One of the most awkward parts of any guy's life was having to meet his girlfriends parents. It didn't matter what kind of man you were, satyr, demigod, god, or any other form of male; there was no way out of a mandatory dinner with the people who could demand you stop seeing their daughter. Much to the dismay of Percy Jackson, being the hero of Olympus didn't get you out of it either.

"I don't know what you're worried about Perce," Grover told his friend. "If I can survive a meeting with Juniper's dad, you can get through one dinner with Annabeth's family." The two best friends were sprawled out together on Percy's living room sofa, surrounded by a pile of discarded candy wrappers and tin cans. The TV buzzed inaudibly in the background. Neither of them was really watching though. Nothing was on that time of day anyway. Percy raised an eyebrow.

"Junipers dad?" he asked. He hadn't been aware than the nymph had parents, though he supposed everyone had to come from somewhere.

"Oh yeah, Oaken, the biggest oak tree at camp…..terrifying too. You've got it easy, you already know her family! No nervous introductions." Percy snorted.

"Like that's gonna help me. Do you really think her dad is gonna like me more now that I'm dating his daughter? He's probably worse than Athena; you know how overprotective dads can be."

"Percy," the satyr said, suddenly adopting a face of incredible seriousness." There's no way Mr. Chase is worse than Athena. He can't vaporize you just by thinking it." Grover thought for a moment, scratching his hairy chin. "Why hasn't she vaporized you anyway?"

"I'm not really sure," Percy answered honestly. "Either because she doesn't want to upset Annabeth, or because of my dad….It's probably the second one."

The apartment door swung open and Sally entered. His stepfather Paul hobbled in after her, his arms so full of groceries his face was concealed by a wall of brown paper and celery. Sally's belly was huge, swollen with the growth of the child within. She was seven months pregnant, and only two months away from giving birth to her first completely mortal child. Percy couldn't help but feel glad for his mother. After sacrificing so much for him when he was younger, she deserved the chance to raise a kid who wouldn't attract horde upon horde of mythological beasts.

She stepped into the kitchen, and to surprise of all three men in the room, let loose a blood curdling scream. Paul dropped several of the grocery bags, Percy fell of the couch, and Grover began to choke on a piece of tin can he was munching on.

"Percy!" she shrieked, stomping out of the kitchen and giving her son a furious glare. "I thought I told you to clean this place up!" Percy gulped. He'd forgotten about that, which was very bad considering his mothers pregnant temper was not something to be taken lightly. "Look at this place!" Sally's voice cracked, only getting growing at the sight of the pig sty that was her living her room.

"Uh, I gotta get going, Perce," Grover whispered. The satyr promptly galloped out of the room and exited the apartment via the fire escape.

"Coward!" Percy called after him.

"The Chases are arriving in two hours! What have you been doing all this time?"

"Uh," Percy stalled, trying to think up an answer that wouldn't get him into more trouble. It was a pity Annabeth wasn't there to help him; she was a far more eloquent speaker. That and his mother absolutely adored her, and had taken to referring to her as 'my future daughter-in-law'. "Goofing off?" he tried.

"Obviously!" she fumed.

"Sorry mom," he said scampering off the floor and quickly snatching up and armful of tin cans and trash. "I'll get right on it."

"Forget it Percy I'll do it," she huffed. She secured a pink apron around her overlarge waist. Paul could be heard putting away groceries in the kitchen. He was handling his wife's pregnancy quite well, and seemed to intuitively know to stay of the way when she went into a homicidal rage. Smart man.

"Besides, you're already late to go meet Annabeth." Percy did a double and dropped the trash heap he carried. He checked his watch.

"Oh crap, I gotta go!"

He dashed out the apartment door so fast he barely heard Sally call after him.

"Make yourself presentable before you go and get the Chases!"

"How did I forget?" he asked himself aloud. Today was Annabeth's last day of boarding school, and they'd plan to meet up at the end of year ceremony before going to pick up her family from the airport. After they'd eaten dinner, the Chases were going to a hotel, as they were vacationing in New York as well as coming to visit.

The last year had been great. Well, as great as a year consisting mostly of school and the final week of last summer could be. Sure, monsters still attacked on a regular basis. As a son of Poseidon that was inevitable. But what really made the last year great was the simple fact that Annabeth was nearby. No matter how cheesy it sounded, he was in love with her.

His face grew red simply thinking about it. Aphrodite's giggles echoed in his head every time he ever dared to speak or even think the 'L' word.

Most of their free time was spent together, helping each other with homework,(meaning she helped him with his homework)or simply lounging around. One of his favorite pastimes was taking a nap, his head in her lap, while she scribbled down architectural ideas on a piece of paper placed on his head. He needed a lot of rest nowadays, as his invulnerability took quite the toll on his stamina.

Annabeth loved her new job as Olympus' architect. Nearly every day she got Iris messages from her mother, who would give her details on the progress of the reconstruction. Similarly Chiron often called her with new design requests for the ever growing cabin pavilion at camp. In short, she was living out every aspiring architects dream

The school was located just east of central park and an easy ten minute jog from Percy's apartment. It was designed similarly to the old style European schools, with large turrets and towers. He checked his watch again as he sprinted across campus, he was really late now.

"It's about time you got here, Seaweed Brain," a voice called as he approached the steps of the girls dormitory building. Percy spun around, his gut tightening nervously. Seated on a nearby bench sat his girlfriend, her luggage piled on the ground beside her, golden curls shining in the fading sunlight. She glared at him. Oh boy was he in trouble now.

LINEBREAK

The swirling portal opened in the middle of a lush forest, spitting the travelers into the thorny underbrush. The group gave off a combination of squeals screams and ancient Greek swear words as they landed. Those mostly came from Minerva, who knew enough curses to shame a sailor. It took several minutes twisting and flailing for the group to break free of the brush.

"Over here you guys," Bianca called to them, pointing through the dense tree trunks at a small clearing littered with only a few large stones and assorted twigs. Minerva and Luke guided their sisters to the clearing, and with a wave of their hands to manipulate the mist, coaxed them back to sleep. Despite the heavy drama of the situation, the two younger Jackson siblings were still tired. Apart from that, it would be far easier to plan their next move with them safely out of the way.

Luke felt a pang of guilt as he carefully leaned Zoey against a nearby tree trunk. The seven year old would be furious when she awoke; she hated being left out of the loop. For her age group Zoey was a magnificent fighter, however there was no way in Hades her older siblings would put her at risk. No matter how good she was.

Bianca gathered a small pile of dry leaves and twigs together into a pile of tinder. She clapped her hands together once and in the palm of her hand formed a black flame. A scowl formed on her face when she saw it. Her foot tapped furiously, and the flame instantly changed from the chaotic black of the king of the dead, to bright neon pink. Bianca grinned broadly. Luke rolled his eyes. Minerva shook her head.

Before long the pink fire was burning healthily, and their makeshift campsite was filled with light and warmth. A fire wasn't really necessary at this time of day. The evening was still young, and the fading light of Apollo's sun chariot was still bright in the west. However, it never hurt to be ready ahead of time.

"What do we do now?" Bianca asked. She plopped down on the ground and gazed up at them expectantly. The twins sat down beside her.

"We have to plan this out carefully," said Minerva. Her green eyes stared into the oddly colored flames, a thousand different thoughts flashing through her gifted mind. "All the variables have to be considered, there's no room for mistakes here. "

"Right," Luke agreed. "With Ian in this timeline everything changes; there's no simply modifying the timeline now, his powers will negate anything we change." Minerva nodded.

"Um, English please?" Bianca said, scratching her head confusedly. An irritated twitch pulled at Minerva's eye. Why did we bring her along? She asked herself. Powerful as she may be, Bianca was mostly just annoying.

"Ian has Kronos' scythe," Luke explained. "So he has the power to manipulate time. Therefore if we try to use our first plan, changing events so that he never rose to power, he can stop us simply by willing himself too." The pink Goths eyes widened a bit.

"Can we do anything at all then? How can we stop him if he's all powerful and can stop anything we do at will?"

"Simple," Minerva told her, looking up from the flames. "We don't try to change the past, we make a new one." Pure horror appeared on her brother's face. Bianca's face simply went blank.

"No, you can't mean that," Luke almost pleaded with his sister.

"I'm….sorry, Luke," Minerva stammered out. Hot tears began to spill down her face. "It's the only way." It was a shocking thing to see her crying, Minerva was the hard-ass of the Jackson family, and usually did her best to keep her emotions in check.

"What are talking about?" Bianca demanded, leaping to her feet.

"We can't go home," said Luke. He too now was crying, though less so than his twin. Minerva buried her face in her hands, and her body racked with uncontrollable sobs. "No matter what we do, we can't go back. Whatever world we make here, we're stuck with it."

"We have to find Mom and Dad, fast," Minerva choked out.