"

Percy, still staring at the television as if in a trance, recounted the whole thing once more as if he was a robot. When Percy finished, Grover stood up. "That's not true!"

Thalia stood up in response. "You know it's true? Why would Percy lie about this? Annabeth betrayed him!"

Grover shook his head. "No. Maybe she was just captured, and in great pain. And maybe she wants Percy to put her out of her misery."

Thalia scoffed. "Listen to what you're saying. You're saying that Nico is at the foot of the Parthenos replica, suffering and wounded. Annabeth sees this and ignores him? She creates a new sword and is vague towards Nico about what her business is. She revealed that she had went behind Percy's back to get those ice shards and she admitted to betraying him. But you're saying that she's innocent."

Grover balled his fists. "You're not listening. Annabeth would not do that to Percy or any of us. There's something very wrong here. Maybe it's an eidolon. Percy told me how those things can take over people."

"That was not an eidolon. That was Annabeth, and it was all her doing."

"Then who's the 'her' that Annabeth had mentioned? 'At her request'? Sounds like Annabeth is trapped to me!"

Thalia hesitated for a second. "Does it matter? We need to stop Annabeth right now before she does something that neither she nor we can take back."

Grover was practically jumping up and down. "No, no! You see, Annabeth is really smart. She doesn't just drop hints like that for no reason-"

Thalia stepped towards Grover. "Oh, so she knew Percy was there in a dream? No demigod is able to detect when someone is watching them through a dream. That's something only monsters or deities can do."

Grover saw her step and rose her two more steps. "Why are you so passionate about proving that Annabeth's a traitor? She used to be part of your family and one of your best friends."

Thalia walked to Grover until she was looking down on him. "Goat Boy, you need to get this through your skull. Years as a Hunter teaches you that you can't count on people. Animals are more loyal than humans are. Animals are aggressive when they need to be, otherwise peaceful. Humans, in contrast, their words communicate one thing, their actions say another. I've seen so many betrayals, that I'm not even surprised anymore when it happens. Isn't that sad? Luke, Silena, Ethan, all those demigods who switched sides in the Battle of Manhattan, Octavian, the minor gods, and now Annabeth. The betrayals don't stop, Grover. And if we don't go and stop her now, her intelligence and resourcefulness will make her into an even more formidable adversary than she already is."

Grover didn't back down. Instead he shook his head. "You're wrong about her. Annabeth is one of the best people I know. We can go, but this is not a situation where we instantly assume Annabeth's evil and we shadow travel over there and put a sword through her chest. She's not going to crumble into dust like the other monsters; she's going to bleed and die. Are you prepared to do that? To put your spear straight through one of your best friends? Huh? Percy? Are you prepared to take Annabeth's life if need be?"

Percy continued staring at the television. Thalia turned to look at him, with sadness in her eyes. She turned back to Grover and remained silent, but her face had changed into almost a snarl.

Grover continued. "I don't care how many betrayals you've seen, you must have some faith in people because you still got Percy's back. You still got your Hunters. You follow Artemis with unwavering loyalty. And you trust Jason. Even if someone does bad things, that doesn't mean they're always bad people. We need to get to the bottom of this. I hear what you're saying, and I respect it. But whichever point of view we hold, we both do agree that our first move is to get over there as soon as possible, right?"

Thalia's face softened. She nodded. They both turned to Percy, whose sudden interest in the black television was becoming worrisome. Thalia sat in front of Percy, but his eyes were still glazed over. "Percy? Percy!"

Percy focused on her eyes in front of him. She looked like she was trying to hold in a lot of emotions, but she was keeping it together for him and Grover. He recognized that expression on Annabeth. "You okay? What's up?"

Percy had been replaying in his head Annabeth kissing him in the Labyrinth. Annabeth had told Nico that she had gathered the ice shards from the shattered Stygian ice whistle. That was years ago, when Percy had that huge adventure in the Labyrinth. She has been pulling strings and working behind the scenes since then, a fact that made him sick to his stomach. His girlfriend, the woman he was looking forward to marrying one day and building something…permanent. Now, in one act, she managed to steal his chance to be safe in New Rome, put his family in mortal danger, and crush his soul as well. Percy felt like his heart had been ripped out and put in a blender. He remembered Aphrodite waving her hand in dismissal when Percy had asked where Annabeth was. She had told him, "I leave the details to you. But it's been ages since we've had a good tragic love story."

He kept his eyes on Thalia. "I just can't believe Annabeth would…why would she…my baby sister…"

Grover put his hand on Percy's shoulder, and Thalia frowned. "I know, Percy. I know."

"Do you?" He tilted his head. He heard Cyrene's cries in his head again, and despite feeling despair, anger pumped from his heart. He felt like someone had injected some of the River Styx liquid into his veins. Vengeance was all he could think about. He needed to save his baby sister. He didn't care who took her, he needed to get her back. He felt like tearing the room apart. Percy stood and he must have had his Wolf stare on, because Grover stepped back a bit.

"This whole charade has been going on for YEARS! I loved her! I love…I love her. And she used that against me. I don't even know how much of my life has been engineered by…by her! I…my mother trusted her. Trusted her with my life. She killed Iris and Fleecy. She took my baby sister. She…endangered my family…"

Percy fell to his knees and gripped his pen so hard his knuckles turned white. He whispered so softly that he didn't think anybody heard him, "She could've killed my family in their sleep that first night if she wanted to."

He remembered the goddess of love saying, "Oh, I have some nasty surprises in store. Anguish. Indecision. Oh, you wait."

Percy stood. "Aphrodite…she warned me about this. She hinted at it before…were the gods in on this whole thing? Is this some kind of sick joke? Am I just entertainment?!"

Thalia put out her hands cautiously. "Now, Percy…Hestia came to us asking us to save your sister and Annabeth. Let's focus on that at the moment. The gods aren't after you. Let's come up with a plan first before we rush into things."

Percy whipped towards Thalia while simultaneously uncapping his pen. Grover and Thalia backed up immediately as the golden blade extended to life. "I have a plan. It's just a lot simpler than you thought. We need to get my baby sister back. And Grover, Rachel taught me something very important; humility. Sometimes, I'm not always the hero. Sometimes I need to yield and go into situations with a clear head, and have faith in the gods that things will work out."

Grover kept his eyes on Riptide. "Yeah, that's some good advice."

Percy capped Riptide and it shrank to a pen, accompanied with an audible sigh from his friends. He stared at the television one more; his blood had turned to ice. "My mother thought so."

Grover tried for a nervous smile while Thalia kept her eyes on Percy's hands. Percy shook his head slightly and he heard his voice come out as deep and threatening. "I am not my mother."

Thalia raised her hands as if she was calming a wild animal. "Percy…we will get Cyrene back and we will beat Annabeth."

He tightened his grip on his pen. Maybe a few years ago, Percy would've been crying or so distraught that he couldn't act. Now, he felt like he was on Lupa's territory again, standing over one of the wolves he had killed. He felt like a predator, feral and strong. There was no room for sentiment in the wild. "Oh, don't worry about that, Grace. Annabeth took Cyrene. When she shows her face, I'll kill her myself."